Sky setup nightmare

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17 Jan 2011
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Location
Manchester
Hey

We have the most stupid set-up in my parents house, it would take far to long to explain.

A quick overview would be....

1x telephone socket downstairs to connect all the following:
Telephone Downstairs
1x Sky HD box downstairs
1x Sky HD box upstairs
1x sky router upstairs (via extension)
2x PC upstairs without wireless

The extension lead taking the router upstairs has gone faulty causing a knock on effect on everything! I need to find a sensible way to connect all this up..... I was thinking that the solution would be to buy a huge modem cable which would plug into the DSL filter connected to the wall go all the way upstairs into the router! done?! but is this a good solution?

Currently I have the internet working without my sky boxs and telephone connected so I need to resolve this quickly
 
Have you looked into homeplugs mate? They send the broadband signal over your mains wires so as long as your internal house wiring is good you wont have to worry about having cables running all over the place. Plug one into the router from a mains socket next to the router and plug another one into another socket in the house near where you want to connect say a pc to then job done :)

I used to have these and they were fab

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-032-TP
 
You really want the DSL modem as close to the socket as possible.

I'd personally have a small cable into the Modem / Router, then a single Cat6 [Cat5e would probably suffice] cable running upstairs in to a new switch.

With regards to the Sky HD stuff, assuming they just connect into an Ethernet port, everything will just plug in to the new switch.


Have you looked into homeplugs mate? They send the broadband signal over your mains wires so as long as your internal house wiring is good you wont have to worry about having cables running all over the place. Plug one into the router from a mainds socket and plug another one into another socket in the house near where you want to coneect say a pc to job done :)

I used to have these and they were fab

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-032-TP

Homeplugs bridge two Ethernet LANs together using powerlines. With homeplugs you'd still have the router as close to the incoming phone line as possible, then a homeplug from one of the routers switchports, then one more homeplug upstairs connected into a switch in order to add more ports upstairs. In this case it's a more expensive and inferior way of doing things as long as you're free to run a single cable upstairs.
 
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These are some of the options.

Cat5e/6 from router downstairs to switch upstairs then to your PCs. All downstairs Ethernet devices can be fed off the router.

Or

BT spec two pair telephone cable (I forget the spec number) from downstairs to upstairs and into modem from there.

Or

Router downstairs into a homeplug then another sited upstairs feeding into a switch and into your PCs.

In that order.
 
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The sky HD boxes are connected with a standard telephone line which means a cable is ran from the upstairs bedroom all the way down to the dsl filler which i now have plugged into the main socket.

My two PCs are ready set up and wired upstairs, why does it make a difference if a longer modem cable is used to sit the router up upstairs? I cant work out why the range matters?


I have set it up like this now....

Telephone Socket ---> DSL Filter
phone port--->splitter ---> telephone/sky boxs
ADSL Port(ran upstairs) --->router --->PC 1 and 2

AND Still my network connection keeps intermittently dropping. I have tried ALL kinds of resolutions, including rewiring the whole thing and putting a new longer adsl cable in place. My connection is dropping all the time and has been for 4 days, we have not changed any settings and I cant get to the bottom of my problem, my only solution was to call sky and they are sending BT engage out tomorrow with a nice warning that my parents may be charged a fortune when his test phone shows no error.....I dont have much any choice tho, we need to internet working :(

Must say our phone line has also been slightly poor even when plugging the line directly into the telephone socket
 
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In short; the longer your phone line cable is, the worse sync speed you'll get with your ISP due to the added noise.

You should try plugging the router directly into the master test socket to remove the possibility of the added phone line cable being the cause of all your problems.
 
Ok, we have no test port on our socket
... Also how can the router go directly into the socket it needs the DSL filter
 
You can get the equivalent home plug technology for telephone lines.

I use them for my 2 sky had boxes.

It's the easiest way to do it, but will cost a far bit. We also use home plugs around the house for the LAN is my wife doesn't like cables running every where
 
I just did a speed test and im getting a very poor half mb speed.....my phone line now has no dial tone and even with the line plugged directly into the phone socket.....this is gonna be a problem with bt between my house and the exchange it just has to be
 
Have you tried doing a quiet line test? Dial 17070 on your phone and select option 2. It will just be a quiet test so if you here any crackles or general noise on the line ring sky straight away and state you have noise on your line. Dont mention BB for now as they wont be able to do much once the line gets sorted if indeed there is noise on it your BB should hopefully work a lot better. If you have a corded telephone these sometimes give you a better result when doing a quiet line test as some cordless ones generate a buzzing noise
 
sounds like if you took one of your phone sockets off youve disconnected a leg, this is why you have 1/2 a meg and no dial tone.
 
Yes mate thats the DSL filter. I have no dial tone when the line goes directly into the socket either yet....we can take phone calls. The problems just change by the hour....getting fed up with it all I hope BT sort it
 
So BT found a fault on the line which was resolved yesterday, im still only getting about 1.8mb download speed.

Just wanted to ask about this modem cable situation - the modem cable is 10 meters long which takes the router upstairs. Our house is not the biggest so its still not a dramatic distance from the socket, would this be causing a loss in download speed?
 
If you use suitable cable the length of the modem cable shouldn't matter. Compared to the length of the phone line to the house it's insignificant.

You need to make sure that the modem cable is twisted pair. Many cheap cables aren't and will have a negative impact.
 
Keep any cabling that isn't cat5 or 6 as short as possible. The router should be in the master socket with the filter the first thing and, ideally, the DSL cable as short as possible. Sky supply a grey DSL cable for this very function. Once you have done that get back onto sky so they can reconfigure your line.
 
Since bt fixed the line fault my download speed has only been hitting 1.5mb. In the past I would get around 4mb which is better but still not great. Can you guys tell me how I can improve the connection im about to spend a small fortune on a gaming pc but it's going to be pointless with my poor ping and speeds :( im about 1 mile away from the exchange
 
Can you post your router's line stats? (i.e. line attenuation, noise margin, down and up sync speed, etc)
 
Can you post your router's line stats? (i.e. line attenuation, noise margin, down and up sync speed, etc)
router.jpg


Is this what you need? I really have to improve this line
 
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