# Anyone with Sky Broadband?



## alexp999 (Aug 4, 2008)

Hi,

We are in the process of moving house atm. We have Virgin Media Cable Broadband @ 10Mb now, but the place we are looking at moving to doesnt have cable 

So, I've been looking around the ISP's and it seems we can get Sky Broadband Max upto 16mb which knowing adsl will be about the same speed as cable 10mb.

So I wanted to know if anyone on here had Sky broadband, and what they thought of it.

The providers we can use (other than virtual providers) are:

Orange, TalkTalk, AOL (dont want to touch these with bargepole  )
Updata 
Sky
BT (only do upto 8mb and had bad exp with their Bband through someone else in past)


Cheers.


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## alexp999 (Aug 4, 2008)

anyone?


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## Cuzza (Aug 4, 2008)

yeah i'm on sky broadband. it's reliable, not mind-bogglingly fast but fast enough for most things. it has never died on me. that's about all i can say, i dont even know what speed we're on cause i dont pay the bill. ummm..wireless has pretty good range/signal, its all i can ask for


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## Darknova (Aug 4, 2008)

We have Orange broadband in our second house (my dad works away during the week) and he says it's very good (unlike their mobile service) and get's pretty decent speeds (considering adsl sucks ASS), he's on 8mb and gets 4-5mb.

And we use Virgin here at home, and it's definately the best. I get a constant 18-19mb on the 20mb service


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## MilkyWay (Aug 5, 2008)

Cable is fast but pricy

the thing is with sky the phone is a shitty deal and so is the tv as you can only get movies OR sports for both it costs too much to justify

the broadband is realiable but slow untill you get the faster speeds which cost more

talktalk is okay not major speedfest but its cheap all it needs is a good router and wireless setup
its got good deals on the phone and broadband phones are free anytime up to an hour then you hang up call again lol cheating the system

dont really reccomend talktalk tho for the fact its reputation is shitty and you might get crap download speeds depending on the area

sky is okay if you want the tv and phone too

really best bet is to go solo and get some broadband on its own from someone then your guarantee good speeds ect


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## alexp999 (Aug 5, 2008)

Well what the plan was:

Freeview/Freesat for TV
Virgin Media for Phone (cus my mum and dad have a mobile contract with them on a special deal)
Sky Broadband MAX via ADSL. I'm hoping the 16mb service should provide roughly what we have now. I think the saying goes that you usually get about 2/3rds of the rated download speed.

Based on the sam knows website, the area we are looking is within about 1 mile of the exchange (is that good?)

Cheers.


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 5, 2008)

I'm on Sky, however I live outside the 'network area' so even though I have them as my provider, I think it's a line from BT instead of from Sky themselves. However, I can't highly recommend them enough. I used to be with Supanet and got nothing bad speeds, constant high-pings, complete instability and terrible customer service. They even charged me £40 for the _free_ modem I had for what, 3 years when I decided to cancel. Assholes... anyway, I live really rurally and Sky have been nothing but excellent, even if it's still a BT line. 

I'm technically only able to get 1Mbit where I live, but 90% I can connect at 1.2 or higher. 



If you're getting the package with them as well, it just makes it even better. I couldn't as I'm outside the 'network area' so instead of paying £5 a month, I have to £17 on top of my TV, Phone and... that's it.


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## alexp999 (Aug 5, 2008)

Well the area we are looking at got a Sky server (LLU) at the exchange on the 28 July 2008 or something, which enables tham to do upto 16mb via adsl. (probably 10mb realistically)

We dont need a TV package, freeview channels are enough, we spend far to long on games than TV, lol.

And as for phone like I say we have to stick with Virgin Media for now till their mobile contract run out.

Glad to here people are pleased with Sky anyway.

Thanks.


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 5, 2008)

Not a problem. 

I just wish I could get more than 1Mbit, I know my exchange can support 7Mbit...


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## alexp999 (Aug 5, 2008)

InnocentCriminal said:


> Not a problem.
> 
> I just wish I could get more than 1Mbit, I know my exchange can support 7Mbit...



