Jump to content

need a better ISP than Sky


shawdreamer

Recommended Posts

My Sky broadband unlimited ISP has finally peeved me off enough that I now fancy jumping ship.

 

Its gotten ridiculously slow of late, it used to supply a steady 8.5Mb (unlimited comes with 20Mb but I accepted Id never get it that fast) but recently its been bouncing between 500Kb and 8Mb. (it took so long to try and send some CAD.files the other day I gave up and put em on a flash drive for one of the lads to drop at the office........ its gotten that annoying)

 

Done all the Sky "recommendations" and got feckall help out of it (their customer service is shockingly shite), the bloke on the phone eventually told me what was paramount to "sorry but its tough".....obviously that kinda tore it for me.

 

Ive got a few suppliers to choose from but on average it seems Virgin have got the whole fibre-optics gig nailed down in my area and from various online speed reports it seems like people very near to me get anything upto 15Mb-20Mb.

 

Can anyone give me a genuine opinion of Virgins service or maybe have some other suggestions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You realise that the 500k - 8.5mbs fluctuation your speaking of has nothing to do with the speed your trying to send the cad files?

You have not told us your upload speed which is the speed you require to send/upload files?

 

How do you measure your speed and get this conclusion?

Edited by PeeWee
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You realise that the 500k - 8.5mbs fluctuation your speaking of has nothing to do with the speed your trying to send the cad files?

You have not told us your upload speed which is the speed you require to send/upload files?

 

How do you measure your speed and get this conclusion?

 

 

the upload speed seems to bounce along with the download speed, more or less in similar extremes.

 

Ive used a variatly of broadband speed check sites to get the readings (basically the top hits that google supplied if I honest) but I usually use MyBroadbandSpeed.com (sp) and SpeedTest.net and all report back with similar or same results.

<as its seems to be slow now (took ages for this page to respond alone) Ill do a quick test>

 

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2312471587.png

 

See what I mean?.....feckin .32????????

 

just so you can see its not a random one off reading.

 

few minutes later.....

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2312488206.png

 

I dont wanna do another..... its getting worse and more depressing each time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The second reading was better though, you do realise this?

Your looking at the download speed (which I agree is poor)

What you need for sending files is the upload speed which was better on the second reading.

How large is the average cad file you wish to send.

What does sky tell you your upload should achieve? ( I don't want the "up to 20mbs" speed rather the upload speed.

Is there a fair usage policy?

I'm aware both your son & wife online game, where either doing so when you were sending the files

Was there anyone else using the network when you got the above readings?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The second reading was better though, you do realise this?

Your looking at the download speed (which I agree is poor)

What you need for sending files is the upload speed which was better on the second reading.

How large is the average cad file you wish to send.

What does sky tell you your upload should achieve? ( I don't want the "up to 20mbs" speed rather the upload speed.

Is there a fair usage policy?

I'm aware both your son & wife online game, where either doing so when you were sending the files

Was there anyone else using the network when you got the above readings?

 

 

tbh I couldn't tell you how big the file was but I'm pretty sure Ive sent larger (that one was only a single floor plan file while Ive sent ones with upto 5 separate files for larger projects before)

Sky haven't actually told me much anything about my upload speed.....their customer service was next to useless (I Should have guessed it was pointless when he first suggested "have you tried turning you router off......then on again?)

Ive never came across any form of fair usage policy but even if there was Ive not used the net for any heavy sending or downloading for a good couple of monthes now.

It did occur to me the missus or my son might be doing some heavy surfing or gaming at the times Its struggling but nope even with their lappys and consoles shutdown it persists (it wouldn't account for the 2am pisstake I mentioned either)....also I yanked the ethernet links from the two sky box's also just incase they were interfering somehow.

Missus is on facebook but barring that nothing else.

 

It seems to have picked up again (this page came up faster for starters) ...

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2312526927.png

 

still bouncing about though.....

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2312528582.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Facebook I found can indeed be a resource hog, same with things like youtube obviously.

 

As for a technician telling you to "turn your router off & on again" don't see that as heading no where as it will be the first thing any good engineer actually does ask you (it makes perfect sense to me).

 

Do you have another router to test?

What happens if you try the speedtest from your missus laptop?

