What is Sky broadband like?

[Sonea Fifer]

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)

Called Customer Solutions Team

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.

Am assuming your referring to Sky's outsourced foreign call centre? They're based in Manila in the Philippines - am sure there's a reason so many companies are now advertising UK only call centres - we can only hope Sky take note and follow suit !

 

[zinc]

I myself would recommend you to stay away from sky

Got it myself 8mb Mid, had it for near year now and can’t wait till the contract ends. From day one I have had problems.

1. Firstly ping is high which is not good for gaming, I know yes I can phone their tech support, but I shouldn’t have to waste time and money doing it in the first place to fix my connection.. Plus even though it has been rectified, the ping is still high for a 8mb connection. On my previous ISP we had just a 1MB package and the ping was better then..

2. Their SMTP for email is down at least once a week and they keep changing their smtp server name unannounced which means you cannot send emails. In fact it was not working last night there. POP is also not supported for the iPhone which can be annoying.

3. Connection is not reliable during the night; had multiple times where I’ve left my PC on to download over night and the connection has gone off. Wake up to see my download has to be restarted again.

4. As others have said the firmware on the router is limited but can be flashed easily. One problem I had was that IP's where conflicting even though I had them all reserved, and the whole network comes to a standstill. But flashing new firmware fixed this

5. Their support is bad unless you get the tier 3 guys, which sometimes can take many calls.



So yea I've had a bad expierence with them and regret getting it now.

 

[tipsy]

1. Firstly ping is high which is not good for gaming, I know yes I can phone their tech support, but I shouldn’t have to waste time and money doing it in the first place to fix my connection.. Plus even though it has been rectified, the ping is still high for a 8mb connection. On my previous ISP we had just a 1MB package and the ping was better then..

The reason for this is that your were on a 1mb fixed line not a rate adaptive/ADSL line hence lower ping so U achieved pings of 15-40 but with sky interleaving was on so you would look at pings of 30-100 depending on gaming servers (Max delay can be reduced or turned off).

It has been stated that sky have bad customer service but mostly your net works out as the same price as other when U get the sky package aswell. Sky/Phone/Internet from £16-£26 value for money. My brothers has been fine & he now can download at higher speed, better than his old account with BT.

 

[Roland0]

1. Firstly ping is high which is not good for gaming,

I to have noticed that the ping on Sky appears very high, I at first assumed it was something that would go away, and since im not gaming yet (pc back at home) Im wasnt really bothered, but ive consistantly found the ping to be **AT LEAST** 125, now that is just bad! Sometimes it even times out! This isnt just one server either its tens!!!

Has anybody noticed that this is a MAJOR problem with skys service?

Does anyone have a solution to this? im gutted i didnt thinl that broadband would be that bad, even if it is a 2mb line

 

[Hunders]

Ok, I am getting put off now as I use my PC for quite a bit of gaming.

I found a link on these forums a while back which listed the UK's most popular ISPs and had customer reviews and ratings but I can't seem to find it again. Anyone know what I am talking about and care to link me to it, please.

Ta.

 

[Roland0]

Hunders, dont get too put off, it could be this ancient PC im on, or just a setting;

a lot of people on the sky forums seem to be talking about fastpath and interleaving. It seems that interleaving is used to make lines more stable when there is noise, but the interleaving of the signal causes some latency 40-60ms not really much but a lot if you gaming.

Anybody got sky to turn this off? I guess im lucky in that i live about 30m from the phone exchange, and my line attenuation is 10 dB and the SnR is about 31dB, so i doubt that i need interleaving.

Read this :
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/interleaving.htm

 

[matt1]

Been with them now for nearly a year and the service has been good, much better than NTL/Virgin cable.

Thought about flashing my router but if you read the TCs then think again, not worth the bother imo. I do get random problems from time to time, once a fortnight but resetting the router sorts it out. For the money it's a good offer.

I'm on the 16Mb service and get ~800Kbps max on newsgroups.

 

[zinc]

My ping before phoning them up was around 90 and now its around 70 minimum. This ping is ok if you play World of Warcraft or something but try playing an FPS and you notice it. I might as well be playing in france or Germany their pings are better to English servers.

Have a look around the skyuserforums and you just see how much a problem this interleaving thing is. As others of said the download speed is great 700k+, but the ping just spoils it for me. Was too good to be true at the time and they had to skimp somewhere and it was the line.

