Sky Hub Randomly Restarting

[mae-3]

@135791113 

The issue seems that watchdogs are firing in the router for some reason, this will impact reliability and would be a good reason to claim the service isn't working correctly and has a fault.

[135791113]

@mae-3 

Thank you, however, can you elaborate a bit more?

Also, if I turn OFF my main Sky Q box the Hub remains stable?

Any info gratefully received as I am fed up with Sky just replacing boxes (especially the main Sky Q as we lost all our recordings including shows no longer available ... try explaining that to the kids! ... along with why dad hasn’t fixed the Wi-Fi yet!)

Kind regards.  Johnathan

[mae-3]

@135791113 

The watchdogs monitor the connection and the Sky Q boxes, if the router is overloaded with traffic internally from LAN broadcast storms a known issue with Sky Q for its old technology, triggers a watchdog to reboot the router.

And there are other watchdogs on the Sky router which are secret... 😎

[Robbo0410]

@mae-3 to be fair the issues with my router randomnly rebooting every now and again must be exactly that 

[EQ1]

I have BT smart hub on FTTP to Sky Q and Sky box would randomly reboot and it got so bad I could hardly watch anything. I have setup home hub everything off, and Lan linked it to a better router using that for WiFi . Still getting random reboots but less often sometimes weeks then once then twice in at same time.

found ip4 and ip6 settings if you turn ip6 off I got less random resets

[Chrisee]

@EQ1 if you have a BT hub you are posting in the wrong forum as this forum  is discusses issues with Sky broadband and Sky's hubs. Turning off IP6 is definitely not required to stabilise Sky networks with or without Sky Q boxes. .I would be surprised if BT hubs were different. If using Q boxes with non-Sky routers which are connected by ethernet turn the TV boxes WiFi off as that will help  stabilise the system. The settings are in the engineer's menu on each box accessed by navigating to settings and entering 0,0,1 before select. 

If you want more information please post in the Sky Q forum.

[EQ1]

I am not saying about sky router in particular but it is the same issue that I was getting with what I was getting using a BT router. So it is not the routers that may be the issues but the Sky Q boxes. We already know the WiFi get confused with WiFi from routers but that was not the issue being talked about, and anyway you can avoid that by going into eng menu and change WiFi to 40 but Sky fixed that issue with updates, so box uses different WiFi than router anyways. But Sky Q and routers have issue where Sky box will reboot for no reason but WiFi ok and not effected, like someone had sent a pulse down the line and causes the box to reset. I know as box reset several time within seconds of first one like there was someone on the line 🧐

[mae-3]

@EQ1 

The router always reboots for a reason, Sky and all ISPs have watchdogs that apply a reboot on discovering an issue that warrants a reboot, eg: watchdogs on LAN, wireless and broadband line itself to name some, etc...

[Robbo0410]

@mae-3 I think I'll be switching provider when my contract is up in November, the regular reboots are absolutely ridiculous, uptime on the router could be anywhere from a day to a week before a reboot occurs, and the fact that it switches to  channel 44 and halves my bandwidth and the access point/wps disabling itself on the 5ghz tab in router settings I  have to manually re-enable it otherwise all devices just run on 2.4.... Ran out of patience now luckily I only have to tolerate this for a few more month then I can switch, a mate has recommended I switch to Zen, he says he's had absolutely no issues with them

[kevinhardowar]

same problem, kernel panic...       40+ devices in the house, worked fine for 2 yrs, and now crashing for 6motnhs, sky cannot fix..

[135791113]

Problem identified, although not yet fully understood. 

@Robbo0410   @mae-3   @kevinhardowar @Vicky+Jones+86 

I have identified the root cause as a clash between a Sony Bravia 2015 TV and the Sky Q 2TB box when connected via a Netgear switch (tested with both the simple GS308 or smart GS108E).  When both devices are connected (wired) via a switch to a single port on the Sky SR203 Hub, the hub would randomly reboot, sometimes up to twice an hour.

However, if the TV is connected directly to a separate port on the Sky Hub, then the hub would not reboot at all.  However, in the logs in the hub you can see the port the TV is connected to continually going down then up again.

So, there is some issue that the Hub can cope with if the two devices are connected via separate ports on the hub, but it cannot cope if the network traffic from both devices arrives on the same port.

I found it by trail an error, disconnecting individual devices and seeing what happens.  It took weeks, especially as the TV would go into a deep sleep if not used which took me down some blind alleys! i.e. I turned off my Sonos devices at the same time the TV (unknown to me) went into deep sleep … the problem went away so I thought it was Sonos but a week later the issue returned, and I had to start again.

I thought it may be a DHCP issue as I discovered the TV was giving itself an (APIPA) IP address of 169.254.246.141.  I have heard that the Sky TV boxes (I have a 2TB Sky Q and three mini boxes) run their own “hidden” network … maybe they use the 169.254.x.x range as well and the two were clashing?  Maybe the Sky Hub just does not like this range, but the issue only occurred when both the Sky Q and the TV were on, so I think it is more complicated than that.

However, I updated the TV to the newest software version, and it seemed to get a proper IP address via DHCP when wired, 192.168.0.21.  However, a day later the hub had the same Kernel errors and rebooted again! So maybe the 169.254.x.x address range was a red herring?

I think (as I have not tested for long enough) that if I give the TV a fixed IP address, or use DHCP via Wi-Fi instead of wired, then it may work OK.  I have not tested a reserved IP address on the Hub yet.

So, I have not identified the real reason but at the moment I am just keeping the TV off the network completely as it is a second TV used by the kids for a PlayStation and a Sky mini … so no real need for an internet connection.

I hope this helps someone

Regards, Johnathan

[kevinhardowar]

@135791113 this is super helful.   I have a similar setup with Multiple switches expanding the network and separate mesh.

How did you work out which LAN port was the source of the problem ?   the logs are not very hepful on the router...

I have disabled 5G wifi on the sky hub and wired in an Orbi Mesh instead.   I have however  had to keep the 2.4GHz on so the SKYQ mini boxes (x2) work...

many thanks

[135791113]

@kevinhardowar 

I don't think the wi-fi settings on the Sky Q or Mini's make any difference.  I tried multiple configs, and nothing seemed to help.  I think the problem only relates to wired devices. 

I also think it may only be when the two devices feed back to the same port on the Sky Hub.  I have three switches, one on each of the three spare ports on the Sky Hub.  The two devices were on the same switch.

The way I finally found it was to disconnect one device for a while and leave it for a few days to see if the problem went away.  It took me longer than it should as the TV would often go into deep sleep and turn off the network port itself without me noticing.

It must be some kind of DHCP or IP issue / clash, as if either the Sky Q is off or the TV is off the wired network then there are no issues ... and if the Sky Q and TV are connected to separate ports on the sky hub (I had lots of temporary cables all across the floor!) then the Hub shut down the Hub port the TV was connected to for a few seconds then bring it back up again.

Hope this helps.

[Robbo0410]

@135791113 I only have the Xbox connected via ethernet everything else is wireless and it still occasionally reboots, I think it's just an issue with the sky router if I'm being honest

[135791113]

@Robbo0410 

Glad you only have occasional reboots.  When I have both the Sky Q and the TV connected wired to the same switch my Hub reboots 20 to 30 times a day!  If I take the TV off the network or turn the Sky Q box off then I get no reboots (apart from the odd reboot in the night, the mini's do this every night, not sure how often the Sky Q does it).