Sky installation question

Okay, didn't really know where to put this.

I'm having SKy HD installed soon, and moving the Sky + box from downstairs into a room where there is no telephone line. I've been having a lot of problems over the last few months with my internet but it seems steady at the moment.

What i'm wondering is could fitting a new phone line affect the internet? The problem before was the DSL light dropping out frequently (every 5 minutes) but recently it's been okay. How easy is it to fit a new phone line from another room?

I'm just worried it will affect the internet disconnecting it and adding a new line? As you've probably guessed i'm not the most technological person laugh

Good day.

Moving the line shouldn't affect your ADSL connection. Are you planning to add the extension or will this be done by the Sky installer?

You do not need a telephone line to have any sky plus or hd box,on many occasions people and sky tell you that you need a phone socket and this is absolute rubbish.

All updates and firmware upgrades are sent via the satellite dish and the only reason you would want a telephone line connected is for the interactive services and pay per view trash that is on Sky.

I have 2 hd boxes in our house and one sky plus box and not one of them are connected through a telephone line even though i have sockets right on the wall next to them.

Sky will always tell you that you need a telephone socket and its just not true and another way for there contract sky engineer to make money.

Sky contractors in my experience are shoddy at best and there work leaves a lot to be desired.

And many isp will tell you that interactive phone lines ftted by sky,bt or anybody else are to blame when you have problems with your adsl connection.

I have lost count of the number of occasions when i have contacted my isp over the years about Internet problems only to be told the first thing i must do is remove all sky interactive phone lines from the sky boxes because this can cause problems.

Don't know how true this is but its what many isp will tell you to do should you encounter Internet problems or connections trouble.

My advice for you would be to tell sky you are having a phone line connected soon and do not let them do work that is not required.

They do not need a phone line to activate the sky box [they may tell you otherwise] they can just make a phone call.

I moved in to a new house recently which had no phone lines activated,when ordering the home move i was told by sky that i needed interactive phone lines fitted before they done the job ...When they came out and put the new dish up i just told the guy i will sort out the phone lines when i am ready because none of the sockets were active because having to wait weeks for that terrible company called BT to flick a switch and charge us £130 for what they call a new connection at a new house...

And 6 Months later as i stated not one of the 3 sky boxes in our house has a telephone line connected to it.

Edited by time2die (Thu 18-Feb-10 00:19:29)

In reply to a post by time2die:

You do not need a telephone line to have any sky plus or hd box,on many occasions people and sky tell you that you need a phone socket and this is absolute rubbish.

All updates and firmware upgrades are sent via the satellite dish and the only reason you would want a telephone line connected is for the interactive services and pay per view trash that is on Sky.

I have 2 hd boxes in our house and one sky plus box and not one of them are connected through a telephone line even though i have sockets right on the wall next to them.

If you have Sky multi-room, then both boxes must be connected to a phone line. If you don't, then Sky will inevitably eventually send you a letter pointing out that you are in breach of the contract, and if you ignore that, they will simply adjust the Direct Debit so you are paying for two full subscriptions at full price.

Instead of soap-boxing, I'm surprised that no-one has suggested the obvious - does the Sky box phone connection have an ADSL filter ?

You need to learn to read my friend as i have already said in the post that i do not have any telephone connected to any of the sky boxes in our house and never have and i never will.

We have multi room and have done so for many years without the letters telling us otherwise .

As for your question - does the sky phone connection have a ADSL filter ?

I am surprised you don't know as you seem to know or like to put forward suggestions regarding Sky and there contract terms and conditions.

Any house with adsl needs filters on all telephone line connections.

Don't tell me you don't have Sky

I don't have Sky these days but, early last year, my brother had multi-room installed but didn't connect the phone line to the second box. He received a letter from Sky a few months afterwards reminding him of his contract obligations.

John.

Sky seem to randomly select customers to pick on and force to connect their boxes to the line.

I was an engineer years ago and got quite a few service calls regarding faulty phone connections, meaning customers could possibly be charged full subscription prices for every box that they had.

That said..I haven't had either of my boxes plugged in for 6 years or so. I just run an extension if I change box and need to do a call back.

You're correct when you say that the viewing card can be activated via a phone call rather than the line, but it's stipulated by sky that you do a call back via the back to pair the card (as it proves you have bothered to install the phone line, or at least an extension across the middle of the room )

You may be a lucky or it may be the other way around.

Certainly have had the letters here when a box was not plugged in for some months.

Obviously they pick at random who to tell to put a interactive lead in,to be honest if they started bothering me then i would stop using sky and they would lose the massive monthly subscription it costs.

To be perfectly honest i only have it for the football even though we have the full package............Each Sky Hd box costs £10 a month subscription and then there is another cost of £10 just for the multi room and that's all before we have added the subscription to the various television stations on offer.

