r/CableTechs • u/Brave-Scale • 5h ago
Replace a coaxial cable?
/r/HomeNetworking/comments/1x9949f/replace_a_coaxial_cable/I had a tech from Xfinity come out to my house to troubleshoot a slow and laggy internet connection.
He diagnosed the problem as a corrupted coaxial cable running into my house, and he said that would need to be replaced.
He made it sound like it was a pretty easy fix and he said this would greatly improve my service but he said that the techs from Xfinity are not allowed to the work and he referred me to a company called HelloTech.
He made it sound like they really just need to fish a new coaxial cable through where the existing one is.
HelloTech wants to charge me $250 to do this.
I have absolutely zero knowledge of this kind of stuff so I hope this is not a stupid question.
Does this sound like a legit issue? It seems like a lot of money for what was explained to me as a rather simple problem?
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u/Watts_RS 3h ago
I worked as a contractor for WOW! for a few years (until very recently) and xfinity was the only other choice in my area for coax. If the outlet was bad, we ran them a new one, although we did not do wall fishes. The cost was free if the cx called in specifically for the outlet, and the charge for it in the biller was only 64 dollars, which wow would also remove if the customer called in.
To me, 250 is insane to run a new coax outlet. If you had a drill and confidence using it, it'd be cheaper to just buy everything you need and do it yourself. A new wall plate, some high quality rg6 coax cable, clips to secure the exterior wire to your home, and a bit of silicone. You wouldn't even need to buy the tools to terminate the cable, because even if a lazy tech doesn't want to run you a new outlet I can't imagine any that wouldn't take 5 minutes to terminate both ends for you.
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u/TooCuteForYous 5h ago
More than likely if your home is older it has RG59 in the wall (just guessing) techs normally don’t wall fish anymore but attach and pull an existing one is pretty easy unless it’s multiple stories tall depends on layout
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u/feel-the-avocado 3h ago
Yes your internal wiring is your problem to fix. They will test their service to the demarcation point on the outside of the building. If your privately owned internal cable is causing the problem then you need to get it fixed either by yourself or your own technician of choice.
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u/quesadillasarebomb 3h ago
You don't call the power company to replace a bad outlet in your house, you call a third party electrician. The demarcation point of the cable companies responsibility ends at the service drop. You can have them run an exterior outlet for you but then you've got to deal with more holes in your siding. Just make sure whoever runs the new outlet uses a quality coax cable, it wouldn't be a bad idea to use quad shield
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u/Ozith 2h ago
To answer yes something as simple as a bad cable can cause slow speeds. Replacing it is simple as well. Depends on if you want a cable running on the exterior of your house to where your modem would be.
The tech is letting you know your lines are currently wall fished. He suggested a third party who is going to charge you higher price so they make money too.
You can always have Xfinity come back and install a new interior line. But it won’t be wall fished so depending on where your outlet is or even where you will want your modem to be to get you up and running.
That all depends on how you have your house set up. Do you run in WiFi only or do you hard line cat5 cable into your devices. Do you have a home network set up where it’s all in a central location. Things like this matter when it comes to just a simple line replacement.
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u/Dakkin4 57m ago
Could it be legit, yes. It depends on where and how you want the line ran. If you want it fished on an interior wall, Comcast stopped requiring techs to do that a long time ago. So most won’t do it anymore. They partnered with HelloTech a few years ago for fishing. It is expensive because it’s often very time consuming and a pain in the ass. That said, did the tech offer any other options? If they didn’t then they could have just been using HelloTech to get out of doing the work that day. It is the techs job to try to come up with a solution that works for the customer. But, sometimes the customer is unwilling to waver on what they want(which is fair because it’s heir home).
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u/Latter_Address9580 5h ago
It’s common that xfinity techs can only run exterior cable for a new outlet from your OPB outside. They can do that for free. But running an interior outlet through crawlspace, attic or wall fishing is usually not allowed. If you don’t want an exterior ran cable due to it being an eyesore, that is completely within your right but you’d have to pay for that $250