Slow Internet since Sky HD upgrade

K1LLSW1TCH · 3 Jul 2012 at 09:22

Hey guys,

Now, I might be being paranoid and this could all be a big coincidence, but yesterday I upgraded from a regular Sky package to Sky HD. In my room I now have a 1TB Sky+ HD box and the Sky engineer connected it up to the back of my router for Sky Anytime +.

This may be a huge coincidence but ever since the engineer visit (yesterday afternoon) my broadband has been horribly slow, since last night I've only been syncing at between 1000-2000 kbps. This is funny as when I called Sky to upgrade to HD I was asked if I'd also like to take up Sky Broadband (I'm with AOL), I refused as the most I can get on this line is around 5 meg and before the Sky HD installation I was syncing up at between 5000-6000 mbps every day, and has been for the 5 years that I've lived here.

Can I simply unplug whatever he has plugged in? I saw him plug my Sky Box into the back of my router, I don't think he did anything like that in the other room but I can always check. From my understanding all the Anytime + does is allow me to choose from a library of content and then I can download that content from the Internet onto my Sky box, this is virtually useless anyway when my download speeds have been rendered slower than a very slow thing.

Anyone got any advice or had a similar experience?

Tealc · 3 Jul 2012 at 10:14

The cable they use to connect the hd box is just a network cable and should not affect the sync speed of your ADSL. The only thing I can think of is that the telephone line to the hd box has added noise to the line. I don't connect my hd box to the telephone so couldn't comment on its attenuation properties. I also remember reading that some double filter their sky boxes, maybe this has something to do with the electrical noise being fed back into the line or something.

Don't me too quick to shun Sky broadband as it's LLU service is very good and well recommended, something which I can't say the same for with AOL. I don't remember anyone ever recommending them on here.

K1LLSW1TCH · 3 Jul 2012 at 11:01

Thanks for the reply,

I'm not looking to change Internet providers at the moment as I only pay something silly like £5 a month and up until yesterday my connection has been solid as a rock, it is something that needs changing at some point in the future and I'll probably go with Sky for the convenience but right now it's not high on my list of priorities.

I think I'll disconnect the box from the Internet and see what happens, like I was saying in the OP, it might just be a coincidence as we've had some really terrible weather lately and maybe that's playing a part in this.

Nymins · 3 Jul 2012 at 11:19

If the telephone line is connected to the Sky Box, remove it. They did that with mine and my speed halved. Removed the phone cable and got back the correct sync!

K1LLSW1TCH · 3 Jul 2012 at 12:19

Nymins said:
If the telephone line is connected to the Sky Box, remove it. They did that with mine and my speed halved. Removed the phone cable and got back the correct sync!

Haha, fantastic.

I've just gone into the lounge and unplugged the phone line from the back of the box in there, rebooted my router and I'm back to 5.5 which is what I was getting before. Thanks for the advice.

Tealc · 3 Jul 2012 at 17:33

So a good result then. Was the hd box filtered?

If you have multiroom sky apparently check the phone connection regularly. In some circumstances Sky have been known to charge full package fees for both rooms if they cant get them dialling home.

If its single room just connect it back up if they ask you too.

MissChief · 3 Jul 2012 at 19:41

Sky tv telephone connection in the telephone socket before the filter.

K1LLSW1TCH · 3 Jul 2012 at 22:16

Tealc said:
If you have multiroom sky apparently check the phone connection regularly. In some circumstances Sky have been known to charge full package fees for both rooms if they cant get them dialling home.

Oh that sounds quite scary, I don't want us getting billed twice! I think the box in my room was fine as I didn't alter or unplug anything, but the HD box in the lounge had a telephone cable going into it, I just unplugged that and my speed went back up to what it was supposed to be.

When I was unplugging the cable I noticed that there was a filter attached to it, we already have a filter at the other end so maybe if I just remove the filter which the engineer attached and then plug the telephone line back into the Sky box everything should be fine.

Tealc · 3 Jul 2012 at 23:00

There shouldn't be any need to have 2 filters on one stretch of cable and I can't quite remember where I saw that recommended. I also can't see it making any difference.

Loads of people have their HD boxes hooked up to the telephone line thouh so there shouldn't be a problem.

Try with the one filter and see how it goes.

It could be that during the install the engineer introduced noise onto the line and caused the line to sync lower for a bit.

K1LLSW1TCH · 3 Jul 2012 at 23:35

I've re-connected the telephone line to the Sky HD box and removed one of the filters, I don't think it was a coincidence as before with the two filters I was only syncing at 1 mbps and after removing one of the filters it's back up to 5.