should i change to sky broadband ??

[Bacus]

Hi, right first post in this section...only just noticed it

Well i have skyHD and a BT phone point in my humble home. The BT point is not connected but its there. I have cable (virgin media) supplying my phone, 2mg broadband and free (base pack) cable tv in my little boys room.

I am paying £25.00 per month for my 2mg Broadband alone !! My monthly phone bill clockes up another £35/£40 a month................Now i have just (today) receved a letter from sky offering me there Broadband service and reading the letter is states that i can have the "MAX" for £10 a month (unlimited usage)

Now to me this sounds good....very good, but is it ?

I know i will have to pay for BT to connect my phone line (but hopefully if i cry lots when talking to them,saying i am a cable user and want to convert...then who knows)

Dont know if this matters but i live about 1/4 mile from BT exchange.........................

So do you lot think it worth the jump ??

I have just checked my Cable Broadband speed... 3830 kb/s Down load & 383 kb/s Up load. So cable provider may have upped my BB speed at some point.

But still very interested in changing over to sky Broadband so....................

Any kinda input you lot can throw my way will be great..........................

Regards Si

 

[Rygar]

Yeah looks like you are on 4Mb, not 2Mb.

Remember you'll need to factor in £11/month line rental for the BT line if you switch to Sky. May also be worth considering their base (free) or mid (£5/month) services if you are not a heavy user.

Hard to say what speed you will get by distance alone as a lot depends on line routing & quality. I would guess between 12-16Mb on Sky Max.

In my experience the Sky service itself is great so far. Customer support not so good in the event that you should need them, but no worse than BT, AOL, Virgin etc.

Also remember it is a 12 month contract. However you get an 8 day cooling off period from date of connection/arrival of router in which you can change your mind if not happy.

Should you switch? In your shoes I would, purely based on more speed for less dosh and not throttled like virgin. But it's your own choice at the end of the day.

Here's a speed test I just done....get this sort of speed 24/7. I'm 540 mtrs from exchange.

 

[erniebert1]

Also by going to a BT line you can join Sky Talk for further savings.

The basic package is free and you don't need to do anything different when phoning ( no prefix numbers etc.. ). Calls are free to local landline after 6pm weekdays & all day weekend ( 99% of the weekend bit ) and there is a saving when phoning abroad & mobile phones

 

[Boycie99]

I am in the very same dilema.
My only concerns is how robust is SKY it seems that a lot of people have drop outs around 10pm/11pm at night and have to reboot their router.
I have no problems at all with BT apart from the speed.

Has anyone still got the drop out problems or are sky slowly sorting it ?

Cheers

Steve

 

[Rygar]

I think the drop outs you hear about are down to the Sky router & the ADSL2+ technology which is a lot more susceptible to SNR drops. You will always get SNR drops in the evening...just a fact of ADSL life!

Don't get me wrong, the Netgear Sky give you is not a bad router..but it is not the best either. I've had to re-boot my router twice in the month or so I've been with Sky. No big deal for me personally though. Considering I'm getting unshaped 13Mb 24/7 for £10/month...I'll live with a couple of reboots.

I may look at using a better router in the future, but I'm in no rush.

 

[Bacus]

Do you have to use the Router that sky provide ?? I have my Belkin router all set up and never had a problem at all so far !! Can i just plug in the sky/BT cable to my router ?

 

[Rygar]

Do you have to use the Router that sky provide

No, but you will need to use a hack to extract the user name & password to use in your existing router. Keep hold of the Sky router in case of any issues with support.

Here's the hack: http://dg834gt.mognuts.com/NetgearRouterUtility.html

 

[spiderman999]

Dear All,

I am currently with AOL and have been for a number of years with my home on the Isle Of Wight. But I only actual use it for about 2-3 days every 2 weeks. The majority of time I am using my girlfriends BT broadband.

I'm thinking of switching to Sky total, simply because I already pay a similar amount to Sky just for watching TV when I'm on the Island. But for the same amount I could watch Sky, use Broadband and have free telephone calls.

Advice please?

 

[staxdoobie]

Sky's broadband service is all well and good, providing you're not too bothered about the email side of things. If you are, it's a right dog's breakfast at the moment.

They are currently in the process of migrating their email service to Google, which is fine IF YOU HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN SWITCHED TO THIS SERVICE! Luckily, as a new user, I have been switched, but the consequence of this is that when you come to add new email addresses (or change the rubbish one they've allotted you by default), these new addresses are not yet classed as 'upgraded', and you cannot therefore do anything with them. That is to say, you can't receive emails (because all Sky's own servers/spam filters are hideously rubbish), and you can't use the new improved Sky Gmail to forward your emails to your home email client, because you haven't yet been UPGRADED! Vicious circle, I'm afraid.

In short, it's an unholy mess. Mine is working, I hasten to add, but only with a dreadful, impossible-to-remember email address! And no one else in the house has an email address yet, despite Sky promising 10 email addresses. They are currently working on this, but Lord alone knows how long it's going to take them to sort it all out. At the moment, poor.

 

[spiderman999]

Thanks for that. But for some reason I can't get the full package. So I'm considering the Carphone Warehouse Offer with Laptop.

 

[5taples]

I think the drop outs you hear about are down to the Sky router & the ADSL2+ technology which is a lot more susceptible to SNR drops. You will always get SNR drops in the evening...just a fact of ADSL life!

