Speed test doesn’t match sky speed test

[Redbaron165]

@jamesn123 Thanks for the response.  My thoughts exactly, but a discussion with Sky yesterday and continuing tests with their broadband tester... there's nothing wrong with my hub or the line.

I've had this issue for 10 days and their stats show I've had 40Mbps throughout that period, yet all other speed tests (multiple apps) report less than 12Mbps.  They say the 3rd party tests dont work like theirs (???) as it emanates from my PC, so it must be my equipment at fault.  They continue this claim even when I'm getting intermittent buffering on movie downloads through the SkyQ box.  I need to confirm I have no issue with my PC before I go knock loudly on their door again, or dump them and go to another service provider with my own router and a freesat box. 

The indicator for me is the upload speed at less than 1 which means the Hub is not making the correct connection calls.

Its unbelievable 

[Redbaron165]

@Chrisee Thanks for the response.  Yes, done that a few times and reset the Hub to factory settings.  I've also moderated my discussions to be polite as possible, but when you are told "...you need to understand sir" 

[Chrisee]

@Redbaron165 I have escalated your post to the Sky team who support the forum asking them to read the thread. It is incredibly difficult to get beyond the "computer says" response both for you as the customer and for yhe cs reps. I dont know what is wrong but agree with you it looks like a fault **bleep**ibly in the cabinet. 

Look out for contact from. Sky offering an online chat via the forum where a chat button will appear. Would be interested to know the cause if you find out.

[Redbaron165]

@Chrisee Thanks for that.  I know they have to stick to their script and I'm patient with the front office staff, but I am frustrated that they use a testing method that doesnt identify system failures.  I've had poor connectivity for 10 days, but their efforts are to protect thier contractual liabilities not the customer.
Hopefully I'll get a ping soon. In the interim, I'm going to carry out another test for WAN connectivity issues 

[Redbaron165]

@Chrisee Thanks for the thinkbroadband link.  Not used that one before.  Tried on IPv6 and IPv4 with same 12Mbps download results.  This time no Upload, so think that points to a connection/server fault.  Going to leave it for a few hours in case they're attemting to fix a local network fault.

[Lisa-P1987]

Thank you for escalating this. We have sent Redbaron165 an invite to chat 🙂 

[arniepalmer262000]

Same problem here.

Sky broadband test showing 40mbs

Ookla speed test  showing 22mbs

Just had a sky engineer out on Sunday and even he said don't use the Sky broadband test its rubbish use Ookla and set it to the nearest server to you.

Also had a BT engineer out today and said he got my speed up to 27mb before he ;eft.

If thats not enough proof sky speed test isn't showing the correct results I don't know what is.

[LeoBlack30]

I'm having similar issues. I have 500mb full fibre and when testing on Ethernet or Wi-Fi speed vary dramatically. On the day of install I saw 474mps on my phone. Yet my hard wired SKY q Netflix app never shows more than 70mps

Ive not seen close to 500 on any device since it was installed. 

is there a sky speed test similar to the ookla one I'm missing or just the 'everything is fine' test?

I assume, if I plug my laptop into my router and then run ookla with no other devices running, that should be a fair reflection of my speed, right?

[Eddie+Jr.]

Same issue here,

On Gigafast sky hub shows 900mbps throughput but get about 450ish over wired connections.

I hope someone from sky picks this issue up and fixes it. 

[Redbaron165]

Thanks Sky. Problem resolved. Driven by my own tests indicating 12Mbps at the PC and Sky stating 40Mbps, my thoughts were primarily focused on the Sky HUB as Sky can't see beyond the firewall and then a possible street distribution issue.

The Openreach engineer got 50Mbps Download and 20Mbps upload at my internal BT box, yet his continued testing indicated micro dropouts of the connection. His tester could continue to maintain the connection, but probable that my HUB couldn't.  After reforming my connection profile, the issue remained and further analysis showed a range of possible impedence issues.  Two of my wires were probable, so they were swapped out for 2 spare wires in my line into the property.  A fault remained, so further checks at the street side distribution points indicatated additional issues.  The result?

