The truth about Sky broadband???

[mckechan]

Hi,

I am days away from ordering Sky broadband (Mid package). I have been searching the net to find reviews and have found a lot of negative comments but I get the impression that a lot of people with complaints may just be inexperienced with computers.

Sometimes it is the other way around. This comment is a classic:
"I think the speed and reliability of connection you get from a broadband service provider depends on your location. My sky connection speed is 54 Mbps."

LOL If I get 54 Mbps I will be happy!

Seriously though, if anyone who knows what there talking about technically wise and can let me know what they think of Sky broadband, please let me know.

In particular I need to know whether they throttle p2p and whether 40Gb d/l limit really means 40Gb etc.

Also what is it with their router? Do they anly accept their MAC address for it? I mean it is such a con:

Free router!
£30 connection charge!​

​

Many thanks,

Dave

 

[Intya]

With mine it's the same as everyone - When it works, it's awesome. Using uTorrent with encryption turned on I can regularly max out my connection, been on it around two months now and haven't been warned about downloading too much, I'm probably averaging around 35GB a month.

The only downside, and I don't know if it's their router or the connection in general, I'll probably have to reboot the router twice an evening as it seems to lose the connection, it then reconnects at a lower speed and all is well. You can only use your own router if you extract the username and password from theirs for your account, but using your own router is against their T&Cs.

I guess I can't really complain for what I'm getting for £10 a month, I remember the useless PoS service I was getting from Pipex, and that put me off ADSL for life. I'd been using cable for well over a year and was happy with it, new house isn't cable enabled. If all you're after is something basic then you can't go very wrong with Sky.

 

[mckechan]

I'm currently with Eclipse evolution who do throttle p2p a little but i've never exceeded their fair usage policy. I think the service is great.

The only reason i'm thinking of moving is to save money. Either ditch sky and keep eclipse or ditch eclipse and keep sky adding the broadband package.

The other option was tiscali as line rental is free but i hear they are b*stards with p2p.

Thanks for your input, Sky sounds like it will probably be fine for me.

From what I've read I heard the dropouts are because the router is crap..

 

[Petepie]

From what I've read I heard the dropouts are because the router is crap..

Hi,

Ive got the Sky Max package, and for £10 Im happy. I havent been hit with any maximum download rubbish, and Id say Im a heavy (ish) user - around about 200GB a month from Usenets. Also, they havent throttled my connection in any way so far, and my maximum download speed has been around 6MB/sec, which is OK for what I need.

The connection wasnt the best with their router, but the only way your connection is restricted to your router is how they embed youre username and password actually into the router. Some clever bod has come up with a script to extract the username and passowrd from the router so you can use an alternative one.....it works perfectly, and Im now using my trusty old Belkin rather than the crappy Linksys they sent me.

If you do a search on google you should find out how to get the username and password, I would look for you, but Ive got work to do!

Hope this helps,

Pete

 

[Rygar]

Well I have reasonable technical knowledge of broadband & migrated to Sky. I am very happy with my choice so far.

To date none of the LLU products (base/mid/max) seem to be shaped. The BT Wholesale based "connect" product is however. I can happily download from newsgroups/bittorrent at 1.3 MB/s. There also seems to be very little contention on any of the LLU products at the moment. I'm on the max product.

The 40 GB (not 40 Gb...see how technical I am? ) cap on mid is really 40 GB and I have heard of users exceeding it without penalty.

Bear in mind Sky didn't just one day decide "think we'll be an ISP now". They bought Easynet (who were a well established & reputable business ISP in their own right) to do all the technical stuff for them.

The negatives are poor foreign customer service for 1st/2nd line support should you need to use them, and the 12 month contract is a pain too (although to be expected at the price).

My only other concern is that as Sky get more & more customers the service may start to go downhill. Hasn't happened so far though & that's one year & counting.

You don't have to use their router if you don't want to, but you will still need it to extract the user name & password using a HACK as this info is hard coded into it. The £30 charge was only brought in recently. I didn't have to pay it.

I'm pretty fussy when it comes to broadband and I wont tolerate slow speeds/throttling etc. If Sky ever go down this route I will just buy myself out of the contract, although I appreciate not everyone can/would do the same.

