Sky Broadband, speed advice

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
95,522
Location
I'm back baby!
DownStream Connection Speed 416 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 416 kbps

I'm paying for up to 8 mb.

I'm less than 1.5 miles away from the exchange (I'm 1.5 miles by road).

Speedtest barely gives me 400kb/s. I get similar upload to download.

We've only just signed up for it, and I'm not staying there if that's what I'm getting. I'm in two minds whether to just cancel right now or not. I've signed up for 12 months but they're not delivering what was agreed. I know it is 'up to' 8mb, but lets face it, that's not even close.
 
Associate
Joined
27 Jun 2006
Posts
1,473
My dad has Sky and it can change how good it is by the hour - fast to slow in a blink of an eye.

Even the engineer we had out to his house said there was nothing wrong and he couldn't do anything - whether that was BS or not I don't know.

And isn't it March they put the price increase on?
 
Associate
Joined
21 Jul 2008
Posts
1,730
Location
Outside the asylum
I must admit I've been impressed with Sky, getting a consistent 15Mbps on max.
Are you on the connect or mid package? Your connection stats might give a clue what's going on.
 
Permabanned
Joined
21 Apr 2008
Posts
872
Location
Gloucester, UK
Have you logged into your routers configuration page through Internet Explorer (Netgear router = 192.168.1 Username = admin, Password = sky) and checked the downstream connection speed? If it is less than 8000kbps, ring sky and tell them to increase it.

Also try TCP Optimizer http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

Let me know how you get on....


edit: just seen that you obviously HAVE logged into your router, sorry. Ring sky (Broadband Technical) and demand that they increase it - That's what I did.
 
Last edited:
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
95,522
Location
I'm back baby!
I'm on the mid package. Up to 8mb.

The Config page output is what I pasted into the quote in the OP. The downstream right now according to the router is 320 kbps.

I'll speak to Sky before trying to optimise it. Seems too big a difference to be anything else.
 
Associate
Joined
21 Jul 2008
Posts
1,730
Location
Outside the asylum
Your high attenuation figure is pretty much at the limit of ADSL working at all (IIRC), and explains the poor speeds. The attenuation figure is effectively a measure of distance for a healthy line, which doesn't line up with you being 1.5 miles from the exchange (although the cable distance could be greater of course).
When you ring sky they are almost certain to ask you to plug your router directly into the BT master socket as this would rule out any extension wiring problems in your house. If you try this and see if it makes a difference to the line stats it would tell you if the problem was at your end or not...
 
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
95,522
Location
I'm back baby!
Sky have said there were 7000 errors on the line and that the line itself had been set up to be 9mb. Because of the errors on the line it had dropped to a third of a mb.

The woman I spoke to first off on tech support said I should have a maximum of 6.5 mb. She put me through to the customer solutions dept. They said I had a max of 4.5mb and they dropped it from 9mb to 4mb to see what happened. It stayed at a third of a mb. They dropped it again and said something else I couldn't fathom (irish accent) that should have increased my downstream connection speed. It raised it by about 20k each time.

They've passed it on and told me I'll get a call back within 48 hours.

[edit]I'm already in the BT master socket with no extensions plugged in, Sky TV unplugged, etc.
 
Associate
Joined
21 Jul 2008
Posts
1,730
Location
Outside the asylum
Sounds like there is something weird going on - I don't really understand the attenuation figure your router is giving and suspect it's telling porkies.
I hope they get it sorted for you quickly.
 
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
95,522
Location
I'm back baby!
One thing I have noticed, one site said to take the front plate off the master socket and try using a test socket.

The test socket doesn't work, and there's no wires at all connecting the front plate to the rest of the main socket.

Wonder if that could be the cause.
 
Caporegime
Joined
28 Jun 2007
Posts
52,813
Location
Tamworth, UK
The front plate will only have extension wires connected to it, which means you don't have any extension wiring.

Your SNR should be enough to give you a slight speed increase although the attenuation is very high. I am surprised it is so low, it suggests a line fault to me.

For example, the person on this thread is getting 4mb with attenuation of 56 db. I am getting 6mb with attenuation of 46 db. You can see the pattern.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
21 Jul 2008
Posts
1,730
Location
Outside the asylum
When you say test socket, you do mean the socket that the removable front plate plugs into? If so, I don't understand how it could work via the front plate but not the test socket itself.
Have you tried using a different microfilter to rule that out?
 
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
95,522
Location
I'm back baby!
The same microfilter works fine through the front of the socket, that's what I don't understand.

If you mean for the overall problem, yes, I've tried that.
 
Back
Top Bottom