Sky - are they capping?

[JaXanim]

They're undoubtedly penalising some of us. I think anyone who pushes their downloading to the limit is being throttled back from around 6pm till 11pm daily. This has been happening to me since last September. However, I accept their action as the price I pay for high usage. Throughout the night, my torrent rates soar nicely.

What I find rather annoying though is Sky's inclusion of my email connection in the sanction. These days I cannot even log on the Sky's email server, never mind send/receive anything. This changes at 11pm, when everything switches back to normal. They'll be sending round the heavy mob next.

JaX (8mb Connect)

[steve16751]

JaXanim
Hi have you had a look at these links about the connect package

Sky Connect Broadband - Are you being slowed down?

(Unofficial) FAQ - Sky Connect Users

Steve's Sky Connect speedtest blog

[JaXanim]

Thanks steve16751, I've been following the situation on and off for months. Seems to me that basically, it's tuff luck Connect customers, especially torrent fans. I accept the facts and use the dark hours to do my stuff.
JaX

[Keefstank]

Changed my BB to Sky in May and other than a mix up with my package was very happy with the speed. I am a fair distance (over 2 miles I think) from the local exchange but I was getting speeds of over 2mb which is the best I have ever had. In the last few weeks I noticed a drop in speed so contacted them and they replied on 1st July to say that they had re-calibtrated my connection to push it back to over 2mb. My own check came in at 1.8mb but I wasn't going to quibble. That is until the speed steadily decreased further to under 1mb and has now settled at a paltry 500k.

I spent about 90 mins on the phone to Sky yesterday, intially with 2 different tec support people who continually spouted that my line was only capable of carrying 500k. I told them that this clearly wasn't the case seeing as I had received a faster speed and their records would confirm that. The 3rd person eventually transferred me to a higher level tec support who was no more helpful and fed me the same rubbish and even indicated that it may be due to line degradation!

At the end he has advised me that it will be referred to their BT escallations team who will run further checks and contact me within 48 hours.

Reason for my post other than to let off steam is to see if anyone can give me a sensible explanation for this problem.

I have read a few posts about Sky limiting bandwidth / d/l speeds etc so I am just wondering if they are trying to fob me off in the hope that I will go away and be grateful for my half a meg speed.

I have bad feeling that once the checks are done they will insist that there is nothing more they can do which I may have to reluctantly accept but I would at least like an explanation from them as to why this has happened.

Here is their email of 1st July:

I have Re-calibrated your broadband speed for a better and more stable connection
Your line can handle up to 2304 kbps> your line was previously set just over 1 meg
Your speed has now doubled for you since i adjusted your line


As you are quite far from your exchange your old speed was just over 1 meg and you are now getting over 2 meg



Port Status Up
Trained In Download Speed 2304 Kbps
Trained In Upload Speed 416 Kbps
Configured Download Speed 2592 Kbps
Configured Upload Speed 416 Kbps
Max Attainable Rate Down 2559 Kbps


And here are my subsequent reports:

5th July

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 192466 139525 0 0 288 3:50:16
LAN 149787 204068 0 372 0 3:51:35
WLAN 0 0 0 0 0 3:51:07
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 736 kbps 416 kbps
Line Attenuation 63.0 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 10.6 db 23.0 db

10th July
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 17471 20270 0 0 0 2:18:57
LAN 20893 18638 0 0 0 2:20:20
WLAN 0 0 0 0 0 2:19:52
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 512 kbps 128 kbps
Line Attenuation 63.0 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 10.5 db 29.0 db

Any help appreciated.

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

you're not capped, or not by much anyway...what's your noise margin like in your test socket...cause as you've got the proof that Sky sent you showing in sync over 2Mbps then it must be something your end...

[Keefstank]

Haven't got a report for the test socket though I know that speed stayed the same. Why are they telling me it's the line then? If it was at my end then surely they should still report it as being capable of 2mb even if it's not currently carrying it. Everything has been tested at my end.

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

put it in the test socket - speed will stay the same but noise margin will hopefully shoot up...that would show you're capped but i can't see how Sky could send you proof of syncing @ 2Mbps and you not see it your end - unless you got caught by the auto-regrade after they did the config...

[Keefstank]

Thanks for your replies. Here are the stats from the test socket:

Router Statistics
System Up Time: 2:06:57
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 158 158 0 2553 10992 0:00:32
LAN 1762 1887 0 11368 2937 2:06:57
WLAN 0 0 0 0 0 2:06:30
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 512 kbps 128 kbps
Line Attenuation 62.0 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 26.5 db 28.0 db

Noise Margin has increased so does this mean I'm capped? If there was a technical issue then surely Sky would maintain that the line is fine for 2mb rather than insisting I can only get 0.5 mb on it.

[Andy17]

Originally Posted by Keefstank

Thanks for your replies. Here are the stats from the test socket:

Router Statistics
System Up Time: 2:06:57
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 158 158 0 2553 10992 0:00:32
LAN 1762 1887 0 11368 2937 2:06:57
WLAN 0 0 0 0 0 2:06:30
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 512 kbps 128 kbps
Line Attenuation 62.0 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 26.5 db 28.0 db

Noise Margin has increased so does this mean I'm capped? If there was a technical issue then surely Sky would maintain that the line is fine for 2mb rather than insisting I can only get 0.5 mb on it.

I would buy a filtered faceplate then phone sky and have the cap lifted, or just remove the ring wire from terminal 3 on all your phone sockets.

[Keefstank]

A final question. Assuming the line is good for 2mb and that Sky are capping, presumably an independent check (via broadbandchecker.co.uk) should still return a potential speed of 2mb? Or would Sky's cap affect the check in this regard? For info it has returned a result of only 0.5mb.