Sky Hub connection speed

Anyone know how the Sky Hub connection speed compares to a Speedtouch 585?

... I am running my Speedtouch with a 3.5db margin though!

So the next question is can the margin be altered on the Sky Hub?

I find the sky routers sync higher than speedtouch 585 and certain netgears without any tweaks or customisation. The 585 is terribly old nowadays though and it's really lacking.

Noise margin cannot be altered on the Sky Hub though.

The way Sky DLM works means that the noise margin cannot be altered unless DLM has set the noise margin at that level.

You may find the Sky Hub syncs at 3db noise margin like the speedtouch as DLM often gives out 3db noise margin on very stable lines.

Wireless will be millions of times over better on the Sky Hub. If you often use wireless it's probably a far better experience using the Sky Hub even if the syncs slightly less. 585 has almost terrible WiFi to the point facetime skype etc was unusable in my experience.

Sky Hub is in a different league in terms of the wireless and the stability of it is far better. Out of the two routers I would almost certainly stick to the SkyHub unless everythings wired. Even then I'd use the SkyHub personally but it wouldn't matter so much.

Sounds good and I might get a similar speed, so longs as 10Mbps+ (currently 13~14Mbps) I should be able to survive. Hopefully if FTTC happens I'll be able to switch.

Only thing that still uses the 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi on the 585 is my phone and that doesn't need more than a few meg for most things. Everything else is Ethernet or connects to my 5Ghz router.

The way DLM works is it sets a target sync speed.

So DLM may set your line to 5000kbps.
If you try to lower the SNR on any router the sync will not go above 5000kbps so the noise margin will not lower.
So presumably if you can get a 3.5db noise margin on the speedtouch, that's because your target sync is set high enough to give you a speed at a 3db noise margin.

If this is the case any router should give you this speed.

There is a noise margin target but it's not enforced like other ISPs.
So Sky may set your target sync to 5000kbps and your noise margin target to 3db.

Sceanrio 1)
You will sync at 5000kbps (give or take a few kbps) everytime you sync.
At 10am you may reboot the router and sync at 5000kbps with a noise margin of 4db.
At 7pm you may reboot the router and sync at 5000kbps with a noise margin of 3.5db.
At 10pm you may reboot the router and sync at 5000kbps with a noise margin of 5db. If you try to lower the noise margin yourself it will make no odds. You have a sync of 5000kbps set by sky. You cannot go higher...

Here the sync is the target not the noise margin.

The only time the noise margin target is enforced is in this case.... So here the sync is set to 5000kbps and noise margin target 3db.

Scenario 2)
At 10am you may reboot the router and sync at 5000kbps with a noise margin of 4db.
At 7pm you may reboot the router and sync at 5000kbps with a noise margin of 3.5db.
At 10pm you may reboot the router. NOW IT CHANGES HERE, A 5000kbps sync would yield say a noise margin of 2.5db.
This is below the 3db target, so here you would sync slightly slower say 4800kbps. The noise margin would be 3db...

If this behaviour occurs frequently DLM is likely to rerun so that it's always like scenario 1.

So here the noise margin isn't really important with Sky DLM. You get 5000kbps and you cannot physically go above it. You see this sync pretty much 99% of the time.

On BT, o2, BE, TalkTalk etc it's different. They set a noise margin target and no sync speed. So they may set a 3db noise margin.

At 10am you may reboot the router and sync at 5500kbps with a noise margin of 3db.
At 7pm you may reboot the router and sync at 5000kbps with a noise margin of 3db.
At 10pm you may reboot the router and sync at 4900kbps with a noise margin of 3db.
Each time you reboot the router the sync varies significantly but the noise margin is fixed at 3db.

You can manually force the SNR downwards on these ISPs and it will yield a higher sync.

See the big difference here.

Some customers in the past got sky to disable DLM and managed to alter the way this operates. Nowadays this isn't possible.

So in theory the sync shouldn't change much across routers as it's likely your noise margin adjustments aren't really doing much. DLM probably has your target at 3db already, so you're just hitting that top sync speed set by DLM like in scenario 1.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 11-Jun-13 22:32:10)

On mine I managed to get the DLM set effectively off. (after three calls)... I spoke to tier 2 support to get that done and even got the tech to put a note on my account to leave DLM set to not interfere with my connect as i set the noise margin in my router

I had a problem a few weeks back with errors on the line and DLM kicked in and dropped my speed but after the above call I am now back on the 20mb gaming profile with the noise margin altered on my end and DLM set not to change my profile regardless of any errors

hopefully getting FTTC soon.

I don't think DLM can be permanently turned off

It could re kick in as far as I'm aware

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

I don't think DLM can be permanently turned off

It could re kick in as far as I'm aware

The tech I spoke to said "We usually set the DLM to start re-adjusting the line after 2days or so after a manual profile change".

Replying to that I asked if he could make it so it did not do that and he said its standard and I said i know but can you anyway which he replied Yes.

I then asked if he had made a note on the account on this and he said No and asked if I wanted him to which I said Yes... which he did - I heard him typing

If I have to go back to Sky again there is a written note on my account now with the profile and DLM settings which I discussed with the tier 2 tech.

My connection has been up for 2days 17 hours now, The previous 2 calls it reset at the 2day mark.

Max: Upstream rate = 1276 Kbps, Downstream rate = 20640 Kbps
Bearer: 0, Upstream rate = 1212 Kbps, Downstream rate = 19655 Kbps

Down Up
SNR (dB): 4.7 9.0