Possible change to Sky Unlimited LLU from Plusnet Pro

Hi All,

I'm currently a happy PN Pro customer and have been for over 2-years, I have never had an issue with it really.

Sky and talktalk have just become available in my small exchange (~2.9k residential connections).

I'm thinking of switching to sky LLU for broadband (keeping BT for rental for ease of ISP switching if Sky poor) as they are so much cheaper (would save £10 pcm) and offer unlimited use and the possibility of faster speed (sky's webpage says 8-10Mb on my line, I currently max out IP stream with an 8Mb sync).

How is sky, many problems? Is it fast at all times of the day like PN pro? Is it traffic shaped? Any cons compared to PN pro? Is static IP a possibility?

Thanks for any replies.

Edited by deleted (Tue 19-Apr-11 22:37:40)

Hi i can answer a few but not all they do not traffic shape at all. As far as i no from friends family it stays the same speed all day/night for them. They DO NOT offer static ips at all and the only con is that you've got to use there router its in there terms. But most people including my self in a few week will be using own routers by extracting login details from sky router. My best friends estimate was 8-10 he gets 14 i think they lower it to cover there own backs so you cant say well you promised me this speed etc but cant be 100% on that could just be him being lucky.

Ive just gone from VM to sky (phone rental and broadband already had sky TV so get BB for 7.50) and saving over 22 quid a month compared to VM just waiting on my modem coming threw the post i would recommend them if you want unlimited un shaped downloads and to save a few quid a month.

If you post your current router stats im sure we can work out a rough estimate that you should be able tyo get on skys ADSL2+

Ash

Hi Ash,

Thanks for your advice and information. If they don't traffic shape and assuming it's not oversubscribed speeds should be great. No static IP is a bummer but ain't going to change often with a router connected anyway. Thanks for offering to look at my stats. Not quite sure what you need but below is what I could find on my router's web interface (2 wire 2700HGV):

DSL Connection Details
DSL Line (Wire Pair): Line 1 (inner pair)
Protocol: G.DMT Annex A
Downstream Rate: 8128 kbps
Upstream Rate: 448 kbps
Channel: Fast
Current Noise Margin: 12.0 dB (Downstream) 24.0 dB (Upstream)
Current Attenuation: 16.0 dB (Downstream) 8.0 dB (Upstream)
Current Output Power: 19.8 dBm (Downstream) 12.1 dBm (Upstream)
DSLAM Vendor Information: Country: {0xB5} Vendor: {TSTC} Specific: {0x00}
PVC Info: 0/38

I think this means I am maxing out BT's ADSL1 IPStream which supports upto an 8Mbit sync? Wonder why BT has been so slow compared to LLU providers in moving beyond 8MBit...

Off topic...
I just called BT to cancel auto renewal of evening and weekend contract (just want them for line rental, have mobiles for calls). Muppet tried pushing BT broadband and arguing with me claiming it will support the max speed my line will,etc. etc. Really struggled to get him to do what I called for! Not only that.. but if cancelling evening and weekend 12-month renewal you also then later have to call back on the renewal date as you automatically go onto a monthly plan paying for evening and weekend calls (£3pcm). They can't do it in advance and if you do it a day late you pay the £3 for that month - they must be getting millions out of that.. screwing their customers.

Edited by deleted (Wed 20-Apr-11 18:59:02)

In reply to a post by mathew2:

Wonder why BT has been so slow compared to LLU providers in moving beyond 8MBit...

BT has moved; it's called 21CN WBC. If your exchange is enabled thus you can get up to 20 Meg.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by mathew2:

Wonder why BT has been so slow compared to LLU providers in moving beyond 8MBit...

BT has moved; it's called 21CN WBC. If your exchange is enabled thus you can get up to 20 Meg.

Unfortunately it too (just like 20CN Max) suffers from IP profile management restrictions after loss of sync unlike most if not all LLU connections.

Harry

Sorry, yea, slipped my mind. The way BT put it to their customers is that it's available everywhere and they can't be beaten on speed - bull.

Still, no good for me and suspect LLU Sky (just become available) will get the best speeds?

