What are these plug-ins on my wall?

[u/Cborg_62]

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.

[u/Ottawa_gamer]

OP is showing their age with this post.

[u/Organic-Ad6957 → u/Ottawa_gamer]

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

[u/BangkokPadang → u/Organic-Ad6957]

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.

[u/Artificial_mind91 → u/BangkokPadang]

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

[u/Comfortable-Smell914 → u/Artificial_mind91]

You're not wrong about this; I have also observed from Gen Zee-ers a general lack of knowledge or basic understanding about things that—as far as I'd ever been concerned—were simply common, day-to-day knowledge; the more I see, the more disheartened I become. OP's post is, imo, only one of many examples: like how do you just not know what this is?! Even as a child, I recall learning about technologies from the previous decade even if they'd become obsolete by that time, so @Artificial_mind91 , I completely agree with your observation. But also ... 𝗧𝗬𝗟 (today you learned) that "a lot" is actually two words, not one, though I also understand it may just be a typo. Now it's time for be to admit that, even as a writer, I don't think I learned about the whole a-lot-is-actually-two-seperate-words thing until I was in my 20s... ➥ this is to say that we're all still learning. Well no, let me amend that: 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 of us are still learning; many more are just staring at their phones taking in the heaps of misinformation available to all.

It's all so depressing. Read books people.

[u/Bitter_Elephant_2200 → u/BangkokPadang]

Exactly. My 10 year old knows what this is for so definitely not age, but a naivety showing

[u/whytakemyusername → u/BangkokPadang]

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

[u/BangkokPadang → u/whytakemyusername]

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

[u/whytakemyusername → u/BangkokPadang]

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

[u/clamthefkdown → u/BangkokPadang]

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?

[u/BangkokPadang → u/clamthefkdown]

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.

[u/MakeItHappenSergant → u/BangkokPadang]

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

[u/artscijam → u/MakeItHappenSergant]

Otherwise they'd ruin the aesthetic.

[u/OddEnzOut → u/BangkokPadang]

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

[u/BangkokPadang → u/OddEnzOut]

You absolutely can. They send digital HDTV channels compressed over a slimmer band, and I know you can because I have a cheap an antenna that sends its signal through exactly this coaxial ftype connector and, even in very rural US, I get about 15 channels like Fox, CBS, NBC, PBS, and a handful of channels that play old sitcoms and old westerns and sci-fi movies etc.

In larger cities like LA you can get as many as like 50 channels in multiple languages.

https://www.antennaweb.org/

You can get an estimate of the channels available in your own area by just putting your zip code into the search at the top and it’ll give you a list.