Question Type of coax needed for Xfinity, and this is *cable*, right??

[jhansman]

I'm going to have to run cable under my house (along a 30 ft. crawlspace I wouldn't expect the installing tech to navigate) for an upcoming install of Xfinity cable service (internet only) so I can have the modem next to my PC for a direct connection. I want to have this cable in place before Comcast shows up for the install; from what I've read, RG6 is what is used for this type of connection. Do I have that right, and is there anything else I should know or have ready for the installer? Thanks for any help you all can lend.

 

[Muadib]

Yes, RG6 coax should work.

 

[jhansman]

Thanks. You all apparently know more than the people in Comcast's "tech support." I called last night and the person I spoke with had no clue. She suggested I ask the tech who is scheduled for the install next week.

 

[Muadib]

Thanks. You all apparently know more than the people in Comcast's "tech support." I called last night and the person I spoke with had no clue. She suggested I ask the tech who is scheduled for the install next week.

You can do that if you want. The techs have had to deal with crawl spaces before I’m sure. I hear you though. Make sure it’s done right.

 

[DaaQ]

I'm going to have to run cable under my house (along a 30 ft. crawlspace I wouldn't expect the installing tech to navigate) for an upcoming install of Xfinity cable service (internet only) so I can have the modem next to my PC for a direct connection. I want to have this cable in place before Comcast shows up for the install; from what I've read, RG6 is what is used for this type of connection. Do I have that right, and is there anything else I should know or have ready for the installer? Thanks for any help you all can lend.

RG6 is correct, run it from the desired point to the power meter of your home, or at least within 20 feet from the power bonding point, let the tech put the fittings on.

 

[jhansman]

OK, so I've got the cable and modem ready to order, but I have another question which may be a no-brainer, but I'm getting conflicting info: if I am going from AT&T Uverse (which uses the phone copper in the walls) to Xfinity, that's coax cable, right? I ask because one Comcast rep told me that the home owner installation kit uses the phone line, while another rep told me no, Xfinity uses coax and the installtion involves bringing the line from the street to my house and inside to wherever I want to place the modem. So, which is it, or is it either? The installer is coming on Saturday, so all should be revealed then, but I'd still like to hear from those of you who are Xfinity customers and what infrastructure you are using for your hookup. Thanks.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Please, stop relying on Xfinity tech support for technical answers. They're following a script and generally non technical people. The field service guy may not even be that technical either, it's not required to do the job.

Modern cable modems will only have a phone jack if they're telephony modems. You will only get one / use one of you ordered VoIP service from your cable provider. And then, it's phone line from the VoIP modem to a phone in the house.

If you didn't, you won't use the phone line at all.

Make sure you pick a supported modem

Use approved third-party equipment for Xfinity Internet and Xfinity Voice

Find out if you're using an Xfinity-approved modem. View the entire list of approved customer-owned modems.

www.xfinity.com

In terms of the physical run, I'm assuming the power and data coming to the house is from a telephone pole. If that's the case, the cable running through your house should be run to a nearby location relative to where the cable is running TO the house.

 

[Muadib]

I agree with w1z, unless you are getting the gigabit tiers. It’s totally different for those.

 

[QuietDad]

As a former Comcast tech, line from the street to the house SHOULD follow the power line and terminate in a ground block (connection) in a box on the side of the house near the power meter and grounded to the same ground as the power meter. Perfect world, perfect scenario. The cable is usually RG6, tho it may be RG11 (thicker cable) due to distance. There are two types of techs.One doesn't mind crawling under a house and/or has the necessary snakes and tools to make it easier. Type two says to hell with getting dirty and "wrap the house" where the cable goes from that box stapled to the side of the house and a hole drilled into the house where it needs to go in. It's a coin flip as to who shows up.
If your going to run a cable yourself, make sure you leave plenty of extra cable on each side. If you cut it too short and the cable does 't reach, technically your not supposed to "slice" cables with connectors as a tech on an install, but it happens. The less connections, the better.
IF the distance between the street and where the modem is going to end up less that 150ft, it will be all RG6. If greater it's usualyl RG11 to the above mention box, then RG6 and in extreme cases RG11 all the way from the street to the modem.
Your mileage may vary due to the experience/work ethic of the tech that shows up,who is there to get it done as quickly and as easily as possible and still make it work. As a former tech, we we're paid by the job type vs by the hour so the faster you were, the more money you made. Rules at the time is that if you had a job, any job,at a house you "owned" the house for 30 days so if there was any problems requiring further visits to fix, you got the repair and did it for free.

