With sky for bb - wish it was still o2

theloft

Does anyone else have the same problem as me. When I was forced to switch to SKY due to the takeover of o2, my BB download speeds increased by 50%, now 17-19Mbps. BUT, why is it that connecting to websites takes an age ? I have tried all the major browsers, scanned and cleaned my PC (Intel Quad core PCU) of all the rubbish, but have to sit and watch the cursor going round and round trying to make the connection. It does eventually but can take up to 1 minute or more. This seems to be the same at any time of the day. Is this SKY throttling (more like choking).
I never got this with o2. Or is it that the web is so busy these days that it just takes longer ? I have been on to SKY, I have a new router, changed all filters, and have tried a new ethernet cable (my pc is hard-wired). All to no avail. Can anyone help or is it the same for all SKY customers?

jem16

theloft wrote: »

Is this SKY throttling (more like choking).

Sky don't do any traffic management.

Can anyone help or is it the same for all SKY customers?

I have around 6mb with Sky and it was the same with O2. No problem with any websites.

jadziad

I switched from Be to Sky a few months ago. It's pretty terrible - download speeds are very noticeably lower, and YouTube/BBC videos frequently buffer.

The support staff on the official forums don't seem to understand the theory behind routing problems, nor who to escalate potential problems to.

They might not do official traffic management, but they certainly give the impression that they don't understand how to manage traffic by way of routing and peering.

I'll be leaving them soon.

However, the OP's problems might be coincidentally router- or line-specific - it's difficult to diagnose unless many tests are run, and it's best to ask Sky to progress that, but they're numpties.

spud17

I'd been considering posting something about this, I'm also getting a consistently lower speed.

On same Netgear router.

O2 untweaked, average, 50 dB Att, 6.0dB SNR, 7500Mbps down.
Sky with tweaked SNR, 50dB Att, 2.5dB SNR, 6138 Mbps down.

Stats are identical from master socket.

A.Penny.Saved

jem16 wrote: »

Sky don't do any traffic management.



I have around 6mb with Sky and it was the same with O2. No problem with any websites.

You lucky to be getting the same connection speed. At least your download is the same but have you ever checked your upload speed? I will be very surprised if that matches what you had at O2. You probably got around 1.1 to 1.2 Mbit upload at O2 and I bet that you only get 800kbps on Sky.

jadziad wrote: »

I switched from Be to Sky a few months ago. It's pretty terrible - download speeds are very noticeably lower, and YouTube/BBC videos frequently buffer.

The support staff on the official forums don't seem to understand the theory behind routing problems, nor who to escalate potential problems to.

They might not do official traffic management, but they certainly give the impression that they don't understand how to manage traffic by way of routing and peering.

I'll be leaving them soon.

However, the OP's problems might be coincidentally router- or line-specific - it's difficult to diagnose unless many tests are run, and it's best to ask Sky to progress that, but they're numpties.

I know what you mean, Sky: "What does your Sky page show for your predicted connection speed?" The BT speed estimate is totally inaccurate and shows significantly lower than my connection speed has ever been. I am looking for another provider but I have very limited options unfortunately.

Would you tell me which ISP you intend joining or you are considering?

spud17 wrote: »

I'd been considering posting something about this, I'm also getting a consistently lower speed.

On same Netgear router.

O2 untweaked, average, 50 dB Att, 6.0dB SNR, 7500Mbps down.
Sky with tweaked SNR, 50dB Att, 2.5dB SNR, 6138 Mbps down.

Stats are identical from master socket.

Mine has dropped significantly as well, particularly the upload speed which was only 796kbp after I was first migrated. Down from 6.6Mbit/1.3Mbit on a 3dB profile @ Be* to 5.4/1.0 on a strange 7.0/4.5 dB SNR now @ Sky after I complained because previously it was something like 4.6 Mbit with a fairly high SNR/796kbps. An absolutely dreadful excuse for a connection IMO. They did start the line training without telling me after I complained and I only found out after I had switched my router off. I am using the old speedtouch/Thomson 585 supplied by Be. My own router got zapped by lightning some time earlier and with the migration I went back to the only router that worked.

My router shows the max bandwidth available is 6,672 which was about my regular connection speed at Be*.

Sky has a really crap system which is light years away from what Be*/O2 were using. Be/O2 did make the best out of long lines in my experience although the crippled speedtouch/thomson routers were a joke for anyone with anything more than basic knowledge.

terra_ferma

I've not had any problems, I'm connected on my PC/tablet/phone all day, we watch you tube, bbc iplayer etc have not noticed that it's slowed down.
However we've had two outages in 9 months, while before it was none when we had o2, for several years.

spud17

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

You lucky to be getting the same connection speed. At least your download is the same but have you ever checked your upload speed? I will be very surprised if that matches what you had at O2. You probably got around 1.1 to 1.2 Mbit upload at O2 and I bet that you only get 800kbps on Sky.



