Sky Broadband
 

Good or Bad

I guess it is like most things. Has good and bad points

Re: Sky Broadband
 

ADSL so depends on line quality, quality of equipment on line and distance from exchange to name a few things. Do you know how far you are from your exchange?

Re: Sky Broadband
 

what do you mean

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Exchange, Is like a mini data centre where your calls and broadband is routed through. In this case Sky, they are BT Wholesalers & use BT exchanges. There is a difference, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) which is used by the likes of BT, SKY, Pipex etc the list goes on - most of these are BT wholesalers. So they say for example "up to 8MB" the speed of your adsl connection, will depend on how far you are away from the BT exchange if it's next door great, you should get full if not all the 8mb if its 1 mile + then your speed will be dependant on how far away you are.

Now - Virgin Media Use DSL = Digital subscriber line - This means, they do not use Exchanges etc. You have Fibre Optics for the conection, which means, you get faster downloads, more of the speed you pay for etc. If I remember rightly, the green box you may have at the end of your street, the connection from there is copper, where as from the box to the DC is Fibre *I think this is right* where as BT is copper all the way!

My advice, if you are going just on price then you are a fool. Think about the problems this may cause, price isn't everything you know!

Re: Sky Broadband
 

A post from someone who has no clue. Sky only provide up to 8mb on the BT dslams. Sky use the Easynet network for LLU which means the exchange is unbundled. They can provide upto 16mb. There is no STM's either on any Sky packages. Some of there packages have limits but not all.

Check if your exchange is unbundled for Easynet/Sky

This is the speeds I get on my Sky line

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/res...7135&v=3833818
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2008/04/47.png

All for £10 a month

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Good for you!

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Nice comeback considering I was correcting you

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Really couldn't care less!

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Thats why you keep replying huh?

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Re: Sky Broadband
 

poo poo............ You talk rubbish.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

My apologies.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

for £10 thats fantastic...I'm thinking of jumping off Virgin 2Mb as its gone back to £18...Which is a joke in my View.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

At first when I switched to Sky, my area were having problems causing my connection to cut out every few hours. It's stable now though, and I'm getting 2.7Mb down with 768K up (I always get these speeds) - only £10 a month as well. My download may be slower than what my Virgin Media connection was (which was 4MB), but it's the upload I want the most as uploading many music files to my website takes far too long on 400K.

Initially I wasn't pleased, but now I am since everything is working :)

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Dont have Sky bb myself but my uncle does and the last few times I've been over and borrowed his PC it seems to be fine :)

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Don't forget to add £10.50 BT line rental

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Yeah but that means nothing when you have that already! We have BT phone in the house and i dont consider that with My BB.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Sky actually paid for our BT line to be reactivated - we also switched to Sky for our phone service, so we've got the entire package.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

its either Sky or be.... i like the sound of the upload of 1.3meg even if it was half that!

Your skyBB been ok ?

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Well my router says the upload is at 768k, and I pretty much get that. 80-90kb/s uploads all the time. The router is wireless and secured out-of-the-box too, which is a huge bonus on security.

The first few days were a nightmare with it cutting out, but that was an area problem which a few emails to Sky got them to fix it - now I've not run into any problems, and it's extremely stable.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Hi so the Router is at the phone line what else do i need at the computer end?

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Just an NIC (Network Interface Card) so you can plug the router into your PC.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

I have that, my phone line is not near the #PC what fits at the phone link

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Phone socket > microfilter > Router > ethernet to PC

or

Phone socket > microfilter > Router > wireless to PC

Re: Sky Broadband
 

I think its router down by the phone and Wireless!

So i guess i need a Wireless card?

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Yep, if you want to go wireless.