 

[SamirD]

As someone that has dealt with several different cable provider installs over the years, I think you're overthinking it. Let them install the cable (so they have ownership of it if something goes wrong), and just tell them where you want the modem installed and make sure that you're getting proper speeds on that modem before they leave. That's it. No need to do more.

 

[jhansman]

As a former Comcast tech, line from the street to the house SHOULD follow the power line and terminate in a ground block (connection) in a box on the side of the house near the power meter and grounded to the same ground as the power meter. Perfect world, perfect scenario. The cable is usually RG6, tho it may be RG11 (thicker cable) due to distance. There are two types of techs.One doesn't mind crawling under a house and/or has the necessary snakes and tools to make it easier. Type two says to hell with getting dirty and "wrap the house" where the cable goes from that box stapled to the side of the house and a hole drilled into the house where it needs to go in. It's a coin flip as to who shows up.
If your going to run a cable yourself, make sure you leave plenty of extra cable on each side. If you cut it too short and the cable does 't reach, technically your not supposed to "slice" cables with connectors as a tech on an install, but it happens. The less connections, the better.
IF the distance between the street and where the modem is going to end up less that 150ft, it will be all RG6. If greater it's usualyl RG11 to the above mention box, then RG6 and in extreme cases RG11 all the way from the street to the modem.
Your mileage may vary due to the experience/work ethic of the tech that shows up,who is there to get it done as quickly and as easily as possible and still make it work. As a former tech, we we're paid by the job type vs by the hour so the faster you were, the more money you made. Rules at the time is that if you had a job, any job,at a house you "owned" the house for 30 days so if there was any problems requiring further visits to fix, you got the repair and did it for free.

Thanks. Yours is the most informative and least judgemental of the replies I've sought; your experience as a former Comcast employee is exactly what I was hoping to find here. In response to another reply, I would never *rely* on someone over the phone who has no idea of the nomenclature involved with this service; I called them just to see what they would tell me. At any rate, I have been assured that when the tech shows up, he will asses the situation and let me know what is involved. I am not on the hook for the $90 installation fee if nothing is installed, so if it all is just too much for them, so be it; if they are willing to crawl under my house to place the modem where I need it, God bless 'em. I'm just wanting to escape the poor 12 MBps down connection I now have with AT&T and move up to speeds more in line with the 21st century. I live in a rural area that didn't get DSL until years after areas as close as 15 mi. away had it for a long time, and I doubt we will ever see fios in my neck of the woods (literally), so cable speeds are as much as I expect for the future. Once the tech has done his thing, I will post the results here. I am hoping it will be over a much faster connection. Thanks again.

 

[SamirD]

Even the slowest cable service blows away dsl. And cable can even scale up to gigabit speeds (although not symmetrical). Enjoy your new speeds!

 

[DaaQ]

Thanks. Yours is the most informative and least judgemental of the replies I've sought; your experience as a former Comcast employee is exactly what I was hoping to find here. In response to another reply, I would never *rely* on someone over the phone who has no idea of the nomenclature involved with this service; I called them just to see what they would tell me. At any rate, I have been assured that when the tech shows up, he will asses the situation and let me know what is involved. I am not on the hook for the $90 installation fee if nothing is installed, so if it all is just too much for them, so be it; if they are willing to crawl under my house to place the modem where I need it, God bless 'em. I'm just wanting to escape the poor 12 MBps down connection I now have with AT&T and move up to speeds more in line with the 21st century. I live in a rural area that didn't get DSL until years after areas as close as 15 mi. away had it for a long time, and I doubt we will ever see fios in my neck of the woods (literally), so cable speeds are as much as I expect for the future. Once the tech has done his thing, I will post the results here. I am hoping it will be over a much faster connection. Thanks again.

As the one poster above that replied, you will occasionally run into the installer that either A has a bad attitude, or B cares about their quality of work. I've been doing this type of work for about 12 years now. I treat jobs as if I were doing them for my own home or my mother's home, if that makes sense.
In my experience, I would rather run cables through a crawlspace rather than "wrapping" a home. It's just easier. There are also tools which make that easier as well.
At any rate, going to Cable high speed data from DSL is a no brainer. You will notice the difference,

PLease let us know how it all turned out.

