Anyone got experience of sky broadband?

[GhostRider]

So I'll be moving out at the beginning of January, and in considering all things tv and broadband, it would appear that the entire area of Birmingham city centre has no access to fibre optics, and therefor this rules out Virgin Media tv and broadband, which quite frankly I fi d fucking ridiculous.

However, there's obviously nothing I can do about that, and so it appears that I will be forced to subscribe to Sky. They go through a bt phone line and therefore it's the old 'upto 20mb' which in reality could actually be 0.5mb, and of course I won't know what speed I will get till I've signed a 12 month contract.

So does anybody have any experience with Sky? Is it really as shit as I've heard it to be? I calculated I will be no more than 1000 metres from the exchange, whether this means anything I have no idea.

I am seething that this is my only option, but for some reason Virgin feel that supplying the countryside is a better moneyspinner than the 5 mile radius of Birmingham city centre, second largest city in the country, go figure.......

GhostRider
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I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.

[st3v3]

I've just take it out myself, only plugged the wireless router in Yesterday...

They say it's up to xxmb, but they require you to leave the router on for 10 days to determine how much you use/require. They also don't cap you on it, Gadget show did a thing on it and called their bluff on the whole shebang but they guarantee it's unrestricted.

My box was installed asap, the phone line same(although i missed 2 appointments to have it put in and they didn't charge installation fee as the letters say they will). I've yet to actually see what the broadband is like on the whole, in a couple of days il be able say how fast/reliable etc it is.. I got the upto 10mb one but the PS3 wouldn't and won't link upto the router to let me online for some reason...
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[GhostRider]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

I'm on the "up to 10mb" package, and I'm getting 3.5mb. The actual provider is Easynet, and I'm wondering if I fork out for the "up to 20mb" it'll go up at all.
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[Flip]

My Dad has it and it's unreliable.

[GhostRider]

Would it make a difference if I took out Virgins "non-cable area" broadband service as oppposed to Skys - from my understanding it is all ADSL so its all coming down the same line - does it matter who the provider is, or would it be a case of getting the same 2mb from a potential 20mb Virgin deal as I would through Sky?

GhostRider
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I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.

[AC]

we have the whole sky package, including phone line rental (rather than paying BT as well). we dont have any issues with the broadband or the sky box. We are based in the northwest, not surrounded too much

[ClaireBear]

I had it for a when I was at uni. I had no problem with it at all, I think it was the max one we were on.

Installation was easy and never had to reset it or had any problems really. However I was living in a new build so maybe that had a bit to do with it.

But I was speaking to a cousin today who swapped to BT because his connection was poor- needed frequently resetting in the evenings.

Im going to be changing isp soon as well, but in two minds about going with sky.

but I dont recommend going with orange lol

[Tarmacsurfer]

Where have you found in Birmingham that doesn't have cable? I've lived all over the city in the last 13 years and never had problems.

Not a dig, genuinely curious.
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I'm immortal. Well, so far.

[GhostRider]

Anywhere in the city centre, this means the jewellery quarter, the surrounding areas of five ways and off broad street and behind the NIA, anywhere near Digbeth and the bullring.....literally if you are in the city centre you are at the mercy of phoneline broadband, which the general consensus shows to be not that much better than dial-up. I've been with Virgin for 5+ years so never even had to give any thought towards any other form of broadband/supply, but now that I have had to do some research into the subject I'm pretty damn shocked at how very little progress it has made since the days when dial-up was the only option available.

GhostRider
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I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.

[st3v3]

[Barry_M2]

I'm on it now. It's s**t!

Supposed to be up to 8meg. I get around 4(ish) late at night, or around half a meg (yes, half!) at peak times. Usually get the router reporting back that a connection is not available at least 3 or 4 times a week.

I'm going to be changing it after xmas. I've hooked up to my neighbours wireless to check their speed and they are getting around 6-7 when I'm getting less than 1!! Think they are on plusnet or something like that (I cant get a signal from them at the moment!).

I've just done a speed test now and it's bouncing around 3-500k. What a pile of w**k!
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[SoND]

On the up to 20Mb unlimited package. Not bad, reliable and no fair use policy.


https://www.speedtest.net/result/658565380.png
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[Irn-Bru]

I haven't got it, but I know a few who do.

Friend No. 1 has it, suppose to be 16meg, lucky if he gets 7 in speed tests. Always has a shit connection in CoD when we play online. Lives in a city.

Friend No. 2 also has it, same as above really except he lives near the countyside.

Brother used to have it but in his area he was barely getting 1mb... got rid of it and went to Virgin Media. He lived nearish to a city.

