24 questions · 18 words explained
Questions I getasked a lot
Short answers. If yours isn't here, message me. It's quicker than reading.
01 · 5 questions
Ethernet and WiFi
Can you make my WiFi reach upstairs?
WiFi that dies upstairs can usually be fixed, and the fix is rarely a plug-in booster. Either I move the router, or the socket it lives on, so it sits nearer the middle of the house and off the floor, or I run a cable to a proper access point upstairs so you get a second strong signal on the same network name. Sometimes the answer is to hardwire the heavy users and leave the WiFi for the phones. The WiFi problems page has the three fixes.
Cat5e or Cat6?
Cat6 for new runs, unless there is a reason not to. Cat5e and Cat6 are both grades of ethernet cable, and both will carry a home broadband connection. Cat6 costs a little more per metre and handles everything a home connection will throw at it for years, so that is what I reach for on a fresh run. If you already have sound Cat5e in the wall, I test it before I replace anything. The ethernet sockets page covers what a new run involves.
Do I need a switch?
You only need a switch when there are more devices than ports in one place. A switch is a small box with several ethernet ports that share one connection. Behind a TV unit with a console, a Smart TV and a Sky box, one socket in the wall and a four or eight port switch tucked behind the unit covers the lot. One device in a room just needs the socket. The hardwire gaming and TV page covers the socket behind the TV unit and what plugs into it.
Is a cable really better than WiFi?
A cable is better than WiFi for anything that stays in one place. A wired ethernet socket gives a console, PC or Smart TV its own connection: steady speed, lower ping and no drops when someone else in the house starts streaming. WiFi has to share the air with every phone and laptop, so it is for the things that move about. The hardwire gaming and TV page goes through what a socket behind the TV unit or next to the desk changes.
Which broadband providers do you work with?
I work with every broadband provider, because the socket I fit plugs into any router. Virgin Media, BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet, Vodafone and full fibre all have a spare ethernet port on the back of the router. I run Cat6 from there, whether your router is a Virgin Media Hub or sits on an Openreach master socket, to a new faceplate in the room you choose. The ethernet sockets page explains what you get.
02 · 7 questions
The job
Can the cable be hidden?
The cable can nearly always be hidden. Inside the house it goes under floorboards, up through the loft, behind skirting, in slim trunking or inside a fitted wardrobe. Outside it is clipped tight along the mortar line of the brickwork, with a drip loop and a grommet where it enters, so from the pavement you barely see it. The outside route is often the neatest way between floors. The external runs on my work page show how that looks on a real wall.
Do you label the sockets?
I label every socket by hand before I leave. Each port on the faceplate gets a written label so you know which lead goes where: SHED and Bedroom, GIRLS and BOYS, SKY and TV, whatever fits the house. On business jobs the number on the plate matches the number on the patch panel. It takes a minute and saves a lot of guessing later. The socket photos on my work page have plenty of labelled plates in them.
Do you supply the switch, socket, bracket or cable?
Yes, I supply and fit kit, or fit what you have already bought. Faceplates, back boxes, clips, grommets and the outside cable are part of any run I do and go in the quote. For a switch, TV bracket, access point or Fire TV ethernet adapter, tell me what you have or what you are thinking of buying and I will say whether it is the right one. Either way, kit you want supplied is written into the quote. The contact page says what to send me.
How long does a socket take?
How long a socket takes depends on the route, and I'll tell you when I quote so you can plan the day. The job covers agreeing the route with you, drilling, running the cable, fitting and labelling the faceplate, testing every port and clearing up. Garden office runs, business cabinets and anything that has to be undone first take longer than a single socket. The ethernet sockets page describes what a single socket job includes.
What is a catenary run?
A catenary run is an overhead cable carried on a tensioned steel wire between two anchor plates, so the cable never holds its own weight. One plate goes on the house, usually the gable or eaves, and the other on the garden office or shed. The ethernet cable is strapped to the wire and drops into the building through a grommet. It is the quickest route across a garden where the line of sight is clear. The garden office photos on my work page show a few.
What is a drip loop?
A drip loop is the downward loop in an outside cable just before it enters the wall. Rain running along the cable reaches the bottom of the loop and drips off there, instead of following the cable through the hole and into the house. It takes seconds and it is one of the details that separates a proper outside run from a lead poked through a hole. Every outside run I do gets one, with a grommet in the hole behind it. The garden office cabling page explains the outside work.
Will there be mess?
There is very little mess, and what there is leaves with me. Dust sheets go down before the drill comes out, the brick dust gets caught on the sheet, and I clear up before the tester goes back in the bag. Most jobs need one small hole where the cable goes through the wall, with a grommet in it. Clean and tidy comes up in about half the reviews, which is how I want it to stay. The how it works page walks through a job from start to finish.
03 · 2 questions
Pricing and booking
Do you have a price list?
No, I do not have a price list, because no two cable runs are the same. A socket two metres from the router and a socket thirty metres, two floors and a garden away are different jobs. I quote from photos: send me your postcode, a photo of where the router is and a photo of where you want the socket, TV or cable to end up. You get a figure before anything starts. The pricing section on the how it works page explains what moves the number.
How soon can you come?
I aim to come out as quickly as I can. How soon depends on the week: customers have had same-day and next-day visits, and the reviews say so in their own words, but I will not promise a slot I have not checked the diary for. Message me with your postcode and what you need and I will give you a real date. Two photos with the message, the router and the room, speeds the quote up as well. The contact page has the ways to reach me.
04 · 2 questions
Where
Do you cover my area?
