Moved to sky - Terrible

Just looking for some advise on broadband providers.

I was on o2 which was fine, solid connection and stable pings and solid download speeds all times of the day.

As we know Sky took over o2 and are moving everyone over, if I didn't respond I was going to be moved onto their contract anyway.

So anyway, after having free tv and broadband for a year offered to me for just the phone line rental of £15 per month I agreed.

Broadband goes live today and it's terrible. So i'm still in my DLM obviously and i'm synced at 4Mbps by I can barely get over 1Mbps and my pings are over 100ms.

I've tried with the cable so i'm going to have to cancel, god knows what my options are I haven't checked yet. Obviously can't go back to o2.

So if the local exchange is congested, will I face the same problem with other providers? I'm thinking plusnet or possibly BT but they are the most expensive.

I just need a stable, reliable, good ping connection and I can't get fibre here yet.

If this is Sky LLU then other providers are likely to offer a different peak time experience, might be worse might be better.

You need to see if the poor speeds is time related

Give it time.

Sky's DML is [censored] and starts with lowest speed going up until it becomes unstable then it steps back a bit ... just give it a week and you'll be back to the same speed as you had with O2.

Do not reboot or turn off the router during this time, in fact always leave the router on!

Skys DLM does not set the line to the highest profile at first give it at least 5 days i had the same issue with my sister when she moved to sky after 3 days her line was was getting a good 14 meg which is good as she is nearly a mile from the exchange

thanks guys

My concern was the high pings (over 100ms even on Ethernet) and the ability to only get 1.5Mbps

It is LLU yes and my o2 line speed was 16800 bps solid with a SNR tweak down to 3dB - my line was stable.

Current stats are 29dB downstream and 15.3dB SNR with 4089 bps

As the others have said, they start you at 4Mbps sync. I don't like the look of the 1.5Mbps throughput or the latency though .

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 09-Dec-13 23:53:11)

DLM starts at 4Mbps on most lines but if the sky system for whatever reason has an estimate of speed thats around 5Mbps or lower it often starts you at 1Mbps or 2Mbps. This seems to be the case for you. It also sets highest interleaving so 100ms is about right.

It will keep you at the slowest speed if you reboot the router so keep it on 24/7. The speeds usually stay the same for around 3 or 4 solid days when DLM releases your speeds upwards and this continues then every few days till you see max speeds around day 7 - 10.

I started at 4Mbps and it wasn't until day 4 when I got a bump upto 12 Mbps and later to 15Mbps a few years ago.

Keep it connected 24/7 and wait for 10 days.

Meanwhile go to 192.168.0.1, username: admin password:sky
Click show statistics
copy and paste them here.
(assuming sky router).

I think you've just began at 1Mbps not 4Mbps which happens time to time.

Also when your speed rises it can take time for Skys system to increase the speed too. At the end of DLM you will see at www.sky.com/mysky under broadband your speed that's been set. This is the speed you should achieve in speedtests (around 80% of it). When you see this DLM has ended, sometimes DLM seems to run for more than 10 days so don't worry if it's not there for 15 days for instance (it's prob just a bit slow).

I'm sure it's all going to be fine in the end.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 10-Dec-13 03:47:04)

I phoned up tonight as i tried downloading something i was getting 80KB/Sec!!

I was connected at 7Mbit from overnight but the download speeds were terrible.

The phone operator switched my connection up to 16Mbit and it is currently connected at 15.3Mbit with an SNR of 7dB.

I now have full speed. I can achieve 1.4MB/Sec - 1.5MB/Sec according to my network tools. However, trying to download a ubuntu iso or other bits of software my speeds range from between 500KB/Sec - 900KB/Sec. Some lesser known sites as low as 200KB/Sec.

However, Apple updates, Google Drive downloads are all running at 1.4MB/Sec as well as speed tests (server dependant).

So i was wondering, do Sky throttle some routes and prioritise others. Could they be throttling or is it just destination congestion?

Every time i got poor speeds around 250-500KB/Sec i ran a speedtest and its the full speed. I'm just confused as i don't remember O2 ever running at 200KB, certainly not 80KB/Sec... which is why i thought maybe sky throttle unknown sources and prioritise well known download servers like Apple/Google etc.

Edited by oldskool (Tue 10-Dec-13 22:49:29)

Just to make you aware really, often DLM can give you better speeds in the end than Sky can. Sky have 7db noise margin and fixed sync speeds to choose from. DLM can go as low as 3db... Also Sky can only set upload speeds relatively strictly (often meaning you do not get the full 1.1Mbps upload, usually around 800kbps). Anyway in your case it looks quite good what Sky have done however I am almost certain your slow speeds were just DLM running its course.

Lucky for you DLM never really stops so if the lines very stable for the next few months DLM is likely to increase your speed automatically and put the SNR down to 3db (keep the router on 24/7 for this).

As for the download speeds that is slightly strange. There is no throttling or anything like that. Sky use the easynet network and invested heavily into this (far more than o2/BE had). Ultimately the Sky networks peering is far superior to the old o2 network too. Given this, it should be outperforming it in every way.

No routes are prioritised so it likely the server you're connecting too having congestion (not skys network).

If it was Skys network, you would usually see speedtests etc affected also. The backhaul should be plenty for 15.3Mbps given that Sky will more than likely have upgraded backhaul for fibre services at 80Mbps

Perhaps you're just noticing things as you're analysing it which you prob didn't do back on o2?

On Sky there's no Fair usage policy, no traffic management, no peak time slowdowns and no prioritisation. Essentially it's anything goes overall.