Mine has dropped significantly as well, particularly the upload speed which was only 796kbp after I was first migrated. Down from 6.6Mbit/1.3Mbit on a 3dB profile @ Be* to 5.4/1.0 on a strange 7.0/4.5 dB SNR now @ Sky after I complained because previously it was something like 4.6 Mbit with a fairly high SNR/796kbps. An absolutely dreadful excuse for a connection IMO. They did start the line training without telling me after I complained and I only found out after I had switched my router off. I am using the old speedtouch/Thomson 585 supplied by Be. My own router got zapped by lightning some time earlier and with the migration I went back to the only router that worked.

My router shows the max bandwidth available is 6,672 which was about my regular connection speed at Be*.

Sky has a really crap system which is light years away from what Be*/O2 were using. Be/O2 did make the best out of long lines in my experience although the crippled speedtouch/thomson routers were a joke for anyone with anything more than basic knowledge.

I think O2/Be were alone in having relatively high upload speeds. Mine was a consistent 1.03Mbps.
At this minute,

Upstream Connection Speed 657 kbps Line Attenuation 30.7 db Noise Margin 9.5 db

jhodgel

Hi

To the customer who migrated to sky. I am a sky customer who has had sky total untld broadband since they introduced it 2007. I had no problems until about maybe 5/6 months ago I noticed my broadband speed was noticbly slower. Took ages to connect to catch up longer than it used to & longer to get back to regular internet (2 routers, 1 downstairs for catch up & reg internet upstairs). I did not deal with it until middle of last month when I contacted sky. They wanted me to find the master socket etc (I don't know where it is as I'm not tekkie). they did a line test which of course was perfect but I didn't want to take of phone sockets covers off I'm disabled with problem with my hands & elbows so can't). They tried to imply that the problem lies with my phone socket which happens to be BT. I told them I didn't think it was. Anyway after that call I I started notcing that I was definately losing internet connection at night in fact it was happening every night. The straw that broke the camel's back about 3/4 days ago. All day I kept losing connection to the point where it was impossible to do anything on the net as the connection was not holding for long enough. I had to call them the master socket question came up again Told them I don't know where it is. Anyway she asked if I had any phone sockets connected to an outside wall I did she established this was the master socket. I had to bring my router downstairs & was told that is where my router should be after 7 years of it being upstairs in my study with no problems? & that can't be moved downstairs as I have special disability equitment set-up in there. She tested in master socket for about15/20 minutes and wanted me to leave it there overnight (meaning no usage for a further 24 hrs) to establish the connection there was fine so they could then tell me the problem was my BT socket. I told her I could not leave it downstairs as I was expecting an important email from aboard. she told me the test would be ended & they would need to call me back to bring the router downstairs & leave for 24 hours downstairs. After the call I took the router back upstairs it started working & has worked since but haven't been up late to see if it drops out at night still suspect it does. Two things my son mentioned to me that O2 customers who had mirgrated to sky were having exactly the same problem I was (he has a friend who migrated). I mentioned this to sky lady & told her once again I think the problem was probably SKY's greed & not being able to cope with the capacity of the O2 takeover which she deined. Anyway after 7 years I have had enough & am now leaving SKy BROadband thinking of going to BT as my phone line is with them & there is a deal on calls if you take broadband with them. Any suggestions for broadband providers would be welcome please. Also are any other sky customers having this problem I DO NOT THINK I AM ALONE.

A.Penny.Saved

spud17 wrote: »

I think O2/Be were alone in having relatively high upload speeds. Mine was a consistent 1.03Mbps.
At this minute,

So your upload is also significantly lower @ Sky. Your O2 upload was about what I am getting now @ Sky since they tweaked my connection and lowered my upload SNR down to 4.5dB. Why on earth the SNR is so high by default @ Sky I do not know.

I have re-synced after 26 days and mine is now 1,003, 5.0 dB / 6,144, 6.5 dB which is a bit better but I suspect that is because radio interference which reduces the available bandwidth at some times of day.

jhodgel wrote: »

Hi

To the customer who migrated to sky. I am a sky customer who has had sky total untld broadband since they introduced it 2007. I had no problems until about maybe 5/6 months ago I noticed my broadband speed was noticbly slower. Took ages to connect to catch up longer than it used to & longer to get back to regular internet (2 routers, 1 downstairs for catch up & reg internet upstairs). I did not deal with it until middle of last month when I contacted sky. They wanted me to find the master socket etc (I don't know where it is as I'm not tekkie).

