No, I got a message telling me I cannot post with a VPN/will be banned.

In reply to a post by Jaap_Stam:

No, I got a message telling me I cannot post with a VPN/will be banned.

Fairly basic anti-spam/anti-bot precaution perhaps?

In reply to a post by Jaap_Stam:

No, I got a message telling me I cannot post with a VPN/will be banned.

That is something that you should either raise in Talk to the Staff or via the [email protected] email address. But as others have said it is likely to reduce the amount of spam that gets posted from foreign countries using a VPN to hide their identity/source.

"bully people into not using a VPN"

If that's the rules then don't use the site. There are T&Cs in all walks of life.

In reply to a post by Jaap_Stam:

trying to bully people

As much as I don't always like or see eye to eye with the sites management and have a list of other failing by them, bullying is not currently one of them.

In reply to a post by Jaap_Stam:

No, I got a message telling me I cannot post with a VPN/will be banned.

Could be from the security layer that the site uses. Ask the [email protected] or post in TTTS.

In reply to a post by Jaap_Stam:

Yes it's blue, so sounds like the UPC. Thanks.

Is the present cable from the pot protected in any sort of conduit?

If you mean the pot in the road which everyone has even if not a subscriber, then it's routed under the boundary wall, lawn and path, then emerges by the house wall and runs into the grey junction box.

Can post a pic if you need one.

Just thinking in terms of how much protection is provided for the cable. A conduit provides some more physical/mechanical protection, so the cable doesn’t need to be more than an external grade/ light-armoured cable.

The cable in the Gigaclear user install link above, looks to me like what’s called a ‘loose-tube’ construction cable which as you can probably guess is constructed with a thin plastic tube (almost like a miniature conduit within the sheath of the cable) with the delicate fibre inside it. Sometimes the tube has a gel inside it also. It’s often used for external environments as it provides a bit of added protection to the fibre. Although it makes the cable a bit stiffer than an internal grade cable.

A light armoured cable (like the fs.com one I linked) has a different construction and uses a flexible metallic spiral around the fibre element for protection. Heavier duty armoured cables use a similar sort of construction with a corrugated steel outer around a plastic loose tube. But there are much thicker generally and designed for direct burial.

Pretty sure in your situation a light armoured cable will be plenty good enough. It should be rodent and bird etc resistant, but without going overboard, and able to be run internally too.

Where I live in Kent the Gigaclear contractor Boxcom were using black corrugated plastic tubing for the fibre cable that runs from the pot to the customer's house. The 4 to 5 mm diameter cable is quite flexible so that it can go up a wall and then straight inside using a special plastic support that Gigaclear provided. For my house, the direct burial cable that comes in the ground to the pot was also about 4 - 5 mm diameter but was much stiffer and has two fibres inside. Some properties had cable more like 7mm diameter.