topic Re: Rubbish internet in Broadband

Rubbish internet

bananabox — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 10:38:23 GMT

Hello there

My name is Steve and I have an issue with my sky set up

I have been with sky forever ( prob about 30 years!)

My internet just keeps dropping out at random times for say 5-10 minutes at a time.

I am not very tech savyy but i will try.

I was persuaded into having sky Q broadband and then added ultrafast 150, it is FTTC (showing as MER in the router settings and g-fast into my house, we have the phone connected with VOIP (just to recieve the occasional call).

According to the sky service status I am currently getting 148 mbps to my hub and that over the last 30 days has ben similair at 147/148 mbps, but when I check via another app on my phone I am only getting 10 mbps to my phone.

I am presuming my hub is faulty. It is a sky SR204 with the latest firmware, we have many devices connected- streaming sticks and a large CCTV system(that is very slow to load/view on phones). We dont use internet for gaming.

Would I benefit by replacing the router?

Looking through other posts, am I correct in thinking that the ASUS DSL-AC88U is suitable ?

Are any other routers suitable ?

If so in simple steps please how do i incorporate my SR204 for phone calls into the set up ?

Any advice gladly received

regards Steve

Re: Rubbish internet

TimmyBGood — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 10:46:14 GMT

@bananabox

Note 150Mbs to an SR204 isn't FTTC, it's G.fast

That means a router with an integral FTTC modem won't work.

Re: Rubbish internet

bananabox — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 11:22:43 GMT

Hi there
thank you for swift reply, I told you i wasnt very tech savvy.

Yes it may not be FTTC or whatever FTT it is, but am I correct in thinking it is gfast because it said MER in settings ?

If so .

Is th SR204 causing the issue?

Would I benefit by replacing the router?

Looking through other posts, am I correct in thinking that the ASUS DSL-AC88U is suitable ?

Are any other routers suitable ?

If so in simple steps please how do i incorporate my SR204 for phone calls into the set up ?

Thank you

Steve

Re: Rubbish internet

jamesn123 — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 11:34:52 GMT

@bananabox

You need to determine whether the problem is your line or your local WiFi first. Do you have an ethernet connected device at all? Can you test the connection on that to see if its performing okay and not dropping out?

Re: Rubbish internet

bananabox — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 11:48:41 GMT

Hi James,
Thanks for reply,

I dont have anything to connect by ethernet, although I believe the cctv is.

My son installed it (that is his job ) but he is not back till tonight.

I have a attached a picture of my router statistics from yesterday,i might as well be looking at a bus timetable as I dont understand it so if anyone can decipher it and tell me if something looks wrong please. Once again sorry its sideways . regards steve

Re: Rubbish internet

jamesn123 — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 12:13:49 GMT

@bananabox

It does look like the CCTV has generated a couple of collision packets. It might be worth disconnecting it from the router temporarily to see if thats the issue.

I also see your 5ghz WiFi radio was reset around 24hrs ago, when was the last time you noticed a drop?

Re: Rubbish internet

bananabox — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 12:37:29 GMT

Hi there,

I last noticed a drop on Sunday, that was when i reset the router, that picture was taken testerday monday at 16.48.

What is a collsion packet ?

Do the other figures sort of make sense?

Steve

Re: Rubbish internet

bananabox — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 13:33:42 GMT

If this helps.

I ran speed test with online test with cctv attached to router and then after removing cctv from router. i tested my main pc wifi and straight after using the same test on my mobile phone.

Strangely figures seem to be higher with cctv connected to router ?

CCTV connected PC Download = 27.6mbps Upload=27.0mbps

CCTV connected mobile phone Download = 16.9mbps Upload=17.5mbps

CCTV disconnected from SR204 hub PC Download=16.3mbps Upload= 25.9mbps

CCTV disconnected from SR204 hub mobile phone Download=6.76 Upload= 12.2mbps

Does this make sense

Steve

Re: Rubbish internet

bananabox — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:10:33 GMT

Can anyone help please?

I basically need advice on whether it could be router trouble and which model router to get ?

Thanks

Steve

Re: Rubbish internet

jamesn123 — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 15:55:57 GMT

@bananabox

Its a public forum, replies are not instant or guaranteed.

The speedtests done while your CCTV was connected/disconnected were pointless as we were looking to find out whether it continued to drop your connection every 5-10mins like you said in your original post. Did you test this part of it?

Regarding a router, I would firstly report it to Sky and see if they will send you a replacement router. There is no point purchasing your own at this current point.

Re: Rubbish internet

bananabox — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 16:14:18 GMT

Hi there,

Yes I appreciate it is a public forum, and i am gratefull for any replies,

Sorry ,but i misinterpreted your reply about disconnecting the CCTV.

As i said I am not very tech savvy. and i havent a clue what a collision packet is.

But I also think you misinterpreted my original post, I didnt say my internet was dropping every 5-10 minutes, I said it drops at random times for 5-10 minutes.

