Sky as an ISP

[a1jonuk]

Hi,
Does anyone have any experience with sky supplying broadband.
I had an offer by e-mail this morning for up to 20mb (I know my phoneline won't get anywhere near that)unlimited and free for the first 6 months then just £10 a month after that , I,ve been with aol for years and although they have increased their prices I've not really had any problems with them so didn't want to change if I end up with a load of problems from a new isp.
Any advice appreciated.

Andy.

 

[TriplexDread]

Thats why they say UPTO, it covers them when you only getting 4Mb and paying for UPTO 20Mb

Stay with who you are if you are happy with em

 

[V_R]

I hear mixed reviews on Sky, service seems good but pings can be bad (This is only a problem if you play online games like Call of duty and other FPS's)

Can deny thay are cheap if you have the TV and call's too though.

Out of interest what are your line stats at the moment? (By this i mean your Connection Speed, Attenuation and SNR, Log into your router to see what these are)

The other thing to consider is that you may not be able to get certain srevices from the exchange your connected to.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

Have a look at that.

 

[historian]

Hi,
Does anyone have any experience with sky supplying broadband.
I had an offer by e-mail this morning for up to 20mb (I know my phoneline won't get anywhere near that)unlimited and free for the first 6 months then just £10 a month after that , I,ve been with aol for years and although they have increased their prices I've not really had any problems with them so didn't want to change if I end up with a load of problems from a new isp.
Any advice appreciated.

Andy.

Hi a1jonuk
I don`t know about SKY as a isp, but regards you and aol well I too have been with them a number of years and the monthly charge has been reduced by £2 a month!! starting this year. I have "onetel" as my phone provider who are owned by "TalkTalk" who in turn own AOL(U.K). So it could be because of that.
historian

 

[Taffycat]

Hi Andy - there are quite a few posts about Sky - and other ISPs - over on Thinkbroadband Forums. Scroll down to "User Comments on ISPs."

It will give you a good idea of general opinions, the praise as well as the gripes, which might help you make a decision.

 

[a1jonuk]

Hi,

Thanks for all replies,some good info via links.
V-R , I,m not very technical but logged into router and got these details :
ADSL Type - Interleave
Data Rate : Downstream - 8192 , Upstream - 448
Noise Margin ; Downstream - 13.4 , Upstream - 19.0
Output Power : Downstream - 12.3 , Upstream - 11.8
Attenuation : Downstream - 8.0 , Upstream - 6.5

Makes no sense to me . is it good or not , what speed am i getting?
Also could not find anything titled SNR?

Thanks again,

Andy.

 

[V_R]

First up, They are very good stats, i wish i has line stats like that!!

I take it you live in the exchange!?

To explain...
http://www.dslzoneuk.net/adslmax_explained.php

Dont worry about the upstream numbers for now, its the downstream we care about.

ADSL Type - Interleave - See link above for best explanation (about half way down) Having the other option (fast path) would only help you if you wanted to play online games.
Data Rate : Downstream - 8192 , Upstream - 448 - On ADSL MAX (Upto 8mb's) Your as fast as you can go without going for a LLU service.
Noise Margin ; Downstream - 13.4 , Upstream - 19.0 - How much 'play' you have in your connection. The higher the better basically. (this number always drops in the evening)
Output Power : Downstream - 12.3 , Upstream - 11.8 - Dont worry about this.
Attenuation : Downstream - 8.0 , Upstream - 6.5 - This is a fancy way of saying how close or far you are from the exchange, lower is better.

To conclude....

Going by the data above your line is very very good and you are very close to the exchange.

Speed wise, on Skys 20mb option you would easily sync at the full 20mb.

As with Be's 24mb option you would get very close to the full 24mb.

Basically if want to go faster than the 8mb that you have at the moment (ADSL Max) then you need to go with a provider that does ADSL2+ (like Skys 20mb package, Be Unlimited etc.)

It just depends on what is available at your local exchange.

Lucky sod!


P.S: Can you post the results from the site below here?
http://speedtester.bt.com/

Ta

 

[AbsoluteKevster]

Hey... I've used Sky Broadband for about 2 years... no hassles at all... nice quick pings and near maximum bandwidth.
I do live quite close to the exchange though..

Go for it!

 

[a1jonuk]

Hi,

Thanks for replies.
We only moved here in November and I didn,t even know we were close to an exchange! I mentioned it to my wife and she said "is it that BT thingy in the next street" so yes we are about 500yds away.

"Quote :To conclude....

Going by the data above your line is very very good and you are very close to the exchange.

Speed wise, on Skys 20mb option you would easily sync at the full 20mb.