Is there no other ISP you can go with?


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 5, 2008)

Unfortunately not, they all have to go through BT.


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## alexp999 (Aug 5, 2008)

InnocentCriminal said:


> Unfortunately not, they all have to go through BT.



So is it just that your so far away from the exchange its only 1mb by the time it gets to you?


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## xu^ (Aug 5, 2008)

My old man is on sky broadband and its ok for what he uses it for ,but i hear if your an online gamer then dont bother with them.

u may be able to get 24mb from bethere.co.uk and they have a good rep for gaming online etc

i use Nildram (recently bought out by Tiscali) but there are ok atm ,been with them for about 2 years.


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## alexp999 (Aug 5, 2008)

xubidoo said:


> My old man is on sky broadband and its ok for what he uses it for ,but i hear if your an online gamer then dont bother with them.
> 
> u may be able to get 24mb from bethere.co.uk and they have a good rep for gaming online etc
> 
> i use Nildram (recently bought out by Tiscali) but there are ok atm ,been with them for about 2 years.



How do they get 24mb broadband down a phone line though?
Thought virtual providers using the BT exchange were limited to 8mb.


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 5, 2008)

alexp999 said:


> So is it just that your so far away from the exchange its only 1mb by the time it gets to you?



Yeah, something like that.


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## Darknova (Aug 5, 2008)

alexp999 said:


> How do they get 24mb broadband down a phone line though?
> Thought virtual providers using the BT exchange were limited to 8mb.



ADSL2+ has a theoretical maximum of 24mb/s, it's being tested in numerous sites in the UK.

ADSL2 is limited to 12mb/s down, but the transceivers only have to support 8mb/s (odd I know).


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## alexp999 (Aug 5, 2008)

Just looked the exchange up on Samknows again.

Looks like Be isnt available.

Dont know what updata is??

Seems sky has the fastest option at 16mb.


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## xu^ (Aug 5, 2008)

m8 of mine who is on Bethere gets 24mb (actual 20mb) and 1mb upload.

if u can get them well worth it ,but if your exchange isnt adsl2 enabled then ur probably stuffed ,maybe check wat date ur exchange is meant to go active with dsl2 ?


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## alexp999 (Aug 5, 2008)

Here is the exchange info (from samknows)


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 5, 2008)

I like the 21CN 2009 part, you get!

That means you should be able to get 50Mbit or more come next year, if BT aren't cocks and balls it up.


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## alexp999 (Aug 5, 2008)

InnocentCriminal said:


> I like the 21CN 2009 part, you get!
> 
> That means you should be able to get 50Mbit or more come next year, if BT aren't cocks and balls it up.



i didnt really get what that was about. Is it like BT making the phone lines capable of the same throughput as Virgin Media cable? i.e digital TV, 20mb+ broadband...?

Still based on what is available now, do you reckon Sky broadband max would be a good choice?


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 5, 2008)

It stands for 21st Century Network, which I think is either enabling ADSL2+ and then some or the whole new Fibre Optics sheeeet. However, it's probably the first one I mentioned.


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## newconroer (Aug 5, 2008)

Good thread.

A lot of broadband dealers in the UK are full of little fine print scams, but after a while you start to expect them.


"Fair use policy" and "Traffic Management" are really taking the piss, when you consider that 90% of the time you aren't getting the service you paid for, because conveniently you're XXX distance away from the hub of the line.


And while nearly all of them do it, at least some are cheaper, have no installation fee, and offer you a free modem. 

Orange did this with their Livebox. I have to say I was impressed with the modem/router given it was free, and the downtime was only twice in two years, each last less than one or two hours. However there was a 'hidden' download limit, and you never got your full downstream.


From what I can ascertain, Sky, Virgin, BE and BT(They still do it?)who are other top competitors will provie similar service with similar pains. The only benefit of one vs the other might be in some small conveniences, setup deals and/or fiber vs ADSL which is really dependant on where you live.
I'm a bit leary about BE though.

Recently I've considered moving on to PulseGaming, though I've some very specific questions for them, which never seem to get answered.

