Want to join Sky - need clarification on their router

Hi to all,

I'm currently a Onetel user (a part of the TalkTalk group) and after ten years with them I want to leave as they can't offer me a higher speed than 2mb unless I move over completely to TalkTalk llu.

I'm not interested in TalkTalk after looking at their small print (rolling contract especialy) and in any case pricewise I'd be worse off after their special offer ends after 12 months and I don't want to keep chopping n changing suppliers.

Sky are on my exchange and reading through this group they look a good bet to stay with for the foreseeable future plus I'll be £2 a month better off than I am now with at least 7x my current speed so I'm interested in joining up...but there is one thing I'm not clear about.

From what I can gather on here you have to use the Sky router...or do you if you're only taking the broadband package? Does this ruling apply only if you have Sky tv in your overall package maybe?

I notice to that quite a few new users have problems with the supplied router which concerns me so if I can use my own router I'd prefer to stick with it.

Does the router Sky supply have a username/password stuck on it somewhere so that you can use those details with your own router? The rest of the setup wouldn't worry me as I'm used to setting up things in my own way.

The router is my only concern about going ahead n joining up...I've got a mac code and am ready to go...but I'd just like to get the some clarification about using Skys router before signing on the dotted line.

Appreciate some advice.

Cheers...Colin

In reply to a post by colin1951uk:

From what I can gather on here you have to use the Sky router...or do you if you're only taking the broadband package? Does this ruling apply only if you have Sky tv in your overall package maybe?

No, the T&C mandates the use of the Sky router on all packages. However Sky are unlikely to dump users off for breaking this T&C, but you never know.

In reply to a post by colin1951uk:

Does the router Sky supply have a username/password stuck on it somewhere so that you can use those details with your own router?

The router hides the username an password, but some website do advise on how to generate or extract the Sky password.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by colin1951uk:

From what I can gather on here you have to use the Sky router...or do you if you're only taking the broadband package? Does this ruling apply only if you have Sky tv in your overall package maybe?

No, the T&C mandates the use of the Sky router on all packages. However Sky are unlikely to dump users off for breaking this T&C, but you never know.

In reply to a post by colin1951uk:

Does the router Sky supply have a username/password stuck on it somewhere so that you can use those details with your own router?

The router hides the username an password, but some website do advise on how to generate or extract the Sky password.

I do not know of anyone who has been thrown off for using a non sky router.
I used my own router for 3 years before i moved.

As already said there are sites that you can access the username/password so you can use your own router.

That said , you will not get any support for your own router if you have any problems.

Pop over to http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/
and you will find all the info for extracting username /password from the router and any other SKY specific help

ps..... skyuserforum is NOT run by Sky

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

some website do advise on how to generate or extract the Sky password.

But only for some Sky locked routers!

The password can be either extracted or generated for all the routers sky have supplied to date. They are supposed to be releasing yet another new Sagem router soon though.

Yes. Sorry, I got confused between extracting credentials and unlocking router for general use. I meant the latter had not been discovered for every Sky-locked router.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Sun 29-May-11 20:46:36)

In reply to a post by AbandonShip:

The password can be either extracted or generated for all the routers sky have supplied to date. They are supposed to be releasing yet another new Sagem router soon though.

If you have a D-Link or Sagemcom that has upgraded itself to MER login (version 2 firmware) then you need to downgrade it to extract a PPPoA userid/password. If Sky start supplying routers with MER and no downgrade, then things will get interesting.

Thanks for the info chaps...after doing a bit of Googling n looking at Skys own forum (didn't realise they had one) I'm now confident I can get my own router up n running...so Sky here I come!

Cheers to all.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by AbandonShip:

The password can be either extracted or generated for all the routers sky have supplied to date. They are supposed to be releasing yet another new Sagem router soon though.

If you have a D-Link or Sagemcom that has upgraded itself to MER login (version 2 firmware) then you need to downgrade it to extract a PPPoA userid/password. If Sky start supplying routers with MER and no downgrade, then things will get interesting.

There's new firmware for the black Netgear one with mer support too, but they haven't rolled it out yet.

The upgraded firmware supports both PPPoA and MER connections. The older sagem router apparently reverts to PPPoA for a while if you reset it, so I'd guess it may initially connect using PPPoA and download a config which makes it switch to using MER, if on one of the new msans. I think others probably attempt to connect using Sky's MER settings on vc 40 and fall back to PPPoA on VC 38 if they fail.

If you can figure out a way to gain root access to a router, it is then relatively easy to extract the password if you have an active PPPoA connection, but if it is connecting using MER, then you might have to crack the code that generates the password, so it would be more difficult

Sky will presumably continue supplying routers that support PPPoA as long as they are offering Sky connect. But they could decide to disable PPPoA internet access on their new network once they've updated both Netgear routers.

Edited by AbandonShip (Mon 30-May-11 15:35:00)

I don't think you need a username and password for MER authentication, it's done by the MAC address.

In reply to a post by colin1951uk:

Thanks for the info chaps...after doing a bit of Googling n looking at Skys own forum (didn't realise they had one) I'm now confident I can get my own router up n running...so Sky here I come!

Cheers to all.

Which forum, the one at Sky.com, or the forum at skyuser.co.uk.
The forum at skyuser.co.uk is not run by sky, but I think you will get more help there.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

I don't think you need a username and password for MER authentication, it's done by the MAC address.

I gather an ISP could use DHCP authentication, to stop people connecting by simply spoofing the MAC address, but hopefully Sky don't do that.

I've not read of anyone whose managed to connect to Sky using MER on a non-sky router yet, and my non-sky router doesn't have MER as an option, although I'd guess it should be possible to connect using Ethernet over atm.

Edited by AbandonShip (Mon 30-May-11 16:34:25)

In reply to a post by AbandonShip:

I've not read of anyone whose managed to connect to Sky using MER on a non-sky router yet, and my non-sky router doesn't have MER as an option, although I'd guess it should be possible to connect using Ethernet over atm.

From what I've heard, Ethernet over ATM and Mac Encapsulated Routing are different, incompatible beasts. Perhaps the lack of global router support for the protocol is what is attracting Sky to it.