 

[mckechan]

GB 8x more than I said! lol...
Thanks for the advice, sounds like overall it's a good package...

 

[smcicr]

Just my 2p's worth.

I ran the usual checks before taking ADSL (samknows.com) as I was previously on cable and found that I'm close enough to the exchange to get a very decent connection on the Mid package. It's extremely good value at £5 as far as i'm concerned for what i'm getting (depending on your distance from the exchange however your mileage may vary...)

Had to run netmonitor to start with as I have no idea how much i download - turns out 40GB should be ok as long as i'm not going mad. not seen any indications of throttling with p2p.

did have some issues with disconnections a few weeks in - followed all the usual tip and tricks from skyuser.com (upnp off etc) and eventually replaced the overheating netgear usb wifi key with a linksys pci card and all seems well now.

i'd say if you're close enough to the exchange to get a decent rate then 'do it', as with rygar my only concern would be over subscription - time will tell.

cheers.

jason.

 

[mckechan]

Unfortunately I don't live that close to the exchange. According to http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/ I can get 3.5 Mbps.

That's better than the address I live at now where I only get about 2Mbps.

I would have to go for the mid package as 4GB per month on Base is not enough for me

 

[doopydug]

What would you guys say is close enough to the exchange?

 

[Fatti]

The only downside, and I don't know if it's their router or the connection in general, I'll probably have to reboot the router twice an evening as it seems to lose the connection, it then reconnects at a lower speed and all is well. You can only use your own router if you extract the username and password from theirs for your account, but using your own router is against their T&Cs.

I get the same problem during the evening. If you looks at the router stats when the connection is lost, the noise margin has fallen below 6.5dB. When the router is rebooted, the noise margin goes back up but the speed is reduced slightly to compensate. I've read that if you reboot a number of times over a period of days, the router will eventually 'fix' itself at the higher noise margin. I've been doing this for a while but it hasn't 'fixed' itself yet.

 

[mckechan]

This noise level drop out thing is only a problem with the sky router right???

 

[mitchec1]

Unfortunately I don't live that close to the exchange. According to http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/ I can get 3.5 Mbps.

That's better than the address I live at now where I only get about 2Mbps.

I would have to go for the mid package as 4GB per month on Base is not enough for me

According to that URL I can only get 2.5mb so why do I get 4.8mb quite regularly. I'm over 2.91km from my local exchange so you maybe suprised what speed you can get.

 

[Rygar]

I wouldn't pay much attention to broadband comparison sites like the one linked above full stop.

You will never know what speeds you will get with ADSL until actually activated.
The best estimate will come from analysing line stats if available. Postcode/phone number checkers just guess based on postcode straight line distances, so while they can give you a rough idea they are far from accurate.

For the people having trouble with Sky noise drops a quick fix to try is disabling UPnP in the routers settings.

 

[Synchro]

Some good info here, thanks. I'm moving house in to a non Virgin cable area

So, after years of avoiding sky, looks like they'll be getting some of my pay packet

Good to hear that they are'nt any worse than the other ISP's out there

 

[erniebert1]

Heres my truth about Sky broadband.

The BAD

When I first got sky BB they were awful. I got delivered a faulty router, I knew it was faulty but they insisted on getting a BT engineer out as they said it was my line. It wasn't my line and indeed it was my router. It took them nearly 3 weeks to finally send me a repalcement router and over those 3weeks it also cost me just short of £24 in phone charges to sky technical.

The Good

When the replacement router turned up my internet worked instantly and has been superb ever since ( touching wood as I am writing this lol ).

I am over 3 miles from my nearest exchange so I wasn't expecting miracle speeds but using the router wirlessly I get 3 times the speed I got before ( I get 3.5/4mb ) at a third of the price which I am more than happy with.

Sky also refunded me £24 for the call charges , £5 for a month I missed without BB and they even refunded me the £20 connect fee I payed when I first signed up

Overall , yes I had problems but there service now its working, works a treat and I am very happy with it

 

[mckechan]

I got this reply on another forum:
From what we have heard from customers leaving them coming over to us, if you are on their LLU service then things are not to bad, if not and you go on their ipstream based service then things are dire.

