Considering Ignite Service with a Complicated Setup

[geddo]

I am considering getting Ignite service with bundle costs on my digital service going up. I have one TV on the top floor, one on the main floor, and one in the basement. Putting the system on the main floor would work in this scenario. What makes things more complicated is my home phone. I have three separate phone jacks, each connected with a separate phone that are not on the same cordless system. I also have an alarm system that is connected to the phone line. My home phone modem is currently in the basement, as well as the internet modem. Is it possible to have a setup where Ignite service can hook up to all three phone jacks, service all three TVs on different floors and connect to the alarm system?

***Edited Labels***

[-G-]

@geddo This scenario has been discussed countless times over the years.  If you search the forum for the term "RJ31X" you will see questions and discussions about connecting Ignite Home Phone to an alarm system and where the best place would be to place the Ignite gateway.

I think the following post describes a similar situation to yours: https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Home-Phone/Connecting-home-phone-to-Ignite-Router/m-p/481425/h...

For Ignite TV, the best location to place the Ignite gateway is on the main floor, in a central location.  You can then extend Wi-Fi coverage to the far reaches of your home with Ignite WiFi Pods.  My preference for hooking up the phone line would be to run a dedicated phone line from the Ignite gateway back to the location where you have the old Rogers Home Phone modem installed.  This is really the only way that you can reliably provide telephone connectivity for your alarm system, use all of your existing wall jacks, and keep your existing telephone wiring working as it did before.

Your other option would be to place the Ignite Gateway in the basement.  That makes hooking up the phone line easy but makes getting good WiFi connectivity to the upper floors more challenging.  Just how challenging this really is depends on your home's construction and to what degree the Wi-Fi signal is blocked by duct work and building materials.

If you have a newer home with structured wiring, you can even play around with different options.

[Pauly]

Hello,

I'm a very experienced cable technician and just wanted to give my 2 cents without boring you with technical jargon.

You for SURE can have rogers ignite home phone installed and have a monitored security system set to communicate thru your phone line.  The wiring for it is also very complex and by default Rogers installation technicians will not be trained on doing this for you and will NOT be able to hook it up that way for you.

You should not get upset at them if they are unable to do it, they are merely doing their job based on the training they had, but you still have the ability to hire a technician provided by your alarm company or a third party non-partisan technician to come and wire it up to your preference.

I have done this many times in my career so this wiring job does seem easy to someone like me but I can certainly understand how someone may not feel comfortable doing it themselves or want lots of help or support or ask a lot of questions.

In my personal opinion, I would at some point suggest trying to move away from a security system that relies on monitoring via the home phone line.  This technology was great 30 or so years ago when it was the only way alarms communicated, but with home phones becoming the way of the dinosaur and people not ordering the lines anymore, the industry has shifted to the cellular or internet based monitoring.

[EhmTeeEhf]

I agree with this statement. Legacy IPX land lines and other types of legacy phones are dinosaurs. VOIP and other Over the air phone systems are the future, older systems that use these antiquated technology are not Plug and Play and require a technician with legacy experience to install Rogers equipment and link it to these systems. 

I have for years saw this coming and when people ask me my opinion, I also state these pros and cons. 

[EhmTeeEhf]

I agree with 99% of what you say but I would also recommend, if you are building or moving into a new unit, Make sure every room has the Cat 6 ethernet cabling routed through to every room. This way if the modem is out of range and you do not want Pods in every room, you can use ethernet to the room and then use an ethernet boosted adaptor to increase the signal so no loss (resistance) is experienced. Most top grade ethernet wall adaptors come with internal boosters to repeat the signal and gives no loss of signal over distances over 50 feet. 

Otherwise even the best wifi pods in the world are subject to electromagnetic interference from the materials around it. Like in Condos the cement walls have rebar (metal woven throughout the wall to strengthen it, this is a major issue for RF (wifi signals) to penetrate. New constructed houses also sometimes have metal roofs which can be a big cause of wifi and RF intermittency.

In a nut shell do your research before getting any product. Know its limitations. It will save you a lot of frustration

[Pauly]

I like the statement: " if you are building or moving into a new unit, Make sure every room has the Cat 6 ethernet cabling routed through to every room" but it is not always possible to find a house wired this way or wired correctly.  sometimes you get other peoples problems, or usually in most cases after spending your life savings on your house purchase you don't have a lot of money nor patience left to fix or run new wires.

Just be thankful you can get the services you want and when you need a specialized installation even if it requires running additional wires just do the best you can to hire someone who knows the ins and outs of it.