Are you all experiencing this same slow down?

Have you had your telephone line tested for any breakdown (have bt test this)?

You may have interference on your phone line?

Are you using wireless?

Your upload speed you should be getting should be easily found by logging into your sky page & asking on the forums.

On the above note have you posted your problem on said sky broadband forum? (these can usually be an invaluable source of info)

are you using any extension cable between your phone socket (master) and the router?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

when setting up broadband in my friends house the speeds received were shocking! to get the speeds up a did the following

 

opened the master socket and micro filtered off that

 

disconnected the bell wires as you need only the blue and white i think?

 

made a custom cable from the micro filter to router <1m for less interference

 

just from doing this i got 1.5meg up to 7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sky is not the problem, you problem lies between the exchange the pc. A ping of 40ms to 900ms is the biggest indicator of a hardware issue. Even in mine with sky on an 8mb connection with ps3 streaming Netflix, laptop on Facebook I can play call of duty online at an acceptable ping.

 

Run a sweetest on your phone when you computer gives you that high ping/slow speed result and see if that's the same, if so it will be router or line related. I had a similar issue and it turned out to be the connectors in the green box across the road.

 

Obviously changing to fiber optic is better but if its your computer the speed issues will remain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Facebook I found can indeed be a resource hog, same with things like youtube obviously.

 

As for a technician telling you to "turn your router off & on again" don't see that as heading no where as it will be the first thing any good engineer actually does ask you (it makes perfect sense to me). That was the last thing he suggested though

Do you have another router to test? have my previous sky router that returns the same results (that's a B/G router hence why I have two as the newer ones N), same results

What happens if you try the speedtest from your missus laptop? Did it from the main/office (this one), my sons lappy and the pc I bought off you, all more or less the same (even did one via the Novo)

Are you all experiencing this same slow down? uhuh

Have you had your telephone line tested for any breakdown (have bt test this)? That was my first suspicion (previous experience), but BT said there's no issue

You may have interference on your phone line? nope clear as a bell, you could hear a gnat fart on the other end of a international call

Are you using wireless? the majority of the time yes but I suspected that the same issues happened whether wired or wireless as the sudden drops take out the two 360's that are wired along with my lads 360 that's wireless.

Your upload speed you should be getting should be easily found by logging into your sky page & asking on the forums.

On the above note have you posted your problem on said sky broadband forum? (these can usually be an invaluable source of info)I got no joy on the broadband forum but skyuser.co.uk have give me a few pointers

are you using any extension cable between your phone socket (master) and the router? Nope, router is less than 3ft from the houses main socket so no extension and the connection is filtered

 

I got a half arsed response from sky customer service again saying that its advisable for all current Sky unlimited subscribers to upgrade their standard broadband routers to their new "SKY HUB" to avoid any future connection issues.

 

looks like their typical canned response and I ain't upgrading anything if there's a chance I'm just greasing up my hoop for a rippin just to end up with a new expensive "SKY HUB" and the same shitty problems and speeds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

no he actually mentioned that a few times (I assume thats their typical fall back solution) but it was pretty much the first thing that came out of his mouth in the way of recommendations.

 

after that I spent a good hour trying the various things he suggested (ip renewing, firewall exemption list....even looking for something in specific in the registry which I understood next to feckall about) before eventually asking If Id tried turning it off.....and on again.

 

Coincidentally that was probably the first thing I did before even seeking advice..... button pops up, router off, button pressed down, router back on...... even a techphobe like me can figure that one out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Various tests will indeed result in your router needing to restart it is quite normal.

 

 

ok then but I still have the same problem.

 

Sky cant/wont/unable to diagnose or admit fault.

BT claims the lines perfectly fine.

Routers fine and working as it supposed too.

Nothing I do at my end makes a blind difference.

 

so....either BT's talking through its shitshoot (which given that my lines clear as day I have no reason to doubt) or.... Somethings bollixed with Sky's end and no one gives a flyin monkey feck.

 

either way Im kinda gettin no where :nutter: and seen as my drive has failed to return to me and no fecker in the office knows where it went after my lad dropped it off :nutter: :nutter: I cant keep doing the flashdrive thing while paying through the nose for a service I ain't getting :nutter: :nutter: :nutter: .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...