Of course they have a rep of terable customer service and tech support, so as long as you dont have any problems and have no need to call them then you should be ok on their LLU service

Do you think it has any merit? Is there a website where I can find out if I will be on LLU. I thought Sky broadband Base, Mid & MAx products were all LLU, hence the lack of availability when it first started...

 

[erniebert1]

I got this reply on another forum:
From what we have heard from customers leaving them coming over to us, if you are on their LLU service then things are not to bad, if not and you go on their ipstream based service then things are dire.

Of course they have a rep of terable customer service and tech support, so as long as you dont have any problems and have no need to call them then you should be ok on their LLU service

Do you think it has any merit? Is there a website where I can find out if I will be on LLU. I thought Sky broadband Base, Mid & MAx products were all LLU, hence the lack of availability when it first started...

If you go on skys website, type in your phone number it will tell you wether they have upgraded the exchange in your area (LLU ) or wether you will have to go on the connect package until it is upgraded and then they move you over.

I was put on the connect package for 5 months as I had to wait for my exchange to be upgraded, it was done last month and personally I haven't seen any difference in speed / service between the two

 

[Rygar]

I got this reply on another forum:
From what we have heard from customers leaving them coming over to us, if you are on their LLU service then things are not to bad, if not and you go on their ipstream based service then things are dire.

Of course they have a rep of terable customer service and tech support, so as long as you dont have any problems and have no need to call them then you should be ok on their LLU service

Do you think it has any merit? Is there a website where I can find out if I will be on LLU. I thought Sky broadband Base, Mid & MAx products were all LLU, hence the lack of availability when it first started...

Yes there is merit in so much as the connect product is BT based & shaped. The LLU products are Easynet based LLU & not shaped.

Another way to tell if Sky have unbundled your exchange (LLU) is by clicking on the 1st link in my sig & entering your details. If it says you can get sky LLU...happy days!

 

[Timbo21]

Since I've been made redundant from my job I 've been considering the Sky free internet package.

Is this any good for general surfing (not dowmloading), or total rubbish?

Thanks,

T.

 

[Member 79251]

Since I've been made redundant from my job I 've been considering the Sky free internet package.

Is this any good for general surfing (not dowmloading), or total rubbish?

Thanks,

T.

The Sky install was one of the simplest installs I have ever did, done 2 on xmas eve and was finished inside 10 mins. To me its very hard to say as I don't know how stable your phone line is. What I am saying is that ADSL is personal. Its your setup, Sky's router, your phone line and everything else. I don't think distance counts. Have used p2p on them and everything else not one issue. Thats far different from my experience with demon we had a bad start but everything is fine now. If Sky did a months contract I would move today.

The 2 installs I did only use it for internet use and its fine. My mobile has stopped ringing with tech questions !

 

[SeanT]

I don't think distance counts.

If that comment refers to ADSL line speed / sync speed / transfer speed, then that is bull, distance does make a difference (along with a multitude of other factors, as you say)

 

[Member 79251]

If that comment refers to ADSL line speed / sync speed / transfer speed, then that is bull, distance does make a difference (along with a multitude of other factors, as you say)

I was meaning unless you move house its the only factor that stays the same. You can change your equipment, you can replace the wires and cables. The distance is still the same so thats why I stated it don't count as unless you move your not going to effect it.

I read many posts, the first thing they say is does distance effect my download speed ? The answer is yes it does, but only when every other factor has been looked at.

 

[mckechan]

Yeah I am actually moving house which is the main reason for switching provider. I wanted to save money so as I said get rid of Sky or get Sky broadband. I know my new exchange has Sky LLU but I can't order it yet as my new BT line is not on their database.

I think this thread has been excellent and really shows what information you can get from collaboration. I expect anyone else wishing to find out about Sky broadband will find this thread useful.

Cheers and thanks for all the input!

 

[mckechan]

Turns out LLU isn't available at my exchange so I'm not gonna bother with sky afterall! Sticking with eclipse and going to buy a freesat card...