Sky+ and Sky HD and Phoneline

suki1964

Can someone advise please?

My parents live in the same house as me but independently - ie own living rooms, bathrooms etc - And own phone number.

Now the old fella wanted skyHD when it came out so we got talked into having skyHD for himself and we took sky+. To save on packages we took multi room so both boxes are now pugged into MY phone line and we get the one bill.

Now I also pay for the BB and have a wireless router so they can share the BB - they dont use the internet enough to warrant paying for their own connection.

So the set up is - on the master socket I have the wireless router and their HD box(through a filter). My phone is connected to an extension socket in a separate part of the house(on a filter). My sky+ is connected to an extension socket(through a filter)

I get really rotton speeds Samknows says my line is capable of 2mbs as does BT and everywhere else I check - Im lucky to get 400kps days and less then 200kps evenings (

Im with virgin net atm and after a nice long chat (again) they finally admitted that the biggest problem is with them and they wont be improving anytime soon so Id be better of going elsewhere.

Now obviously if Im going to be migrating I want to have the best chance of a decent speed and dont want to spend the next few months rowing with new ISP about whats wrong and where so I want to get my cabling as spot on as possible before hand.

So do I need to have the sky boxes plugged in? We are two years into contract and I know we had to for the first year but if I unplug them - will I lose any services? Its the HD I worry about as its for my parents who are easily upset if things go wrong

Will new filters or front plates help any and if front plates - which ones to buy and which plates need replacing? And as a thought, would buying a new dect phone and putting it on the master and then doing away with yet another extension help matters?

There is no other electical equipment near the master as its in the hall and I just had the alarm system disconnected as well seeing as that didnt work

Just to add, two pcs and one lappy share the BB - very rare are all three in use at once

Many thanks

servo-15

I don't know if the sky box phone line connections affect your bb speeds, but I suggest you unplug them from the master socket and see if your speeds improve. I haven't even bothered connect my sky+ to the phone line and it works fine. I occasionally get a warning message telling me to connect after I have switched it off at the wall, but everything works fine. I think the only thing it affects is when you want to buy something via the skybox, or upgrade your channels etc.

jem16

suki1964 wrote: »

So do I need to have the sky boxes plugged in? We are two years into contract and I know we had to for the first year but if I unplug them - will I lose any services? Its the HD I worry about as its for my parents who are easily upset if things go wrong

You have to have both boxes connected as you are using a multiroom package. This is the only way for Sky to monitor that both boxes are connected at the same household and they do phone back to check.

If your boxes are not connected to the phone line you will have to pay the full sub for both boxes.

Im with virgin net atm and after a nice long chat (again) they finally admitted that the biggest problem is with them and they wont be improving anytime soon so Id be better of going elsewhere.

I take it you are not with Virgin on cable then?

suki1964

jem16 wrote: »

You have to have both boxes connected as you are using a multiroom package. This is the only way for Sky to monitor that both boxes are connected at the same household and they do phone back to check.

If your boxes are not connected to the phone line you will have to pay the full sub for both boxes.



I take it you are not with Virgin on cable then?

I know that's what Sky do and I know that the contract says you have to be connected for the first year (had so many problems with them not being able to ring one box they kept charging for two subscriptions - finally sorted after about 6 months), What Im asking is A - if I disconnect them from the phone lines now will any sevices be lost and B is it worth it - will the noise be cut down (have a noise margin of around 20db)

Virgin cable? I wish - theres not much cabling in Northern Ireland - just parts of Belfast and Derry. Although the whole of NI is BB enabled - for most of us it means it comes down very old copper overhead wiring