service deteriorated drastically

[kevpc]

hi all. reported here last year the problems i was having with sky unlimited broadband service. after constant phone calls and an email complaint, all seemed to be ok for several months. however, the problems have returned again.
apparently, according to sky, there was a 'spike' down my line in the middle of February and i have been getting constant speed fluctuations ever since. have contacted sky on an almost daily basis and have had the line reset on numerous occasions. the reset brought my speed back to what was normal, for me anyway, at 16.4mps downstream and 1.1mps upstream. the speeds would last anywhere from 30mins to 3 days and would then drop down as far as 4.4mps downstream and 400kbps upstream. eventually had a BT engineer here who found problems on the line, caused by water. the repairs were carried out, he started the router up and i immediately had speeds of 16.7mps downstream and 1.1mps upstream. great, i thought! sorted! after approx 36hours, the reboots started again with the speed dropping to 14mps and 500kbps. i have been on the phone every day since then (4 days ago).
sky keep trying to spin me B/S by saying that:-
1) as it is copper cabling, it can only run at it's max speed for so long before dropping speed. trouble with that excuse is, it usually happens when the computer, not the router (never switch it off), is switched off, so no downloading/uploading taking place.
2) even though sky has the dlm turned off, BT can still reduce the line speeds (use it's form of line management). thought BT were not allowed to touch sky customers connection or sky equipment?
3) there are more customers using sky broadband at my exchange, so existing customers (like me) speed has been reduced.
would welcome any comments from you guys as to what i am being told and perhaps what the problem may be.

TIA

[Smithy99]

First, BT has no control over anything to do with Sky LLU connections.

You should post your router stats and run routerstats lite over a period of a few days to keep a log and see if there are any certain times of the day that the problem is occuring.

Sky are right that copper lines will obviously start to slow over time, everything ages but that does not sound like the problem here, especially if the sunc speed can be set back to the previous level.

[kevpc]

tnx for response, Smithy99. you have confirmed what i was already sure of. i have screen dumps since this issue started but was told by one sky rep who phoned me that they wouldn't use them because i could have altered them, basically calling me a liar.. no idea what benefit that would be to me. had a bad night so was up at 1am. checked my status page in router (which had been set again by sky around 8pm last night to 15.3mps and 1100kbps) to find that speed was down to 14mps and 580kbps (dlm still off, so not that). just got off the phone to sky. they rest line again to 16400 and 1100. told me to ring back when the speed changes. told them no doubt it would be later today. i cant figure it out. tried a new router, engineer been and repaired faults, plugged into test socket but drops still happening. only 1 bt socket that has built in filter. router just 4 feet from the socket and only 1 phone plugged in as well. weird! also just been asked what difference it makes if the speed does drop? told them that the speed should not keep changing and i certainly shouldn't have to keep resetting the router 4-5-6 times a week to get the speed back up. losing patience now.

[Isitme]

Post your stats.
How to get your router statistics

[kevpc]

hi, Isitme. have plenty of screen dumps (since 25/02) but only stat i have is from 1am today, done with speed.io, saved as txt file. atm speed has not changed since sky reset line at about 09:15 today. frustrating, as still waiting for the change to happen, as i know it will. could be today, could be tomorrow.

Results from speed.io - Internet DSL Speedtest (Copied on 2011-03-19 01:11:13) Download: 12222 Kbit/s Upload : 531 kbit/s Connects : 1529 conn/min Ping: 33 ms

Results from speed.io - Internet DSL Speedtest
(Copied on 2011-03-19 10:42:49)
Download: 14377 Kbit/s
Upload : 1005 kbit/s
Connects : 1520 conn/min
Ping: 23 ms

as you can see, speed is great atm, but honestly, it will not stay like this. there will be a drop similar to the first stat (about 2mps down and 500-600kbps up), that can happen at any time, even when the computer is turned off! tried different sky router, speed was worse, so tier 2 tech told me to put old one back before i could even reboot computer to ensure new ip address was picked up!

[Isitme]

Speedtests and Stats are two different things. Please post your stats, click the link in my last post if you don't know how.

[Scubbie]

...so tier 2 tech told me to put old one back before i could even reboot computer to ensure new ip address was picked up!

Firstly 'tier 2' doesn't exist any more. tiers 2 & 3 combined to create CST some 2 or 3 years ago.

Secondly rebooting a PC to get a new IP address is total rubbish. The router is a separate entity to your PC.

Currently many members are reporting that the Sky IP addresses have become 'sticky' and disconnecting/switching off a router does not always result in a new IP address being allocated.

[kevpc]

sorry, Isitme. misunderstood.

19-03-2011 01:10 reboot



not a sky router atm. had ok to use my own because speed was around the 13mps

[kevpc]

these are stats atm

[I_Hate_Sky_Awnsers]

By the looks of doc2 your SNR is at 10db.

Looks like when that picture was taken that you line would have been able to handle your normal speed

Didn't notice a line uptime in the stats