Sky Broadband

[iloveglee]

Does anyone have, or has had, problem with sky broadband. We have had line rental and internet from them for many years, and recently noticed that we could get the item elsewhere much cheaper.

As we've been with sky a long time, I decided to contact them and ask if they could do anything about how much we were paying. Needless to say, yes they could, and pretty much matched what I could get elsewhere. Consequently we now have sky superfast fibre supposedly with a download speed of around 50-70 mbps. Since we changed to this, it seems worse than before.

Can any techie out there tell me how long it should take to download a tv programme of 2.5gb size, with a download speed of say 50 mbps. For the life of me I can't work out how to do this. I have run several internet speed tests and none of them are giving me the speed I am supposed to get. Needless to say, checking it in my sky account shows almost double the speed that I am being shown on a speed checker. And if I want to complaint that I'm not getting the guaranteed speed, it has to be what is showing in my account, not an independent one.

I only changed this a week ago, and was given the impression it would be up and running in a maximum of 3 days. If it doesn't improve I am going have to call them, which I'd prefer not to have to do, I do want to make absolutely sure that what I am expecting is matching up with reality!!

[barry1010]

7 minutes

[Togo]

It could be that when you use the Sky speed check option you are taking it before your internal wifi set up is in the loop. When you do it on a laptop or desktop or perhaps your tv even, it will be after it has been through either your router or your wifi. I would look for wifi problems before going nuclear on Sky. :)) (Made myself laugh there iloveglee) Don't know what you set up is for web use so hard to be definitive.

[bhg481]

Any speed tests should be done on a cable-connected computer, not using wifi.

[iloveglee]

Well if a programme should take 7 minutes to download, something is very much amiss. We are watching game of thrones and every time you start watching an episode, the next one automatically starts to download. I paid particular attention the last one that downloaded, and though it is available to start watching almost immediately, the whole programme took 27 minutes.

I have tried other programmes, making sure every other device in the house is off, and the shortest time I could get for a programme of this size was 20 minutes, so still not right. And yet, ordinary internet use does seem to be quicker so I'm not at all sure what's going on.

[Togo]

Worth a read..

""When you buy a broadband service from an ISP (Internet Service Provider), they are only responsible for the service delivered to your premises or, at best, to the router.
Also, if you buy a service that offers “up to” a certain speed, that’s basically the best case. It only guarantees that, in the UK, at least 10% of the users of that service get that speed. Most people will get less.
Broadband speeds are reduced by all sorts of factors. These include the distance from the exchange, the quality of the wiring, the number of joints in the wiring, the faceplate, the quality of the router, and the time of day. (You should get faster speeds at midnight than at midday because fewer people will be contending for the available bandwidth.)
The speed measured by a broadband test will also be affected by the state of both the router and the PC used to run the benchmark.
Either way, you can only measure your broadband speed by connecting a device directly to the router using a good quality ethernet cable. Any tests you run over wifi will not give the true speed because wifi connections are slower and less reliable than ethernet connections.""

[iloveglee]

Answered the question before seeing the response about checking speed with a wired connection. I'm not sure how a wired connection helps me to assess this though, as I am expecting to have the fast speed on wi-fi, which is what pretty much everybody uses. And what I was expecting was on offer

[Togo]

I remember some years back having an infuriating intermittent poor speed and connectivity issues. After a few frustrating weeks and various attempts to get the speed or find out what the problem was I changed the face plate and the filter that accommodates the router and phone connections and bingo, sorted. On close inspection both sets of connecting pins were black and looked tarnished. Possibly a result of lightning or a surge somewhere in the external network.

[Togo]

Your router could be attenuating the incoming speed before sending. Is it a new router?

[iloveglee]

As far as the equipment is concerned, the laptop is almost brand new and a pretty good one, so this shouldn't be a problem. The Tv is brand new, and I have noticed that netflix can be a little slow at times.

However, we have had problems in the past year or more with the signal dropping intermittently, sometimes quite frequently. They did send some new wiring which helped a little, but I am wondering if in fact we do need a new router. The person who organised this said the router we had could handle it, but maybe it just needs replacing. I which case this does need another call to sky.

Also the HD sky box is not new at all, so ? if that will affect the speed with which the programme downloads. I don't know why it should, but it is after all just a computer, of sorts, and I have noticed a difference in speed on the laptop and my phone, which is slower but the phone is now getting ready for replacing.

Oh well, bite the bullet and call sky I guess.

[SpocksBrain]

50mbps is the theoretical max, and that's bits so multiply the 2.5gb by 8 to get the actual number of bits so 20gb on a 50mb link is a theoretical min time of 400 seconds. use fast.com to check your actual speed then do the calc, sounds like you are getting much slower download than quoted

[Togo]

Remember iloveglee that Sky are measuring what they know that they are sending to your premises. You are measuring it when your internal systems have processed what Sky are sending. I know it is infuriating.

[Tuvok]

You have to allow around 10 days for your line to stabilise when you change suppliers.

[Togo]

Another point Tuvok to add to that one....if you do not use your broadband for a week or so, when you are on holiday for instance, the system automatically senses the non use and shares it out amongst all other "clients" that are connected to your local system.(Unless you have a fibre to home connection) Sometimes when we come home after a week or 10 days away the speed is awful, so I connect everything up and log on (desktop, laptop, surfacepro, 2 phones, Blu-ray, tv, and Sky box). That soon wakes it up.

[barry1010]

Lots of things can interfere with a wifi connection that are beyond the ISPs control, which is why the ISP only give the speed to the router.

I have my PC connected to the router by ethernet and the speed is constant, never dropping, at 10Mbps above the speed I am paying for. My iPad usually connects over wife at a similar speed but occasionally the speed can drop alarmingly, same with my Android phone and Windows laptop which also connect by wifi.

See if any of these could apply to your situation
https://eyenetworks.no/en/10-things-that-disturb-and-block-wi-fi-signals/

If at all possible connect a device by ethernet and see if the speed is any different from your wifi devices.

[Togo]

Good link Barry...I suspect that, like ours, your wifi behaves. One of the very worst wifi killers is a near neighbour with an av sender/reciever that is used to send/recieve signal from a sky or digi box to another room. Or in fact one of your own. I remember somewhere in history changing the channel on ours to 1 and killing our wifi dead. Took me 2 days to sort that.

[barry1010]

:( At least you did identify the problem and get it sorted :)

[iloveglee]

There's much to consider here. I hadn't realised that it can take a good few days to have the service properly up and running.

I did do a fast.com speed test, and that does indeed show the speed I should be getting, on my laptop. On my mobile phone, much slower, but as I could have upgraded this phone more than I year ago, it is probably not as efficient as it once was.

I haven't downloaded anything recently, next time I do I'll note if the speed has improved. Thanks for the calculation how to work it all out.

My husband has a (very) old ipad, and since yesterday, has said it appears to be noticeably faster, so fingers crossed, it's now 8 days since I ordered it, maybe things are settling down.