Do you subscribe to cable? Doesn't sound like it. Subscribe and tell them to come hook it up.

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They would (or should) run the working cable into the house. Once inside, then it's your responsibility. They should, however, install the cable modem on it too. Don't do any work that you dont know will be used by them when they come out. It has a good chance of being a wasted effort.

Before they get there, you'd need to run the cable inside, and connect a modem to it, and have them configure the modem, sometimes it can be done online but often you need to call with the MAC address. And that's IF that cable is the correct one.

When the cable company comes to install your coax, if they don't bury it that day and leave, call them and tell them it's a tripping hazard. They will be out the next day. I had xfinity do this to me where they installed the new line after replacing a faulty one, and just left it on the ground across my yard (about 80 feet of cable) for over a month. I called every day and they kept saying they can't and were sorry for the inconvenience. I also had to mow around it, then stop mowing, move the cable then continue again...serious pain in the ass. When I told one support rep that I was probably going to run it over one of these days, she got super defensive and started accusing me of threatening to damage their equipment. It was wild. Anyways...the moment I said to a different rep that it was a safety concern, they were out the next day and buried it.

TLDR; use safety as a reason to get them to actually do the shit they need to.

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OK, hope it works out. I have comcast, and whenever I get a new modem, the only place I can get to at first is comcast.com and their "register your modem" page, where it links the individual modem to my account. Then, it usually takes maybe 5-15 minutes for that to stabilize and I can reach the internet.

Edit: Sorry I didn't even answer the question. Even if the exterior cable was intact and you hooked up a router to it. It still wouldn't work unless the service was activated for that address.

If you don't have coax in your walls already then you want to hire a professional. It's possible to do it yourself but it's going to be a huge pain in the ass and a ton of work. The professionals already have good specialized tools and experience to get it done in a fraction of the time.

If you just need to terminate the coax coming out of the ground and there's already a junction box with a bunch of unterminated coax that's running to various rooms in your house, then get a coax termination kit, something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Coax-Crimper-Compression-Stripper-Connectors/dp/B06W5G64VQ/ It may seem like a waste of money to buy a set of tools you'll only ever use once. You can get a stripping tool, compression tool, and a bunch of connectors for $20. If there's multiple coax cables in the termination box you'll get the clearest and cleanest signal without using a splitter, so you might want to get a tone-tester as well so you can easily locate the cable which corresponds with the outlet you want to use.

You can get a little baggie of twist-on connectors for $6 and strip with a knife. Don't. Get the kit with the proper tools. The extra $14 is totally worth it.

Yeah this is the problem we have ran into. It’s a flip that was fairly well done, but stupid little issues like this where they didn’t run the cable into the house. Very frustrating.

I honestly don't have any clue why this seems to be such a common practice. I blame HGTV, all those shows never talk about cat6 or coax cables and in this day and age its just as important as power/heating.

I imagine they hired the cheapest contractor they had and couldn’t give 2 shits about stuff like that. Shame on me for not catching on that. Interestingly the inspector didn’t notice that either

Yeah it sucks. As often as I see it I would be willing to guess its not something that inspections for.

the cable companies will tickle your balls for that initial contract they will do it for you

Don't have the cable tech install your internal wiring. They will drill through floors and do the absolute bare minimum required to get the wires in the rooms you want.

Have the cable brought to one spot, and either have an electrician run cabling through the walls, or DIY it.

Cable company will run it through the wall somewhere, thats what FIOS did for me, they buried the line and ran it through the side of my house and installed a fiber outlet/connecter into the wall. Was a good install overall.

Thanks!

My thoughts exactly. Might just have them set up the box and run the cable along the side of the house and then do the rest

So very kind of them

Even if you do run the cable to connect outside, it's a near zero chance just connecting it will give you service. Your ISP has to turn on the feed to your location. Good calls on here re: internal wiring. Another option is to just have your modem at the easiest spot to bring it into the house and use Google Nest to mesh your house for wider coverage.

Just wait for Spectrum. The install fee, if there is any, will cover all of this. And they primarily use contractors who are paid by piece work, so their incentive is to install your lines and equipment as fast as possible so they can do as many installs per day as they can squeeze in to maximize their pay. They will do it the fastest and easiest way possible, which is counter to what you want.