An upgrade to a Mk4 type 5C master socket (original was Mk2) new cable from out to inside and a tweak to the local distribution node.  Now getting 47Mbps download (will gradually be throttled down to 40Mbps) and 10mbps upload.  The essence of it was (my understanding) the HUB could connect, but not maintain a continuous connection.  Although there was no indication of a line drop, the result was a reduced data transfer rate (12Mbps Down and 0.2Mbps Up) It was a long engineers visit, but grateful that its fixed. Thanks to Openreach and Sky.

It would be nice to have a piece of test software for the PC that would also record line drop-outs to aid the isolation of a fault. Anyone know of one?

[arniepalmer262000]

Yea absolutely, exactly what I'm doing.

And tbh there are a multitude of speed tests out there i've tried about 7 and they are all around the same as Ookla which  i think most consider the best speed test.

So either sky are purposely doctoring their speed test to get out of the speed guareentee clause or they are just oblivious to it not working correctly. Even there own engineers don't like using it.

[Redbaron165]

@Chrisee , @jamesn123 Thanks for your support guys, my resolution is detailed above fyi.  Now I'm depressed reading peoples issues at 900Mbps (OMG how many films per minute being downloaded?).  

[Redbaron165]

@LeoBlack30 I had similar frustrations.  The best way i found for isolating the issue was to reset my HUB back to factory settings (bypass any hub setting issues) disable the Wifi Access Point and have only one item connected to the HUB via ethernet.  Be as close as possible to your hub and have the shortest ethernet cable you have.  If that gives a low reading using a couple of test Apps (e.g. Speedtest, Fast) repeat with a different ethernet lead.

Enable the WiFI Access Point then disconnect the ethernet cable.  Turn off WiFi on as many items in the property as possible then repeat the speed tests with one item connected to WiFi.  The results should be similar, but perhaps not exactly the same as there are more losses using WiFi.  This should isolate whether you may have an ethernet connection issue (cable or device), or even a WiFi issue.

I have been equally frustrated with Sky saying I have had a constant 40Mbps, yet I havent achieved anything more that 12Mbps for the past 2 weeks.  They can only test up to your hub, but not past the firewall.  They can see your HUB and have visibility of what's connected, yet I still cannot understand how they test my line and state I have a connection much faster than being experienced.  Lets agree that their test goes to your hub and gets a high reading, what are they missing?

I took my laptop that I'd used for testing my setup to next door's and plugged into the back of their HUB.  It provided 35Mbps download and 20Mbps upload.  Not my devices?

I had an OpenReach engineer visit who connetced and got 50Mbps download and 10Mbps upload, yet he paused and monitored the line.  Whilst he could have walked away, he persisted and showed the connection was not consistent and his test device indicated some minor anomalies.  With further investigation he found part of my internal connection (up to the BT master Socket)  indicated an anomalous impedence in the cable and suspected there was also a similar fault in my external connection to the street side distribution.  My resolution is posted within this thread, but I was convinced it was the HUB at fault.  Not so.  The OpenReach test kit probably ignored the micro dropouts and kept reconnecting, but my HUB probably struggled with that and had an intermittent connection.  The OpenReach engineer perservered for 3 hours and eventually I was back to 40Mbps.  Similarly, I dont think Sky's test process can differentiate the faults and propbably is written to by-pass some of them returning a false positive result.  Why I don't know, but  you should be methodical in your own tests and patiently perservere with your requests to Sky.

[daveNOS]

@arniepalmer262000 Sky are not doctoring any results, Sky's speedtester shows your line sync speed, third party testers show your throughput and that will always be lower(sometimes significantly lower over wifi) due to the unavoidable overheads of delivery(around 10%).

[LeoBlack30]

So how can sky offer a guarantee against something that can't be independently verified?