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/LCEAR

Cheers

I've yet to assess whether it is unfortunate.

Orange has just forced me to move to WBC 2 nights ago. I have not yet seen any adverse effects from the BT Profile:

IP Profile for your line is - 13519 Kbps

but is early days yet.

My only grip is that I've lost about 0.4 Meg from my Up Speed. Is 888 Kbps the norm for WBC Up Speeds?

Did the speed check at Kitz and Sky User using my attenuation number and it came back with 20 Mbit. 12 Mbit more, unlimited usage, and half the price.. bit the bullet and ordered, will phone for MAC in the morning. Fingers crossed Sky will be as good as PN Pro!

20Mbps is top limit. If your home wiring is OK, a minimum of 18Mbps. Bad wiring may mean below 18Mbps.

If you haven't already optimised your wiring, now would seem a good time. Start with the Ring/Bell wire and Miscellaneous Nasties pages in my Troubleshooting section.

A very sensible move.

(By the way - when you move to Sky LLU, they put you on 4Mbps for the first few days while their DLM susses out the line. So don't panic ).

Thanks for that. Just had a look at my faceplate and it's an openreach (house built 2007). Only other things connected are a cheapo phone on an upstairs extension (filtered) and a filtered dect base off the master faceplate.. so all Ok I think.

You still need to remove the ring wire at the master socket.

you could also get a prefiltered faceplate (providint its a NTE5 type socket) found here . They look better than standard filters hanging out of your wall and also as its pre filtered any extensions shouldn't need filtering any more. I fitted mine before ever having ADSL before so cant say if it made my line any better or not. But a friend uses it and gave him 3 extra meg (bit of a bad line) the reviews also give good results.

Ash

Didn't think I needed to as thought the Openreach faceplate meant it has the filter (though maybe improved slightly? by disconnecting it from the extension)? Router is not plugged into the extension but into the master.

Edited by deleted (Thu 21-Apr-11 21:31:08)

Ah, sorry, yes you are right - in theory. The Openreach faceplate flters the ring wire.

I'm not sure I would trust it, given your below expected speed. Removing the ring wire cannot do any harm at all, and it has to be at the master. Though very occasionally doing it at the extension as well can help.

I take it the choke is behind the socket's plastic and the bottom half faceplate is the same as non openreach faceplates? Reason I ask is I'm thinking of fitting an adslnation (or solwise , austin taylor, clarity, etc) filtered faceplate for the best connection assuming they're still Ok with the openreach master socket..

Thanks!

Edited by deleted (Fri 22-Apr-11 20:53:08)

Yes, those filtered faceplates are compatible.

However, (given that I have a newish cable from the pole, straight into an NTE5 (pre-OR logo'ed)), I got an ADSL Nation XTE-2005 and their top ADSL cable to see if I got any improvement over a supplied-with-router ADSL cable and a very old BT Excelsus filter, and lost a couple of hundred kbps and no benefit to noise margin variability. So went back to what I had.

Thanks for the reply.

I've gone with an Austin Taylor faceplate (gave best performance in a review here: http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/cabling-faceplate-hel... and plastic Krone tool from Solwise, total inc. shipping £12. This should help neaten up my wiring as it'll cut down from having a filter dangling out of the master socket and from the extension. If I see similar to you (i.e. performance worse) then I will remove it. I also plan on disconnecting the bell wire at both ends. Maybe I should have tried my router in the test socket before splashing the cash but I figured it can't do any (hopefully) harm and it's so much neater having a filtered faceplate that offers filtered extensions.

Edited by deleted (Sat 23-Apr-11 15:26:45)

Disconnected the ring wire and fitted an Austin Taylor filtered faceplate with extension now pre-filtered by the faceplate. Stats very similar downlink attenuation reduced from 16 dB to 15.6dB (pretty much the same as in the test socket which was 15.5 dB). With/without the ring wire made no difference (though I haven't disconnected it at the extension socket). Still maxing out ADSL 1 of course. At least things are neater now without filters hanging off sockets and a better chance of maxing out ADSL 2