The master socket is the main first BT socket where it enters your home, possibly near a window or door. There can be extension sockets connected from the master socket to provide additional telephone connections around the home.

The BT master socket should have a faceplate which can be unscrewed and pulled out. This should show a telephone test socket which was previously covered by the master socket faceplate.

Connecting the router to the test socket connection in the master socket eliminates any extensions and possible interference from them which can in some cases cause problems.

they did a line test which of course was perfect but I didn't want to take of phone sockets covers off I'm disabled with problem with my hands & elbows so can't). They tried to imply that the problem lies with my phone socket which happens to be BT. I told them I didn't think it was. Anyway after that call I I started notcing that I was definately losing internet connection at night in fact it was happening every night. The straw that broke the camel's back about 3/4 days ago. All day I kept losing connection to the point where it was impossible to do anything on the net as the connection was not holding for long enough. I had to call them the master socket question came up again Told them I don't know where it is. Anyway she asked if I had any phone sockets connected to an outside wall I did she established this was the master socket. I had to bring my router downstairs & was told that is where my router should be after 7 years of it being upstairs in my study with no problems? & that can't be moved downstairs as I have special disability equitment set-up in there. She tested in master socket for about15/20 minutes and wanted me to leave it there overnight (meaning no usage for a further 24 hrs) to establish the connection there was fine so they could then tell me the problem was my BT socket. I told her I could not leave it downstairs as I was expecting an important email from aboard. she told me the test would be ended & they would need to call me back to bring the router downstairs & leave for 24 hours downstairs. After the call I took the router back upstairs it started working & has worked since but haven't been up late to see if it drops out at night still suspect it does. Two things my son mentioned to me that O2 customers who had mirgrated to sky were having exactly the same problem I was (he has a friend who migrated). I mentioned this to sky lady & told her once again I think the problem was probably SKY's greed & not being able to cope with the capacity of the O2 takeover which she deined. Anyway after 7 years I have had enough & am now leaving SKy BROadband thinking of going to BT as my phone line is with them & there is a deal on calls if you take broadband with them. Any suggestions for broadband providers would be welcome please. Also are any other sky customers having this problem I DO NOT THINK I AM ALONE.

Try getting routerstatslite and set it up to monitor your connection overnight. It will show the signal to noise margin so you can see at what time the connection becomes unstable and what the noise margin was at that time.

It can be very useful to monitor the connection when you are not around to find out when the connection is dropping.

http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm

jem16

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

You lucky to be getting the same connection speed. At least your download is the same but have you ever checked your upload speed?

Yes I have - it's 797kbps.

I will be very surprised if that matches what you had at O2. You probably got around 1.1 to 1.2 Mbit upload at O2 and I bet that you only get 800kbps on Sky.

No you're correct - it doesn't match what I had at O2. However O2/BE were in the minority for their high upload speed but as I don't upload stuff very often it's not bothering me at all.

A.Penny.Saved

jem16 wrote: »

Yes I have - it's 797kbps.



No you're correct - it doesn't match what I had at O2. However O2/BE were in the minority for their high upload speed but as I don't upload stuff very often it's not bothering me at all.

Thank you for letting me know what you get. It does seem that unless a person has a good telephone line ie short, that they don't get a very high upload speed.

I think it is all the automated, keep costs low stuff that Sky seems to use that affects people worst of all when they have fairly long telephone lines.

Both my upload and download are quite significantly lower than they were at Be*.

The connections seem far less stable than they were at Be/O2. The SNR has to be higher to maintain the connection which explains why it is higher by default.

After I retrained my router 4 hours ago my SNR is now clinging on my it's fingernails at SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]:5.0 / 2.0. Earlier it was SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 5.0 / 6.5. So a 4.5dB drop in SNR in 4 hours. On Be* the SNR never changed by that margin.

Sky keep trying to call me because they want me on a contract. As it is ATM there is no chance in hell of that happening. Even halving my monthly phone/broadband cost is not worth this kind of connection to me.

I am going to see what other offers I can find and find out whether any other provider can offer me a better connection without all this automated crap. I would pay more than the best Sky offer for something like what I had before.

@jhodgel

You can log in to your router webpage for some information on your connection.

To do that you will need to find the default gateway by opening a command prompt and typing ipconfig. That should show your routers default gateway as a xx.xx.xx.xx number often 192.168.1.xx. Type that into your browsers address bar and a network address login window should appear. You then need your routers username and password. Administrator is often the username and the password by default is sometimes the router serial number on the bottom of the router. If it's an old router it could be Administrator just like the username but that is very insecure. It might be the router MAC address.