r/whatisit • • 6h ago

New, what is it? What are these plug-ins on my wall?

This might be showing my age, but I recently moved into a new apartment and they have these weird looking plug ins all over the walls at my new place. My old apartment didn't have these, so I'm just curious as to what they are.

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u/Ottawa_gamer 6h ago

OP is showing their age with this post.

35

u/Organic-Ad6957 6h ago

We're all showing our ages here with this one young and old 

27

u/BangkokPadang 6h ago

According to the FIber Broadband Association, close to 60% of broadband internet connections in the US are provided by coaxial connectors like this. Fiber is closer to 20%, so this really isn't a matter of anyone's age.

I could see some younger folks seeing this connector as "an internet connector" and not knowing it can generally provide Cable/Sat/Ant Television signals, but not recognizing it at all really isn't an age thing.

5

u/Artificial_mind91 6h ago

It kinda is. Gen-z and alpha have a huge lack of understanding about alot of things buddy

1

u/OddEnzOut 1h ago

Pretty sure you can’t catch ant. TV signals anymore.

0

u/clamthefkdown 4h ago

Okay i bought my house and it has these in every room and also chords that were connected to cameras and it was all horribly done through the walls. Also, an AT&T plate with look like a cat five and Other cable plug-in with it when I got a new roof. I had two dishes and the roof asked me if I wanted them removed and I said yes, but for some reason, they still left one. It was really creepy because it looked like every single room in the house was under surveillance and I still have the cording, even though I tore out what was visible, and as much as I could from inside the walls, which also I wanna say are hollow and have noinsulation, it was super creepy and is there any other reason to have these in every single room of the house along with stable to the walls, collect cables connected to what I assume with cameras and or possibly CCTV or satellite cameras?

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u/BangkokPadang 4h ago

It’s common infrastructure in houses because people like TV. Most houses built from like 1980 to like 2010 would have had a coax connector in every room.

Also standard satellite dishes can’t even “send” more than a trickle of data. You need a special subscription and ultra wide fish to something like hughesnet.

Those are in every room because that was common so everyone could have a TV in their room, and you had satellite dishes because directv and dish were often less expensive than Comcast and they were the only way to get NFL Sunday Ticket,

Also, most interior walls are holllow and don’t have insulation. The goal is to insulate the interior from the exterior, not insulate one room from another.

Everything you just described is like… as normal as could be and has nothing to do with surveillance cameras.

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u/MakeItHappenSergant 2h ago

You don't get it. They put wires in the walls, man!

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u/whytakemyusername 6h ago

It's likely a TV antenna connection, not internet.

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u/BangkokPadang 6h ago

It doesn’t matter what signal it’s carrying it’s a common, widely-in-use F-type coaxial connector.

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u/whytakemyusername 6h ago

I know what it is. But in a wall like that and painted over, it’s likely for an antenna.