As with Be's 24mb option you would get very close to the full 24mb.

Basically if want to go faster than the 8mb that you have at the moment (ADSL Max) then you need to go with a provider that does ADSL2+ (like Skys 20mb package, Be Unlimited etc.)

It just depends on what is available at your local exchange.

Lucky sod!


P.S: Can you post the results from the site below here?
http://speedtester.bt.com/

Thanks for that V-R ,I,m pleased with those results.
I tried that speedtester but just kept gettin an error unable to continue,I tried BE,s website and after typing my phone number it said my phone line wasn,t capable of running their broadband.I remember running a speed test on the BT.com website previously and it said 8mb was the max the exchange could handle until an upgrade is carried out.
Does that mean that on the sky up to 20mb I would still only get 8mb? I think that,s right.
Thanks again,
Andy.

 

[V_R]

Well the BT speedtester is a way of seeing if you are getting the full 8mb download, It also tells you what BRAS profile your on. (not something you need to know, if your getting full speeds then dont worry. I just wanted to check)

It is not working most of the time though. Good old BT eh?

Try http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/ instead.

(Click on 'share' and copy the URL in the 'Direct Link' box then paste it into a reply here.)

If you go here: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

Put your details into the checker and then tell me the name or code of your exchange (look on the 'BT ADSL' page) and we can have a look at what is available to you.

 

[a1jonuk]

BT ADSL broadband availability

You are connected to the Denbigh telephone exchange.

ADSL is available in your area

Your exchange is also enabled for ADSL Max services
Your exchange should have ADSL2+ services installed by the 30th of March 2011
According to BT Wholesale, your phone line should be able to support a 6.5Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max.


Standard ADSL RAG results

You can receive 2Mbps ADSL
You can receive 1Mbps ADSL
You can receive 512kbps ADSL
You can receive 256kbps ADSL
However, there is another service on your phone line (e.g. ADSL, LLU, DACS, etc) that would prevent you from ordering a new ADSL connection.

» Your BT ADSL code is: GEGEGEC

Andy.

 

[V_R]

As i expected. Your sync'ed (connected) at 8mb but not even getting 2.5mb.... AOL are ****.

You cant get much from that exchange i'm afraid. ADSLMAX (upto 8mb) is the only option.

That site is a guide it may not be 100% correct.

If you can move to Sky, do it. It will be better than AOL. You will need to check that you can actually get their service though.

Get yourself a Googlemail email then it doesn't matter who your ISP is.

Sorry to say but you dont have many options.

Heres a list of rating for the providers and such if your interested in moving.
http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

 

[a1jonuk]

Thanks V-R.

Not the best results then.
I have no problem ditching aol as i have various e-mail addresses and very rarely use my aol one , but my wife is still reluctant , she has had her e-mail address for years and was with aol when she was working in the US and has loads of friends over their still using aol.
So I guess I will have to persevere for the time being and see if I can persuade her to move isp,s in the future.
Thanks again,
Andy.

 

[V_R]

Start by backing up your wives contacts now and maybe opening her a googlemail account? (If you need/want an invite ill send you one, if they still doing that)

Then bite the bulitt, tell her to email them with the new address. I know its a pain in the butt, but it is worth doing in my opinion. That way your not tied to AOL or any other ISP.

I know you can save contacts on Gmail by importing and exporting a .csv file making things very easy and quick. If you can do the same with AOL then that is the had part done.

 

[a1jonuk]

Hi,
Well my wife agreed to changing isp,s when i told her about sky,s offer of 6 months free and then £10 per month.
So, I go along to sky.com (remember they sent me an e-mail with this offer)input my phone number and postcode and the reply back was " sorry but you are not in one of our preferred broadband areas so cannot take advantage of our offer but we can offer you sky connect which is up to 8mb for £17.99 a month"
I,m paying less than than that now (£15).
So I am now starting my search for a better isp again.Thanks to some of your links above there is some good info available.
I am perhaps considering plusnets offer of £5.99 for 3 months and then £11.99 thereafter.I have been on there site and after inputting my details they said I should get between 6 and 7mb at my location, aol is not even 2.5mb.
Any experience of plusnet appreciated.
Andy.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Much the same as me eh Andy? Each good deal I pursue seems not to be available in my area

I don't have any experience of Plusnet but this graph I'm linking to is known to be accurate and Plusnet don't do too well.

ISP Ratings

Things to consider when using an ISP:
1) length of contract.
2) Speeds.
3) Cost
4) Monthly bandwidth allowance.
5) E-mail accounts
6) Web space
7) Helpline efficiency.

I'm sure I'll think of more, monthly contract is preferable.