can sky ask b.t. for my mac code?

[unity]

Hi everyone. I have given sky two mac codes off b.t, and every time I get a letter back from sky saying that they have incorect characters. Do you know if sky themselves can ask for the code? Its been two months now waiting to be connected, got two routers as well, costing sky more in routers and paperwork

[TSx]

Nope, never going to happen. DPA and all that prevents it

[reddwarfcrew]

make sure you get your 0 and O and 1 and l correct when giving it to sky

[unity]

Thanx everyone My last code had no o. or 0 in it but it ended with 123F and sky said are you sure that the 1 is not an I? and i could only give them what i was quoted over the phone. They never e-mail the code to you. Or can they? Just a total mess up these last two months. I have given them the last code but expecting another letter any day now. Thanx anyway

[TSx]

Thanx everyone My last code had no o. or 0 in it but it ended with 123F and sky said are you sure that the 1 is not an I? and i could only give them what i was quoted over the phone. They never e-mail the code to you. Or can they? Just a total mess up these last two months. I have given them the last code but expecting another letter any day now. Thanx anyway

Mac codes are always LLLL0000000/LL00L

where L = Letter, 0 = Number.

In addition, at the moment, the format is:

LLLL0000000/FI00L

(specifically FI) - its a sequence, so in a while, it'll switch to

LLLL0000000/FJ00L

Ensure BT read it phonetically on the phone and it conforms to these standards.

[Perseus]

Sky can't ask BT for your MAC because you have the account with BT.

The MACs are generated automatically and can/should be copy and pasted in an e-mail to you upon request.

It's very easy to get characters mixed up as people say and indeed I've experienced certain ISPs who deliberately give MACs incorrectly to customers leaving them, yes it's true. We ran a study on which MACs failed in our system and compared it to which ISPs had generated the MAC. The results were surprising - Tiscali and Orange !!!!!

Quite simply we put all MACs through a MAC checker at point of sale to eliminate this now.

Incidentally, it's very easy to work out what your MAC should be.

LLLL0000000 is your Circuit ID

The second part is when your MAC will expire.
(based on when it is generated, ie 30 days) ... a MAC generated today would be:

FJ02G

F = 2007 (for some reason)
J = October (10th letter = 10th month)
02 = The day it'll expire (2nd)
G = The hour it was created / will expire

So this MAC will expire in the 7th hour of the day, 2nd October 07

[Isitme]

Quite simply we put all MACs through a MAC checker at point of sale to eliminate this now

.

I take it you are with Sky? If so, this is a giant step forward, no more c0ckups wlth lnc0rrectly entered 1etters/numbers

[Perseus]

Sky don't do this.

[Isitme]

Sky don't do this.

So you are not employed by Sky and they don't bother to check if a code is correct before they type it in. Result .. some poor sod ends up in an endless loop for months with no broadband, with Sky blaming everybody but themselves.

[TSx]

The problem is (and I know it sounds like in-fighting at Sky) that sales don't know what the format of a mac code should be. Add some verification to the software, or train people an 99% of errors (always human error!) would be eliminated