Sky Woes Already.

I currently have my line rental with Sky and internet with Xilo (C&W LLU).

I placed the other for Sky on the 4th Oct and they informed me that my line will have fiber installed on Thursday 25th Oct.

Since signing up to go with Sky Fiber I have found my internet connection has been horrendous - gone from downstream attenuation of 61db - to 71db. I raised a fault as their was noise on the telephone, engineer came out last week - found a fault but didn't fix it, just had another engineer out this morning, found another fault changed pair and now my downstream attenuation is at 66dB, stats below are with no snr tweaking, that snr looks incredibly low considering the sync speed.

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 1020 kbps 414 kbps
Line Attenuation 66.0 db 41.7 db
Noise Margin 4.1 db 14.7 db

Previous connection stats prior to order of Fiber!
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 3454 kbps 763 kbps
Line Attenuation 61.0 db 37.9 db
Noise Margin 6.2 db 6.0 db

I have spoken to Sky talk and apparently I went over to their network on the 19th - hence the disconnection of broadband, however why are my stats worse on their network? Different route to exchange? Gone from 61db to 66dB - Slightly annoying and I don't know how this will affect my Fiber install.

They have already ceased my line and killed my broadband connection on the 19th - leaving me without internet connectivity for nearly a week. - Xilo have confirmed this and stated that the WLR portal confirms it.

Is this normal?

Can anyone shed any light on why there may be a big change in downstream att, also why they've disconnected a week ahead of my activation date.

Edited by deleted (Mon 22-Oct-12 12:10:41)

The Sky order and the fault are probably just a coincidence. It's probably nothing to do with the Sky order.
& the issues you are having which have been involving engineer visits etc have probably caused the cease to occur.

An increase from 61 to 66db is slightly higher than expected. Basically Sky might be using ADSL 2 + whereas Xilo may not have. This could account for a jump in the attenuation.
Also the fault may have required work which made the line longer. E.g. putting you on a different cable to the exchange etc.

Any changes in line length is probably something from green cab to the local exchange.
On fibre none of this is likely to make a difference.

This is my view on the situation. You are linking the fault and the switch to Sky whereas both should be viewed independently.

Ok - thanks taking the time to reply.

I think it's highly coincidental that the lines been working fine for 2 years, yet within a week of placing the order my line starts messing up (I was on holiday 6th-13th Oct and didn't know the line had started playing up until my return).

Like you say, I think I'll have to wait until Thursday on the install to see how that goes, I'll be using my phone on three as my modem until then.

I forced modulation to ADSL2 on Xilo (runs at 1.1mhz instead of 2.2 which ADSL2+ utilizes so got less feedback) I haven't changed anything on the router stats provided above, so it is probably on adsl2+, this only made about 1dB of difference on the line though.

They said they changed the "D side" which is the cabling between me and the cab, the engineer last week changed the "E side" - cab to exchange? Attenuation has been poor since the first visit which would've been the "E side". Hopefully this will not affect FTTC when connected Thursday.

Edited by deleted (Mon 22-Oct-12 12:55:09)

ADSL 2+ added 3db to my line which was only around 28db.

Stop worrying too much about it. It'll work out ok. Your attenuation now bares very little link to your fibre speeds. E.g. those on lines of 25db attenuation can get slower fibre speeds than those on 78db lines.

The engineer changed the E / D side which shows the fault between the exchange and your property. Any work Sky carry out will be actually inside the exchange / the fibre cab. Not on this stretch of cable...

So in all likelihood this was completely unrelated to the switchover. It was a fault on your line between your house to the exchange. This is the same line which has probably been there for 50+ years. Sky haven't decided to dig roads up to tamper with this. It's a coincidental situation.

The downtime is unfortunate but I'm betting that the engineers visiting are the reason why. I would check with Sky that everything is ok obviously. Ask to speak with the fibre team.

Once installed it's a great service.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 22-Oct-12 13:04:24)

Again thanks for replying!

I'll wait until Thursday then, think I am fretting too much in advance.

Nearly spot on in the line estimation of 50 years, house was built in 1960

Order is all due to go ahead with a visit from BT between 8-1 Thursday.