Call Spectrum back and ask for an in house installer and not a contractor. They will probably still send a contractor first anyways, who will have a magnetic sign on their truck/van/beat up Honda Civic that says Authorized Installer for Spectrum. Unless that tech is willing to install it to the level and method you are comfortable with you have every right to send them away and request an in house installer. The only wrinkle is if a new line has to be brought in from the street and it's buried and not aerial, Spectrum will send another specialist contractor out to do what is known as a make ready, and they will run a new buried cable to your house if that is what is needed, but a make ready will stop there and hand it off to an inside installer.

If the flipper cut out all of the coax it's probably because former installers ran it through the floor, punched it through walls, etc. I have seen some wild stuff in my travels. This is your home, so make sure you are happy with the end result.

When we bought our house it was a nightmare of that crap and I gutted it ALL during our initial renovation so I could patch it and do it properly. I happen to be a former electrician and wanted both coax add ethernet ran all over the housr so I just got the materials and pulled in everything together, brought it all back to a closet where my network equipment is installed so the coax junction wasn't outside, and then ran a new feed cable from there to where the aerial drop hits my house. But Spectrum had to come in and terminate and connect everything when we were done.

If you want the inside wiring to be done very specifically then you are better off either running that yourself or hiring an electrician or low voltage contractor to run it. But everything outside from the street or pole up to your house, known as the demarc (point of demarcation between what Spectrum owns and you own) or MPOE (minimum point of entry) is owned and must be maintained and installed by Spectrum.

Sometimes they don't bury the cable right away. Usually due to winter conditions where the ground is frozen. Also, the techs can do hookups but burying the cable is manual labor so they would refer it to lower paid workers at a later date. But it's good you became a squeaky wheel because sometimes they don't follow up with the burial.

Have the cable run to a closet and to your living room where you would put your TV, from the closet put a server rack and install a network switch and a patch panel, for home use you dont need that many ports so you can get away with a cheap switch. And then you can run ethernet to your rooms, and a few wireless access points. This will also set you up to put say a media server in that closet so you can access movies from anywhere in the house, or use a server set up there for backups. Down the line.

It will not work. Modems have to be provisioned by the head end before they will connect to the internet. Even if your modem was operational before the move, chances are that the cable that you are attaching to is not connected at the tap (cable hookup for your general area).

There is 0% chance that you can do this without them.

Source: Used to work as a cable technician.

In order for the modem to work, it needs two thing:

• To be able to communicate with your ISP.
• Permission from your ISP to operate.

Fixing the cable will allow it to communicate, but unless you have an account with your ISP and they have that particular modem attached to your account, you won't be able to get internet.

Do you need wired internet throughout the house? Far easier to just install a mesh wifi network IMO

> We are going to at least put a connector on the coax outside the house and connect the modem and just see if it works prior to this

Do you understand nothing about cable? A modem wont work without service, it wont even work if everything has been hooked up and it's "on" without them provisioning the modem.

Just make the appointment and wait. JFC.

There is a 0% chance it can work without them at all, but that's because (minimally) they need to provision it on their end for the modem to function. It may be connected at the tap.

I've definitely moved into places and the cable was still connected at the tap. One of them had been vacant for months. There was a filter on it so that it didn't get cable TV but I could get the internet connection on it immediately, since that had to be provisioned on their end anyway.

I'd imagine you'd have to put a filter on it for internet-only customers, no?

The inspector doesn’t know what kind of service you’ll go with. Cable vs fiber vs satellite. The inspector is there to check for issues that could be dangerous, deadly, or expensive.

You should also be there with the inspector to question anything you’re concerned about.

The internet needs to get to your house first. He's talking about the coax connection for the router.

Inspector won’t care they’ll just tell you to use WiFi

I’m really confused by the downvotes. I’ve bought 3 houses and not one inspector looked at home wiring. I looked it over because I know what to look for, but they’re looking at expensive shit like HVAC, foundation, and roof. Home networking is so personal they’re never going to say “this house lacks Cat6 in every room”. Most people couldn’t care less.

If the line was connected on the other end, the modem should at least sync up with the CMTS and keep you in the walled garden. Then OP would know if it was the right cable.

Filters aren't really a thing anymore. That was back in the analog TV days. It's all encrypted digital these days. The broadcast channels in your area might be unencrypted but that's it.

When I moved 2 years ago, I was bummed that one of the rooms was missing a cable outlet.

Now I'm using only a single outlet for the modem in my office. A mesh wifi system (eero) gives me great wifi throughout the house, and each TV has a Roku with the xfinity (or, in your case, spectrum) app. The experience with Roku or Apple TV is way better than cable boxes.

