exchange congestion

Hey peeps,

just wanted to see what other users are getting reagrding speeds on fibre in the evenings, i have recently join Sky on the 40/10 package and for the first few weeks the service was brilliant, however in to the 3rd week and beyond the service from 8pm onwards is terrible, pings fluctuate from the usual 15ms to 900ms when i am trying to play a game online, web pages struggle to open, the service is just unusable!
Speedtests jump all over the place like the pings and Sky support have confirmed that the exchange i am on is serviced by a larger one and that is one that is causing the problems........
Am i in a minority here or have sky really underestimated demand? i am seriously considering moving ISP, but are the others suffering the same fate?

the good
http://speedtest.net/result/2475213797.png

the bad
http://speedtest.net/result/2471790107.png

Edited by deleted (Sat 02-Feb-13 15:17:55)

Sky has congestion issues at some exchanges currently, so if speeds get better after about 1am probably congestion rather than fttc issue

Sky are upgrading their links at many exchanges at the moment, you can be sure your exchange will be upgraded very soon, and you will return to getting max speeds/low pings as many of us have enjoyed for years.

You can check your exchange here: http://servicestatus.sky.com/serviceupdates/

Yep, as Mr. Saffron and Dave 2150 say, and as discussed & reported elsewhere. It's just a matter of waiting until the backhaul congestion issue has been fixed for your exchange.

ok thanks for the info, however if things dont improve in a timeframe i would hope it to, would the situation be the same with other ISP's running from the same exchange network?
its just good money after bad at the moment and i would like to get out sooner rather than later if its going to continue for some time.

thx

We had to put up with poor peak time performance for 3 months at the Hastings exchange before it was sorted out.

To be fair it was Alcatel continually pushing back the date for the work to start on the upgrade, eventually starting about 6 week late but once it stared it was completed within a week.

Edited by simon194 (Sun 03-Feb-13 10:50:27)

What you are currently suffering is congestion on Sky's backhaul network between the exchange and their core network. Other ISPs whose service is available from your exchange will have their own backhaul networks. You would need to do some research about your prospective chosen ISP to find out whether or not they are also having congestion problems on their backhaul networks from your exchange.

My advice would be to sit tight and rough it out, all isp's have congestion issues at times, its a fact of life . Unless you do your homework very well you could be jumping from the frying pan to the fire.

hi all,

this is still an ongoing issue but just wanted to ask you "experts" something

Tonight has been a particualry bad night so i phoned my friend who lives around the corner, he is on a different street box but on the same exchange, currently he is getting around 30mb down and 9mb up and as you can see from the speed tests i am getting nothing like that.
He is a Sky customer like me.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/GR1M1/speeds...

before 8pm everything is fine

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o298/GR1M1/speeds...

so if my problem is Backhaul or exchange congestion, how come he isnt getting the same issues, should i take this up with sky?

Edited by deleted (Fri 01-Mar-13 07:58:31)

I'm no expert but that would seem to suggest that there is a problem somewhere between your house and the exchange. Thinking about it then, I suppose that means the problem could be one of these:

- something wrong with internal wiring within the house?
- something wrong (particular to your line) at the cabinet?
- something wrong (particular to your line) at the exchange?
- something wrong with external wiring between house and cabinet and/or cabinet and exchange?

But how to establish which of these (if any) it could be, and getting someone to sort it out, I have no idea other than to go back to your ISP in the first instance.

thanks for the reply,

i really dont think it could the internal wiring as before 8pm i am getting the full spped that i am supposed to, however come the time Eastenders starts all the chaps jump on the net and my spped drops to unusable levels...

see yesterdays speed results

Evening

http://speedtest.net/result/2541756728.png

Daytime

http://speedtest.net/result/2540154717.png

so i doubt it could be anything to do with any wiring due to the times of the problem....

the next time i go back to sky it will be to cancel as i am so fed up with this on going issue.

Edited by deleted (Fri 01-Mar-13 20:35:02)

Well if you and your friend are both on Sky Fibre via different street cabinets but via the same exchange then presumably you're both using the same Sky backhaul connection to the Sky core network.