 

[QuietDad]

As the one poster above that replied, you will occasionally run into the installer that either A has a bad attitude, or B cares about their quality of work. I've been doing this type of work for about 12 years now. I treat jobs as if I were doing them for my own home or my mother's home, if that makes sense.
In my experience, I would rather run cables through a crawlspace rather than "wrapping" a home. It's just easier. There are also tools which make that easier as well.
At any rate, going to Cable high speed data from DSL is a no brainer. You will notice the difference,

PLease let us know how it all turned out.

I spent 25 years in data center network/phone closets before 10 in the cable industry as VOIP became popular and most "cable technicians" had no clue on telephones. Have always cared about the quality of my work BUT, if you were in as long as you say, you have those times where you leave a job with your fingers crossed, The Comcast region I worked payed us by the the job with preassigned hours to do the job. A new account paid the same whether it was a house 200 feet thru the woods that never had cable before to a pre wired new townhouse. I used to tell the customer at the door there was 3 versions of reality. What the customer wanted and thought they ordered, What the salesman working on commission thought they could get away with and what the antique computer system got on the work order and my job was to leave with what he wanted and I had the ability to make it happen.
There was usually 2 or three reasons to cancel the job before I even got to the door, but spending all day canceling jobs would result in not making anything.

With the OP's question a crawl space an be 4 feet high or 6 inches or less high. It can be really really simple or a huge pain in the ass. Personally I had the snakes and equipment that could make it easier, but a lot of the new techs or younger techs never would have anything over the bare minimum (7/16" wrench, Fitting compressor, 4 blade screw driver and a 3/8" drill with one 18 inch drill bit. Toners, flexible bits, test phones and such were never on their trucks because they didn't have time. Comcast would test the signal strength the boxes you installed after you closed a job but getting a QA inspection after a job was very rare after your first week on the job.

It's not that hard,but if you've been given an hour to get it done and the pull is the length of the house, like 60-80ft and you have 6 inched to work with and it's one of THOSE customers (Wasn't there at 8 am for a 8-11 time window and you feel they should feel special because you decided to do them first, but they assumed you'd be late and decided to go shopping, or"You need to hurry, I've got a hair salon appointment/kids to pick up/doctors appt"} with all that , they are getting the house wrapped just because.
I also had no problem pulling cable under a house, but I did have a problem drilling a hole through a floor to a crawl space. Bugs and such love those holes.

And in defense of the customers, you would have the man cave already finished it the basement with the sheet rock glued to the cinder block walls and sales would say "Sure,we can install the cable inside the walls" or"Sure we can hide the cable to the new 60 inch TV you installed over your fireplace". Most of the jobs could eventually get done, but not in the hour you were given to do it. You do your best in working it out as to what gets done.

 

[jhansman]

Just a follow up now that Xfinity is up and running. The first tech (one week on his own after 90 days of training) came last week completely unprepared for the job (no communication from the folks I booked it with--sigh), which entailed going up the pole some 20 ft. and starting from there. He left apologetically, promising that the following week a bucket truck would arrive to do the job. Today another tech arrived with a longer ladder and slightly bigger van. When I showed him the logistics, he looked it up and down, grunted, and said "OK." Keep in mind he had to get the cable from my lot to the pole (across the busiest road in my area-still don't know how he did that!) and up the pole, which he did in quick time. Then to a tree on my lot about 15 ft. off the ground, and then to the house. Punched a hole in the stucco under my deck, ran the cable through and sealed the breach with an exterior plug and silicon. Then he had to run it another 30 ft. or so under my house (tacked to framing along the way), part of which was a nasty crawl in a space not much larger than he was, and up through the floor. All good; he cut it, put a connector on and we fired up the Arris modem/wifi/voip unit I got from Amazon (certified ONLY for Comcast, interestingly). It took a bit to establish a connection with home base, but we did, and at that point he was on his way out the door to his next appt. (had the temerity to show me his watch, as if the time my job took was cutting into his). Anyhoo, I managed to get logged into the router to configure it properly. Mission accomplished!