Is it worth using your own router with them? Was thinking the Netgear WNDR3400 N600 with DD WRT instead of their Sagem FAST 2504N.

Edited by deleted (Mon 22-Oct-12 13:26:52)

In reply to a post by benbird7:

Is it worth using your own router with them? Was thinking the Netgear WNDR3400 N600 with DD WRT instead of their Sagem FAST 2504N.

Don't waste your money. With the Sagem Fast 2504N if you have a decent wifi card you can pull 76Mbps via Wifi. That's the maximum I get on the 80Mbps speed. I've never tried a home network transfer (probably a little more). You need a wifi card in your PC that supports 150Mbps / 144 Mbps in single channel. Virtually all macbooks have this and quite a few PCs.

I tried a netgear 3700 which is apparently slightly better than the 3400. The range was less than the Sky router with a couple of dead spots which the Sky router covered no issue (with 3 bars).
The 5ghz is absolutely pants (basically anything more than 1 wall isn't any benefit).

I'd not waste the money. If you do go via that route get a router on ebay. Compare it side by side to the Sky one - you'll then probably sell it and keep the sky one.

I've had over 3000 hours uptime (power cut turned it off then) on the Sky router with over 10 devices connected and sometimes as many as 20. Even then it barely heats up. It's a basic router yes but it does the job very well.

Set the Wifi to WPA2 AES only as a precaution. Anything less doesn't make use of the full speeds.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 22-Oct-12 13:47:48)

Your a handy man to know!

Thanks for responding as always and good to note that I should have a hassle free connection, plug and playing as they want me to do with the Fast router!

My router was plugged in behind a washing machine and now behind a wardrobe. So never gets a turn off. Hassle free. Perhaps (dare I say it) the best router I've ever owned.

I've tried out a DG834G, DG834N, DGN2000, Orange brightbox, WNDR3700, Belkin N1 vision, Belkin N750db, WNDR3300. Possibly some more. I used to get them free through work...
I'm quite content with this. I don't need all the fancy pants business just want it to work perfectly. & it does.

I had a play with my wireless channels and found it made a huge difference so give that a shot too. Try 1, 6 and 11.

I had a quick look on wifi analizer for android, most the local wireless routers are between channels 1-8 so 11 seems a good option for the wireless setting. I have heard to turn WPS off to, as this is a possible security issue.

I hope they put me straight onto the 40/10 rather than the old 40/2 product too!

Edited by deleted (Mon 22-Oct-12 17:24:34)

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

they probably wont - they are renowned for cocking that up

Oh Dear. Lol I Hope They Do Get It Right.

I Tried speaking To Fiber Team Today, 25 Min Wait On Phone So Hung Up.

Edited by deleted (Mon 22-Oct-12 19:06:39)

Ring on the SKY landline and it's free. They usually take around 10 mins to tear 1 and 15 mins to fibre. So usually around 20 - 30 mins. Get the job done eventually though and it's not foreign call centres. Very rarely have to ring them up though.

I am going first of all onto 40/2, this is because their systems need updating when processing the order for 40/10, they have a team changing these over on a weekly basis, instructing the lines to be ported over to 40/10.

I'm stumped with the £33+VAT disconnection charge Xilo get from C&W. Unaccounted for but payable, there are a number of threads about this. Xilo have been helpful explaining it.

Connected this morning, current speedtest:

http://www.speedtest.net/android/275920529.png

Will await upload increasing to 10mb, also need to get some new homeplugs, these 85mbps ones aren't cutting it! Only getting about 13mb throughput on them. - http://www.speedtest.net/result/2263845640.png

Edited by deleted (Thu 25-Oct-12 10:58:33)

Dont hold your breath, Ive been waiting nearly 4 weeks, for my upstream speed to match my sync: currently at 35000/9996, currently uploading at 2Mb and lost 5Mb on the downstream. BT engineer at the time said It was capable of much more.

Edited by HiPing (Thu 25-Oct-12 14:45:37)

In reply to a post by benbird7:

Will await upload increasing to 10mb, also need to get some new homeplugs, these 85mbps ones aren't cutting it! Only getting about 13mb throughput on them. - http://www.speedtest.net/result/2263845640.png

That's about the max of homeplug 85 and you must be quite close on the mains? I only managed 2meg on 85's at a friends house from ground floor to 1st floor. Homeplug AV500 managed 20meg in the same place.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/hardware/reviews/70-de...

