Sky ADSL

[Barrichello]

Guys not sure if its been mentioned already? but is anyone currently using SKY's new ADSL service? im thinking about using the 8mb version for £5 a month, but wanted to see if anyone made the switch first - how they find it etc?, as the price/download limit etc fits me well. Have a bad feeling that the service may be rather bad though? - so dont want to leave my current provider (Zen) juet quite yet!

Any good bad experiences so far?

[Nemeliza]

My sky broadband was activated about 4 hours ago.

f**k me is it fast. was downloading at 1500KB/s earlier, now i dont know what kind of speeds your used to but thats stupid fast!

Oh im on the MAX product. Took 11 days from the day i phoned for them to have my line activated.

I have heard nothing but good stories about zen so as far as a reliable ISP with good support is, they might be quite tough to beat. I moved over from plus net (who i would like to say were excllent in the 2 years i had them!) simply because im poor and wanted to save money.

[geezerone]

My sky broadband was activated about 4 hours ago.

is it fast. was downloading at 1500KB/s earlier, now i dont know what kind of speeds your used to but thats stupid fast!

Oh im on the MAX product. Took 11 days from the day i phoned for them to have my line activated.

Sounds like 16Mbps!!

I am with plusnet who aren't that expensive and have a nice feature set.

Interested in sky though but don't have disk and won't do so no hope for me getting sky adsl then?

[Barrichello]

Cheers for that.

Yeah nice speeds with that 16mb - is tempting but i will prob stick iwth the 8mb for now purely as a cost cutting exercise.

Just that with Zen u only have 1 month notice and i realise that withn SKY its 1 year, so want to investigate first.

Out of interest Nemeliza, they say that they supply wireless broardband router and stuff, do you think i can still use my fairly modern wired netgear router instead? Wireless not really needed as yet.

[Funkstar]

Shouldn't be a problem to use it for up to 8mbit, but they won't support any configuration other than their own. for 16mbit you will need to use their equipment as you will be using ADSL2+ as opposed to regular ADSL, something your Netgear won't support

[geezerone]

you will need to use their equipment as you will be using ADSL2+ as opposed to regular ADSL, something your Netgear won't support

Err, I use DG834 and the latest firmware does support ADSL2+ according to their website - not that I am in position to test it

[Funkstar]

oh! ok, my mistake. I was under the impression that ADSL2+ routers weren't commonly available. But obviously they are

[geezerone]

Yeah, I think most people believe that a new router needs to be purchased to make use of the services up to 24Mbps - good marketing

Just needs a firmware upgrade as the 'physical bits' are the same.

[Rack]

Sky Broadband still uses a BT line though, right??

[Nemeliza]

Cheers for that.

Yeah nice speeds with that 16mb - is tempting but i will prob stick iwth the 8mb for now purely as a cost cutting exercise.

Just that with Zen u only have 1 month notice and i realise that withn SKY its 1 year, so want to investigate first.

Out of interest Nemeliza, they say that they supply wireless broardband router and stuff, do you think i can still use my fairly modern wired netgear router instead? Wireless not really needed as yet.

You are correct Sky tie you in for 12 months.
Sky do supply a wireless router, its a Netgear DG834 with a sky logo added to the front. However sky have their own firmware running on it which locks you out of some admin functions (they dont even tell you the user and password for the admin page...its Admin and Sky in case you are wondering).
Sky do not reveal what the username and password you access the net is (its built into the router) which makes it difficult to connect with other routers, but if you find out the credentials people have succesfully connected to sky broadband using other routers.
there is abit of a dispute going on at the moment about the reliability of the firmware sky uses (Sky automatically update the firmware with no user interferance required IIRC) however some people have had issues with skys firmware (which uses a newer version that netgears current firmware) and by overwriting the firmware with netgears 'older' version has provided better results/resolved problems.
These problems seem to be somewhat related to some peoples SNR being too low causing the line to drop out requiring a reboot so the router to syncs at a new SNR rate.

Sounds like 16Mbps!!

I am with plusnet who aren't that expensive and have a nice feature set.

Interested in sky though but don't have disk and won't do so no hope for me getting sky adsl then?

Not quite 16Mbps but close enough to put a smile on my face.
When you say 'disk', do you mean a dish as in digtial sattellite?

Err, I use DG834 and the latest firmware does support ADSL2+ according to their website - not that I am in position to test it

See above.

Sky Broadband still uses a BT line though, right??

ADSL uses BT's copper network (unless stated otherwise) but Sky aquired Easynet a while ago so they are also using their backbone LLU services where possible.
BT aren't rolling out ADSL2 until ~2008 if my sources serve me correctly.

For more information have a search on:
http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/...play.php?f=161
and/or
http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=10

If im breaking rules by linking to other forums then please forgive me but it would saves a whole lot of typing.

[geezerone]

When you say 'disk', do you mean a dish as in digtial sattellite?

Yep, that should be Sky disH

By

digtial sattellite

I take it you mean digital satellite?

Not interested in sky though given their 'secrecy' over hardware, but thanks for the information.

[Rack]

They do install a dish for free with the TV box installation.