Broadband issues since switching to fibre ultrafast

[Stu_B]

Posting on here to see if I can get any help, or if anyone else has had similar issues......

We switched to Sky Ultrafast in September.  Previously we had Sky Superfast, a Sky Q broadband router, a Sky Q box, and 2 mini boxes.  We had problem free broadband for years, including all over lockdown.  We both work from home and had no issues whatsoever.

What has changed, is that we now have fibre run to our house for Ultrafast,  and the Sky Q router has been replaced with the Sky Broadband Hub.  Since the switch, we have had ongoing issues that we did not have previously which is now impacting our work from home capability.  This is mainly noticeable on work MS Teams calls when both voice and video calls are breaking up and freezing, it’s not all the time but often enough to be causing a real issue.

We have done all of the following:
Router reboots (Wi-Fi does seem erratic at times and does seem to slow the longer the box is up)
Added a Sky BB Wi-Fi booster (something we never needed previously)
Router replacement
Connected the SKY Q box to the BB hub via ethernet (on the advice of a SKY engineer - made no difference)

Wi-Fi speeds are variable around the house, but the issues doesn’t really seem linked to the Wi-Fi Mbps  speed.  When attached to the router via cable, speeds seem consistent, download around 145Mbps

I have even joined work video calls whilst connecting to the BB router via ethernet and still get some voice and video issues, although not as bad.   Additionally, when on these work teams calls, I am the only one getting the issues.  My wife has the same problem and we work for different companies.  Neither of us had these issues before switching to Sky fibre ultrafast.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm losing my mind.  We have in theory upgraded our broadband but have a degraded service

[Tom-W19]

Hi @Stu_B 

Your post has been escalated to our Community Messaging team who will invite you to a private chat shortly and help you with this.

Just look out for the chat bubble to start the conversation.

Here's more information on how Community Messaging works - https://community.sky.com/t5/Did-you-know/Escalating-a-post-to-a-Sky-expert/ba-p/3711147

[riskey]

Sky Router Problems:

Slow speed after switching to fibre:

Try logging into the router via the IP address of 192.168.0.1. Enter your login details, then go to "Maintenance > Scroll to the bottom and click on "Connection Status". A window will open and then click on "Disconnect". When you have done that, disconnect the lead from the back of the router it’s the one that connects the router to the openreach fibre box usually on port 4 of the router. Once the light has gone out, then reconnect and click "Connect" in the router window.

If this doesn’t work try:

Click on WiFi

Type in your username and password, these are usually on the back of your hub.

Click on 5Ghz WiFi settings, it's at the top of the page under WiFi.

Look for a tick box where it says Synchronise 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Settings.

Unselect the tick box.

Now change the Name (SSID). Doesn't matter what but anything different to normal I add 5Ghz to the end og the router SSID.

Click on apply and it'll say it needs to reboot.

After this go into your PC or phone and select the router SSID with 5GHz at the end

Lastly go to fast.com and test the speed

[Stu_B]

@riskey @thank you for the info.  I have a sky engineer coming Monday so will give him the opportunity to identify the issue first.  Will discuss splitting channels.  The voice and video call issues don't seem to corolate with poor line speed however. I think it's interference,  but can't work out if it's restricted to the Wi-Fi network, or is a problem with the new fibre connection that was recently installed 

[TomOfFarnham]

I have exactly the same problem.  We upgraded to Ultrafast on 22 December 2023.  Speeds reported by the router and various other speed-testing tools say that we are getting roughly twice the speed we received before (we now get around 142Mbps download and 27Mbps upload) which, on the face of it seems great.  However, as posted above by the other user, Microsoft Teams calls have become very unstable to the point of being unusuable, and the kids are complaining that their online games have become "laggy".  Nothing else has changed in our house or on our network.

Please can a Sky whizz help us out with this?  I fear that the new technology underpinning Ultrafast cannot sustain the sorts of network traffic that the old technology could do with ease.   If we can't get this fixed then we will be asked Sky to "downgrade" us to the old package which worked perfectly.

Help!

[TomOfFarnham]

To clarify a couple of points in my post above: (1) we do not have fibre running to the house, our service is running over copper from the cabinet to our house; and (2) I don't believe this to be a local WiFi issue with the new router as we hand off WiFi to Google WiFi inside the house (nobody accessess the WiFi from the Sky router) and many of the devices we use are cabled with Ethernet (including the device I use for Microsoft Teams calls and the Xbox used by the kids for gaming).