Personally I hear nothing but bad things about Sky.
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[lostboy]

I got Sky broadband and occasionally it can be a little slow but never had any other problems with it to be honest I have found it reasonably good.
Just tried the speed test thing and the download is 9.67mb in 57ms so quite happy with that cos we got the 10mb broadband package the upload is crap but my pc is about 4 an a half years old.
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[GhostRider]

Ok thanks for the feedback, perhaps if people could post their distances from the exchange it would give me a better idea of what to expect.

I could live with 15mb, anything less and I'll feel like I'm on dial-up.

It's a fucking shambles though that the UK struggles to provide 1mb, when in places like Korea they have 100mb as standard, let alone what a big business server can do.

To add further salt into the cut, most of these cunts have an 18 month contract as standard, so not only do they keep the actual speed hidden until you are all signed up, but once you realise you are paying £25 a month for a tarted up dial-up connection, you cant do fuck all about it for a year and a half, and even then you will gamble with another service provider with no gurantee whatsoever that it will be any better , possibly worse, but you'll be in for another 18 months then.

Seriously, a lot of people bitch about virgin media, I've heard nothing but bad things about it from most, yet I've had no problems whatsoever for 5+ years bar the odd server crash thats happened perhaps 3 times and was for no more than 12 hours in either incident and I get every tiny kb of my 20mb connection. I don't understand all this bitching when it's the only consistant service out there, the rest are pure gambles with high stakes.

GhostRider
____________________
I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.

[neatbik]

Ive used sky broadband for a couple of years now, never had any problems.

Im on the 10mb package, it never drops below 9.5.
Im a mile from the exchange (i think)

[geordie_e]

I was with BT for years... I think about £23 plus £11.50 line rental and the best I ever got was 1mb.

My partner moved in and we got sky

dish installation went fine.. 3 in total, HD box downstairs and 2 multipackages for the girls upstairs.

phone line switch over 2 weeks later, phones took about 4 hours to work properly.

HOWEVER the router took 2 weeks later to turn up...... so no internet for 2 weeks

Many phone calls and passed from person to person was really getting to me !

When the router did turn up... plugged it in and get 3mb !

So apart from the lack of router I feel quite happy with sky

My total package TV, BB and phone is about £65 including the HD channels

Its good enough for MW2 with no drop outs

Cheers
Geordie

[The Shaggy D.A.]

They were quick to supply me my Sky router when I first signed up a couple of years ago. The power supply for it started playing up last month, the router would disconnect then fail to get a connection. I put a spare supply on and it worked fine. I phoned the problem in on a Friday evening, a new router appeared on the Tuesday. I don't have a problem with the connection itself, just would like it to be a bit faster.

At least they don't throttle me back in the evening and at weekends like Virgin did.
____________________
Chances are quite high you are not in my Monkeysphere, and I don't care about you. Don't take it personally.
Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[Kickstart]

[GhostRider]

[Kickstart]

Hi

Supplier does make a difference. Central location like that there is probably a good chance that some of the suppliers have their own equipment in the exhange to get far higher speeds.

Added to which it appears that a fair amount can be gained from fiddling with parameters on the line. Get a large el cheapo supplier and you will probably be left on whatever their default is, while a decent supplier might have an attempt at boosting the performance.

Sky, Orange, etc, all appear to have a lousy reputation for support. Fine if things work OK (and my father is on Orange, and lives about 300 yards from their rural exchange and has no problems), but a pain if there are problems.

We land up needing our line tweaked occasionally. We are pretty much at the limit of getting broadband. Occasionally the speed drops down and a call to our ISP results in some fiddling and the speed increasing again.

I would be surprised if you would even notice the difference in normal browsing between 10mb and 20mb. Might well do on downloads, but would expect most downloads to be throttles off at a far lower speed anyway.

All the best

Keith
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[Ol]

[the grim reaper]

I've been with Sky for years now and never had any issues with them at all. I don't know my speed, I'm on the max package, but it allows me to play COD on the PS3 without any issues at all. We have the phone line and TV package as well and it works out OK price-wise, although my cvontract runs out in January so I'll be ringing to 'cancel'

Cheers

Grim
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[GhostRider]

I've been researching for the best part of the weekend and all of today, and in conclusion it seems it really is flip-a-coin to see whether you get a good service or not, regardless of who is supplying it.

Taking a look through most of these:

https://www.reviewcentre.com/products3067.html

It seems that there is nobody fit to serve their purpose, but again, since people do not have a choice if they want internet at all, they have to leave themselves at the mercy of random ISPs who may or may not give you what you pay for.

I'd guess roughly 90% of Birmingham City Centre is restricted to 8mb max, so lets call that 3-4mb in reality. I'm just glad I researched this beforehand - I was previously under the impression that more or less everywhere these days was fibre optic capable or at the least had the very best asdl setups.

It's certainly a sad day when someone is selecting where they live based off whether they can actually hope to get any internet connectivity.

GhostRider
____________________
I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.