Don't get me wrong, the Netgear Sky give you is not a bad router..but it is not the best either. I've had to re-boot my router twice in the month or so I've been with Sky. No big deal for me personally though. Considering I'm getting unshaped 13Mb 24/7 for £10/month...I'll live with a couple of reboots.

I may look at using a better router in the future, but I'm in no rush.

This is a very good post, and very true. I had a much better router that gave me no issues and kept speeds high. To be honest ever since I made the switch the router does need rebooting )however a friend with exactly the same router and different ISP has exactly the same issues as I did, a reboot fix on some nights) and in reality I have switched to a wired lan rather than wireless as speeds are hindered on wireless.
Sky has been perfect for me, and excellent value at £10monthly uncapped.
I would say though that you should check how many spaces there are at your local exchange, loads at mine were free so I took the plunge and I have been happy enough.

Hopefully Ill move to a cable area soon though!

 

[staxdoobie]

Sky's broadband service is all well and good, providing you're not too bothered about the email side of things. If you are, it's a right dog's breakfast at the moment.

They are currently in the process of migrating their email service to Google, which is fine IF YOU HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN SWITCHED TO THIS SERVICE! Luckily, as a new user, I have been switched, but the consequence of this is that when you come to add new email addresses (or change the rubbish one they've allotted you by default), these new addresses are not yet classed as 'upgraded', and you cannot therefore do anything with them. That is to say, you can't receive emails (because all Sky's own servers/spam filters are hideously rubbish), and you can't use the new improved Sky Gmail to forward your emails to your home email client, because you haven't yet been UPGRADED! Vicious circle, I'm afraid.

In short, it's an unholy mess. Mine is working, I hasten to add, but only with a dreadful, impossible-to-remember email address! And no one else in the house has an email address yet, despite Sky promising 10 email addresses. They are currently working on this, but Lord alone knows how long it's going to take them to sort it all out. At the moment, poor.

Just a follow-up to my own post from last night. To be fair to Sky, the Gmail upgrade of the Additional User accounts happened literally overnight, so I am now able to input the new email settings for email addresses I have added to my account, and have all messages forwarded to my chosen email client (Mac Mail). So after being mildly disgruntled last night, I am now a much happier bunny. So, fair's fair - well done, Sky!

 

[santay5036]

This is a very good post, and very true. I had a much better router that gave me no issues and kept speeds high. To be honest ever since I made the switch the router does need rebooting )however a friend with exactly the same router and different ISP has exactly the same issues as I did, a reboot fix on some nights) and in reality I have switched to a wired lan rather than wireless as speeds are hindered on wireless.
Sky has been perfect for me, and excellent value at £10monthly uncapped.
I would say though that you should check how many spaces there are at your local exchange, loads at mine were free so I took the plunge and I have been happy enough.

Hopefully Ill move to a cable area soon though!

How can I find out how many spaces there are on my local exchange?

 

[Rygar]

There isn't really "spaces" as such. Capacity yes, but chances of the equipment running out of capacity if sky have enabled your exchange is very slim.

It boils down to has your exchange been unbundled by Sky or not. You can check that by entering your details at sam knows. Its the 1st link in my sig.

 

[blisteringblue]

Sky's broadband service is all well and good, providing you're not too bothered about the email side of things. If you are, it's a right dog's breakfast at the moment.

They are currently in the process of migrating their email service to Google, which is fine IF YOU HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN SWITCHED TO THIS SERVICE! Luckily, as a new user, I have been switched, but the consequence of this is that when you come to add new email addresses (or change the rubbish one they've allotted you by default), these new addresses are not yet classed as 'upgraded', and you cannot therefore do anything with them. That is to say, you can't receive emails (because all Sky's own servers/spam filters are hideously rubbish), and you can't use the new improved Sky Gmail to forward your emails to your home email client, because you haven't yet been UPGRADED! Vicious circle, I'm afraid.

In short, it's an unholy mess. Mine is working, I hasten to add, but only with a dreadful, impossible-to-remember email address! And no one else in the house has an email address yet, despite Sky promising 10 email addresses. They are currently working on this, but Lord alone knows how long it's going to take them to sort it all out. At the moment, poor.

Why not sign up for an e-mail forwarding service (basic ones are free), I use bigfoot.com and this forwards direct to my BT Account. I'm just about to swap from BT Yahoo to Sky (Mid as I can only get 7mb on my line) now it looks a little more settled and my forwarding e-mail address will stay the same I just change where they need to forward to with sky !!

 

[5taples]

Sorry Santay5036 I did not see you replied.

It was luck more than judgment, I spoke to Sky, who said erm dunno, so I called BT and they said they could not tell me but I spoke to some knowledgeable soul who informed me of the 'spaces on the exchange'.

Ok, I know it is not technically spaces, so I called up SKY armed with my new information, confused technical support and was put onto someone who knew a little.
They reluctantly answered but I persisted asking intelligible questions in order to get my information.
I ended up asking questions such as can you check how many people share this connection in my area? what bandwidth do you have? how far is my exchange? how large an area does it cover? and finally, it could have been bull plop to get rid of me, I found out that SKY had very few customers in the area using broadband.
It took a while but I was very happy with the answer and even happier with my broadband connection so felt it was worth the effort.

If you get the right person, location, SKY technical help can be very good.

Just spotted your post RYGAR, useful info in the sig, thumbs up!


EEEk, I just noticed the date, sorry mods. Pointless post.