Compares AV200 versus AV500

Thank you!

Got these in the end.

I'm going to keep my 85mbps for downstairs PC and sky box (really close to the router but can't run lan) I can run both over the same electrical network, they just each use their own frequencies as I understand it. So I should be able to stream movies through to sky using around 10mbps? If not can always get another pair at some point in the future of the Zyxel ones.

Edited by deleted (Thu 25-Oct-12 13:48:16)

I just spoke to sky they said my upstream should change over to 10mb in the next week or so. I understand there is a 10 day training period so I'm just leaving it as is. Although after this 10day period, maybe a power cycle will resync the router up at 10mb, if this has been completed at sky's end?

Anythings better than my previous connection of 3mb!

Connection Rate

Broadband Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 39997 kbps 1999 kbps

Edited by deleted (Thu 25-Oct-12 18:10:36)

In reply to a post by benbird7:

I'm going to keep my 85mbps for downstairs PC and sky box (really close to the router but can't run lan) I can run both over the same electrical network, they just each use their own frequencies as I understand it. So I should be able to stream movies through to sky using around 10mbps? If not can always get another pair at some point in the future of the Zyxel ones.

The 85's with co-exist on the same mains as the 500's but you may lose some of the speed the 500's are capable of. My brother in law had 3 of the 85 units on his mains, and we removed two and plugged in two 500's and managed about 150megabit according to the software - and when we found the 3rd 85 and unplugged it, the link speeds went upto about 200megabit.

It really depends on how the mains is wired and other interference so its worth using the diagnostic software to see the effect the 85s might have - obviously if you get a mains link faster than your broadband you may not worry

Ok I was a little hasty, the initial transfer and faults of late with the BT line (probably unrelated) was a headache, they changed my line over to their voice network a week ahead of my fiber date, knocking my old broadband off for a week.

Connected 12 hours ago, they told me it would take up to a week to change me over from 2meg upload, to 10 which I should have.

12 Hours later it's done.

Been on a few games, most of which latency was the lowest in the server!

So far so good.

Glad it's all resolved

Cheers - one thing I have noticed is the F@st2504N router is still showing me connected at:

Modem
Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 39997 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 1999 kbps

Even though upstream has been increased - I am reluctant at power cycling the router to force a resync in case it is detrimental to the line, what do you think?

The sagem only does authentication, it does not affect the sync of the VDSL line which is handled by the white openreach modem

In reply to a post by benbird7:

I am reluctant at power cycling the router to force a resync in case it is detrimental to the line, what do you think

Rebooting the router is fine, its the openreach modem you don't want to reboot.

The router only gets the sync information from Sky (not from the modem!) once when its switched on. (in the DHCP request).

Thanks Both I'll Reboot Sky Modem.

Edited by deleted (Fri 26-Oct-12 17:23:27)

Reset!

Modem
Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 39997 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 10000 kbps

Just awaiting 500mpbs homeplugs now, ethernet is just slightly too short to reach upstairs at 10m. #sadface.

As you'll see they changed my line over to the 10mb upstream within 12 hours of activating it.

Give them a call, it may sort things out for you a bit quicker

Glad you made the switchover rather than paying extra to Xilo? Hope so!

I don't think people give Sky enough credit because what they offer I find is great. Even if I'm having a little line annoyance right now...

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sun 28-Oct-12 19:33:54)

I was sad to leave Xilo and into sky's territory, but so far so good, ping times really good in games, just awaiting my 500mbps home plugs, as can only achieve about 15mbps currently with the 85mbps old adapters.

In reply to a post by benbird7:

I was sad to leave Xilo and into sky's territory, but so far so good, ping times really good in games, just awaiting my 500mbps home plugs, as can only achieve about 15mbps currently with the 85mbps old adapters.

15 meg on homeplug 85s is good and you must have very little interference nearby

Got these installed now, working well.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2272186749.png

Did you read the reviews underneath, doesn't look to reliable.

The amazon reviews aren't too bad though

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zyxel-500Mbps-Slimline-Power...

Connection stats show