Sometimes lesser known software is located abroad and the routing there might not be amazing which can slow speeds down, this should affect o2 probably worse though. So strange...

my sky llu was set at 3db for months btw

Given the Sky sales pitch we don't slow you down, if managing traffic then they are in trouble.

Different sites on the Internet have different hosting packages, and while Apple and Google can afford Terrabits of capacity for other sites it is not so easy.

So some sites may benefit from buying CDN services, so data is cached in ISP network, again down to the money the site spends to speed up its site.

thanks this has been really helpful

I think you are right ukhardy07 - perhaps on o2 i didn't analyse as much. It was just i was getting 600KB/Sec from Ubuntu.com ISO download and i thought their mirror sites are all high capacity. I got 80KB/Sec from github.com which again i thought would be high capacity.

Incidentally, after sky manually upper my line speed, DLM changed it at 2am. From 15.3Mbit / 7dB to 16.3Mbit / 6dB. However my router was stuck in an endless cycle of connecting and disconnecting. I phoned sky who tested the line and all is clear. I rebooted it and it connected again at 16.3Mbit and 6dB and now i have noticed my pings drop by 10ms to around 19ms for bbc.co.uk.

Having said that the auto picked mirror from Ubuntu.com is only giving me a settled 630KB/Sec. Yet the speed tests are just over 14Mbit so i'm assuming and hoping its the Ubuntu mirror. Edit: having said that i just re-downloaded and it started at 1.7MB/Sec so i think its the mirror. Does anyone have any tips on testing download speeds from people with known high capacity so i can rule out exchange congestion and throttling please.

Edited by oldskool (Wed 11-Dec-13 09:54:36)

In reply to a post by oldskool:

The phone operator switched my connection up to 16Mbit and it is currently connected at 15.3Mbit with an SNR of 7dB.

That still seems to be on the low side. Like you I'm on a 29db atten line yet my Talktalk adsl2+ Line syncs at more than 18 meg @6db SNR.

Cough

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html

If there is no congestion the two download tests should closely agree. 10 Gbps of capacity and we actually control the network so can be sure of the performance once you hit our network.

There are also test files if you don't trust flash.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Cough

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html

If there is no congestion the two download tests should closely agree. 10 Gbps of capacity and we actually control the network so can be sure of the performance once you hit our network.

There are also test files if you don't trust flash.

A throat pastille will help to ease congestion and possibly the occasional cough :} ! !

Getting towards peak time now and i don't notice a slow down.

Still getting 14M.5bit actual throughput

Pings are still 20ms to bbc

I think it must just have been a mixture of early days DLM and very congested lines from the mirror sites i tried. All speed tests including thinkbroadband are giving the same readings.

18Mbit on 29dB attenuation is pretty good indeed. To get my 16.8Mbit on a 30-31dB attenuation on o2 i had to seriously clean up my internal wiring, removing unused extensions and bell wires and i also tweaked the router down to 3dB which it was rock steady on my billion router.

Sky now has a lower attenuation but it could just be the hub with the kit but now my attenuation is 29dB t0 29.5dB. When DLM is given a few more days i may just get to 17Mbit but i'd rather sacrifice some speed for stability. But so far my SNR seems to fluctuate by around 0.3dB either way. I think that is pretty stable.

Edited by oldskool (Wed 11-Dec-13 17:50:09)

When I had sky broadband installed, I had the same experience.

Synched at 16mbps but only getting 1 or 2mbps, with everyday adding about 2mbps, then all of a sudden I seemed to get 16mbps.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

As the others have said, they start you at 4Mbps sync. I don't like the look of the 1.5Mbps throughput or the latency though .

That's pretty disgusting by sky dlm to start with 4Meg as I ain't accepting that, I want 16 Meg from the start. What a flobbed BT/Sky DLM. Wait for a week for highest speed is rather silly.

In reply to a post by adslmax:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

As the others have said, they start you at 4Mbps sync. I don't like the look of the 1.5Mbps throughput or the latency though .

That's pretty disgusting by sky dlm to start with 4Meg as I ain't accepting that, I want 16 Meg from the start. What a flobbed BT/Sky DLM. Wait for a week for highest speed is rather silly.

Not really its quite logical all that would happen if it tried to give you higher speeds to start with and the line had problems DLM would then start to adjust the speed back down to compensate. I find it better for to start low then gradually increase over a period of days till it finds the optimal settings

In reply to a post by jamie543:

Not really its quite logical all that would happen if it tried to give you higher speeds to start with and the line had problems DLM would then start to adjust the speed back down to compensate. I find it better for to start low then gradually increase over a period of days till it finds the optimal settings

Does Plusnet start DLM at low? I think you probably right as start off low speed to climb up is best way. I think Plusnet DLM start from high to low is very bad.

Max! You know very well that only Sky do it that way, that the other LLU firms do it their own way, and nearly every ISP in the country doesn't get a choice.

All that post can do is confuse people who don't know. Bad boy!

Quite a difference since sky enabled my connection last Monday and I was getting between 1 and 2Mbit on a 4meg sync.

Last night it resynced at 3db snr at 17900kbps which is producing 15Mbit even over wifi. It's a fairly solid speed pings down to 20ms. Attenuation 29.5db each time. Faster than O2 which was between 16300kbps and 16800kbps on 30db attenuation at 3db.

Hopefully it will stay at 3db. It was 2.9db at 8pm and back up to 3.1db at 10:30pm so hopefully that signals some stability.

plusnet dont have their own DLM they use BTw on adsl and openreach on FTTC.