Another Sky Broadband Question

I am currently on PlusNet and would like to move, probably to Sky Broadband
Mid as PlusNet itself has just been so unreliable over the last 6 months.

Although 4km from the exchange (after much tweaking by a helpful Openreach
engineer) I am currently getting a rock-solid MaxADSL connection, downstream
speed of 4320000 with attenuation of 45 and SNR Margin at 12.5 which I am
loathe to risk losing.

The local exchange (Long Eaton) has Sky/EasyNet LLU installed. Presumably
this means that Sky would use LLU for the exchange connection. Would I then
be on an ADSL2 service and how would this affect the connection speed /
stability please? I know a small number of people have had problems with
Sky, but I am asking about the affect of the line / exchange hardware
rather than the service as a whole, which most people seem to have found OK.

Secondly, is anyone using VOIP on Sky Broadband please? Can't seem to find
any comments on this in this newsgroup.

Many thanks.

Marty

Marty C wrote:
> I am currently on PlusNet and would like to move, probably to Sky
> Broadband Mid as PlusNet itself has just been so unreliable over the
> last 6 months.
> Although 4km from the exchange (after much tweaking by a helpful
> Openreach engineer) I am currently getting a rock-solid MaxADSL
> connection, downstream speed of 4320000 with attenuation of 45 and
> SNR Margin at 12.5 which I am loathe to risk losing.
>
> The local exchange (Long Eaton) has Sky/EasyNet LLU installed.
> Presumably this means that Sky would use LLU for the exchange
> connection. Would I then be on an ADSL2 service and how would this
> affect the connection speed / stability please? I know a small
> number
> of people have had problems with Sky, but I am asking about the
> affect of the line / exchange hardware rather than the service as a
> whole, which most people seem to have found OK.
> Secondly, is anyone using VOIP on Sky Broadband please? Can't seem
> to
> find any comments on this in this newsgroup.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Marty

Last I heard was that Long Eaton was still to be sorted out
(kits/racks are there but are not connected properly) but it has been
a few weeks since I talked to any one over that side of my patch.

When you get it working the only thing which will change is the
equipment you're connected to so your connection shouldn't get any
worse, but why go for the MID product when MAX ( & is the ADSL2
service whilst the MID is still carried via BT DSLAMs) is cheaper.
You will not get the much vaunted 16Mb but should be able to obtain
another 2 to 3Mbps (if not more) above what you're getting now

> I am currently on PlusNet and would like to move, probably to Sky
> Broadband Mid as PlusNet itself has just been so unreliable over the
> last 6 months.
> Although 4km from the exchange (after much tweaking by a helpful
> Openreach engineer) I am currently getting a rock-solid MaxADSL
> connection, downstream speed of 4320000 with attenuation of 45 and
> SNR Margin at 12.5 which I am loathe to risk losing.
>
> The local exchange (Long Eaton) has Sky/EasyNet LLU installed.
> Presumably this means that Sky would use LLU for the exchange
> connection. Would I then be on an ADSL2 service and how would this
> affect the connection speed / stability please? I know a small number
> of people have had problems with Sky, but I am asking about the
> affect of the line / exchange hardware rather than the service as a
> whole, which most people seem to have found OK.
> Secondly, is anyone using VOIP on Sky Broadband please? Can't seem to
> find any comments on this in this newsgroup.

Whatever the problems have been over the last few months with Plus think
very hard before moving ISP particularly to one that is fairly new like Sky.
From what I have heard and read you could well be heading from frying pan to
fire. If you have a solid connection then sticking with it might be the best
thing to do. Also taking the line away from BT seems bad news to me since
none of the un-bundlers provide a 24 hour fault reporting service.
Furthermore any problems between your house and the exchange is the
responsibility of one organisation rather than two.

Peter Crosland

Peter Crosland wrote:

> Furthermore any problems between your house and the exchange is the
> responsibility of one organisation rather than two.

I would have thought that simplification would be likely to result in an
improvement - no shuffling of responsibilities.

