Question about FTTP installation

I've just bought a house in an area that can get FTTP. I spoke to my ISP (Zen) about the installation and they told me the fibre cable usually enters the properly from the same location as the existing copper phone line, the only problem is that I have no idea where this is. The phone socket is on an internal wall that I share with a neighbor in a room at the back of the house.

The only cable I can see going into the house goes into the kitchen from the front and I have no idea where it goes from there. If this is the phone line then I assume it must be run inside the walls to the back of the house. Here's a picture of the cable:

https://i.imgur.com/ca2Lgw8.png

There are no suitable power sockets anywhere around the front of the house unless I have my router next to the kettle, so what would the engineer do?

The cable that you are showing in your photo appears to be a Green/Yellow cable as the earth connection to the gas pipe coming out of the (brown) Gas Meter Box.

It may be worth asking a neighbour or two where their telephone line comes into their property.

Cheers!

+ 1 Earth bonding cable.
Do you have any telephone post nearby, if so can you see any wire going from it to your/neighbors house ?.

Looks like you may have external insulation added so could have covered any cables.

The internal box or ONT that will be fitted must be have a twin power socket within 1M to power the ONT and router.

I thought the cable might be related to the gas meter but I couldn't think how, an earth cable certainly makes sense.

The estate is very modern (about 10 years old) so the cables are all underground, there are no overhead cables anywhere. It would make more sense that the line was going in from the back based on the location of the phone socket, but the back of the house is covered with wooden decking so I can't see anything.

In reply to a post by APTMAN:

The internal box or ONT that will be fitted must be have a twin power socket within 1M to power the ONT and router.

Consistently I read that the ONT can be powered through the ethernet cable. Is this a myth or quite true?

It is possible that the duct bringing the underground cable to your premises is coming up inside the property.

Start looking in the same location as the fuse board/electric feed.

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

In reply to a post by APTMAN:

The internal box or ONT that will be fitted must be have a twin power socket within 1M to power the ONT and router.

Consistently I read that the ONT can be powered through the ethernet cable. Is this a myth or quite true?

Openreach ONTs can’t be powered via their Ethernet port. It’s not a PoE capable device.

Have you asked any of your neighbours if they know where the service entries are?

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

In reply to a post by APTMAN:

The internal box or ONT that will be fitted must be have a twin power socket within 1M to power the ONT and router.

Consistently I read that the ONT can be powered through the ethernet cable. Is this a myth or quite true?

It can be done if you so wish, you just need something to split the POE back to a jack plug. I do it this way for instance.

I wanted all my infrastructure to stay up in the event of a power cut. The main switch is on a UPS so all of my AP's, CCTV, and router stay up for ~1hr)

https://pasteboard.co/K6Zc3Gh.jpg

Those TPlink splitters are quite nice from the view that you can select output voltage from 5, 9 or 12 VDC. With the appropriate barrel connectors on the end you can retrofit them to many devices. If you can get a barrel to USB adapter (or make one) an even wider variety of devices can be network powered.

Just be careful because the TP Link PoE splitters just create a potential difference of whatever voltage you have selected, but they still reference one of those voltages to the PoE voltage itself.

https://blog.zencoffee.org/2015/11/tp-link-tl-poe10r...

It's fine if you're not connecting to anything else that is grounded.

Thanks. I'll check the ground potential difference with a multimeter. For powering the ONT it won't present an issue though.

In reply to a post by kjwkjw:

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

In reply to a post by APTMAN:

The internal box or ONT that will be fitted must be have a twin power socket within 1M to power the ONT and router.

Consistently I read that the ONT can be powered through the ethernet cable. Is this a myth or quite true?

It can be done if you so wish, you just need something to split the POE back to a jack plug. I do it this way for instance.

I wanted all my infrastructure to stay up in the event of a power cut. The main switch is on a UPS so all of my AP's, CCTV, and router stay up for ~1hr)

https://pasteboard.co/K6Zc3Gh.jpg

Interesting but noting that the LOS indicator is on. A schematic of your wiring setup and the hardware used would be helpful to understand how it all goes together.

In my case with FTTP coming soon, I am thinking of installing a small backing board to fix the hardware to so as to make future decorating less of a hassle in this area.

The picture was taken before a problem was resolved at the exchange end

All been working fine for a few weeks now.

In a nutshell my ONT is connected back to the main POE switch and put into a VLAN, I then pass that VLAN back out of another port to my router WAN port (pfSense in this case)

The beauty of doing it this way is I can present my WAN port to any of the structured cabling ports in the house with just a config change at the switch (the patch panel and main switch are in the loft!)

Edited by kjwkjw (Thu 17-Jun-21 10:49:56)

Good shout on using the VLAN and PoE LAN switch port. Nice and elegant.

I was wondering whether you had done it that way or just put an injector on the side of the router WAN port (much less elegant).

Edited by Pheasant (Thu 17-Jun-21 11:25:59)

It works really well, was doing the same with my 2 x FTTC lines previously.

2 x DrayTek modems powered via the TPLink units up to the switch and then sending the 2 WAN links over 1 trunk port to pfSense.

Back to the subject. !
Can you see any manholes with BT marked on them nearby ?.

From the picture it looks like a new-ish build, not only that it looks like the level of the front garden has been raised up (looking at the gas meter box)

I wonder if the duct is now hidden below the decorative stones?

Best bet is to let the OR guy deal with where it is when he arrives, they will no doubt have a network map and will be able to roughly work it out from that! What does the checker say for your property? It usually mentions duct etc.

Edited by kjwkjw (Fri 18-Jun-21 07:27:04)

I've just looked at the OP's picture of the "unknown purpose" cable. Whatever it is, it looks to me like a DIY job.

I agree, would think the plumber/gas fitted did it.

In reply to a post by APTMAN:

Back to the subject. !
Can you see any manholes with BT marked on them nearby ?.

I've just been to the place again (I haven't moved in yet) and I've found where it goes in. I can't believe I didn't see this before but I wasn't looking for it the first time I viewed the place:

https://i.imgur.com/TiAlAsX.png

The bad news is that on the other side of this wall is the back of the washing machine in the kitchen. There also isn't a double socket down there, not that I'd want my router behind the washing machine anyway.

What are my options for the FTTP install, does it have to be installed where this box is? The existing phone socket is on the other side of the building so I have no idea how the cable gets to there.

You can get microUSB connectors to solder onto the end of things cheap enough on eBay.

I got some of these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393235477998

to convert one of these to power a Raspberry Pi 3B+ from my EdgerouterX-SFP

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DAMKQWW

Been running just fine now for just shy of three years.

Or keep the soldering iron in the toolbox and get one of these for under a tenner. Isolated too:

https://thepihut.com/products/poe-splitter-with-micr...

That is an external NTE, if the current occupants have ADSL/FTTC it will have been bypassed and a regular NTE fitted inside.

Typically with a ducted feed at the top of the capping the existing entry cover, or in this case the external NTE, are replaced with a CSP. The fibre from the CSP can be run along an external wall before entering the premises, the maximum length from the CSP to the ONT inside is 30m.

I've just had FTTP installed and they run it round half way round the outside of the house from where existing came and brought it out by the master socket - where the copper enters is downstairs lav, just behind all the plumbing (which is boxed in with plasterboard) then goes across the hall somehow and enters cupboard under the stairs - the fttp just comes in the outside wall in same cupboard