What I do know is that they are serviced by WyreForest http://www.webperf.net/?id=perfsummary

Offering 300gb download limit, no traffic management /slowdowns at certain times of the days,
full support for 8kbps down and a choice of 50:1 or 20:1 contention rate.

My only concern is that being a small reseller, there's no 24/7 support (not that you should need it, but it's nice to know it's there) and if they go 'belly up,' you'd be out of service without notice.


Anyways, continue on with the discussion, this will come in handy.

GL Alex!


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## Darknova (Aug 5, 2008)

I have to say that Virgin Media has REALLY impressed me recently. There's a load of crap on the net about Virgin Media having shitty support and crap speeds, but it's just not true.

I get straight through to customer support if I need it, they are very helpful, and know what they are talking about. When I had problem with my modem over heating I had one shipped out with next day delivery and went from 3mb to a constant 18-19mb, and I do mean constant, no matter when I run speed tests they all show 18-19mb. The "fair use" policy is really high and we have never hit it, even during months I've downloaded a lot.


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## alexp999 (Aug 5, 2008)

i really like Virgin Media too, their service has been great. and consistent download speeds.

We are on 10mb, downloads pike at like 2.5mb  but stabilize at about 1.2MB/sec download 

Although i do find a fair few sites limit your speed to 500kb/sec (tho download managers can get round this)

Thats why I'm looking for the best possible replacement in all aspects. Customer support, reliability, consistency and to get as close to 10mb as possible.


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## Darknova (Aug 5, 2008)

alexp999 said:


> i really like Virgin Media too, their service has been great. and consistent download speeds.
> 
> We are on 10mb, downloads pike at like 2.5mb  but stabilize at about 1.2MB/sec download
> 
> ...



2.5mb would means you are getting 20mb speeds 

The maximum theoretical bandwidth on 20mb is 2.56MB/s, on 10mb its 1.28MB/s


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## alexp999 (Aug 5, 2008)

Darknova said:


> 2.5mb would means you are getting 20mb speeds
> 
> The maximum theoretical bandwidth on 20mb is 2.56MB/s, on 10mb its 1.28MB/s



Must be because the modem and cable are capable of 20mb, then the speed limiter kicks in. Do you reckon there is actually any difference in cost to virgin Media or any other company for that matter between speeds?


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## Darknova (Aug 5, 2008)

alexp999 said:


> Must be because the modem and cable are capable of 20mb, then the speed limiter kicks in. Do you reckon there is actually any difference in cost to virgin Media or any other company for that matter between speeds?



Nope. the cable itself can take 100mb+ speeds, and it's all already laid down, so in physical terms, no there is no cost to them.

Basically they use a huge fibre optic backbone, and then from the green box in the street it's a simple co-ax cable with an embedded copper pair capable of 100mb/s speeds (I think, it might be 50mb/s).


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## xu^ (Aug 5, 2008)

id love cable ,but cant get it ,100yds up the road ppl have it but not me a little further down 

im on a pathetic 2mb conn,was 1mb until 3 mnths ago ,im at the very limit distancewise from the exchange 

i wouldnt know wat to do with 10mb tbh


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## Darknova (Aug 6, 2008)

xubidoo said:


> i wouldnt know wat to do with 10mb tbh



You'd want more....20mb is nothing to me tbh. I've constantly had the fastest broadband in the country since the very first provider went to 512kb (24mb ADSL2+ isn't actually possible, only theoretically). I'm now looking forward to going to 50mb which should be somewhere in September I believe, but a lot of the time 20mb just isn't fast enough lol.


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 6, 2008)

If you haven't read this already, you might find it interesting.


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## Darknova (Aug 6, 2008)

InnocentCriminal said:


> If you haven't read this already, you might find it interesting.



Interesting, but anybody using P2P should know to never ever use the standard port, and to never use one in the first 20,000 range. That's in every single manual/FAQ etc. I've seen. The port I use is far outside the range 55,000+ and I get full speed with good trackers/servers/whatever, and to be honest, you shouldn't really be using P2P unless you know how to cover yourself.


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