Extremely Annoyed!!!!!

[alan26uk]

First off... i want to apologise to anyone reading this, if this turns out to be a massive rant, but i desperately need to get things off my chest and see if anyone has any advice or is having the same problem.

Back in October 08 i decided to upgrade to SKY +HD, upon doing this i also decided to change from BT Broadband to sky (as it would save me £315 a year - great, or so i thought!)...

Now.... I better point out before i continue, With BT Broadband i was regularly receiving download speeds of around 5500kb/s - 6000kb/s! (no matter what time of day or night!)... mainly using Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test and speedteser.bt.com to check this.

From my go live date with sky, My connection speed started out at roughly 3000kb/s, however over the next few weeks this dropped to between 1000kb/s - 1500kb/s.

I contacted Sky broadband and they made me go through there usual script of try this try that, check this check that, and after an hour of this they decided it was something on my PC which was causing the slow speed.

I tried to explain that i had both a PC and a laptop and the speed was the same on both, so how could it be something on the PC... No matter what i said they were adamant it was on the PC...

So taking this into account, instead of trying to find out what programs i had installed which could be causing this i decided to reformat my PC completely back to factory shipped status and started again.

After reinstalling and setting up, i ran a speed test and could only get a max of 900kb/s, i contacted SKy again and they yet again went through all these silly tests (which i had already done)... Eventually they referred me to another department who would call me back in the next 72 hours...

After numerous failed attempts for them to contact me (calling me at home during the day and leaving messages, even though i told them i was at work and not available till after 6!!!!) they closed the call saying that the problem was resolved.

i contacted them again and explained that the problem was not resolved and this time they decided to arrange a new "ticket", and got a BT engineer to visit the exchange.

The engineer visited the exchange the next day and phoned me to say that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my connection at the exchange, but he would arrange for his colleague to come out and look at the Green box round the corner - House connection, as he couldn't do this.

This Engineer came, replaced my wall socket and checked everything, again saying it was perfect and no problems, and when he plugged his laptop in he could get a speed of 5000b/s direct connection (not through sky).

Sky contacted me that evening to inform me of what BT had done even though i already knew, and told me nothing like what BT had said, they said there was a problem with the line and would arrange for BT to come out again...

Today...... Another BT engineer came out and did exactly the same as the last 2, and yet again (shock!) -nothing wrong with the line. He explained to me that Sky are renowned for "capping" the speed in which it's customers get and that i should mention this to them when they call me to confirm what he had done...

I have Just had a phone call, (hence the extremely annoyed mood I'm in), they have sat there and blatantly LIED about what the engineer has done today... They explained that today's engineer had reported a major fault with our line, and that they need to change the cable at the exchange which will be done in the next few days...

The BT engineer phoned me after he had gone (as he double checked the exchange) and said the line was defiantly ok and his report would reflect this, and he would even mention that the problem must be at sky's end.

SO... Either the BT Engineer lied... Or sky have lied.... Hmmm

Any idea's on what i can do?

I have complained to sky in writing and not yet received a reply, and have even contacted them on the phone to complain, but can never get through...

My connection speed at the moment very rarely gets above 900kb/s which causes no end of problems trying to play online games (WOW) or downloading updates / files...

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* Sorry for such a long rant... but need to say something to someone!!!!!!!!

[Smithy99]

Can you post your router stats.

From what I understand, Sky connect is actually a BT product rebadged so it uses the same BT equipment you were on before and has no connectiuon to Sky's own equipment. Hence Sky cannot cap you.

[NewsreadeR]

Hence Sky cannot cap you.

Although Sky could traffic shape you.

How to get your router statistics

[alan26uk]

With BT home Hub this used to be 7000+

[Saturday]

With BT home Hub this used to be 7000+

With Sky Connect you're on exactly the same ADSL service and equipment as you were on with BT.

BT's ADSL Max product (rebadged Connect by Sky) uses an exchange based rate adaption system known as RAMBo. Your low(ish) sync and high(ish) noise margin shows that RAMBo has detected and reacted to a change in your line's characteristics such that it has determined that your maximum stable rate is 4448kbps. That may well be lower than you had before but that's just a reflection that your line has changed (for the worse) in some way since then.

If this is just a temporary problem then the RAMBo system should react and up your sync accordingly. If you feel that RAMBo has set your maximum stable rate incorrectly then you can ask Sky to contact BT Wholesale BB Assurance and request that a recalculation be triggered.

Today...... Another BT engineer came out and did exactly the same as the last 2, and yet again (shock!) -nothing wrong with the line. He explained to me that Sky are renowned for "capping" the speed in which it's customers get and that i should mention this to them when they call me to confirm what he had done...

Sky can't cap your sync speed i.e. it is nothing to do with them that your sync with BT was 7000kbps is now 4448kbps.

Sky can (and do) cap throughput speed on Connect i.e. the download speed you get, but I don't think this is your complaint is it? Or is it both sync speed and throughput that's the issue. If so, don't forget throughput can be affected by many things such as using a wireless connection or testing the speed with a poor speedtester.

Connect throughput throttling is almost exclusively in the evenings. If your throughput changes dramatically about 6pm then goes back to what it was at midnight then you may be experiencing throttling. If your throughput is poor all the time (poor being substantially less than 80% of your sync) then look for other causes than throttling.

HTH

[dholdi]

As the other guys have said this looks to be a combination of peak time throttling and maybe a touch of the rambo. The fact that the BT man got 5k who I assume attended during the day and you experience a lot less after 6 when you get home from work would support this. If rambo works in a similar way to skys dlm then frequent disconnections of the router would result in the drop of sync, again I'm assuming you have done this in your quest to sort the problem out.

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

might wanna read this too...

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-b...owed-down.html