SkyQ Download Failed Item Unavailable

[stbgreen]

Same issue as everyone else. Spoke to sky this morning and they admitted it was an error and when it is fixed call back for a refund. They couldn't give me a fix date but "hoped" it would be before Christmas........ at present changing the DNS between 1 and 8 and powering on and off is the only short term fix..... works for about 10 mins for me!! Really really poor from Sky. 

[grog+arson]

Yep, anything we find out and post on here only gives the box a jump start to allow a little bit of service, until the underlying 'dead battery' is fixed by Sky (and maybe BT), we aren't going to get back to normal click to download and walk away service, unfortunately. ☹️

[SecretBob]

DNS still set to 1.1.1.1 and the system was still downloading last night without issue. I downloaded 4 episodes of Succession as a test, all complete with no issue. I tested it was still downloading this morning too.

The DNS change appears to work for me thus far, but I'm still at a loss as to why, it shouldn't matter which DNS server you use. I did notice that before making the DNS change in the  SKYQ network settings, the DNS IP was set to the BT hub IP, not a BT DNS server directly. This means the hub will forward the request to the DNS server configured in the hub, maybe it's an issue with DNS forwarding, and with a direct DNS server to connect to it works?

To that end,  this morning I have changed my SKYQ DNS setting to a BT DNS server directly (62.6.40.178). Instead of the hub forwarding, it will do lookups directly against the DNS server. After saving and rebooting the box, I can download episodes of Succession and Mare of Easttown without any issues.

One potential downside to this, is that the SKYQ box only has a primary DNS setting, there is no secondary, which means that if the configured DNS server is offline for any reason, it will likely prevent downloads working. The BT hub has a primary and secondary for that very reason.

Here's a list of the main public and ISP DNS servers, you should be able to use any of teh public ones for sure. I don't know whether the ISP's restrict use to paying customers, but if you're a BT customer, you should be able to use any of the BT ones for sure. I do see that the two DNS servers configured in my BT hub are not on this list, but that shouldn't be an issue.

https://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/uk-isp-dns-server-settings

[LGUser]

The only reason I can see why the DNS change woiuld work is that BT has the wrong IP for Sky's server(s).

[Skull+Treaty]

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@LGUser wrote:

The only reason I can see why the DNS change woiuld work is that BT has the wrong IP for Sky's server(s).

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What about Sky’s DNS, do they have the wrong IP for their own server(s)?

My ISP is Sky and suffer the issue also. 

[xenon81]

DNS servers can make a difference. 1.1.1.1, although it's helping in this case, is often a poor choice as it bypasses your ISPs own cache servers for services like Netflix, Youtube and anything powered by Akamai which includes Sky downloads (and a huge number of other services). This can make downloads slower and streaming less reliable. 

It's quite long and technical but there is some details about this at https://acnam.com/untold-truths-of-cloudflare-cdn/#cloudflare-cdn-routing-anomaly

[Fedup271]

Thanks, changing the DNS settings then rebooting the Sky Q box has worked for now.....

[LGUser]

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@xenon81 wrote:

DNS servers can make a difference. 1.1.1.1, although it's helping in this case, is often a poor choice as it bypasses your ISPs own cache servers for services like Netflix, Youtube and anything powered by Akamai which includes Sky downloads (and a huge number of other services). This can make downloads slower and streaming less reliable. 

It's quite long and technical but there is some details about this at https://acnam.com/untold-truths-of-cloudflare-cdn/#cloudflare-cdn-routing-anomaly

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I've been using 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1 due to a bug in the TP-Link router whewn using the default DNS. I've not noticed any slowdown.

[grog+arson]

@SecretBob Ive noticed the same thing, the DNS IP on the Sky box isn't the BT DNS IP address, hadn't really given it much thought as i assumed it would resolve on the way through the Router, but what you are saying makes perfect sense.

This seems to be the more sensible approach, use your Router DNS IP rather than the 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8

If the Sky box is supposed to read the DNS from your Router, then it seems to be looking like that's the failure point, whether that is a Sky or a BT issue isn't really important, what is is that Sky need to work with their Partners to sort it out.

[grog+arson]

@Skull+Treaty It would certainly appear to be a Sky issue as its not reading the correct DNS from your Router, but it could be BT, but the underlying issue is that Sky & BT need to work together to fix the issue, its not something their customers can do, we are just putting in a temporary fix.

[Nick+Bidd]

I am with BT as a provder, e-mailed sky with this issue, pointing them to this thread.

They contacted me to arrange tech support call back when convienient.

Just had my tsch support cal, the tech was not aware of the issue but read this thread.

Set the DNS to 8.8.8.8 - do not work.

Set the DNS to 1.1.1.1 - appears to work OK.

If anything changes I will post it here.

[LGUser]

Just as a quick test, can someone with BT go into the Sky Q  WiFi settings and put in the BT DNS info and see if that works. If it is Sky not correctly reading the DNS from the BT router, then knowing this could be a big deal to getting things working.

[berniejn]

My theory was that it wasn't related to a problem specifically with BT DNS but with not using Sky's own.

However, if Sky broadband customers - using Sky DNS servers - are having the same issue then that would seem to disprove the idea.

My change worked for about 24 hours and I then started getting the same error.

I switched from WiFi to wired connection to the router and it started working again.

Too many variables to be able to make a firm diagnosis I think.

It would however be troubling if Sky engineers are using this thread to get ideas to suggest back to us!

Bernie

[LGUser]

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@berniejn wrote:

My theory was that it wasn't related to a problem specifically with BT DNS but with not using Sky's own.

However, if Sky broadband customers - using Sky DNS servers - are having the same issue then that would seem to disprove the idea.

My change worked for about 24 hours and I then started getting the same error.

I switched from WiFi to wired connection to the router and it started working again.

Too many variables to be able to make a firm diagnosis I think.

It would however be troubling if Sky engineers are using this thread to get ideas to suggest back to us!

Bernie

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I'm not using Sky's DNS. I'm not using Sky or BT. I'm with O2 (unlimited data). But I would like to know if specifically setting for BT DNS in Sky Q works,

[SecretBob]

@LGUser 

I am a BT broadband user (fttp) with my SKYQ box hard wired to the hub on CAT6 cable, so full 150MB to the SKY box. I changed to a specific BT DNS server, and that has been working fine this morning. I've just downloaded another episode of Succession to confirm.

I think the issue may be linked to DNS forwarding if the hub IP is configured instead of a specific DNS server IP.