 

[Sonea Fifer]

Sky wont change from interleave to fastpath due to the possible stability issues that could occur when fastpath allows the dslam to pass the data received from you to the first hop router without performing any error correction.

There was talk of a package geared specifically toward gamers with lowered delays but that doesn't appear to be going ahead.

Sky will soon be launching a new broadband package though, its aimed at non Sky subscribers - there's no set contract time but there will be a connection fee. This will be called Sky Picnic and its being trialed at the moment with the official launch expected soon.

What does surprise me is the excellent level of support offered from Sky by their Tier3 Customer Solutions Team (when you can get through to them) especially considering the same job they do with any other ISP would pay significantly more than what they're on.

 

[Roland0]

 

[Roland0]

Ive been reading on th3e sky user forums that they will turn the interleaving down to 8 or somthing down form 64? (possibly causing instability if you have a bad line)

Apparently this has been solving many peoples Ping issues. Ill phone them in the next few weeks to get it fixed. Best i can ping anythign is 75, people who had pings like that usualy got it down to 30ms, now thats more like it..

 

[Sonea Fifer]

Ive been reading on th3e sky user forums that they will turn the interleaving down to 8 or somthing down form 64? (possibly causing instability if you have a bad line)

Apparently this has been solving many peoples Ping issues. Ill phone them in the next few weeks to get it fixed. Best i can ping anythign is 75, people who had pings like that usualy got it down to 30ms, now thats more like it..

What they're actually doing is reducing the max delays from 32 (default) to 8 if your on ADSL1 (g-dmt) this is what reduces your latency during FPS gaming.

It can in some cases cause stability issues if the line isn't configured correctly though. Also its only their Tier3 (CST) department that has the facilities to carry this out.

 

[Roland0]

What they're actually doing is reducing the max delays from 32 (default) to 8 if your on ADSL1 (g-dmt) this is what reduces your latency during FPS gaming.

It can in some cases cause stability issues if the line isn't configured correctly though. Also its only their Tier3 (CST) department that has the facilities to carry this out.

Yep thats what it says on the forums. thanks for putting in more clearly

 

[smids]

My ping before phoning them up was around 90 and now its around 70 minimum. This ping is ok if you play World of Warcraft or something but try playing an FPS and you notice it. I might as well be playing in france or Germany their pings are better to English servers.

Have a look around the skyuserforums and you just see how much a problem this interleaving thing is. As others of said the download speed is great 700k+, but the ping just spoils it for me. Was too good to be true at the time and they had to skimp somewhere and it was the line.

Well I asked them to change my delay and from about 50ms ping I now get about 27ms. 27ms is fair on my interleaved line. I have an Attn of 48dBa on a line of 2.4km estimated.

Tbh, the fact they have taken steps to sort this out is good enough for me. Yes, they won't set people to fastpath, but I don't see why this is a problem. If gaming is that important (which is to me), then I have the option to leave their service. I don't however, as the service is good enough as is.

 

[WJA96]

So, if I switch to Sky, I have to use their router?

 

[Schizo]

yes you do and its quite a good looking chap as well....all black.

 

[smids]

yes you do and its quite a good looking chap as well....all black.

That depends on whether you get the new Netgear DG934GT or the older DG834GT. They are still supplying both, and it is luck of the draw, I am led to believe.

 

[crazyDAJT]

So, if I switch to Sky, I have to use their router?

nope,

you can use your own, i have a good belkin one sitting around, the rooter was loosing its DNS servers, and there was no option to set them manually.

didn't want to flash it, so just used mine, rock solid since i change.

 

[crazyDAJT]

sorry to hijack

how do i go about asking them to get my ping down. its not to bad, but it would be nice to be a bit lower

edit: I'm not far form the exchange, its just down the road, noise it 7dB, Attenuation 34.0dB

 

[Sonea Fifer]

sorry to hijack

how do i go about asking them to get my ping down. its not to bad, but it would be nice to be a bit lower

edit: I'm not far form the exchange, its just down the road, noise it 7dB, Attenuation 34.0dB

Either phone them up (08442 41 05 15) or simply email them.

If you phone I'd suggest calling after 2300 when you'll be able to speak to someone in the UK who will be better placed to direct your call to their Tier3 (CST) dept, as I've said before they're the only ones that have the facilities to lower your max delays (which will in turn lower your ping/latency)

If you decide to email they're looking at a swift turnaround for emailed customer enquiries and your would be dealt with by an agent on one of the Kana teams who will also be able to assist