how can i call Skys bluff

CircleFaust · 9 Oct 2018 at 22:35

ordered fibre broadband
speeds advertised as up to 36mb
logging into the sky router it says Line Rate - Downstream 40mb
connect ethernet cable direct to router and run speed test from the laptop and get 20mb
i was hoping for around 30mb

Sky are saying i'm getting 40mb to the router but i don't think that's true. why would you lose 20mb

Steveocee · 9 Oct 2018 at 22:38

Other devices on the network?

Rroff · 9 Oct 2018 at 22:39

How long have you been connected? I think even with Fibre there is still a "training" period as such during which you might not see full speeds - I'm a bit out of date on that aspect though.

Swifty55 · 9 Oct 2018 at 22:41

Post your router stats, screenshot it.

Shawreyboy · 10 Oct 2018 at 11:15

CircleFaust said:
ordered fibre broadband
speeds advertised as up to 36mb
logging into the sky router it says Line Rate - Downstream 40mb
connect ethernet cable direct to router and run speed test from the laptop and get 20mb
i was hoping for around 30mb

Sky are saying i'm getting 40mb to the router but i don't think that's true. why would you lose 20mb

Simple answer is, is you are connected to a contended service and therefore the throughput speeds are not guaranteed and will fluctuate depending on the usage of other Sky BB users on the card in the FTTC cab.

ISP's can only guarantee an 'up to' rate based on the BTOR infrastructure they use which is metered at 40/10Mb/s or 80/20Mb/s however, the speed profiles are normally around 36Mb downstream for the 40/10 product (hence Sky saying up to 36Mb/s). The speed profile for the 80/20 product is normally around 76Mb/s.

Posting the Router stats may be much help as the Router will show an artificially inflated SNR if you are subscribed to a 40/10 product in an area where you could effectively get more speed than 40/10 product would offer if you were on the up to 80/20 package. I would be very surprised to see your SNR fluctuating if the Router is in sync at 40Mb/s.

There is some regulations coming into effect soon whereby ISP's will be made to advertise speed on the minimum sync speeds expected - which gives a more accurate picture of what should be considered an acceptable service. This will mean the line throughput's are moreover a truer reading of your lines speed rather than basing everything on its 'up to' or maximum sync rate which in truth will never be reached by most users.

TL;DR FTTC line is performing as expected and there is nothing to argue.

Shawrey

Avalon · 10 Oct 2018 at 12:01

CircleFaust said:
ordered fibre broadband
speeds advertised as up to 36mb
logging into the sky router it says Line Rate - Downstream 40mb
connect ethernet cable direct to router and run speed test from the laptop and get 20mb
i was hoping for around 30mb

Sky are saying i'm getting 40mb to the router but i don't think that's true. why would you lose 20mb

You can’t, they’re right and you’re wrong.

Sync speed is exactly that, it’s the sync speed between you and the cabinet and if it says 40mbit, you’re getting 40mbit. When you do a speed test, you’re usually testing the speed to another companies network, it depends on the routing/peering in place from Openreach to your ISP’s network and the same from that over potentially several other networks to the speed test server, the location of that server and it’s load. In short, change server and you can get wildly different results. You also have the issue of anything else using the network, this could be on your laptop or other devices in the network.

CircleFaust · 10 Oct 2018 at 16:08

Shawreyboy said:
Simple answer is, is you are connected to a contended service and therefore the throughput speeds are not guaranteed and will fluctuate depending on the usage of other Sky BB users on the card in the FTTC cab.

ISP's can only guarantee an 'up to' rate based on the BTOR infrastructure they use which is metered at 40/10Mb/s or 80/20Mb/s however, the speed profiles are normally around 36Mb downstream for the 40/10 product (hence Sky saying up to 36Mb/s). The speed profile for the 80/20 product is normally around 76Mb/s.

Posting the Router stats may be much help as the Router will show an artificially inflated SNR if you are subscribed to a 40/10 product in an area where you could effectively get more speed than 40/10 product would offer if you were on the up to 80/20 package. I would be very surprised to see your SNR fluctuating if the Router is in sync at 40Mb/s.

There is some regulations coming into effect soon whereby ISP's will be made to advertise speed on the minimum sync speeds expected - which gives a more accurate picture of what should be considered an acceptable service. This will mean the line throughput's are moreover a truer reading of your lines speed rather than basing everything on its 'up to' or maximum sync rate which in truth will never be reached by most users.

TL;DR FTTC line is performing as expected and there is nothing to argue.

Shawrey

SNR?
where would i get the router stats to post, logging into the hub?

i had everything turned off when i did the speedtest, just connected laptop to the router.
i thought the regulations had already kicked in where they had to advertise a more realistic speed

Shawreyboy · 10 Oct 2018 at 16:19

CircleFaust said:
SNR?
where would i get the router stats to post, logging into the hub?

i had everything turned off when i did the speedtest, just connected laptop to the router.
i thought the regulations had already kicked in where they had to advertise a more realistic speed

SNR is Signal to Noise ratio. It's a statistic that helps you determine if your line is suffering any form of noise interference. A typical analogy would be if you were trying to have a conversation with someone in a loud room you would have to raise your voice (signal) against the background 'noise' to be heard clearly. Typically a lower SNR is better but as you are on the 40/10 capped speed, the SNR could be artificially inflated so can be disregarded as a stat.

@Avalon has already provided other info about the peering arrangements. Your ISP connection goes through many 'HOPs' (other Networks) to finally reach the Internet and therefore throughput speed is entirely dependant on the route being taken through these Networks to the Internet and then via the Internet onto the Speedtests Network and back through that route again to you as well as the inherent contention on your service to consider which has knock on effect - this is often called an overhead.

As such, your service is working to specification. It is achieving the 40Mb/s sync speed advertised and therefore throughput is largely disregarded as it cannot be accounted for due to factors beyond the ISP control.

Shawrey

CircleFaust · 10 Oct 2018 at 22:30

i was with BT before on a similar fibre package but the speed was better and stronger throughout the house
definitely think sky throttle a bit and / or their routers are a bit carp
i'll have to put up with it just by the sounds of it. the extra speed from BT isn't worth double the price of sky

Avalon · 10 Oct 2018 at 23:50

CircleFaust said:
i was with BT before on a similar fibre package but the speed was better and stronger throughout the house
definitely think sky throttle a bit and / or their routers are a bit carp
i'll have to put up with it just by the sounds of it. the extra speed from BT isn't worth double the price of sky

Sync speed is sync speed, it will vary slightly from modem chipset to modem chipset and the HH6 tends to give a slightly higher sync speed than the chipset in the Sky SR102, in the real world you’re unlikely to notice. I can’t comment on the SkyQ Hub as i’ve yet to be given one, either way you signed up to a 38/10 package and you’re syncing at 40 which will give you exactly what you are paying for. BT stopped selling 38/10 a while back and moved to 52/10 then offered uncapped services 80/20, but like for like each profile is going to be near identical.

Also your internet sync speed will not vary through the house on a wired connection, it will via Wi-fi, but you made it clear you weren’t benchmarking via Wi-fi.

While technically a breach of ToS, it’s quite easy to replace a Sky router if you feel it’ll help , wireshark the u/p and make sure the router supports Sky’s MER. If your issue is Wi-fi, then buy a decent AP and install it centrally, this will be much more efficient than a badly sited AIO device.

MissChief · 11 Oct 2018 at 10:30

What do you get on http://speedtest.btwholesale.com ?