The plan I bought promised UP TO 75 Mbps down; I am getting a steady 88, for which I am grateful. However, the max up I get is about 6-7 MBps, which while being much faster that what I had with Uverse, still leaves me a bit disappointed. Is the disparity between up and downstream speeds typical? If so, why? I send large files over the interwebs and would like these to not take forever. So, happy ending, by and large. We'll see what they want for this connection in a year, but for now I have what I wanted-a much faster download speed and not paying rent to AT&T for a modem. Thanks to all who posted here; your experience is good info.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just a follow up now that Xfinity is up and running. The first tech (one week on his own after 90 days of training) came last week completely unprepared for the job (no communication from the folks I booked it with--sigh), which entailed going up the pole some 20 ft. and starting from there. He left apologetically, promising that the following week a bucket truck would arrive to do the job. Today another tech arrived with a longer ladder and slightly bigger van. When I showed him the logistics, he looked it up and down, grunted, and said "OK." Keep in mind he had to get the cable from my lot to the pole (across the busiest road in my area-still don't know how he did that!) and up the pole, which he did in quick time. Then to a tree on my lot about 15 ft. off the ground, and then to the house. Punched a hole in the stucco under my deck, ran the cable through and sealed the breach with an exterior plug and silicon. Then he had to run it another 30 ft. or so under my house (tacked to framing along the way), part of which was a nasty crawl in a space not much larger than he was, and up through the floor. All good; he cut it, put a connector on and we fired up the Arris modem/wifi/voip unit I got from Amazon (certified ONLY for Comcast, interestingly). It took a bit to establish a connection with home base, but we did, and at that point he was on his way out the door to his next appt. (had the temerity to show me his watch, as if the time my job took was cutting into his). Anyhoo, I managed to get logged into the router to configure it properly. Mission accomplished!

Sounds like the guy did quite a job for you. Did you tip him?

The plan I bought promised UP TO 75 Mbps down; I am getting a steady 88, for which I am grateful. However, the max up I get is about 6-7 MBps, which while being much faster that what I had with Uverse, still leaves me a bit disappointed. Is the disparity between up and downstream speeds typical? If so, why? I send large files over the interwebs and would like these to not take forever. So, happy ending, by and large. We'll see what they want for this connection in a year, but for now I have what I wanted-a much faster download speed and not paying rent to AT&T for a modem. Thanks to all who posted here; your experience is good info.

Anyways, yes, cable internet is "like that", download is great, upload is ... well. crapola as far as bandwidth goes. Basically, only enough bandwidth to return the TCP ACK packets, to continue to allow you to "consume" content from the major companies on the internet that they partner with, while simultaneously denying you your own voice on the internet as a rightful Netizen.

If you often "send large files", then you had better pray that either FIOS hits your town (and you don't get bypassed for some reason), OR, Comcast finally gets their butt in gear, and starts moving forward with DOCSIS 4.0 / Symmetric DOCSIS. Who knows, some people get struck by lightning with better odds.

 

[SamirD]

Glad to hear your install went well. Those guys are paid basically by how many jobs they can do in a given time, hence why he was antsy to be on his way. And I don't think tipping service providers like this helps. If someone does their job right, they'll automatically get more work if the parent company is up to snuff.

As far as the upload bandwidth--yeah that's typical and is also why I typically never look at the download speeds when looking at plans but the upload instead as I use a lot of that as well. I then get the plan with the upload I need (which is typically as fast as they have). I'd look into how much the next tier up will cost and what the upload is. I think it would at least go to 10Mbps, which would give you 11+ regularly, which is roughly 1MB/sec so not too shabby with smaller 3-5MB files and not too bad even with 500MB files which would be done in under 10 minutes.

 

[VirtualLarry]

And I don't think tipping service providers like this helps. If someone does their job right, they'll automatically get more work if the parent company is up to snuff.

Yeah, but... think of the human aspect. Not all companies really care about their workers like that. If you as a person appreciate the work that you installer has done, and want to encourage that installer to continue to do so, and possibly others that he talks with, I would consider tipping, just as a means to express your gratitude. Basically, human psychology, reward/punishment, pleasure/pain, etc. I don't think that the tip has to be exorbitant, maybe a $5 bill would be enough, something to get a coffee down the street after he's done with your job, and waiting for his next one.

Edit: Ehh, and Comcast, "up to snuff"? Well, I'm not going to touch that one with a ten-foot pole.

Clearly, this installer did right by the customer, but I believe most likely, it was because of the installer himself wanting to do a good job, not because of Comcast specifically.

