In reply to a post by Tacitus:

But my real question is, are you able to hardwire the Cat5 into the ONT or does it have to plug in?

No, its an active (powered) device that whilst people think of it as similar to the old OR NTE, what you get can be very different depending on the network provider. OR, CF, VM or one of the AltNets. Some providers don't even wall mount.

You don't open the ONT in the same way you don't open the router ("hub") thing the ISP sends you.

My ideal would be to hardwire the Cat5 into the ONT and take that through the back of the ONT to the wall outside, round the side wall and into a spare bedroom where the router is. It's there because it's about the best place to give decent WiFi across the bungalow.

Then you're looking for exterior grade Cat5 and youd probably need to add the RJ45 connector yourself to make the hole through the wall smaller.

In reply to a post by TheInstaller:

No.
The ONT only has a standard ethernet port on it that any cable must plug into.
You can either put an ethernet socket next to where you want the ont to go and hardwire your cat5e cable into that, or get a premade lead and then plug into the ont when it arrives.

Thanks. That's told me what I wanted to know. The only external Cat5 that I have seen was very stiff, no doubt due to the weather proof covering. This wouldn't make it the easiest to fit a plug on the end, so it looks as though I shall have to go through the roof space with internal quality cable. Not as easy but there we are.

I think this would be OR but the ISP would be iDNet. Virgin is available round here but I don't think any of the alt nets are in this area.

In reply to a post by Tacitus:

I think this would be OR but the ISP would be iDNet.

Quite a few pictures of the OR ONT around, there are a few makes, Sky's website has colour pics:
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/optical-network-te...

As with copper the network operator is important at this point, your ISP (IDnet) doesn't matter at the physical connection point.

Edited by jchamier (Sun 25-Jun-23 12:41:13)

But my real question is, are you able to hardwire the Cat5 into the ONT or does it have to plug in?

A second reply of ‘no you cannot hardwire the cable direct into the ONT’.

Thanks for the link. Looking at the pic, even though the one fitted won't be Sky, it should be possible to do a neat enough job. However If I have to run the cable up throough the roof space it will probably mean cutting a chase in the wall near the ONT and having to re-plaster. The other end in the spare bedroom can be tacked to the wall. Unsightly, but provided there's enough slack I can cut a channel in the plaster and put in a flush ethernet socket at redecoration time.

The BT ONTs don't look a lot different so I've now got a better idea of how to do the job.

Thanks to all.

Sky use Openreach to supply FTTP so all the possible Openreach ONTs are shown in the link provided by jchamier, All ISPs supplied by Openreach use the same range of ONTs.

In reply to a post by Tacitus:

In reply to a post by Adduxi:

Why use an ethernet socket and patch lead? I've a bungalow and I just used an ethernet lead straight into the ONT and it runs through the roofspace (very limited space as well) to the other end of the property and down to the router, maybe 20Mtrs or so. I've had no issues with this setup.

Yes you're perfectly right. But my real question is, are you able to hardwire the Cat5 into the ONT or does it have to plug in?

My ideal would be to hardwire the Cat5 into the ONT and take that through the back of the ONT to the wall outside, round the side wall and into a spare bedroom where the router is. It's there because it's about the best place to give decent WiFi across the bungalow.

The internal ethernet cable has to plug in to the RJ45 Outlet Port on the ONT. - (It is not an issue as RJ45 faceplates are cheap and can look neat).

At the end of the day the ONT is not really yours; it is equipment that is supplied and maintained by openreach and/or your ISP and in the event of a fault on the line outside of your house that is where the house side of any fault investigation by Openreach needs to start and end as up to the ONT is Openreach/your ISPs responsibility/problem and after the ONT it is yours.

Personally, if I was planning to install a long run of new ethernet cable, I would internally wire the whole house with CAT 6a Cable, (behind the plaster), and via the attic which is what we did around five years ago with RJ45 sockets in every room behind each TV point. - Run a cable from the ONT to your preferred router location and distribute it from there.

In the event of a fault it is always best to be able to move the router next to the ONT for testing purposes and an ethernet port on the ONT is handy so you can eliminate any internal cables.

In reply to a post by Tacitus:

Thanks for the link. Looking at the pic, even though the one fitted won't be Sky, it should be possible to do a neat enough job. However If I have to run the cable up throough the roof space it will probably mean cutting a chase in the wall near the ONT and having to re-plaster. The other end in the spare bedroom can be tacked to the wall. Unsightly, but provided there's enough slack I can cut a channel in the plaster and put in a flush ethernet socket at redecoration time.

The BT ONTs don't look a lot different so I've now got a better idea of how to do the job.

Thanks to all.

Remember you have three cables into the ONT - the fibre cable, your own network cable (Cat5e etc) and a power cable from a 12v plug pack.

In reply to a post by Fido:

Personally, if I was planning to install a long run of new ethernet cable, I would internally wire the whole house with CAT 6a Cable, (behind the plaster), and via the attic which is what we did around five years ago with RJ45 sockets in every room behind each TV point. - Run a cable from the ONT to your preferred router location and distribute it from there.

The cable run wouldn't be particularly long - around 20/25m to the spare bedroom,. The other internal runs from the router's central location would not be any longer. The place is partially wired internally with Cat5e and given the short length of the cable runs I doubt whether there would be any significant speed difference using 6a. Nonetheless it would be relatively simple to perform an upgrade.

In reply to a post by Fido:

In the event of a fault it is always best to be able to move the router next to the ONT for testing purposes and an ethernet port on the ONT is handy so you can eliminate any internal cables.

Must admit that is one thing I'd not thought about