So these days, you probably really only need one cable outlet run to wherever you'd like to have your cable modem and wifi hub, and the rest can be wireless. No need to have some silly cable installer stringing cables all over the outside of your house to get a connection to each room.

I just replaced the drop and entry point on a house yesterday where the painters tore it off and clipped it in the ground. Nobody cares until seone notices. Just wait till your installer shows up and if you are lucky you won't get a lazy one and they will run it right.

Your installation appointment is for a full installation of the modem and drop wire to your choice of location, don't do the installers work for them.

Wtf?

If you manage to get you coax through the house…..you can use coax to pass internet data via a MOCA adapter.

Had a situation where it was a choice between coax or data. Went with the coax knowing you can pass data.

Not sure if that helps

I can't say what you do or don't have available in your area, but in mine, Spectrum isn't even running Coax anymore, it's all fiber to the door. I literally can't plug an analogue TV into the "cable" and watch TV.

Modern "Cable", isn't. You only need a WiFi router and a smart TV (or a computer, phone, basicially anything capable of playing streaming media).

/ Edit: My apologies, I didn't realize you were trying to steal cable. In that case, call Spectrum and have them do a proper installation. What you're describing wouldn't normally be your problem if this was all above-board.

I have nothing to contribute to this entire thread but this is fucking hilarious 🤣🤣🤣

LPT: Make sure you inspect the house you want to buy for features you want.

Before I bought my house I made sure I know what ISPs service the address and what kind of hookups I had to work with.

I knew I would have to run ethernet thru my walls myself to get multiple LAN locations in my house since wireless isn't great for some of the internet demands I have.

even if you have paid for service and have it hooked up you usually have to have them activate it on their end. Have to call the provider for that.

Are you sure they charge to hook up your cable? Even with Comcast, they foot the bill for everything outside.

For coax there is Lan over coax. I use it in my house. There are 8 coax acces points in different rooms. Replacing it with Lan (rj45) would be tricky.

So i use internally Hirschman Inca converters.

Based on OP's post and comments, they probably don't know how to put a proper compression fitting on. This matters because those shitty crimp on fittings that people buy should NEVER be used on cables connected to an ISP.

The frequencies running on coax are the same ones used by air traffic to communicate (as well as tons of other frequencies). Crimp on fittings do not keep all the RF inside the cable and can introduce noise into the system. Not only that, but they let those frequencies out into the air.

While the RF radiating out of the cable line isn't harmful to humans, it can be picked up by all sorts of things that shouldn't be able to hear it. Then cable companies have to drive around with an RF sniffer to find these leaks.

So maybe OP can just throw a fitting on and connect it, but as someone with a basic grasp of these systems, I would highly recommend leaving it be.

Edit: but, the forgotten word

The inspector is looking for defects, not the absence of features you might like.

Im all for T-Mobile wireless is you have 5g there...its great!

Also, if you need a wired device add a switch or some powerline adapters. No need to pay for coax install in 2022, unless you like getting ripped by the cable cumpany

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The last time I had cable a shitload of it was encrypted and the broadcast channels and some other shit wasn't. You could get it with the digital tuner without the STB.

If everything is encrypted, though, there is no need for a filter OR to disconnect it at the tap.

Welcome to real life! :)

Most houses out there were either built well before the internet existed or in an era where dialup was still common. And then WiFi came along and negated most casual benefits of going to the trouble of wiring your home.

If it had become common you would still be coping with different generations of wiring. At one time Ethernet ran primarily on coaxial cable (aka thin net) and there were several generations of twisted pair cabling used for ethernet (cat3, cat4, cat5, cat 5e, cat6).

FWIW, a wired LAN is almost always superior to WiFi and not generally subject to interference from other WiFi and 2.4 / 5 GHz equipment.

It's particularly noticeable where streaming media is involved since momentary interrupts or degradation of service can be very obvious.

On the off-chance that you have wall outlets/panels for wired landline phone service, it might be relatively easy to replace that with ethernet cable.

As others point out, there are methods to run ethernet over coaxial if you happen to have cable to rooms. But that does require an adapter box if you want to connect to a computer or device without a coax port.

In a pinch, powerline networking is also an option.

E.g.

MoCA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_over_Coax_Alliance

A lot of major cell phone carriers have routers now you can use.

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CAT6 cable is so small anyways that you can also temporarily run the cable behind the baseboards. It's super easy to make the cables too.