Can I Connect My Router Today?

[DeeLondon]

I got a letter last week saying my Sky Broadband should be activated by 28th March 2007 - but could be upto 3 days more.

Today (26th March) the router arrived .. but there's a card saying NOT to plug it in early.

I'm currently with Plusnet ADSL and still using it as we speak with my own NetGear Router.

If I plug in the Sky Router will it do any harm? Or mess up my ADSL with Plusnet? I'm just keen to try out sky broadband now that the router has arrived.

How will I know when I've been switched from Plusnet to Sky?

I'm on 8mb/s LLU with Plusnet and asked for the 16 mb/s Max with Sky ... I assume someone in the local telephone exchange needs to physically switch me over from one LLU to another?

So do I just wait until my broadband dies with plusnet?

[davefaz]

Hi,
Your local exchange will be a grey box someplace close to your house. If you see some guy in there with wires all over the place, he is probably switching you over.
Your modem has a username and password in it to log you in to your service. Although the hardware may be similar, unfortunately the username and password will not be, so trying to connect to a service with the wrong modem will be pointless, since the logon will be different. You will have to wait for the Sky service to be activated, then you will have to use the sky modem, which has your logon and password built in.
You will know you have been switched because all of a sudden the Plusnet modem will stop working; then it's time to try the sky modem!

[Koala5]

It will do no harm plugging in the new router if Sky is not activated it will just try to log onto plusnet with the wrong user name and password and hence wont connect. But the guy above is correct the plusnet connection will probably stop working when Sky becomes active.
Telephone exchange's are not in little grey box's at the end of the road that is just a junction box, the telephone exchange where Skys & Bt's equipment is housed and where the work to connect you will take place tend to be large brick buildings one per town or village.

[DeeLondon]

Yeah my local Telephone exchange is about 3 roads away - there's loads of BT vans always parked there.

So I'm hoping for a decent line speed

I figured that Sky would probably come into play when PlusNet signal died - after 4pm Plusnet is slowing down the speed to like 0.2 mb/s - really poor showing by them - off peak it's 6.4 mb/s - so 32 times slower

I just wanted to double check about Sky as be a bit of a nightmare if it don't work.

I was told by rep from sky that if you go on the 16 mb/s service (MAX) - there is very little affect of contention ratios?

I assume most people would go for the 8 mb/s MID package?

Was quite surprised Sky didn't got for a more interesting router with maybe VoIP sockets for telephone and Fax like Orange have given their customers .. they're usually quite innovative in their hardware choices. But I guess Sky was in a real rush to get the service up and running

[davefaz]

Sorry, you are right, I am confusing BT with NTL again!!

[Isitme]

I was told by rep from sky that if you go on the 16 mb/s service (MAX) - there is very little affect of contention ratios?

I assume most people would go for the 8 mb/s MID package?

I may be wrong, but I don't think contention ratios come into it. The real difference is on the amount you can d/l, on Mid it is capped on Max it is unlimited. I think it is better if you start off on Mid, if you want more you can upgrade fairly easily. If you start on Max and find you can't use what you are allowed on Mid, it is difficult, if not impossible to regrade down.

I was disconnected from Plusnet and reconnected to Sky in minutes, unfortunately, I had not received the router.

[DeeLondon]

Well I know that I'm currently using more then 40 GB a month worth of downloads and since there's £20 joining fee on the MID package but nothing onthe Max, the Max package only works out another £40 extra over the course of the first 12 months. And I reckon once I know it's unlimited I'll more likely use other services like Sky Anytime.

[Koala5]

Originally Posted by DeeLondon

Well I know that I'm currently using more then 40 GB a month worth of downloads and since there's £20 joining fee on the MID package but nothing onthe Max, the Max package only works out another £40 extra over the course of the first 12 months. And I reckon once I know it's unlimited I'll more likely use other services like Sky Anytime.

If you are going to use Sky anytime make sure you check this out first! Serious issues with Sky by Broadband service » The PC Doctor’s blog

[DeeLondon]

Oh yeah I knew it was a P2P programmes as I'd had it installed on my old P3 laptop - although that was too slow to play the movies well. I had sygate firewall installed and only let the P2P contact the web when it suited me

Sky isn't perfect - they're making the best out of what they got - i can only imagine if Sky was a cable company their offerings would be many times better then what Virgin offer. Sky seem to be making the best out of an imperfect situation.

Anyway officially 1 day until I get activated for Sky Broadband so lets ee how it goes