I had basically already done some homework and it seems that quite often people who have the SR204 router experience similar problems after a few years., and quite often those people have been advised to fit a third party router, quite often that is an ASUS model , all I needed was some advice regarding which model is suitable for Gfast broadband and how to connect my VOIP phone into the set up.

Regards

Steve

Re: Rubbish internet

jamesn123 — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 16:17:50 GMT

@bananabox

With you being on G.Fast & Needing to use Sky's VOIP phone you cant replace the Sky hub as there is no known alternatives.

You would need to buy a WiFi Access point and install it 'over the top' of your Sky hub and use that for your WiFi signal instead. This may or may not solve your problem, as I mentioned before you may want to go through Sky support first to ensure you arent wasting money on hardware.

Re: Rubbish internet

bananabox — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 17:55:43 GMT

Hi James, once again thank you for your reply.

Reading other replies can i quote a reply to another user from cookiemonsteruk :

"Also be aware that replacing the sr204 via any of the options above will mean that your sky internet calls thru the telephone socket on the back of the hub won't work on a 3rd set up

The solution could be to retain the sr204 and switch its wifi off and then get one of the entry level asus rt ax routers and ethernet to the sr204 and change the operating mode to access point

This will allow you to retain your sky calls"

Could this be a solution for me ?

Regards

Steve

Re: Rubbish internet

BrianGJSteer — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 19:20:06 GMT

First of all, connect a laptop or PC to the router by ethernet, CAT 5, 6 ro 7.

Then check the speed. Perhaps split the 2.4 and 5 GHz channels and add say -5 to the SSID for the 5GHz channel to distinguish them.

Now using WiFI, which is ALWAYS slower than ethernet connect to your mobile phone, or tablet, testing both WiFi connectiones and run the SpeedTest.net speed checker. Do it perhaps three times and take the average.

For an example I hav a 40 Mbps Sky connection and only get maybe 20 Mbps using WiFi.

Re: Rubbish internet

BrianGJSteer — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 19:24:35 GMT

As an additoinal comment, I also have a 500Mbps FTTP connection, which gives perhaps 200 Mbps WiFi connection to my laptop, tablet or mobile.

Re: Rubbish internet

bananabox — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 20:58:48 GMT

Hi there,

Thanks for reply and info, I will have to hunt down a laptop and do as you say.

Regards

Steve

Re: Rubbish internet

bananabox — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 12:34:57 GMT

Hi there,

i eventually dusted off the old laptop and hardwired via ethernet to SR204 router.

As originally atated I have Ultrafast via gfast 150 mbps, and my sky saysI have been recieving 145-149 mbps to my hub daily for the last month. I tested via the standard windows type speedtest , I tested it 3 times with ethernet cable to router and then 3 times via wifi, results were:

Download Upload Download Upload

Ethernet Test 1/ 87.5 26.9 Wifi Test 1/ 16.4 15.0

Test 2/ 90.0 24.7 Test 2/ 18.3 16.0

Test 3/ 90.1 25.3 Test 3/ 17.5 16.1

I appreciate that wifi is always 40-50% slower than ethernet , but do these figures seem acceptable for supposedly receiving 140-150 mbps to the sky hub.

Regards

Steve

Re: Rubbish internet

BrianGJSteer — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 12:43:37 GMT

Have you logged into the router and looked at the speed the router is stating it is receiving and sending? If the ethernet connection is much lower, then there is a problem. Call Sky while you have the laptop connected and compare figures. Perhaps the router is faulty. A simple thing to do is power down the router and see if there is an improvement. Also remove the master socket cover and plug in direct to the internal connection. It could be a faulty cover.

Re: Rubbish internet

bananabox — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 17:16:13 GMT

Got into sky hub status, the downstream connection speeds is 159809 kbps/ upstream is 30020 kbps. Are the downstream and upstream connection speeds the limits set in the hub or are they real time speeds.If they are real time speeds ,am I correct in thinking that as the speeds are shown in kbps I basically divide by 100 for Mbps i.e downstream 159809 kbps is 159 Mbps?, if so and I am getting approx 90 Mbps through ethernet to laptop,I am loosing 70 Mbps somehow ? Thanks Steve

Re: Rubbish internet

BrianGJSteer — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 18:18:22 GMT

The figures you quote at the router are reasonable. divide by 1024 if you want Mbps from Kbps. It is an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line so the upload is slower than the download speed. and close to what you pay for. The critical thing is the Wi-FI connecton that is always going to be slower than an ethernet connection and there is little you can do about it being slower, other than perhaps split the 2.4 and 5 GHz channels and then connect to either one and check the speeds. One may be faster than the other, I find the 5 GHz one is usually faster. Another thing is to use an app on a tablet usually to check which Wi-Fi channels are used the most as your neighbours will also be using Wi-Fi. Set the Wi-Fi channels on your router to be using the least populated channels to avoid clashes. An android app is WiFiAnalyser.