Also, for Sky BB, Sky supply you with a wireless router, plus a few microfilters.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Sky would save me £10 a month for the 16Mb over Be but Be get great reviews.

need this for the Be wireless Modem

A 802.11b or 802.11g compatible network adapter for wireless connection to the Be Box if i kbew what that was lol

KINGNET KN-W510P PCI 802.11g/802.11b 54mbps Wireless Network Card

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Depends how close you are to the exchange to receive 16mb, you may be better off on the £5 package if you are too far away?
802.11B is 11mb connection speed
802.11G is 54mb connection speed

Re: Sky Broadband
 

That would mean bandwidth limits, which the highest (£10) package doesn't have ;)

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Yep but most people wouldn't even see 60gb in a month lol. :D
I do, but im on the £10 one. :angel:

Re: Sky Broadband
 

South how far away are you from the exchange?

Re: Sky Broadband
 

That's why I have the "Max" package.


Can't actually get any more than 7-8mbps, at a push, 'cos of my line length, but still happy to pay £10 rather than £5 due to the higher upload speed & the "unlimited" usage.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

that download speed is crazy, i use Sky BB too on the 16MB £10 a month package but dont get anywhere near that. I'll post my speed later tonight but how can I realistically get my speed up to what you have?

i am going the way of Phone socket > microfilter > Router > ethernet to PC

Re: Sky Broadband
 

ADSL depends on many things including condition of internal telephone wiring (extensions can seriously impact coditions), condition of line between you and exchange, condition of equipment on line, condition of equipment at exchange, distance from exchange and contention to name but a few. If you have any extensions remove them from the line for testing, if you have old wiring you may be looking to remove the bell wire as it pulls in interference etc. Skyuser is a good place to start asking questions.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

good point, i am running an extension from main phone socket to the room where the PC is. Would a wireless connection give me a faster d/l speed if plugged the Router into where the main phone socet is?

i shall check out skyuser too, thanks for the advice

Re: Sky Broadband
 

get shot of the extension or run a long ethernet, without the extension you may improve your speed but lose it again across wireless. Get the router directly onto the filter at the main socket and see if it improves things.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

It is a awesome service

I dont get throttled nor do i get problems on peak

This was done just now
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2008/04/44.png

Re: Sky Broadband
 

That is a great speed all the same,plenty on ~Virgin getting 5 and 6 mb and there on 20mb

Re: Sky Broadband
 

And likewise, there are plenty on 4Mb getting 4Mb ;)

Thu, 3 Apr 2008 21:51:53 UTC

Test 1: 1024K took 2137 ms = 479.2 KB/sec, approx 3949 Kbps, 3.86 Mbps
Test 2: 1024K took 2133 ms = 480.1 KB/sec, approx 3956 Kbps, 3.86 Mbps
Test 3: 1024K took 2126 ms = 481.7 KB/sec, approx 3969 Kbps, 3.88 Mbps
Test 4: 2048K took 4262 ms = 480.5 KB/sec, approx 3959 Kbps, 3.87 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 3958 Kbps, 3.87 Mbps

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Current Bebox is a Thompson Speedtouch 585 v6 (although there should be a v7 coming out soon)

It's ok but not that great can have problems when a lot of connections are opened e.g P2p.etc and it's not the most user friendly thing in the world.

Then again BE* don't stop you from using your own router it's just the Bebox is the only Supported router so you can if you prefer use another router but keep the bebox somewhere where you can get to it should you need to call tech-support as they may request you connect up the Bebox.

It does support bridge mode though so you can actually just use it as a DSL modem for a separate router (Wrt54GL running Tomato in my case)

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Just a bit of advise for those who want to go wireless,
Sky DO NOT support 3rd party wireless adaptors,ie not bought from Sky.If you have a problem setting up a Lynxys for example & call Sky,you will in all likelyhood be referred to them.
If you do get put thru to the Philapines Tier 1,Then you'll get fobbed off to the old Tier 2 for a wired connection & have to re-do t/shooting & they may be able to help.
And for the 'experts' here who will say I dont know what I'm on about,Well,I used to work in Sky BBand Tier 2( and when it merged with Tier 3)until I left earlier this year

Re: Sky Broadband
 

Sky only support their own hardware, they have a basic process in place to passively advise customers using other hardware but at end of day they can only do so much and often have to refer to OEM.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

What Paul said.

Re: Sky Broadband
 

No different to pretty much any other ISP out there.