I agree. I have had the problem with both the SR101 and SR102 (*2) routers. When I plugged my old O2 Wireless box IV in the problem went away, but my u/s and d/s speed dropped. I've just (20 minutes ago) installed a TP-link TD-W8970, with the help of wireshark etc. Let's see what happens now.

FWIW, in view of all the problems that I have "suffered", Sky have agreed to release me from my contract early, without penalty. Of course if they will reimburse the cost of my router then I might stay until the end of the contract, or longer if the price is right.

I thought it was time I provided an update, and closure, on this post.

As mentioned in my previous post, I bought a TP-Link W8970 modem/router and, following the excellent instructions elsewhere on the forums (fora?) entered my Sky username and password. That was c. 4 weeks ago and since then the number of pauses/dropouts I have had has been zero. None, nothing, nada, not a sausage. Unfortunately Sky reneged on their initial verbal offer to refund the cost of my CPE and so I'm off to PlusNet with a fibre connection.

So, the upshot of all of this is that the root cause of my broadband freezes has been proven to be the Sky SR101 and 102 hubs.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this post, it's good to see such support - but a shame that Sky can't offer anywhere near the same level of support and technical expertise.

To FINALLY close this post off...

I moved to plusnet (PN) 3 days ago - the horror stories that are around did fill me with some trepidation, but everything went extremely smoothly. The connection is stable and PN customer service seem extremely competent - and a refreshing change from Sky, to be honest.

So... if anyone (especially ex-O2 customers) is considering leaving Sky, I can thoroughly recommend PN.

So, the upshot of all of this is that the root cause of my broadband freezes has been proven to be the Sky SR101 and 102 hubs.

I do find this really strange. I think there must have been something wrong somewhere and it is not the router. I have not read the entire thread but I assume Sky gave you another router and I assume this also did not help.

I can personally vouch for my Sky Hub, I used it on ADSL 2+ and on Fibre. At current on fibre I have around 3800 hours of uptime on my Sky Hub, that's over 5 months without a reboot. I have in total a possible 20+ WiFi devices connecting to it and it is flawless.

On ADSL I would often go months on end without a dropout using this router model.

There must be something about your line or setup which was causing issues. I think there is potentially an underlying issue and the Sky Hub just didn't mask it. Other routers, in particular Speedtouch ones I have found are very good at masking a 'flappy' line. My DG834G would drop out twice a day whereas a speedtouch 585 would hold onto the line for weeks on end. This didn't make the DG834G faulty, in fact it held the connection on my second line for weeks on end without an issue. The problem WAS my line, the speedtouch just hid the issue better. A change of hardware doesn't prove anything really.

What really gives it away for me is your very first post. I have noticed the Sky Hub router interface at 192.168.0.1 becomes inaccessible in virtually all of the cases when the broadband drops out, also a change of IP address indicates a dropout. I think the line was dropping out.

The best conclusion in my opinion isn't that the Sky Hub is a failure, it just for whatever reason didn't work well on your line.

I am glad to see you have found peace anyway, after all of these months. It has been far too long for you to be having these problems. I genuinely wish you the very best luck at PlusNet and I am hopeful you see no further problems

EDIT: Read my other post as well. It is directly below this one in flat mode

Edited by ukhardy07 (Thu 11-Sep-14 00:41:25)

This really reminds me of my old line at my old property.

Interestingly o2 provided Technicolor Speedtouch routers.
I was using a DG834G router many years ago, constant drop outs. I tried Belkin routers, other Netgear routers, a sky router, all dropping out (probably had over 10 routers). Then a speedtouch 585 would hold onto the connection for weeks without an issue.

At the time Sky sent multiple engineers and eventually held their hands up and let me leave. It seems they will not send out a REIN engineer, probably due to cost. When it got this far they let me leave and wouldn't send out a REIN engineer.

The non speedtouch routers were not faulty, in fact they worked on my 2nd line flawlessly for weeks on end. The issue WAS my line, it is just the speedtouch router somehow masked my issues.

What I find interesting is o2 customers are going from a Speedtouch based router, which I believe was a speedtouch 585 rebranded in some cases and onto a bog standard router. I can personally vouch for the 585 somehow masking REIN issues.

My experience here really proved to me that hardware can easily mask issues and just because one router works doesn't mean the other one is faulty.

I think I did eventually locate the source of my issues. A neighbour was building a plane in his garage, he had significant welding tools and all kinds of machinery. I realised this around 1 year after my issues and I correlated the drop outs with him being in that garage. So afterall it wasn't a faulty router, just an oblivious neighbour who of course had virginmedia and had no idea his garage being virtually next to the BT telegraph pole was causing issues.

I am now back on Sky broadband and also have BT, no issues but in a different property.
Using a homehub 4 and a Sky Hub which are both flawless for me.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Thu 11-Sep-14 00:44:59)

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

I can personally vouch for my Sky Hub, I used it on ADSL 2+ and on Fibre. At current on fibre I have around 3800 hours of uptime on my Sky Hub, that's over 5 months without a reboot. I have in total a possible 20+ WiFi devices connecting to it and it is flawless.

Yeah, same here, on ADSL2+. I have two SR101's, one from the initial trial, and one from when they sent me another when I tried to order a wireless booster. The only bad thing I have experienced is that the power and internet lights on the first SR101 have dimmed to half brightness, but the connectivity is rock solid.

This is probably a High resistance fault. Dodgy old crimp/joint.
Sky for 8 months no problem, then dropouts from hell. Mainly when using the net, also phone dial tone lost or calls dropped.
2 Bt visits and a bit of luck problem fixed.

Pairs changed all the way back to the cabinet.

Speed went up by 100%