Sky Ultrafast+ download speeds poor (wifi or ethernet), while upload speeds seem ok...

[Jambo75]

Hi

I recently upgraded from Sky Superfast to Sky Ultrafast+ (500Mbps download, 60 Mbps upload), and so far it's been a bit of a disappointment.

Sky are telling me to wait 14 days for it to settle in, but I already know this is not going to make a jot of difference, since my upload speeds are close to what they should be now (~75 Mbps). It's only my download speeds that are way off (85 Mbps!), and there's no difference in this speed between the many wifi connections or my 2 hard-wired PCs (desktop and laptop), which are connected via a Netgear Gigabit Switch. 

Here's what I've tried so far:

1. Turning off the Sky Q box and Sky Q mini - NO CHANGE

2. Reseting the router - NO CHANGE

3. Changing the router to another Sky router (exact same type) but only linking the 2 hard-wired PCs, i.e. removing all other devices - NO CHANGE

4. Removing the Netgear Switch and hard wiring direct to the laptop - NO CHANGE

Cables are either Sky supplied (5e) or my own (8), so I'm at a loss. According to the My Sky app, I'm being led to believe there's 500 Mbps coming straight to my Hub from the ONT. If that's the case, from there to anything else in the home, whether it be wifi or ethernet, the download speed is getting hamstrung to around 85 Mbps, even though the Upload speeds seem good.  For what it's worth, this Ultrafast+ download speed is only about 1.5x as fast as my previous Superfast...

What to do.. 

Any suggestions before I wait the remainder of the 14 days, as advised by Sky BB Tech support, and then troubsleshoot further... or cancel.?

Best,

[nkendall]

I'm sure some very knowledgeable people will be along soon, but have you checked if the network cards in your devices are set to gigabit and not 100 Mbps?

I think this has caught some people out in the past ...

[Chrisee]

@nkendall that is a very sensible question. 

@Jambo75 while it has been known for Ultrafast to have the wrong speeds it is very rare so we have to exclude any other issue and misconfigured ethernet ports are quite a common one unfortunately. I would also power down both the ONT and the hub and restart the ONT first followed by the hub then test the speed on the laptop connected directly by ethernet. Can you confirm thst the ONT connection to the hub is by a direct ethernet cable as that can affect the speed.

[Jambo75]

Yeah, checked PC for the 100 vs Gigabit and it's ok. Plus the download speed of around 85 is pretty consistent across all devices - whether they be wifi driven like phones & iPads or hard-wired like my laptop & desktop - so it's hard to imagine it's a specific issue with one or more of them.

Sky have escalated this to their 'network team' for further analysis.  

I did notice when the engineer was round that when he was staple gunning the cable to the door frame he accidentally put one of the staples into the cable and had to pull it out and re-do it. Not sure if this would cause this drop in download speed, but thought it worth mentioning.  

[nkendall]

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@Jambo75 

I did notice when the engineer was round that when he was staple gunning the cable to the door frame he accidentally put one of the staples into the cable and had to pull it out and re-do it. Not sure if this would cause this drop in download speed, but thought it worth mentioning.  

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This is exactly what happened during my installation and the staple nick severely affected my speed.  The installer was cursing as he had to completely remove the cable and fit a new one.  I hope they replaced yours too. Did they not test the connection before leaving? Mine did and that was how he discovered the staple had nicked the cable. 

[Jambo75]

I'm not sure if he tested the cable or not, but it sounds more and more likely that this could be the reason. 

[nkendall]

I would call them again because I don't think the 14 days settling in period applies to FTTP, although others can advise if this is correct or not. 

[Anonymous]

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@nkendall wrote:

I would call them again because I don't think the 14 days settling in period applies to FTTP, although others can advise if this is correct or not. 

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It shouldn't but they'll probably argue that it does. That said I'd be telling them that the cable was damaged when it was installed and they didn't test the connection to force their hand.