I cover Nottingham, the suburbs and the villages out towards Lowdham as standard. That takes in Arnold, Carlton, Colwick, West Bridgford and St Ann's along with the city. Loughborough and Derbyshire are by arrangement, so message me first with the postcode and I will say whether it works for that job and that week. If you are somewhere else within a sensible drive of Nottingham, ask. The areas page lists where I go.
Where are you based?
I am based in Nottingham, NG3. I work from home and come to you, so there is no shop or unit to visit. The tools, ladders and cable live in the van, and I turn up with what the job needs in the back. If you want to know a bit more about who is coming, the about page covers where I started and how I work.
05 · 6 questions
Other services
Do you do electrics?
No, I do not do electrics. Data, TV and network cabling only, so no mains sockets, no consumer units, no rewires. If your TV wall needs a plug socket behind it or your garden office has no power yet, get an electrician in and I will work alongside them. On extensions and new builds I go in at first fix around the sparky's programme and stay out of their way. The new build and first fix page explains how that works.
Do you do satellite dishes and TV aerials?
I do satellite and aerial work, Sky or otherwise: putting up new dishes and TV aerials, extending a feed to another room, fitting a new F-connector or aerial socket, and moving a Virgin Media TV point from one wall to another. I spent years running coax for Virgin Media, so the runs are neat and the connectors are proper ones. Ethernet and satellite can share one faceplate behind the TV, labelled so nobody plugs the wrong thing in. The Sky dish and TV aerial page lists the usual jobs.
Do you fit TVs on walls?
I mount TVs on walls and hide the cables. Fixed, tilting and full-motion brackets, and Samsung Frame TVs flush to the wall. I check what the wall is made of first, brick, block, dot-and-dab or stud, and use the right fixings for it. The bracket goes on with a spirit level, the HDMI, aerial and ethernet drop out of sight, and I can put an ethernet socket behind the TV while I am there. The TV wall mounting page has the details.
Do you fix other people's work?
I fix other people's work. One customer's upstairs home office had a cable from another engineer testing at 97 Mbps on a 500 Mbps Virgin Media Business line. I replaced the cable and boxes and it tested at 547 Mbps. I test what is there before anything comes out, keep whatever passes and re-run only the cable that fails. The before and after photos on my work page show the sort of thing I put right.
What is a patch panel?
A patch panel is a row of numbered ports in a wall cabinet where all the cables from around a building finish. Each data point in the office runs back to the cabinet and is punched down on the panel, and a short patch lead then links that port to the switch. The number on the panel matches the label on the plate at the desk, so the next IT person can follow it in thirty seconds. The business network cabling page shows panels going in.
What is PoE?
PoE is Power over Ethernet. A PoE switch sends power down the same cable that carries the data, so a camera, a WiFi access point or a desk phone at the far end needs no plug socket. One cable, one hole, done. Cameras, access points and phones are the usual reasons for it, and I fit PoE switches in small wall cabinets on business jobs when there is something to power. The business network cabling page covers switches and cabinets.
06 · 2 questions
Afterwards
Do you come back if something is not right?
If something is not right after a job, I come back. Two NHS workers had trouble getting their laptops to connect through the new cable to their garden pod, so I went back an hour later to check it through, and they wrote that up in their review. I test every port before I leave, but if a device will not play, message me and I will sort it. The reviews page has that one and the other twelve, word for word.
What if something gets damaged later?
If something gets damaged later, message me. One customer had a cable to her office running with great speeds and no drops until a new puppy chewed through it. I fitted her in the next day and re-routed the cable where the puppy could not reach. Chewed, cut or cracked cable can usually be repaired or re-run somewhere safer, and I test it before I go. The cable tidy and repair page covers damaged and worn cabling.
Plain English
Words I use
- Ethernet socket / data point
- The wired network socket that looks like a wide phone socket. A patch lead goes from it to your device. "Data point" is the trade name for the same thing.
- Cat5e / Cat6
- Grades of ethernet cable. I fit Cat6 for new runs unless there is a reason not to.
- Faceplate
- The white plate on the wall. Single, double or quad is how many ports it holds.
- Back box
- The box the faceplate screws to, flush in the wall or surface-mounted.
- Patch lead
- The short ready-made cable from the socket to the device.
- Patch panel
- A row of numbered ports in a cabinet where all the cables from around the building finish.
- Switch
- A box with several ethernet ports so more than one device can share one connection. A PoE switch also sends power down the cable to cameras, access points and phones.
- Router / Hub
- The box your provider gave you. Virgin Media call theirs a Hub.
- Openreach master socket
- The white box where a BT, Sky, TalkTalk or similar line comes into the house.
- Coax / F-connector
- The round screw-on cable and connector used for satellite and cable TV.
- Catenary
- A tensioned steel wire between two anchor plates that carries an overhead cable so the cable is not holding its own weight.
- Conduit
- Black tube a cable is pulled through, usually buried.
- Grommet
- The rubber ring in the hole where a cable passes through a wall.
- Drip loop
- The downward loop in an outside cable just before it enters the wall, so rain drips off the bottom instead of following the cable in.
- Trunking
- Slim plastic channel that hides cable along a wall.
- First fix / second fix
- Cables in before plastering; sockets and testing after decorating.
- Access point
- A WiFi transmitter wired back to the router and put where the signal is needed. Not the same as a plug-in booster, which only repeats a weak signal.
- Mbps
- Megabits per second, the number on a speed test.
Page checked 27 Sept 2026.
Craig came round and fitted an Ethernet cable to my sons new bedroom. highlight start Really good price highlight end. Very friendly and tidy. Would highly recommend.
Still got a question? Ask me.
A photo and your postcode with it and I can usually answer with a price.