--
Old Codger
e-mail use reply to field

What matters in politics is not what happens, but what you can make
people believe has happened. [Janet Daley 27/8/2003]

In message <45a12231$0$8731$(E-Mail Removed)>, Marty
C <(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>I am asking about the affect of the line / exchange hardware

I am unaware of hardware having feelings (at least not yet Dave).

--
dave @ stejonda

In message <45a13571$0$31237$(E-Mail Removed)>, Old Codger
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>Peter Crosland wrote:
>
>> Furthermore any problems between your house and the exchange is the
>>responsibility of one organisation rather than two.
>
>I would have thought that simplification would be likely to result in
>an improvement - no shuffling of responsibilities.
>
that was Peter's point!

--
dave @ stejonda

>> Furthermore any problems between your house and the exchange is the
>> responsibility of one organisation rather than two.
>
> I would have thought that simplification would be likely to result in
> an improvement - no shuffling of responsibilities.

That is what I am saying. Do try to keep up!

Peter Crosland

> Secondly, is anyone using VOIP on Sky Broadband please? Can't seem to find
> any comments on this in this newsgroup.
>

I'm using Sipgate VOIP with no problems.

There is no port blocking by Sky, and the Netgear router they supply has
good firewall and port-forwarding facilities.

The only slight downside with Sky is that they don't have their own
newsgroup servers and they don't provide any free web space. Otherwise a
1st class service.

Peter Crosland wrote:
>>> Furthermore any problems between your house and the exchange is the
>>> responsibility of one organisation rather than two.
>> I would have thought that simplification would be likely to result in
>> an improvement - no shuffling of responsibilities.
>
> That is what I am saying. Do try to keep up!

Sorry about that, but in the context of a post that appeared to be
saying there would be great problems if the OP left PN ("... think very
hard before moving ISP particularly to one that is fairly new like Sky.
From what I have heard and read you could well be heading from frying
pan to fire. If you have a solid connection then sticking with it might
be the best thing to do. Also taking the line away from BT seems bad
news to me since none of the un-bundlers provide a 24 hour fault
reporting service.") I did not notice the change of emphasis for the
final sentence.

--
Old Codger
e-mail use reply to field

What matters in politics is not what happens, but what you can make
people believe has happened. [Janet Daley 27/8/2003]

"kráftéé" <kraftee@b&e-cottee.me.uk> wrote in message
news:enr9um$42r$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Last I heard was that Long Eaton was still to be sorted out (kits/racks
> are there but are not connected properly) but it has been a few weeks
> since I talked to any one over that side of my patch.
>
Thanks for the replies.That's what I like about this group, full of very
helpful and knowledgeable people.

kráftéé, I have found that there is a post dated 5 January 2007 on
skyuser.co.uk http://tinyurl.com/yzx44p that suggests that the problem at
Long Eaton is still on-going, although users seem to have been moved to
another part of the exchange (whatever that means), so I guess that now
might not be the moment to move.

Didn't undertstand the bit about Max being cheaper than Mid as the monthly
charge is GBP5.00 for Mid versus GBP10.00 for Max and I don't download that
much anyway, unless of course you mean the connection fee.

With respect to Peter's comments, I take the point about the fewer links in
the chain the better, but isn't that an argument to go straight to the Sky
LLU Max option? Just one company to deal with. Whoever they "sub-contract"
to, that is their problem? I know from bitter experience trying to deal with
a PlusNet / BT Wholesale / Openreach cocktail is very frustrating.
(Incidentally kráftéé, you were the one who sorted it for me the time before
last!).

And as I understand it, Sky Broadband is operated by EasyNet, who Sky bought
about 18 months ago and who were a well regarded ISP. Some people have had
problems, but that happens with every ISP. There certainly seem to be fewer
problems than with PlusNet (although accepted there are probably fewer
subscribers at the momment) and it isn't in Sky's interest to alienate its
very profitable satellite subscribers. To date they do seem to have adopted
a very cautious approach, unlike certain other "free" broadband providers.

Anyone using VOIP on Sky Broadband please?

Thanks guys.

Marty