[TomOfFarnham]

Update: I spoke with a Sky engineer about 20 minutes ago. Helpful chap. Despite me explaining that n...connections too.  That seems rather strange to me, but I have done what he asked me to do and will let it settle for a day or two and report back here on Monday if I'm still having issues with Microsoft Teams calls. 

[TomOfFarnham]

Ah, the above message has been mangled because I used the word "update" followed by a colon and that seems to have confused this website.

I was saying that I spoke with a Sky engineer about 20 minutes ago to advised me to change some WiFi settings, even though I explained that we aren't using WiFi on the Sky router and are handing all WiFi and local networking tasks to Google WiFi.  He told me that adjusting the WiFi channel and encryption settings on the router can also affect wired connections too (?), which doesn't sound right to me, but I'll bow to his experience. Anyway, I will let it settle for day or two and will report back on Monday after a few more Microsoft Teams calls. 

[Stu_B]

@TomOfFarnham my issue was resolved by an Openreach engineer.  It was the fibre connection  in the box external to my house.  When we switched to Sky Ultrafast, Openreach intalled a new box in my porch, then run a fibre connection to it.  Sky completed the installation by running fibre from the box into my house.  It was the defective connection in the box that was causing our voice and video issues which were most noticeable on MS Teams calls.

We had 2 Sky WiFi engineers visits whilst we had the issue and they both tried various changes to the WiFi configuration which did not resolve the issue.  I escalated the issue and insisted someone check the external connections which is where the problem was.

Hopefully your issue will get resolved as I know how frustrating this can be.  

[Emily508]

Hi we are having similar issues and can't find a solution

[TomOfFarnham]

By way of an update, I've had a few Teams calls this week but haven't noticed freezing or cutting out beyond one or two minor blips.  I'll keep testing it, but on the face of it, it seems to be better than first was.

[jools63]

Good luck with that, you can't downgrade back down is what I have been told today. I have changed like you, 2 days ago. From the moment it was installed there were issues, signal dropping constantly. I work from home and have had major issues and couldn't get on today for 2 hours.

Phoned Sky, was on for nearly 2 hours all for nothing, to be told Open Reach says everything OK, broadband OK that it was the WiFi and the issue was something in my house. Was completely fine before for years. Wish I'd never changed only did it on their recommendation as it would be cheaper. So now I am sat here  having no Internet on my TV or any of my devices.

I have been with Sky over 20 years maybe more and this is the first time I have considered going elsewhere. I'm stressed beyond anything not knowing how I'm going to carry on working or anything else.  I have been told by the 4th advisor I was handed too that these issues are few and far between and in rare cases it can take a couple of days to "bed in". 

Sounds like the Post Office all over again saying no one else is having this issue. Seems clear I am not and will be advising everyone to steer clear of it. 

[Stu_B]

An update on this......

After a problem free 6 weeks, our issue is now back and we have the same problems as before which is soul destroying.  All the problems with voice and video calls are the same, if not worse than before.  I had a sky engineer out today and they are telling me it's a Wi-Fi issue (like they did before)

There have been no changes to our set up, so since since switching to fibre ultrafast in September, we only had a short period of time where there were no issues.   Previous to the switch, we had problem free broadband for years with Sky and no issues with voice or video calls.

I'm going to escalate again to see if I can get Openreach back.  I will post updates on here with progress in case others are still getting problems.

Sky are at this stage, suggesting I upgrade to their Wi-Fi max option with the new Wi-Fi max hub and stream which would cut down on Wi-Fi interference apparently. I currently have a sky q set up.

[TomOfFarnham]

Another update: our Ultrafast service gradually tailed off to ~25Mbps download and 27Mbps upload. Engineer came back out this week and replaced the wall socket unit with a new GFast unit.  It's been in for 3 days now and we have a stable 145 Mbps download and 29 Mbps upload.  Microsoft Teams is happy, too.

[Herbie+Hammer]

Interesting reading this thread- I have the issue where signal drops for a few seconds mostly when on teams - my tracker I keep shows that this has happened 186 times over 50 days ....