Extremely slow SkyQ downloads - Not with Sky Broadband

[Bannock]

My main box settings are showing '80mhz, Ch 36'.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  Could it be causing the box to download things slowly at peak interent use times, but at normal speeds in the late mornings/early aftenoons?  If so, how, why, and what can I do about it?

[PandJ2020]

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@Bannock wrote:

My main box settings are showing '80mhz, Ch 36'.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  

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Neither.  But ch 36 can get congested.

Can you connect via Ethernet?  Even temporarily to isolate the issue?

[Chodley]

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@Bannock wrote:

My main box settings are showing '80mhz, Ch 36'.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  Could it be causing the box to download things slowly at peak interent use times, but at normal speeds in the late mornings/early aftenoons?  If so, how, why, and what can I do about it?

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That's the box' own mesh which it uses to talk to the minis. If that is on the same wifi channel as your main router network (or a neighbour's) it can cause congestion.

Do you have an iphone? That has an app called Airport Utility that has a scanner which will show you any wifi networks and the channels they are using.

The 80MHz thing tells you how "wide" the band is. Each channel is 20MHz wide and they're not numbered sequentially, So channel 36 at 80MHz actually uses / tramples on / conflicts with channels 36 up to 48.

[Bannock]

I can't use ethernet, because the router is the other side of a thick breeze block wall.

What do you mean by 'channel 36 can get congested', please?  With what and why?  And if it's a problem channel why is it the default one used, and how do I change it, and what repercussions could that have?

I have been browsing some other threads on this forum just now (as I said, it sems to be a common problem) and some advice came up to update the software on the box.  I have just done that, and then did a test download on a random move (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, if anyone cares).  It seems to be downloading at a good enough speed and I got the prompt to start watching after about 30 seconds - I would expect it quicker than that, but still, it's something and maybe the box was still sorting itself out after the update.

I'll try another download in a few hours time, at the early evening peak, and see what happens then.

As an aside, my spouse just came into my office giggling, becuse they'd been speakign to a colleague who was telling them about thier Sky Q box being unuseable since the major "outage" last week.  Apparently the colleague was trying to speak to Sky and got an AI chatbot asking what what the problem was, and when it was told the Sky box was forzen, suggested that they should try warming it up. 😆

Some way to go with chatbot support it seems, then.

[Bannock]

Blimey, where's the edit button.  Sorry about all the typos.  I grew up before keyboards were a thing, unless you worked in a typing pool.

[Chodley]

3 dots in the top right of each post. Only available once you're in the trusted circle of having posted more than a certain number of times. In case you do NEFARIOUS editing.

[Bannock]

Evidently I have not yet passed the benchmark of trust, I have no edit option under the 3 dots.

[lettice]

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@Bannock wrote:

Blimey, where's the edit button.  Sorry about all the typos.  I grew up before keyboards were a thing, unless you worked in a typing pool.

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Don't worry.

I understood your posting 😀

By the way, you cannot edit posts until you reach level 3 on here.

More on that here;

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Points/bd-p/points

[PandJ2020]

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@Bannock wrote:

I can't use ethernet, because the router is the other side of a thick breeze block wall.

Not even by running a long lead?  (Just to isolate the issue)

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What do you mean by 'channel 36 can get congested', please?  With what and why?  And if it's a problem channel why is it the default one used, and how do I change it, and what repercussions could that have?

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...other devices broadcasting on the same channel.  It's been the default channel for years.  But as noted, it Q's own mesh.

But for a non-Sky ISP the main box will only connect over 2.4GHz band.

[Bannock]

Ah, I get the points thing now.  Gots to get to Level 3.

Whooah...I'm halfway there... 🎸

[Bannock]

Hi PandJ, thanks for taking the time to reply.  I would need a CAT5 cable about 20m in length to get from my Sky box to my router without drilling a hole in a breeze block wall.

[Chodley]

Can try powerline adapters too. Can always send them back to amazon if no use.

[MightyQuinn]

Hi @Bannock   You could try Powerline Adapters, if you know what they are. They use your mains wiring to transport Ethernet.

Edit: Snap

[jason2]

I asked for a test on the line via app, and got told everything okay. This was Saturday. Sunday Box went off completely, , and Ive had awful download speeds all weekend. 

Saturday I decided to not use the apps to watch a live stream, which was lucky to say, it avoided the problem of shutting down. Although if it were an App only live stream, I would not have been so well minded today.

Compensation Mr Sky, and immediately. TNT costs so much extra on top of your already inflated charges.

[Bannock]

We got some powerline adapters for one of my offspring to use a PlayStation upstairs, it worked well enough. 

Said powerline adapters are currently 100 miles north of here at their University digs, and will be coming back here when the summer holidays start shortly.  I'll give them a spin if I'm sill having issues - but again, I really don't think such an expensive service as Sky should need users to revert to Heath Robinson to get their stuff to work acceptably.