Personally i think its a complete and utter rip of and if free sat and free view were a little better i would drop sky without hesitation

Problem is they have the monopoly and if you want Premier league football you have little choice and that's a shame

Thanks for the comments guys.

I'm rubbish with all this technical stuff. Apparently, if i told the engineer i didn't want it connecting to sky they're told not to install anymore?

Will it simply just be a case of him sorting out the box, then running a phone line from it to my actualy box, either upstairs or down. And then from there fitting a extension so i can have more than 2 things plugged in?

Laymans terms please lol

Let them come around and do the install and tell them you have bt or someone else coming around at a certain time to fit the phone socket.

Do not let sky do it because i believe there work leaves a lot to be desired [don't wont to worry you] But i have had Sky since the late 80s and have moved house and had work done by them on numerous occasions and its all been very sub standard .

Not once have i had a sky engineer or contractor do what i call a neat proper job.

If you tell Sky on the phone before they come out that you have not got a phone line connected or you don't plan on having one there is more than enough chance that they will not call..............Once there at your house i tell you now they don't care less and just want Sky to pay them for the installation and move on to as many houses as they can get done in a day.

Edited by time2die (Thu 18-Feb-10 23:18:15)

"Not once have i had a sky engineer or contractor do what i call a neat proper job."

It doesn't matter who you get to install an extension - they're all skirting board, under the carpet and round door jamb merchants.

If your DSL has been fine recently without you having done anything, that would indicate that there was an external problem which has been fixed anyway.

Personally, I'd get the extension installed. It may not cause a problem (especially if you ask the installer to leave the ring wire disconnected). If it works ok, you've got a useful phone extension. If it doesn't, it would be easy enough to disconnect it later.


John.

Edited by deleted (Fri 19-Feb-10 08:28:05)

In reply to a post by John_ON:

I don't have Sky these days but, early last year, my brother had multi-room installed but didn't connect the phone line to the second box. He received a letter from Sky a few months afterwards reminding him of his contract obligations.

John.

Yes, it has happened to me.... twice, and to other people I know. Once when I disconnected the boxes to do some major decorating, and another time when one box was faulty and wasn't dialing out. Each time I got a letter telling me that if I didn't reconnect the box(es), they would start billing for two full subs.

Every time this subject comes up on a forum, a smart-a.......lec appears to announce to the world that they have never had the phone connected, and never have, and if Sky ever send a letter....blah, blah, blah. I think it may be the same bloke every time

In reply to a post by John_ON:

"Not once have i had a sky engineer or contractor do what i call a neat proper job."

It doesn't matter who you get to install an extension - they're all skirting board, under the carpet and round door jamb merchants.

They won't drill through walls because they don't want to pay for repairs to burst pipes or damaged electrical cables. The only holes they'll ever drill is for the satellite feeds, and they even get nervous about drilling for those.

In reply to a post by zebedeee:

They won't drill through walls because they don't want to pay for repairs to burst pipes or damaged electrical cables. The only holes they'll ever drill is for the satellite feeds, and they even get nervous about drilling for those.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Mind you, I got a private installer to install a dish for freesat last year who wasn't particularly nervous. The hole on the wall was big enough to crawl through (almost!) http://vwlowen.co.uk/freesat/freesat.htm

John.

In reply to a post by zebedeee:

Every time this subject comes up on a forum, a smart-a.......lec appears to announce to the world that they have never had the phone connected, and never have, and if Sky ever send a letter....blah, blah, blah. I think it may be the same bloke every time

I don't doubt that there are people who have slipped through the system, just as there may be a few whose subscription never seems to expire. Computer records aren't perfect, especially if Customer Services has ever had to amend a record manually for some reason.

But I'd expect it is the exception rather than the norm and I don't think it's appropriate to offer it as advice when asked

John.

I've never had sky because they use the connection to the telephone to log your activity.
This is used to justify the number of subscribers and viewing figures.
OTOH I may be completely wrong.

Anyone know why you have to pay a subscription, but still have adverts interrupt programs? I have a relative who has it and after upgrading to the movie package, still can't work out why nothing has changed - apart from needing to subscribe to HD to watch some films (which he doesn't even know what is on, let alone having a HD TV). He only seems to watch the quiz programs, after all he is over 80 - now starting to complain that even they are repeats!

Well I have had sky for years and apart from an extension cable plugged into it the first day it has never been connected to the phone line. Never had a complaint yet.

In reply to a post by red747:

Well I have had sky for years and apart from an extension cable plugged into it the first day it has never been connected to the phone line. Never had a complaint yet.

It's mandatory on multi-room. Have you got more than one Sky box?