Wiring, August 2

D-- from AT&T shows up at 1pm to install. He reviews The Plan and building equipment layout. The TV is in one room, the network drop in the adjacent office. There are no phone jacks or drops by the TV. Agreed: put the U-verse Residential Gateway in office, pull CAT 5 from the office to the TV room through existing cable race, connect U-verse set-top box to TV via HDMI.

D-- leaves to set up the connection at the equipment hub; he will return in about an hour. Meanwhile, install the CAT 5 cable and clear space in the TV cabinet; the cable is pulled, terminated, and tested before he returns.



Problem: the U-verse signal is weak as it is far from the distribution point (the maximum is about 920m). Worse, the existing premise phone wiring is a mess. D-- asserts electricians wired the phones because the CAT-3 lines have been cut at every box. Tracing the warble is time consuming and he cannot find the signal on the pairs where he put it.

Agreed: pull a line directly from the point of entry to the office drop:

Even with the office wiring installed, the signal at the drop is still weak. D-- calls C--, who is about 20 minutes away. C-- arrives, tests the line, and confirms there's no intervening break or bridge. The two make a call to the central office to turn up the volume, which takes another 30 minutes because the network control system is offline. Finally, the signal strength, though at the margin of poor operation (-12dB and 75% of normal) is deemed good enough.

Premise wiring finishes at ~4pm.