Just to confirm I've understood you correctly, your friend doesn't see this pattern of speed ups & downs the same as you?

There are a lot of links in a long chain that all need to be working well to ensure you get an overall great experience.

So when it's not going well then the trick is to narrow down what could be wrong. If you're sure your internal wiring is good, then the issue must surely be somewhere between home and exchange.

well, lets take Feb 28th.
My friend lives around 300mtrs from me but is on a different street cab, we are both on the same exchange which i understand from Sky is serviced by a larger one in the main town.
on the 28th i was getting the following
in the morning
http://speedtest.net/result/2540154717.png
in the evening
http://speedtest.net/result/2541756728.png
when i did the evening test he was getting around 28mb - 30mb down and upload and ping were as normal, as you can see from the evening speed its pants at around 1mb up and down.
the exchange congestion checker reports both the exchanges are not affected but sky have told me verbally that congestion is what is causing my problems.
so if its a problem between my house and the exchange, why is it time dependant? 8pm onwards!
eveything does point to congestion as that is when everyone is on the net....
but checker says No!

Yes that's very strange. Seems like backhaul congestion yet your friend on Sky Fibre on the same exchange (but different cabinet) is not affected. It's almost as if the cabinet you're connected to has got lots of Sky Fibre users and gets super busy or something (sounds faintly ridiculous and I've no idea if that's a plausible explanation!)

In reply to a post by speedyrite:

Yes that's very strange. Seems like backhaul congestion yet your friend on Sky Fibre on the same exchange (but different cabinet) is not affected. It's almost as if the cabinet you're connected to has got lots of Sky Fibre users and gets super busy or something (sounds faintly ridiculous and I've no idea if that's a plausible explanation!)

LMAO
you should get a job with Sky...they havent a scooby either...

well i will just have to sit it out until mid March and then i think i have waited long enough for the problem to be rectified......
oh by the way..it is me over on the other forum

thanks for your help

Thanks for your "kind" words! Like I said, I'm no expert. Just a Sky Fibre customer interested in the problem you are seeing and trying to help. Presumably you have not had a satisfactory explanation from Sky?

Your peak time slowdowns seem to point at Sky backhaul congestion, yet your friend on Sky Fibre via the same exchange but different cabinet doesn't get peak time slowdowns. Your exchange is not on the congested exchange list. So I would be thinking to myself "why doesn't my friend see the same problem as me? maybe it's not Sky backhaul congestion, maybe it's something else but what could it be?" Perhaps someone more knowledgable than me will know the answer.

But perhaps a change of provider will sort it out, so why wait? The sooner you do it, the sooner you will find out whether or not the problem goes away!

Edited by speedyrite (Sun 03-Mar-13 08:56:17)

In reply to a post by vf12vf:

well, lets take Feb 28th.
My friend lives around 300mtrs from me but is on a different street cab, we are both on the same exchange which i understand from Sky is serviced by a larger one in the main town.

One explanation here could be that your cabinet could be connected to to smaller exchange and your friends could be connected to the larger one and the congestion is on the link between the exchanges.

Just because the PCP's are on the same exchange it doesn't necessarily follow that the fibre will be as well but only Openreach would be able to answer that one.

Thanks simon that would explain it. In which case the congestion issue would disappear with a change of provider (as long as the new provider doesn't have a congested link too). I did read somewhere that there are exchanges with congestion affecting both Sky & BTW providers because the there are no10GigE ports on the equipment and I gather it's expensive to upgrade them?

yeah, i suppose he could be connected to the main exchange however he is closer to the smaller one than i am..only by 300mtrs,
i was waiting till mid march as they said it would be fixed in March, so two weeks to see if they fix it is enough time dont you think?

but i did another check on both the smaller and larger exchange and both said they were unaffected.

http://servicestatus.sky.com/serviceupdates?postcode=

PO226dZ Smaller Exchange
PO211NT Main Exchange

perhaps i might just take the plunge and go with Plusnet or BT infinity....which one do you think?