Edit: I'm not trying to say that the installer doesn't get paid enough, good ones probably do, but just the human aspect, just a small token of your appreciation for the work that they did, enough to get a coffee or a doughnut or something, nothing major.

And I'm not trying to shame the OP for not doing so, I mean, I got my oil changed at a quickie-oil-change place, and I wasn't sure if they wanted a tip or not either. It was all so rush-rush, and I didn't give him one, partly because of the rush-rush, and partly because it took all of my and my friend that was with me's cash to get the oil change done, except for maybe a fiver.

It might well be against policy to tip the installer, most likely it is.

Sometimes, I tip my UPS and Fedex drivers, around the holiday season. They bring my packages right to my door, or wait for me to come to the front entrance if they can't get in, so yeah, I think that the "regulars" deserve a small tip around Christmas/Holidays.

Edit: Oh yeah, if you want the maximum upload possible on Comcast DOCSIS 3.1 service, you need to sign up for their "Cable Gigabit" or "DOCSIS Gigabit" (As opposed to "Gigabit Pro") service. That will give you 35Mbit/sec uploads, which is the max that Comcast offers on their DOCSIS cable systems, and requires a DOCSIS 3.1 modem.

 

[QuietDad]

Glad you got what you wanted, but nothing in your experience surprised me. You got the first tech that went "OMG, this is too hard and I don't have enough stuff" and the second tech that figured it out, but annoyed at losing time. You also are disappointed with the service Comcast installed verses what you thought you were getting. Typical day in cable land.
The second tech did what he needed to do to get the job done by running the line to a tree, but in the region I worked, that would have gotten me fired. Trees do not make ideal mounting points. Windy days make trees sway and trees grow and eventually either pull the cable tighter or make it sag. Not knowing the options there it may be the only thing that could have been done.
As a tech, I appreciated the offer of a tip, but never accepted them. Saw too many techs burned down the line by customers complaining later that the service wasn't as good as it should be, even after the tech demanded a tip with "I really shouldn't do this but if you tip me..." when it was usually something totally unrelated to the install. Comcast especially was a shaky service to begin with.
As stated a few posts up, FIOS is much better in reliability and service, but is very good at getting you to switch then having rate creep over time and not in the mood to help you.
Either way, your better than what you were but not as good as you thought you were going to be. The one thing you may want to try that I saw, was you supplied your own modem, and while certified for Comcast, it could be an older model with limitations. I would order a modem supplied by Comcast and at the install, test it before the tech leaves and if it doesn't improve, cancel the job. You can also go get one at a walk in center and swap it yourself, returning it if it doesn't do what you want.

 

[jhansman]

Interesting replies, all. Never thought of tipping the guy, but I did shake his hand and thank him for the excellent work (big whoop, but it's something). Yes, now I have a relatively fast connection down I never enjoyed before, for about half of what AT&T was costing me for their weak ass bandwidth. I bought my own modem only because it galls me to pay a monthly fee to these companies for equipment I have to have. As for connecting the line to a tree, honestly, if he tried running the line from the pole to my house without that tree stop, the line would be (in my view) even more susceptible to wind and falling branches. Waiting now for voice service to kick in (three days, I'm told) and then I'm free of AT&T. Lastly, FIOS will likely never be available in my area in my lifetime. Too small a market to pay for running the infrastructure. I envy those up in the Valley and SF who have had it for some time now. Must be nice....

 

[SamirD]

Glad it worked out for you.

And if you saw the rents/property taxes in the SF area, you'd be mad if you couldn't get faster speeds, lol.

 

[jhansman]

I live in a heavily forested rural area (every summer we hold our breath; just exhaled with our first big storm), and the infrastructure here is out of the 1940s. Everything is on poles, so we feel lucky we can get cable speeds. Honestly, I don't know how AT&T is going to compete; even their cell coverage sucks in my neck of the woods. And yeah, I doubt I could afford to live in the Bay area, and I make a decent salary. Nice place to visit, but soon only the rich will be able to afford to live there. Shame...

 

[SamirD]

The bay area is insanely expensive, but so is almost every metro imo since I've seen how much cheaper it is for the same thing elsewhere. The problem is the job, and the reason for the job is money. Solve the money problem and you can go live where it's cheap and enjoy life. That's my goal.