Are Sky purposely slowing down our internet?

[dean_ham]

Ok this is slightly long winded so please bear with me

I moved to my new home 2 years ago. When joining sky I took out a basic free package as Sky said the maximum i could expect in my area was 1.5 meg due to me being located so far away from the exchange. Initially my connection speed was at 2 Meg down, 650kb up. Ok fair enough if thats all i can have thats all i can have.

Maybe a year or so down the line i noticed my download speeds increase so i logged onto my router and sure enough my connection speed had increased from 2 Meg download to about 3.2 meg download. Excellent means im only on the free for the basic 2 meg package and using bbc i player and youtube and surfing the net is actually giving me no problems.

Then a few weeks ago i decided to give CS (a game) a go after a couple of years retirement ping was fine 30-50ms no problemo. After a couple of weeks of moderatley playing I noticed my ping shooting up to 120 massive lagging in game, loads of choke, loss in game etc basically unplayable. Then all of a sudden my connection has dropped to 1.4-1.6 meg. UHH?? now the ping has settled a little but not as good as previously then my connection dropped to 1 meg! Now come to think of it a couple of weeks before i had these problems i can remember seeing loads, and i mean 5-8 openreach/openworld (whatever its called) BT vans working around the area underground within a couple of days period. But maybe this is just coincidence.....

Before phoning sky and complaining about my connection i read online and on these forums and they recommend install a new master socket NTE5 in my living room (as my house was brand new i think the electrician who wired up the house has wired my telephone point up, and not BT. The incoming first connection from outside into the house should be a master socket type but i had only had a junction box with a connection for a telephone, i.e when opening up no master socket inside. So i ordered a new NTE5 master socket and NTE2000 adsl Faceplate.

These were my stats before chaning anything.

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 1023 kbps 604 kbps
Line Attenuation 57.0 db 31.9 db
Noise Margin 3.1 db 15.9 db

As i was waiting for my two new parts to arrive surfing the internet became unbareable and faced the prospect of using the internet all weekend with this dreadful connection, my master socket and filter had not come but I could not wait any longer!

Here is a screenshot of my stats before phoning.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Phoned sky up and explained the situation. The indian guy said to try a new microfilter (told him i do not have one) oh noooo he said. Ok nevermind.... try and plug your microfilter into the master socket. I pretended to plug my microfilter into the master socket as i didn't have one at the time heheheheheheh.

He then phones me back on my mobile phone. Its good news the connection quality is much better by plugging it into the master socket. I will now improve your speed for you, but remember to purchase a new filter as soon as possible as this is the cause of your problems.........................(what a load of rubbish!!!!)

Now this is what I was getting,



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Great i tell him im back at 3 meg connection now, but you have slowed down my upload from 600 to 256. He then says yes this is the maximum i can give you????????

Any idea why i can only get 256 upload now?

This afternoon my new NTE5 master socket has arrived and NTE2000 filter faceplate.

These are my current stats



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

So is it possible for sky to turn up my connection even further judging by these stats (as im no expert) bearing in mind these stats are taken at 8PM peak internet usage time?

BTW my attenuation is very high due to me being located 4.5km (in a straight line from my exchange) and my current setup now is my router is directly plugged into the NTE2000 faceplate, with no extention wiring connected as these have been removed as i do not use the telephone in the other 2 bedrooms.

Also the reason for the headline "Are sky purposely slowing down our internet?" I explained my situation to my work colleague who replied that his internet connection was alot slower, i explained how to get onto the router stats and sure enough his connection has been slowed down to 1 meg too when it was alot faster previously?!?!? something fishy going on here!

Thanks for reading

[dean_ham]

Also one more question i just pinged BBC - Homepage and it comes back at 50ms. As i said in the above post this was alot faster previously. What terminology do i explain to sky, is it that i need to be put on a gaming profile? As my pings have definatley doubled compared to a couple of months ago!

Thanks once again!

[User05]

Call Sky and tell them to put you on the 4608/864 profile. This will be 0 INP and max delays of 8ms. i.e. Low ping times.

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

Why not just set them both manually, or can't that be done any more (as most people are on SVBN)?

[User05]

Just assuming the OP is on SVBN (looks like he's been moved to the 3072/256 INP 2 delays 16 profile).