What is Sky broadband like?

Hunders · 21 Mar 2008 at 17:58

We are thinking of moving our television, broadband and phone line to Sky as they are MUCH cheaper than what we are paying for Virgin. I know the TV and phone packages are going to be fine but I am unsure as to what the broadband service is like.

Can anyone shed some light as to what I should expect from the best BB service sky offer?

For comparison sake, I am on Virgin's 4MB cable service at the moment.

Cheers.

mightynimrod · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:08

Cool for me, i get a full 8mb for £5

Luvverly Jubberly

Andybtsn · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:15

It did suck until I flashed my router now it's great

tem07 · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:31

It's great. I'm on the max plan, but I'm at 2.5mbps - my maximum rate.
Router is fine, don't really need to flash it TBH.
Also I think that the usage policy is better off on the Sky Max plan - the best one.

But once you get your router etc. you really want to get the password and user name because Sky don't supply you with it.

mightynimrod · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:32

Andybtsn said:
It did suck until I flashed my router now it's great

Andy, what firmware did you flash it with???

Andybtsn · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:32

The router is certianly not fine, the Sky firmware on there really is a load of ****.

Andybtsn · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:33

mightynimrod said:
Andy, what firmware did you flash it with???

Well, the firmware imf file I have says "dg834gt_1_02_09.img"

Someone will soon link a really good website that guides you through flashing the router, it's really easy and quick.

tem07 · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:36

Andybtsn said:
The router is certianly not fine, the Sky firmware on there really is a load of ****.

Why do you say so?
I'm not disagreeing with you just curious.
Also here is the guide to flash your router. I'm not sure which router you will get though, there are 3 different ones I think.

Andybtsn · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:40

tem07 said:
Why do you say so?
I'm not disagreeing with you just curious.

I had continious disconnections via wireless when using either my laptop/360/pc. Sky said it wasn't a problem on their end (surprise surprise)
Also the options within the router are not that of what you have on the normal Netgear DG834GT.

I didn't want to flash it but I was left with no option in the end, since I did it over 6/8 weeks ago I have experienced no loss of connection

Hunders · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:47

Ok, cheers guys.

I will definitely consider getting a Sky package now! Apparently we can get a free Sky+ box if we subscribe by the end of the month and I can also buy another Sky+ box off of my mate for cheap that I can use in another room.

Andybtsn · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:49

Hunders said:
Ok, cheers guys.

I will definitely consider getting a Sky package now! Apparently we can get a free Sky+ box if we subscribe by the end of the month and I can also buy another Sky+ box off of my mate for cheap that I can use in another room.

Remember to do the "recommend a friend" as you then both get a free Sky+ box.

gurusan · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:49

Sky broadband is decent. Customer service is horrendous though...

Schizo · 21 Mar 2008 at 18:59

Andybtsn said:
It did suck until I flashed my router now it's great

how did you flash your router m8 ?

Andybtsn · 21 Mar 2008 at 19:12

schizo220168 said:
how did you flash your router m8 ?

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/view-flash.html

Rainmaker · 21 Mar 2008 at 19:45

1.02.09 is old firmware now - Negtear are up to 1.02.14 as of last month. The official firmware does NOT enable Telnet or have NAT loopback though. They did however finally fix the bug where site/domain blocking didn't work (it does now

).

Better than that though, the unofficial DGTeam firmware has the latest ADSL driver, FreeDG optimisations (tweaks for page loading times), Telnet is auto-enabled, and it has NAT loopback, WOL etc. Site/domain blocking also works, albeit silently (no "Netgear DG834GT blocked this page" message - just fails to load). Because Netgear fw is open source anyone is free to examine and modify it, which is exactly what the likes of Braco (the now defunct UberGT project) and Stev-O (DGTeam) have done.

