Engineer visited - not helpful. Can you help please?

[Chodley]

Yeah a phone socket RJ11 looks very similar but is a bit smaller (and the old BT ones most people have were thinner and wider)

[TimmyBGood]

@MaisieK 

I'd suggest the Q box ethernet cable needs to be plugged into an ethernet socket on the rear of your own router, not the ethernet wall port.

[Chodley]

Yeah that's possibly a socket for a different service, maybe phone, but does look like RJ45 - and he's plugged in an ethernet cable. Hmm, is this maybe connected to ethernet that is hooked up between other rooms like where the TV is, so he's connecting (or hoping to connect) the sky box to the router via that?

The box below it is an Optical Network Terminator though (you can see the fibre optic cable plugged into it, the yellow one with the green plug) so you have your own. Not sure what is shared. But that's normal. That's the same as I have with my fibre provider.

[TimmyBGood]

@MaisieK 

At the moment you're effectively just guessing that the two wall ports form a continuous link: if they don't then the Q box won't find a network connection 

[Chodley]

suspect the spare cutoff wire is a 2nd satellite feed cable from the Q, not used in your setup where you have that SCR box on the wall with the optical connection out to a shared dish.

One way to test if your ethernet is connected behind that wallplate would be to move the router to the TV room and plug its red cable in to the socket the Q is attached to, and at the other end connect that grey cable into the ONT where the red cable currently goes

if it's wired up behind the walls, the router should be able to reconnect to the internet.

also, you should be able to just use wifi from the Q to the router if the signal is strong enough, and not need ethernet at all but I always recommend using ethernet if you can. So much more stable.

[MaisieK]

OK so.... the ONT isn't anywhere near the TV so I'm not sure how I could test it that way. It makes sense to try it that way. 

Frustratingly I might need to try and find somebody to pay to come round and see what's going on. I wonder if I could find anybody. 

[MaisieK]

That would make sense. There is no reason why the sky box needs to be next to the tv I suppose. 
What is the round socket (looks like the old aerial on roof port)?

[Chodley]

No, it doesn't need to be. I'm assuming the Tv is in another room.

you would move the router next to the TV and plug that red cable into the socket on the wall that the Q is currently plugged into

then at the ONT, take the grey cable which is currently plugged into a LAN port on the router into the ONT where the red plug was before.

This would, if the two wall sockets have been connected by the builders, make a connection between the router and the ONT just the same as the direct connection you have now.

if they are not wired up by the builders, the router will fail to establish an internet connection and also the network light on the ONT won't come back on because it won't sense anything plugged in.

[Chodley]

Think the round socket might be a terrestial freeview that the SCR also provides. So yeah, like an aerial connection.

[Chodley]

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@MaisieK wrote:

That would make sense. There is no reason why the sky box needs to be next to the tv I suppose. 
What is the round socket (looks like the old aerial on roof port)?

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The sky box does need to be fairly near the TV because HDMI cables can only go so far and also you need the remote to talk to it. It's bluetooth but limited range.

but it doesn't need to be near the router.

and if those ethernet ports on the wall are connected up, the router doesn't need to be near the ONT. Having it as central in the home as possible to optimise the wifi is a good idea.

edit: I don't think you need to pay anyone for this. If you can test the cabling works (or even exists!) then you're close to a solution.

[TimmyBGood]

@MaisieK 

Unfortunately it appears to be standard practice for builders to distribute ethernet sockets with no labelling : it's also entirely possible that the topology they've used is simply inappropriate or that the cabling within the walls isn't contiguous.

[Chodley]

The good news, if the latter, is that any half skilled DIY / maintenance person can fix the cabling topology. But that is getting into paid work territory. And this simple test I've suggested won't tell you if there are no cables or badly laid out cables, or even cables with a broken wire.

It'll just give you a simple works / doesn't work and if it doesn't work then I'd say using, or trying to use wifi is the next logical step.

[lettice]

For some clarity.

I have seen one of these similar setups in a new build recently from this company.

The Sky will be supplied via a communal feed, hence the one Sat feed  port the engineer left  The other socket will be a terrestrial Tv feed.

Your ONT is not shared, it's connecting to a fibre run (house builder preferred fibre) in the street to a shared ( house builder) fibre cabinet.

By shared it means all the houses connect to that fibre source that the house builders will have laid.

Looks like your broadband router is the black box, that can do Wi-Fi and should have additional Ethernet ports on the rear.

The router is connected to the ONT  via the red cable.

The router I saw did have a phone calls facility. Top left socket, one was for the phone calls, the other was Ethernet distribution through the house to the other Ethernet sockets ( the one I saw only had two of those, one downstairs, one upstairs).

Not sure why the Sky engineer could not connect the Sky box via Ethernet cable or via WiFi. it could be that the house builder did not connect up the Ethernet port as mentioned above,  But easy to test  with an Ethernet cable to a laptop to that port to test the port is active. You should also see the Ethernet lights flashing by the connected Ethernet port on the rear of the router if it is connected correctly.

Might also be worth trying to connect the Sky box to Wi-Fi, you must have the Wi-Fi credentials for the black router.

[lettice]

@Chodley @TimmyBGood 

Does seem poor the way the Sky engineer has left the Sat twin core cable open ended on the spare like that.