Wireless Problems with Sky Hub - Tried Everything - Help

I am having a lot of problems with my Sky Broadband.

I was with Be Broadband previously for 3 years and never had any issues with connection or wireless. Since joining Sky in August I have once again had no connection problems until 2 weeks ago.

Since 2 weeks ago my connection has continuously been dropping out and I am receiving very slow speeds. When I say dropping out it connects occasionally but will continue to disconnect (every 15-30mins).

When it is connected the speeds are very slow. I normally get 5-6MB and I am now getting 0.5MB-1MB at the most. Videos will barely load, download speeds are down to 40-50k. Making it virtually unusable.

When connected via Ethernet on my laptop the connection seems stable and the speeds are faster (4MB-5MB).

The problem is on all devices when connecting wirelessly (pc's, phones etc.)

I have spoken to Sky several times and been through all the troubleshooting options.

I have tried virtually every Wireless Channel available and none improve the issue. I've downloaded inSSIDer to see what other channels are being used and made sure I've tried others.

I have reset the router several times.

My router is plugged in to the test socket via a filter.

The lights all remain a steady white.

Telephone line works ok.

Although I have 2 other extensions, since these problems begun they have not been in use.

Sky have sent me a replacement router (I also changed the micro filters) which strangely worked like a dream for about 24-48 hours and it's suddenly gone straight back to the same issue. Slow speeds and intermittent connection.

The router sits where it always has since August (and where my previous router with Be sat for 3 years), there are no new devices around it which I can think of that could be causing an interference.

Disabling security seems to make the connection faster. Download speeds go from 0.8MB to over 4. Web pages loading much quicker etc. But obviously this is neither a permanent or safe fix. Anyone know what that could point to?

OpenReach engineer came out (have no idea why as this seems to be a wireless issue). No faults found on the line.

I'm at a point where I'm just thinking of buying a better router.

Latest speed test wirelessly: 0.5MB, via ethernet 5MB

Anybody willing to advise what else I could try here?

If you still have the old Be router reconfigure it as a wireless access point.

Did Inssider report other networks in the area, it is not always possible to escape the problems caused by a busy network, particularly if others have switched on faster 2.4GHz 40 MHz wide bands.

Should have said - I don't have the Be Router anymore unfortunately as they wanted it back. inSSIDer picks up 3 other networks (all Sky ones). The strange thing is I'm connected now with Security off, and it's working fine!

What wireless devices? It may be that if their drivers are old, that they don't cope well with 802.11n (believe old Be router was just G). You could try forcing the router back into 802.11g mode and turn the encryption back on.

Or failing that at least using a basic level of WEP which is still miles better than an open network

It's across all wireless devices that connect to the router (Windows PC, Laptop, iMac, PS3, and iPhones).

I will give WEP a go whilst looking for a resolution.

Do you think purchasing a better router such as the Billion 7800N would help?

It might help, but am successfully using that combination of devices on a Sky Hub here

OpenReach engineer came out (have no idea why as this seems to be a wireless issue). No faults found on the line.

I'm really not sure as it's occurring on 2 routers. I know the Sky Hub WiFi isn't bad as it's covering my house which is 3 floors and 6 bedrooms without an issue.

Ok here's my chain of thought. There's a small chance it's a line fault (very small) given what you've said. Can you post up line stats please after having the router on for 24 hours+ I want everything on the stats page, so WLAN, LAN, system uptime, attenuation, noise margin, Just copy the entire thing.

Now to the router. Go to 192.168.0.1 Username admin, password sky
Click wireless at the top
Region Europe
Channel 1, 6 or 11. If you are currently on 2, choose 11 (basically choose whichever is the furthest away from what you're currently using now).
Mode: Auto - this is important
Enable wireless access point ticked
Enable WPS ticked
Allow broadcast of network name SSID ticked
Under security options make sure WPA2-PSK(AES) is selected - important.
WEP, WPA-PSK and WPA/WPA2 mixed mode will all give sub-standard speeds (as it means your network wont operate at full N capabilities)

Do you have any games consoles / sky boxes / TVs using anything like this
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ethernet+usb+adapt...

Are all devices on the network wireless N supported or is it mixed?

In particular are any wireless B devices? On my network connecting a wireless B device causes the wireless network to slow to 1Mbps max, usually lower.

This device here http://www.harmonyfta.com/Vonets-wirelss-wifi-adapte... aways ends up using wireless B and somehow slowed my network down to sub 0.5Mbps

I think you will find that 1 particular device is the cause of your issues.

Turn all WiFi devices off, turn them back on 1 by 1, with a 10 minute wait between each, running a speedtest each time, I say this 10 minutes because my WiFi ethernet adapter starts on wireless N, then 5 minutes in drops to G, then around 10 minutes of being on it suddenly drops to B and suddenly bam the networks ruined.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sat 16-Nov-13 15:01:42)

Also if you log in to My sky at www.sky.com/mysky
Hover over MySky
Under my package click Broadband usage and speed

It will then give you a connection speed set at Skys end. What is this? If it's extremely low then this is the cause of your issues (and I can go into more detail about this if it's the case)

Thanks for your reply ukhardy07

I will post up the line stats tomorrow as the Engineer reset the router this morning.

