Sky Digiboxes kill BT broadband exchanges - urban myth or true?

[Bob Crabtree]

Some stories are so utterly ridiculous that you couldn't make them up.

And we're hoping for the sake of our editorial credibility that the tale we're about to relate is one of them.

It all starts with a broadband connection going down - or so we're told by a contact who's been 100 per cent reliable over many years.

The disconnected user (a 100 per cent reliable contact of our contact) complains to his internet service provider. Which one, as you'll come to realise, isn't relevant.

Check out this HEXUS.lifestyle.headline to read the rest of this ever weirder tale.

[dangel]

Er... so what model/brand is the box? Is it some kind of national secret or something?!?!

[Bob Crabtree]

Er... so what model/brand is the box? Is it some kind of national secret or something?!?!

If I knew it, then that info would be included in the story - but I'm still trying to check out the truth of the whole thing, as well as details such as this.

Of course, there's one way of checking if your Sky Digibox is one of the models in question - bring near it a portable radio receiving Radio 5.

[dangel]

Radio what's that?

[autopilot]

Bizzare, keep us updated Bob.

The reasons not get Sky just keep on growing!

[Funkstar]

overgeard a guy in Maplin the other day (seem to be spending too much tim in there recently) saying his Sky box makes his ADSL cut out, but killing the exchange is a new one

[autopilot]

This kind of thing can happen though i guess. The Nokia 8210 used to be capable of taking down the entire O2 network.

The reason the stangest things are often true is that the stangest things are often never tested for.

[Funkstar]

The Nokia 8210 used to be capable of taking down the entire O2 network.

that is a also a new one on me

[Mike Fishcake]

How very strange... If this is true, it will be interesting to see how they work this one out between them!

[chrestomanci]

I know that there are about 30-40 different models of digibox out there. I have done some work for Sky in the past, and I once found a room where they have once of each stored on bookshelves.

Sky probably know which model each costomer has, but they would almost certainly guard that information quite closely, especaly from a potental competor like BT.

Then of course there is the likelyhood that the exchange killing box is faulty, so BT are not looking for anyone with a box of a particular model, they are looking for a specific box that is faulty in an unusaual way.

I would have thought BT's best bet would be to look for the exchange killing signal on their incoming lines, that way they will definatley know which household is the culprit. Much better than driving arround with a radio.

[Sinizter]

overgeard a guy in Maplin the other day (seem to be spending too much tim in there recently) saying his Sky box makes his ADSL cut out, but killing the exchange is a new one

Tell him to get his sky box on a microfilter.

[merlin2001]

mmmh - agree with chrestomanci there - i would suspect that sky would know what sort of box you have, hence removing need for wandering bt vans with radio 5 at full volume (although I will be paying more attention to the what radio station they are listening to, next time I see any BT vehicles)

[autopilot]

that is a also a new one on me

Yeah, a mate of mine used to work in O2's network sevices in Leeds. About 5 years ago they tracked down the major network outages they were having to dodgy firmware in the first 8210's conflicting with thier less-than robust network software and causing thier routers to reset (or something along those lines he told me).

[autopilot]

The more i think about this, the more i think its BS.

How do they know that the model causing the fault is also the same model that interferes with Radio 5?

If they know that, they must know the what the exact model is. And as chrestomanci says, they surely have a record of which customers have which models.

And this must apply to more than one customer too.

I'm no expert on the technologies involved here, but the logic in the aritcle just does not add up.

I think you have been had Bod mate.

[chuckskull]

So it kills Radio 5 and screws BT?

Where can I buy one?

[nichomach]

I'm not inclined to dismiss this out of hand - STBs have done weird stuff in the past - remember the freeview box that called out air sea rescue?