Throttled Sky Connect connection - Options?

[theKing]

Hi there,

I've been on Sky Connect for c.2 years and have been very happy with it until recently. After a few weeks of frustration, things came to a head this week when I tried to access 1 vs 100 on Xbox Live which constantly lost the connection and kicked me out the game.I then tried to download an 500mb XBL Arcade game which would normally take 10 minutes or so but on Wednesday took over 5 hours. As such, I started to do some research and stumbled upon all the posts on this forum.

I've been logging my line speed over the last dew days (using BT Line checker) to see what's going on and have seen the following:

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
Your DSL connection rate: 7072 kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP profile for your line is - 6000 kbps

2009-07-17 08:30 - Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 5467 kbps
2009-07-17 19:30 - Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 580 kbps
2009-07-17 21:30 - Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 474 kbps
2009-07-17 08:00 - Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 5508 kbps
2009-07-17 22:00 - Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 465 kbps
2009-07-18 08:30 - Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 5054 kbps
2009-07-18 16:45 - Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 932 kbps
2009-07-19 13:30 - Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 1108 kbps

I presume this is down to throttling the connection, although all weekend it's been very slow. Most evenings and weekends I can't access youtube/iplayer etc.

My router stats have stayed pretty constant:
Connection Speed 7008 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 26.0 db 12.5 db
Noise Margin 6.6 db 23.0 db

Are these stats OK. The SkyUser BB checker says I am 0.6 miles from the exchange, and I used to get speeds up to about 6meg.

What options do I have? LLU is available at my exchange via Be/O2/Talk Talk. Would I be better off switching to them? If I did this do I have to cease my BT line? Not entirely sure how all this works and there seems to be loads of conflicting info out there?

What other checks should I do? I've raised this with Sky and they are looking into it but (as usual) blame BT and say there's nothing they can do.

Basically I want a decent service that has good speeds for XBox Live and moderate - heavy download use.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Thanks

tK

PS - Just ran a SpeedTest.net test too:

[Saturday]

Originally Posted by theKing

What options do I have? LLU is available at my exchange via Be/O2/Talk Talk. Would I be better off switching to them? If I did this do I have to cease my BT line? Not entirely sure how all this works and there seems to be loads of conflicting info out there?

Without any doubt the throttling would disappear if you moved to O2/Be. Sort the line noise you appear to have and you'd also treble your upstream and at least double your current downstream speed. Plus, unless you're on a deal with Sky, it will also cost you less.

No you don't need to cease your BT line OR your current Sky connection. All you do is request your MAC code from Sky, give it to the ISP you want to move to and then the changeover takes place automatically - usually with a down time of only a few minutes.

However, unless you are out of your BB contract with Sky (or convince them that your service is not fit for purpose) you'll need to pay off the rest of your contract, but as you say you've been on Connect for 2 years that's not a problem.

No question, you really should move - now

[theKing]

Thanks - how do I go about addressing the noise issue? I presume I should have a higher noise margin?

[steve16751]

theKing
Hi tK as Saturday says a move to O2 is wise I see you have been on the connect package for 2yrs so out of contract so you should not have any problems moving if you have a look at the Link give information on leaving Sky should you have any problems

(Unofficial) FAQ - Sky Connect Users

SKY BROADBAND CONNECT TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT POLICY

In addition to the monthly Usage Cap, this Traffic Management Policy applies to you if you take Sky Broadband Connect.
Excessive use during peak time

We will monitor your Sky Broadband usage during peak times from 5pm to 12am each day. This is when the majority of customers use the network and when speeds could be affected by the excessive usage of a minority. If we consider that your usage is excessive during peak times we may slow down your connection for the rest of the day so that it has less affect on others. Only a very small number of customers will be affected by this (less than 2%). If you are affected, we will only slow down the speed you can get during peak times for applications which use a lot of bandwidth (for example, streaming, peer-to-peer and newsgroups) and which have a negative effect on other customers. You will still be able to use Sky Broadband to do other things normally such as browsing, email, instant messaging and VOIP. There are no restrictions in place outside of peak times.

Traffic management of our Network

To ensure we provide a sustainable quality broadband service to our customers, we continuously monitor and efficiently manage the Sky Network as a whole. To do this, during peak times (from 5pm to 12am each day), we may slow down the speed that all Sky Broadband Connect customers can get on certain applications which we consider use up a lot of bandwidth (for example peer-to-peer and newsgroups) and which have a negative affect on other customers There are no restrictions in place for applications such as browsing, email, streaming, instant messaging and VOIP during peak times. We do not put restrictions on our network outside of peak times.
at the moment connect Customers are having problems from 9am till 1am.

Traffic Shaping seems to be running for 16 out of 24hrs there is a lot of connect Customers that are complaining with problems throughout the day

All terms and Conditions for connect

Sky.com - Sky Products>Broadband>Terms and Conditions

[Saturday]

Originally Posted by theKing

Thanks - how do I go about addressing the noise issue? I presume I should have a higher noise margin?

Yes, with your low attenuation I'd expect your sync to be at the max for Connect (~8meg) plus a higher noise margin.

You'll find loads of advice in the Cabling and Faceplate forum. Basically, start with a comparison connection between your current socket and the test socket (assuming you have an NTE5 master socket).

Even without improving your wiring I'm confident you'd see a higher sync (and no throttling) if you moved to an LLU provider and much higher sync with wiring improvements.

[theKing]

Thanks for all your help guys...

Just connected to the test socket (didn't realise I had one as it's behind a unit in the bedroom!!))

Connection Speed 8128 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 25.0 db 12.0 db
Noise Margin 8.4 db 24.0 db

Figures look better though the speedtest.net results haven't improved much:



Does this suggest I should get a faceplate (what do you recommend?) and hook the router up to that?

Still think I need to look at O2 or someone - are O2 better than Be and TalkTalk/CPW? With the O2 premium package it reckons I'd get 14meg which would be nice.

[steve16751]

theKing
Hi tK does your test socket look like the one on the link

Sky User - How to test your Master Socket

Speedtest.net is not that good Sky only recognise the Bt test for Connect users do a Bt Test Result information on the test how to
do the test from (Unofficial) FAQ - Sky Connect Users
Skyuser has a new sister site - O2User - Unofficial help and support for O2. Check it out you will be able to get some information there

[Smithy99]

Although using the tests socket is improving your stats, it won't improve the Connect package you are on, nothing you do will.

Move and do it as soon as you can, O2 or Be will be great compared with what you are used too.

Buuy a filtered faceplate for when it's active and you will see a huge rise in speeds.

[theKing]

Originally Posted by steve16751

theKing
Speedtest.net is not that good Sky only recognise the Bt test for Connect users do a Bt Test Result

BT Test result:

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
Your DSL connection rate: 8128 kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP profile for your line is - 6000 kbps
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 508 kbps

[Saturday]

There you go.

You're on a hiding to nothing with Connect - move on, get a (much) better connection and save some cash.