Demarc

meerkathalon

This is random, but I was wondering if Comcast ever replaces demarc boxes on homes? On many homes I I see a more square style modern looking box

My home was built in 1900. My box looks rough. I don’t think it is impacting anything so I’m sure the answer here is no, but it’s something I’ve been curious about.

Edit: this is unrelated but last month I saw bucket trucks working up and down the road along with small outages. I noticed my upstream power was finally raised from 29 to 35-37. The daily timeout in the logs subsided. I thought maybe cleaning things up for better things to come? We still have the ancient looking amps though.

This week, however, there was a mini outage and my upstream levels have dropped to 30

videomatic3

you can request them to replace it. i know i did it one time, i almost had them do it a second time but it was going to be a 35 dollar truck roll or something and i requested rg11 and they told me over the phone that i cant request what i get, they put whatever is on the truck, so i didnt have them come out. ive also thought about attempting it myself, its a rather short run for me, about 55 or 60 feet.

Stuff

What type of box is on your house? Around here they stopped using boxes for cable installs and just have a lightning arrestor with a ground wire on the outside of the house. For a friend I removed her box as she didn’t like the look - there was only a loop of cable and the arrestor inside so was fairly simple.

Donut417

Stuff We have a box on our house, but it was put in before Comcast took over our Cable provider. My sisters old house it was just like yours, no Demarc box, just a ground block hanging there.

@meerkathalon I mean there is nothing stopping you from replacing the box yourself If Comcast doesnt. I know for a fact Ive seen them for sale on places like Amazon. At least the box on the side of our home is fully accessible. Actually we took it off the house when we resided the house.

telcodad

Stuff just have a lightning arrestor with a ground wire on the outside of the house

Donut417 My sisters old house it was just like yours, no Demarc box, just a ground block hanging there.

Yeah, we never had a box for the cable company, just a ground block. The ground wire used to go to a ground rod driven into the ground below it, but later on the wire was run over to the electric entrance and bonded to the ground there.

Many many years ago I replaced the ground block with this TII surge protector: https://www.amazon.com/TII-Broadband-Satellite-Lightning-Protector/dp/B0016AIYU6

SBT13

Comcast only installed a ground block for me. I also replaced it with the TII surge protector a while back. The MoCA filter that is installed by Comcast has surge protection as well, I guess double protection can’t hurt.

CommunityMember

telcodad Yeah, we never had a box for the cable company, just a ground block. The ground wire used to go to a ground rod driven into the ground below it, but later on the wire was run over to the electric entrance and bonded to the ground there.

No provider will (these days) depend on someone else’s ground rod (which may not actually be a valid ground point), and no provider will (these days) drive their own ground rod (and they would usually need two located at least 6 feet apart due to changes in the requirements, which would double and time (and don’t forget the survey costs)). Connecting to the service entrance moves the responsibility for a valid bonding point to the power company. Everyone “wins” (well, at least the installer, who is paid by the job).

azdeltawye

I just have a Moca filter/ground block which is connected to the electric service entrance ground rods via a #10 bare copper wire.