IMHO Stev-O has done a great job on this, and it blows the official fw out of the water. You can find out more (and download it) from HERE

EDIT - Forgot to say, the DGTeam firmware also has an advanced ADSL settings page where you can tweak your SNR, enable or disable SRA, and force modulation (ADSL 1 or 2 instead of ADSL2+ on unstable lines for example). Great kit!

Andybtsn · 21 Mar 2008 at 19:48

Rainmaker said:
1.02.09 is old firmware now - Negtear are up to 1.02.14 as of last month. The official firmware does NOT enable Telnet or have NAT loopback though. They did however finally fix the bug where site/domain blocking didn't work (it does now ).

Better than that though, the unofficial DGTeam firmware has the latest ADSL driver, FreeDG optimisations (tweaks for page loading times), Telnet is auto-enabled, and it has NAT loopback, WOL etc. Site/domain blocking also works, albeit silently (no "Netgear DG834GT blocked this page" message - just fails to load). Because Netgear fw is open source anyone is free to examine and modify it, which is exactly what the likes of Braco (the now defunct UberGT project) and Stev-O (DGTeam) have done.

IMHO Stev-O has done a great job on this, and it blows the official fw out of the water. You can find out more (and download it) from HERE

Whats NAT loopback?

The only problem I have with the router but I think it's apparent in all routers that I can have both my wireless 360's to have the NAT open, one can be Open bu tthe other is always Moderate or Strict.

Rainmaker · 21 Mar 2008 at 19:56

Never had/used a 360 so I can't help there, sorry

As for NAT loopback though... Basically it's a handy feature that allows you to send traffic out from your PC and back in through the router as though it came from someone else on the internet.

In plain English: Say you set up a web server, and want to test it. Go to server.yourdomain.com or "IP.ADDRESS.OF.YOUR.MACHINE" and you'll get an error. That's because your router would be incapable of sending out your http request and then handling it as though it came from outside. In other words you're unable to access your own machine as though you were visiting from the internet.

Add in NAT loopback (an invisible, automatic process) and going to server.yourdomain.com or "IP.ADDRESS.OF.YOUR.MACHINE" would give you your web server page just as if you'd visited it from another machine on the internet.

It's like a mirror - it allows you to send out traffic and have it routed back to your own computer. Something the official firmware doesn't do. Sure you might not need it, but for anyone running a server it's pretty important to know it's not ONLY running on localhost LOL

theheyes · 21 Mar 2008 at 20:01

Sky BB is okay, and very cheap. As someone pointed out though the customer service is a joke. I had to spend three weeks chasing them up for a replacement router after mine died (it was at that point I discovered I couldn't just swap it out with a new one) which was very annoying.

The ONLY reason I've stuck with them is because its dirt cheap. I'm out of my 12 month contract now so I'm looking for an alternative but they all seem to be rubbish.

Rainmaker · 21 Mar 2008 at 20:06

The best bet for tech support on Sky is to wait until after 11pm and get through to tier 3 (now known as Customer Resolutions Team iirc). Basically blag the tier 1 script monkey with talk about dropped packets, DNS lags and high latency. He'll not know what the hell you're on about and will pass you through to CSR. Then you have an English speaking "real" tech who can help answer whatever problem you're having.

I'm with UK Online personally, which is now owned by Sky and uses the same Easynet backbone. Not "THE" best, but FAR from the worst. I get a solid >2MB/sec (2,000 to 2,200 KB/sec) 24/7 with no throttling or port blocking

The only thing I DON'T like about them is their unwillingness to tweak the line as opposed to Be.

Still great for the price though and tech support is definitely better than Sky's in most ways. How about Be, theheyes? £18 for all you can eat on LLU. Can't be bad.

tem07 · 21 Mar 2008 at 20:50

Yeah, the support for Sky BB is crud, but yeah as Rainmaker said you can speak to their ''Tier 3'' support people who are in Britain. Sometimes they're easy to get to if you speak to a nice chap on 'Tier 1' - the first people you speak to.