The settings for the router are as you've listed above.

I'm not 100% sure how to check if all of the devices support Wireless N. The devices consist of a Vaio PC & Laptop, iMac, PS3, 3 iPhones, HTC smartphone. If you can give me an indication on how to check whether they are Wireless N compatible, I can do this.

The only Wireless adapter I can think of is one plugged into the Sky+ HD Box. They just sent out recently (I actually only plugged it in the other day so the issue has been ongoing prior to that).

I have just changed the network password to a brand new one so as to remove all the devices. So I can add them back on one by one as you have mentioned. Strangely there seems to be a device that says it is still connected on the Summary Status Page but it's "Unknown" and connected wirelessly.

Any thoughts on why it seems to work fine with Security disabled also?

I appreciate your help

Also logging into My Sky. It gives me a speed estimate:

You have Sky Broadband Unlimited.

When you purchased Sky Broadband, we estimated that the maximum download speed for your line was 2.6Mbps - 7.0Mbps.

And under Connection details states:

Testing on your broadband connection began on 14/11/2013 and will be completed within 10 days.

You may notice some variations in your broadband speed and this is normal. We are aiming to give you the best quality experience. Please leave your router on during this time.

I understand Sky were taking me through DLM to see if it could improve the issue (which it hasn't and also the issue has been ongoing for 2 weeks)

Given the issue does not show up when using ethernet points away from the broadband connection and towards a router/local wireless/driver type issue

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Also if you log in to My sky at www.sky.com/mysky
Hover over MySky
Under my package click Broadband usage and speed

Ethernet speeds are fine.

Ok I would Change the SSID and the password. The reason I say this is with the same SSID but different passwords, every device that's on will still try to connect - over and over, but will keep failing due to wrong password. As it tries to connect it can cause a slowdown... If a bad device tries to connect it may slow down the network, even if it's got the wrong password. Hence either turn every device off or change the SSID and password.

Ensure it's on WPA-2 still. Manually set a wireless channel of 1, 6 or 11. As DLM is running do not disconnect the router from the mains at all for the next 10 days.

As I believe the iMac is least likely to cause issues I would carry it down to the same room as the router.
Connect just this to the router.
How are the speeds wirelessly? How are they wired on the iMac? Test back to back.
The reason I say bring it down to the same room as the router is that iMac's are notorious at losing wireless speed with just 1 or 2 walls between.

If the iMac is bad wirelessly, turn it off, try another device. Again ensure it's in the same room as the router.

Introduce everything one by one, testing the speed on the same iMac located near the router each time.

Run a speedtest at www.speedtest.net

The iPhones are likely to be N (assuming iPhone 4 onwards)
iMac will be wireless N
Which HTC?
PS3's can have some strange WiFi (usually G/N but often quite poor on the older models).
The Sky wireless adapter may not be wireless N.
The Vaio could be anything (which OS is it)?

As DLM is running you will see speeds fluctuating often quite wildly for upto 10 days.

Report back

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sat 16-Nov-13 15:45:05)

I have changed the SSID and password. The only devices connected are a Sony Vaio Laptop (via ethernet) and from this on speedtest.net I get 5.37MBPS (which is what I was used to getting).

The other device I've connected (but wirelessly) is my iPhone 5. Now when I am sitting by the Router I get a speed of 5.21MBPS on the SpeedTest app. However when I go upstairs this either decreases to 0.5-1.5MBPS or just disconnects from the wireless entirely.

Tried this also on another iPhone 4S and the sameissue

iPhone wireless is very poor. This wouldn't be classified as a router issue, more a wireless range issue in my eyes.
To confirm are speeds all very good when in close range of the router?

A neighbour may have suddenly got extra wireless equipment, a new cordless phone, a new microwave, a baby monitor, a new front doorbell, a different stronger router etc. All of these could cause your wireless performance to drop. As an example your devices may have been associating with just 5Mbps wireless transmit rate before the issues (which is also low, but good enough for your already slow speed) and are now associating with 1Mbps transmit rate due to a marginal increase in interference, with the iPhones falling off entirely due to their bad WiFi signal overall.

Do you now have 2 Sky Hubs? A solution may be to buy a big length of ethernet cable (say 20m long) for around £2.50 on ebay, you can then run this cable from the existing Sky Hub, upstairs to where the signal is poor, here connect up your other Sky hub (changing just a couple of settings). This would yield a 2nd wireless signal.

It sounds to me like the issues you're having are just due to the wireless range being poor and as neighbours are relying more and more on wireless devices, interference gets worse and worse - causing issues like this.

I don't like INSSIDer as it literally only sees routers. Usually routers work nicely together, even on the same channel. I find that using the same wireless channel as my wireless door bell kills my wireless (yet INSSIDer doesn't see my doorbell). So often you end up on a worse channel which 'looks' free but isn't.

To sum up, if speeds are good in the same room as the router and through 1 or so walls, and only drop when you move away from the router it indicates a signal issue. Having a 2nd WiFi router is a good idea, how does this sound bearing in mind you can use the Sky Hub. Only downside is a cable between the two (hopefully can hide).
This would work http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20M-Meter-CAT5e-5-RJ45-Eth...

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sat 16-Nov-13 16:47:28)