Sky BB Rant

[kopite]

Hey all,

I`ve been with sky for a few years now and When it works its fine but when things go wrong its been a nightmare. I`ll start by saying I`ve been working for ISP`s for 7 years now so when it comes to DSL I know my stuff.

First issue was a few years ago when I had a High open fault. I rang them and told them I had a high open fault. Explained How I knew this was the case even demonstrated to them by picking up the phone and showing the DSL disconnecting. I advised that I had tried 3 different routers and 3 different filters as well as a SSFP With no other sockets on the line(I use the nte5 socket with an adslnation ssfp usualy with every other socket in the house unplugged) It took a week for them to finally agree to send out an Engineer who agreed with me that it was a hi open fault.

SInce then the connection has been fine until the past few weeks. My speed has dropped right down from 2 meg to 1 meg. My SNR has gone up in line with the speed change. They said they would restart the DLM so I will see if that makes any difference.

THe problem was when I started to talk about the problems with my router. For the past couple of months its been randomly factory resettings itself. Causing all my Lan settings to be lost as well as my custom firewall rules. The chap went away to talk to his colleagues and came back to advise me that this is how Sky broadband works the settings are not static in the router and will reset. I told him that The WAN IP maybe but internal settings should never change. He was adamant his colleagues where right. I asked about getting a replacemnt router sent out seeing as this one is faulty and he told me I would have to buy a new one. I asked for my username and password so I could put them in my own router and he told me they are in the router somewhere and I should look through the menus :@

Is it really too much to ask for a member of support to understand that a router losing its settings is a faulty router and as such should be replaced ??

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Read my experiences with them in this thread:

http://forums.hexus.net/networking-b...lk-vs-sky.html

[Tonka777]

What router is it you have Kopite? I had a similar problem with the Sagem F@ST thing i have losing all the settings i made. A 30 second reset solved the problem, but i also got them to send another router. Got an old Dlink, which is a bit useless.

Do you have the direct number for tier 2 support? They're the only useful people sky have, in my experience.

FWIW, i have just had a high resistance fault fixed on my line. It took about a month to get it sorted. 3 failed engineer visits, one openreach engineer visit, he fixed some corrosion on the pole, and then a BT phone line engineer, to replace some old terminations in the cabinet. I also get my calls through sky. The first engineer that came out said that if i had any more problems to tell sky it was a noisy phone line fault so BT would fix it quicker, it worked!

If/when you finally get sky to arrange an engineer visit, stay on the line, and ask them to confirm that the job has been accepted, and also ask them to check the notes and ensure that there is evidence of all the steps you've taken to remedy the issue yourself. (different routers and filters etc) I had 3 engineer visits cancelled by a higher tier, who have the final say on engineer visits. So three times i took the day off and waited in all day for nothing because this higher tier had reviewed the notes on the account and were not satisfied that i had changed everything my end.

I'm happy to give you my details via PM so you can tell them you have evidence of another user having similar probs with routers losing their settings, and let me know if you want the tier 2 direct number.

One more thing, make a backup of the router settings as soon as you have set it up, so you can just import those settings in the event of it losing them again.

[kopite]

I`ve got a netgear dg934 router. i`ve done a factory reset but the issue keeps happening. I am positive the router is on its last legs but they are being retarded.

The high open issue I had was a couple of years ago and has been resolved.

The current issue I`m pretty sure is all down to the router especially as the SNR is really solid.

I`ve made a backup of the router settings now so if it does happen again I`ll have them saved

If you have the tier 2 number that would be awesome hopefully then I`ll be able to get some headway with them :d

[Tonka777]

No worries, apologies if i was patronising at all, i just wanted to list my experience, and how i got it fixed so you know you're not on your own.

I had a hard time getting them to understand what i meant about the router losing its settings. I first noticed it on the firewall services page, and of course was met with a wall of 'we don't support port forwarding' silence from sky. I can't remember what i told them in the end, probably something along the lines of it losing the security settings, and that this was opening me up to the risk of viruses, but i did have to work hard to even get them to comprehend the problem. My general rule; explain something twice, then if the CS agent still doesn't 'get it' tell them they are not knowledgeable enough and then demand to speak to their supervisor, keeping it calm and polite at all times. Again, not trying to be patronising, i just seem to have the knack to get what i want out of sky!

You can have the dlink router they sent me if you like, for the cost of postage. It should work fine for you, from what i understand about the sky login process. I've already been told to just throw it away.

By the way, if this has been happening recently, they may be refusing to send you another router due them recently bringing out a new N rated model. I tried to get one as compensation for my moth of disconnections, but was told that they are not sending out any new routers without £35.00 payment at the moment. Might be related?

Will pm the tier 2 number now.

[kopite]

Cheers mate Not patronising at all.
I get annoyed with them as i`ve been working for isps since leaving uni and whilst I no longer support DSL I still know how it all works etc.

I wish I could stay calm with them lol. I ended up threatening to cancel when I spoke to them earlier and even went through to the cancellations department. Alas I am on their llu so it would mean me having to get put back on to bt and then re-order withsomeone else which could take months

I`ll give them a call in a bit and see if I can get through to someone who has some idea what is going on. I`ve posted on their forums as well but so far no reply. I`ll then give second line a call.

[kopite]

Also its a good call on the N routers.

The problem IMO is that If they are supplying the routers to customers And not allowing them to use alternate kit then they should replace faulty routers FOC.

[Tonka777]

I absolutely agree with you there, and to be honest, when i got one of them to comprehend the problem with the router losing its settings, a new one was sent out pretty quickly.

I think the charge is only supposed to be for old customers requesting a new router. Tell them that you cannot use your connection with the current equipment, lie if you have to, even though they can see your connection is up, you cannot connect to any website, and you are connected via lan etc. It might be worth mentioning that unless you receive new equipment to allow you to actually use your connection, you'll be cancelling your direct debit and contacting ofcom.

A couple of their advisor's have told me that they don't do anything about other gear being used, so its well worth trying to extract your username etc and using your own kit. It was easy with the dlink, not sure how to do that on a netgear though.

You'll get there eventually, and just think, it could be talk talk!

edit; Also, after about 20:45-21:30 you might end up speaking to India, not the UK reps. The Scottish lasses are a bit of a pushover if you sweet talk them a little, I had my 20mb connection set up for 20.7 (short distance from exchange) their end for a few days, until someone noticed and dropped it back down!

[kopite]

Well just rang back and They advised that the router is out of warranty so they cant replace it for free which is pretty ****ty imo considering you are supposed to use their equipment.

He did sort out my speeds though and suspended DLM so my connection should stay at the higher speed now.

The bloke told me that I could buy a router from them or Just put my own on and search for ways to get the username/password from the router online I`m thinking it might be a good op to get a decent router and sort out my internal network as well.

[Blitzen]

That's pretty much the deal with SKY BB i'm afraid.

They muck about with the speeds sooo much it gets to the point where you need to get away.
Fact is, they are the slowest around in terms of competition on the SAME line.

My house:
SKY BB.....never went above 6mb and was told it was the max.
Went to O2 and now never drops below 9mb

When SKY BB is playing its not bad.
When it all goes tats up, they, from experience are the most useless, stupid, and ignorant going.