Sky broadband has been rubbish these last few weeks

Phil2008 · 28 May 2020 at 15:20

I think its sorted, I ran a intense line check from the sky and I think the fault got automatically reported as it did find a fault. Its been good for 3 days now and its only been disconnecting/reconnecting at 1-2am in the morning as the speed has gone from 9mb down to 6mb, so Im guessing its resetting dayly to improve the connection speed, but no improvements so far.. It didnt help having to connect the sky hub, as that killed the connection speed from 9.2mb to 7mb straight away.

BT has just put fibre FTTP in my area about 6 months ago, I keep checking with sky but I cant upgrade to it atm.. When I do get the fibre, how do I go about connecting it to my router as it doesn't come down the phoneline.

Caged · 28 May 2020 at 15:26

Sky haven't launched FTTP yet, it's rumoured to be coming in the next month or so

DataVampire · 29 May 2020 at 11:20

Caged said:
Sky haven't launched FTTP yet, it's rumoured to be coming in the next month or so

I have ordered it and it is supped to be installed on the 4th june

Phil2008 · 29 May 2020 at 11:52

Why wont it let me have it then?

YoungBlood · 29 May 2020 at 12:00

Phil2008 said:
Why wont it let me have it then?

I could be wrong but I think "Sky Ultrafast" is just G.Fast and not FTTP. So your cabinet is not G.Fast enabled

Avalon · 29 May 2020 at 16:17

As above Sky have yet to officially launch FTTP, you can however get g.fast, but only the lower speed tier.

DataVampire · 30 May 2020 at 06:58

i thought sky was going to release sky ultrafast 2 isnt that just g fast 2 300mb ?

blueacid · 30 May 2020 at 12:07

Phil2008 said:
When I do get the fibre, how do I go about connecting it to my router as it doesn't come down the phoneline.

There'll be an ONT installed in your property if/when you upgrade to FTTP. That'll convert the fibre optic to an RJ45 network socket. It'll then be a regular network cable from the ONT to a router.
Much like with FTTC when some people use an Openreach modem separate to their routers.

Avalon · 30 May 2020 at 15:10

DataVampire said:
i thought sky was going to release sky ultrafast 2 isnt that just g fast 2 300mb ?

No. Sky have chosen to offer g.fast at £27, that’s the lower speed tier, for some reason they won’t offer the higher speed profile. I already have the higher speed profile (Ultrafast 2) with BT, other ISP’s will however. Ultrafast is what BT have lumped FTTP and g.fast into, they don’t differentiate which doesn’t help (as previous threads here have shown), Sky will be launching FTTP ‘soon’, no info on price or availability yet, but hopefully they also include the higher speed profiles.

Caged · 30 May 2020 at 16:06

I'll be very surprised if Sky don't want to offer a 1Gbps service to compete with BT. They went straight to a 1Gbps service tier in their York FTTP trial, by way of example.

Phil2008 · 30 May 2020 at 18:55

blueacid said:
There'll be an ONT installed in your property if/when you upgrade to FTTP. That'll convert the fibre optic to an RJ45 network socket. It'll then be a regular network cable from the ONT to a router.
Much like with FTTC when some people use an Openreach modem separate to their routers.

I have been looking at videos about FTTP and the network cable plugs into the WAN socket of the router and my billion router has a WAN socket.

Can you see anything wrong with my stats as its still only connecting at 6mb but the Attainable rate is over 10mb and it normally connects between 8-9mb? Its has disconnected a few times today for some reason, so it might not be fixed yet.

blueacid · 4 Jun 2020 at 00:45

Phil2008 said:
I have been looking at videos about FTTP and the network cable plugs into the WAN socket of the router and my billion router has a WAN socket.

Can you see anything wrong with my stats as its still only connecting at 6mb but the Attainable rate is over 10mb and it normally connects between 8-9mb? Its has disconnected a few times today for some reason, so it might not be fixed yet.

The one thing that jumps out to me is the downstream SNR Margin.
Short answer: that's high, it suggests a noisy line, bad wiring, or some other line fault.

Longer answer: When ADSL connects, it tries to go at a speed that isn't just "the fastest it can go", but "the fastest it can go while being reasonably sure it won't have to reconnect". Any noise or degradation on the line that means it can't stay connected means that it'll drop & reconnect. Takes a minute or so, so it's pretty awful if it happens when you're trying to use the internet.

Therefore, when it reconnects, it'll set a bit of margin for error. On a good quality line with no issues, that number can be 6dB or even as low as 3dB, which is basically it saying "I know this line is good quality, and so I don't need to be cautious, I'm very unlikely to be disconnected". Yours is pretty damn high at 13, which is why you're connected at 6meg but could be at 10meg. It's leaving a margin for error, erring on the side of staying connected over than being fast, but not connected long.
The connection duration isn't shown in that picture, but a decent line should stay connected for weeks (/months!) at a stretch. If yours is struggling to make it beyond a day or two, that's another sign.

You have a fault somewhere. Fixing that is the only way forward for a better speed.

Phil2008 · 4 Jun 2020 at 14:08

Thanks for the reply and yes its still disconnecting, I have chatted to sky through facebook but they still need me to ring up to get it sorted. I cannot phone them though as I have a speech problem and the rest of my family are not tech minded at all, plus sky will need to run tests and stuff that will require the sky hub connecting up.. Its sooo annoying that in this day and age you still cant get stuff sorted over the net for disabled people or like me, that cant use a phone ARGGGHHHH.

Caged · 4 Jun 2020 at 14:21

Why don't you phone them using a text relay service?

https://www.relayuk.bt.com/how-to-use-relay-uk/use-relay-uk-with-app.html

Phil2008 · 4 Jun 2020 at 15:17

Ummm interesting, how well does this work,, might give it a go with my nextdoor neighbour.. Thanks very much.

iMacMart · 4 Jun 2020 at 15:42

My SkyQ sync went from 75mb and dropped to 63mb over the past couple of months, called Sky an they said they won't do anything as the line test came back fine and 53mb is the minimum download speed they would act on

Going to plug a filter into the test socket tonight and see what the speeds are!

bremen1874 · 4 Jun 2020 at 16:03

iMacMart said:
My SkyQ sync went from 75mb and dropped to 63mb over the past couple of months

Worth checking what you can, but it may be as simple as more of your neighbours taking up VDSL connections and reducing your speeds due to increased crosstalk.

iMacMart · 4 Jun 2020 at 16:25

bremen1874 said:
Worth checking what you can, but it may be as simple as more of your neighbours taking up VDSL connections and reducing your speeds due to increased crosstalk.

Thats a fair shout, wish Sky would hurry up with the G Fast rollout

they put me through to that dept when I called about my sync drop, got all excited thinking they would say "yes your in an area we can provide this service to"

Avalon · 4 Jun 2020 at 22:06

iMacMart said:
Thats a fair shout, wish Sky would hurry up with the G Fast rollout they put me through to that dept when I called about my sync drop, got all excited thinking they would say "yes your in an area we can provide this service to"

Sky have been offering gfast for ages, the new trial is a new FTTP trial (announced earlier this week). Gfast won’t see a wider rollout, it was officially scrapped last year and only pre-approved build or rare situations where it’s not viable to do FTTP will get gfast.

iMacMart · 4 Jun 2020 at 22:12

Avalon said:
Sky have been offering gfast for ages, the new trial is a new FTTP trial (announced earlier this week). Gfast won’t see a wider rollout, it was officially scrapped last year and only pre-approved build or rare situations where it’s not viable to do FTTP will get gfast.

Ok got it