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THE STORY:
A house in my neighbourhood was broken into a couple of weeks ago, and before they went in the thieves cut both the phone and cable lines which are right out there at the side of the house. The alarm went off and they simply disconnected the siren after the found it and went about their business.

My alarm currently is monitored via the phone lines but I can easily connect it to my VOIP line ... so I want to bypass the box picture below at which point my cable would be entirely underground and not so easy to cut.

THE QUESTION:
What is this box and what are the implications of bypassing it?

Thanks to all ... and, oh, make sure you go to the JAG thread in Handicapped Parking and play "Real or not real."

problem with VOIP is if your router goes down or resets or the like and your alarm can't connect to the interweb to make it's urgent call your hosed... only way to do it is to have a celular redundancy line with a batery back up...

ZED_not_zee,Mar 31 2007, 01:53 AM Wrote:problem with VOIP is if your router goes down or resets or the like and your alarm can't connect to the interweb to make it's urgent call your hosed...  only way to do it is to have a celular redundancy line with a batery back up...
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True ... but the odds of that happening on the same day I'm getting burglarized is probably pretty slim, and I actually do have battery backup for the modem and router now ... and additionally ... alarm companies are apparently ceasing support of cell in the very near future ... there is another option which is a special cable modem that sends a continuous signal to the monitoring station, don't know how much though.

So the question remains ... what happens if I bypass that box?

There's nothing in that box except a filter (depending on your cable channel lineup) and maybe a splitter since I see one line coming in and two out. It's simply there to keep you from stealing more tv channels than you are paying for.

Here's what the filter looks like

Take the whole freaking assembly off the wall, and bury it within a waterproof junction box. Make an access way that is under a slab of paving or something, so that you CAN get to it fairly easily if you need to. If the thieves can't see it, they probably wont bother your place.

:ph34r:

There are a couple of different options.

If using the phone line you can have an outside company come in and drill the foundation and have the phone line enter below grade. When I was with bell we would not drill the foundation.

Connecting before the cable box is in theory stealing cable. On both bell, and cable anything after the box is in theory your property, and before the box is their property. The best bet would be to call up your provider and talk to them about it. If they find that you have bypassed the box, it is very likely they will cut the cable, and install it like it is now, and you might even be charged for that.

thats the cable company NID box. You really shouldn't touch it. Also bypasing that box can get you in a lot of trouble, as it is the property of the cable company's even though its on your premisis. the part that is your responsibility is right after it enters your house.

^^ what Paolo said, those grey boxes are CSEs and Demarcation Points. Both represent the physical point where there responsibility ends and yours starts.

The buried feeds coming up to your house should be in a piece of pvc condduit (stubbed 4 inches into the dirt). The really doesn't happen anymore. Depending on how the feeds in your house run you've got a few options for securing them. You could rerun the house feeds in through the back of the CSE or DP, then down to the electrical panel (where most services reside).
What's on the other side of that wall?

Yeah, no conduit ... in fact, the first line which was buried in conduit didn't work or was cut, so they ran a "temporary" second line from the box on the street to my box, over the ground (hence the two lines in) ... and the grass guys dutifully laid the sod over it ... so any one of 4 neighbours who dig in their yard have the potential to cut my cable line cuz it's barely 2" down and unprotected.

On the other side of that box is my garage - hmmmmm.

j3rt,Mar 31 2007, 04:21 PM Wrote:^^ what Paolo said, those grey boxes are CSEs and Demarcation Points.  Both represent the physical point where there responsibility ends and yours starts.

The buried feeds coming up to your house should be in a piece of pvc condduit (stubbed 4 inches into the dirt).  The really doesn't happen anymore.  Depending on how the feeds in your house run you've got a few options for securing them.  You could rerun the house feeds in through the back of the CSE or DP, then down to the electrical panel (where most services reside).
What's on the other side of that wall?
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paolo,Mar 31 2007, 11:55 AM Wrote:thats the cable company NID box.  You really shouldn't touch it.  Also bypasing that box can get you in a lot of trouble, as it is the property of the cable company's even though its on your premisis.  the part that is your responsibility is right after it enters your house.
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This is the most correct answer.

In all onesty, the odds of a theif cutting the cable and telephone lines are pretty low, unless they have a very good reason to break into your house and get what they want. No petty theif will do that, more like a pro will. I would not bother with trying to safeguard those lines, maybe wait untill the Temp lines are removed by Rogers cable and they bury a new underground cable, then they might just install a more modern NID box at the same time and run a conduit. The best way is a hole is drilled directly behind the box going into the basement entrance point, so since the cable is behind the box, the part after the nid is hidden from view, you can probaly request the cable installer to put it at a height as close as possible to that, but I think there may be regulations on how high that box must be from the ground, etc... but try it anyways, especially if its a third party contractor that installs your cable.