If I was to change ISP, I would be very tempted to go to PlusNet. The quality of support (should it be needed) looks to be far superior to that of our current provider.

hi just something i found out i done a speed test wired and got this
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13623...

and this is what i got using the same pc but wireless and i was sitting right next to the hub i dont get how it can drop so much

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13623...

i also done the same test but used bt speed tester and got about the same

In reply to a post by fender1105:

and this is what i got using the same pc but wireless and i was sitting right next to the hub i dont get how it can drop so much

Wireless can be a problem in all sorts of ways. Always do speedtests on a wired connection.

Try installing inSSIDer if you have a Windows/Linux computer, or if you have a MAC there is WiFi Scanner in the App Store.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+change+wireless+channel+...

If the PC is connected with a wireless G connection that's sort of speed you will get.

In reply to a post by speedyrite:

If I was to change ISP, I would be very tempted to go to PlusNet. The quality of support (should it be needed) looks to be far superior to that of our current provider.

Email sent requesting my service be cancelled, when they respond i will go with Plusnet i think

hopefully not out of the frying pan in to the fire!

Oh, I didn't think it was necessary or advisable to ask the existing provider to cancel the service?

I thought you just had to place the order with your new chosen provider and they did all the work (like when changing energy providers)?

And I suspect you don't even need a MAC to move from Sky Fibre to PlusNet Fibre do you?

Anyway, I reckon you've made a good choice and I hope you get a better experience with PlusNet.

Edited by speedyrite (Tue 05-Mar-13 18:07:16)

In reply to a post by speedyrite:

I thought you just had to place the order with your new chosen provider and they did all the work (like when changing energy providers)?

That's the way it should be done because if Sky cease your broadband and phone line before the new provider takes over you might have to pay a reconnection charge.

Don't forget if you are outside the cooling off period you will have to pay the remaining part of the 12 month contract.

hey guys,

when requesting the MAC the sky advisor didnt really know what to do but requested it anyway, said for me to phone back 24hrs later and i can have the code verbally rather than waiting 5 days for posting, perhaps i might give Plusnet a ring to see if one is required just for confirmation...

with regards to me being in Contract, i can leave with no penalties due to the last few months of issues i have been having.



UPDATE: just spoke to Plusnet and i need a MAC to leave Sky and Join them...

Edited by deleted (Wed 06-Mar-13 16:45:44)

Oh right, that's interesting about needing a MAC. I was going by the migration guide on here:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/guide/migration.html

Entirely depends on whether the line is on Openreach WLR or not. Most Sky customers are not on WLR, so they don't need a MAC, but they do need to migrate their phone line in order to use another ISPs broadband.

my line is just a standard BT line...nothing flashy

MAC required then!

As a former VM broadband user I would advise anyone trying to jump ship from Sky to think twice.
For me at least Sky Fibre 40/10 works flawlessly. Tonight I have 0ms pings on tests and the highest ping I had was 15ms and that for a short period of time. Cannot compare this in any way with the service I received from Virgin.
Don't get me wrong, I dont say Sky is the best but it's close to the top.

AH that explains it - I had assumed you were a recent new Sky BB customer (not sure where I got that idea!) and that your line was full MPF. Sorry, my mistake...

Edited by speedyrite (Thu 07-Mar-13 08:03:45)

In reply to a post by vf12vf:

with regards to me being in Contract, i can leave with no penalties due to the last few months of issues i have been having.

That's OK then.

In reply to a post by vf12vf:

my line is just a standard BT line...nothing flashy

You sure about that, because when you sign up to Sky's fibre service they usually automatically switch the line over. To check, dial 17070 and if you get "Hi, I'm Zoe..." you are on a Sky line.

nope, Zoe didnt answer my call.....

There is no comparison between Sky and Virgin. After years of being a VM customer I switched at the end of last year and went to sky. Not being able to play games due to jitter and overs-subscription once again was the last straw, along with the time from reporting to the fix date being a year.

Sky Unlimited on the other hand seem to have been pro-active on upgrades and made my already working broadband even better. They just add more bandwidth compare the VM who tend to impose more restrictions and traffic management on its users.

Ultimately it all boils down to investment and the fibre standards used for the broadband products, and VM are pretty much bottom of the pile.

MySky
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share-thumb/5547f...