Failed remote network problem

[DaniK1]

Im trying to download some programms on my sky q, it keeps saying Failed, Remote network problem, this has only started happening since i changed my broadband provider! 

[oldfella]

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@DaniK1 wrote:

Im trying to download some programms on my sky q, it keeps saying Failed, Remote network problem, this has only started happening since i changed my broadband provider! 

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Hi @DaniK1 

Try completely reconnecting your Q box.

First reset your broadband router.
If on Sky broadband hold the Reset on the back of the router until the power light flashes green (about 10 seconds). Don't unplug or switch off your router while it resets. The power light will go green when it's done.
If on 3rd party broadband and your router does not have a reset button, reboot it by disconnecting the power lead for 30 secs and then reconnecting.
Wait until the router is completely back and running and then try a Network Reset found in Q box Home - Settings - Setup - Network.
Highlight Status and then select Reset on the right hand side. Follow instructions to connect by WiFi to your router. Even if reset is not listed there is still an option to connect by WiFi to Sky or 3rd party router
If you are on Sky Broadband you will be asked to press the WPS button on the Sky router. (Not on the Q box as the Network reset will start the main Q box WPS automatically). Make sure you press the WPS button on the Sky router and not the reset button.
if you are on 3rd party (non Sky ) broadband then you need to enter the SSID and password for the router 2.4 Ghz WiFi band.

[DaniK1]

Thank you. I done all router resets yesterday due to other issues. Should I still try again do you think? I recently left sky broadband as it was really unrelaible, im now with community fibre and my broadband is great but im having nothing but problems with sky. We had no netflix for a week, only got that sorted yesterday, mini boxes dont work and now this! 

[oldfella]

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@DaniK1 wrote:

Thank you. I done all router resets yesterday due to other issues. Should I still try again do you think? I recently left sky broadband as it was really unrelaible, im now with community fibre and my broadband is great but im having nothing but problems with sky. We had no netflix for a week, only got that sorted yesterday, mini boxes dont work and now this! 

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Hi @DaniK1 

It will not hurt to reset the router again.  Just complete the procedure in my post following the 3rd party broadband route.

[Anonymous]

Hi don't bother doing anything with your set up as it is NOT a problem at your end. (Unless you are very IT Savvy)

The issue is that you are not using a SKY Internet Circuit and SKY do not Whitelist every other UK ISP on both their download sites, Limelight and Akamai.

As posted by StuartJeff in a different post, when your Sky box attempts to reach "ondemand.cdnselector.skycdp.com" it will get a response from your configured DNS servers, of one of these IPs

87.248.204.0

95.101.27.33
95.101.27.50
95.101.27.4
95.101.27.27
95.101.27.61
95.101.27.30
95.101.27.46
95.101.27.5

The first is Limelight and the others are Akamai

Now if Akamai are blocking your IP (as they are mine) what you will encounter is:-

a download or 2 that might succeed, followed by 3 or so failures, and back to succeed again.

The exact numbers are affected by how fast your circuit is (how many successes can you get before DNS switches to the other provider)

Sky could so easily fix this for everyone by keeping up to date with the UK ISP register and ensuring all UK ISPs are whitelisted, their reluctance to do this, should actually be investigated by the Monopolies Commision.

With my set up I got around this problem by using my Cisco router to provide DNS for the SKY box, and set a host record on the sky box, so that everytime SKY looked for that address, it always gets the same IP (the Limelight one which does work for me) and now I have NO issues, every download completes. By the way, if I switch my Router to give an Akamai IP it fails EVERY TIME!

I had this issue with my Fibre provider Truespeed for 4 years until I fixed it last month. I even got a NOW circuit for 12 months, just to prove that SKY allow their own ISPs. As soon as the NOW circuit was ceased, the problem came back.

The other problem with Sky is that the level 1 tech will have no clue what you are talking about, they will say it is your problem, reboot your box, reset your router blah blah. No sorry not going to help.

It would be great if a Technical Director from SKY read this and reached out, promising to resolve this, but they won't. So many people have left SKY due to this issue, however SKY could immediately prevent this fault for many many people. Just shows how shoddy SKY support is, obviously they care not about their customer base.

By the way Mr SKY Technical Director if you want to publish my solution internally, perhaps you can provide me a lifetime free subscription for my troubles and time in resolving this issue for you!

[Anonymous]

No point resetting your router, the issue is with SKY and all my posts to fix this are being deleted. so why bother

[NAwi]

I'm having the same issue with Lit Fibre...

[Craigv9]

I'm having the same issue with Kloud9

I am paying for a service I am not receiving

I cannot get past tier 1 Sky: 'Switch it off and on again'

I'm not one for being royally shafted. I've given notice to leave Sky. They've got 30 days tor evolve this or Ill send my custom elsewhere

It's like talking to a brick wall. sky should be ashamed of themselves

[Anonymous]

When you say having the same problem, what is that exactly?

What I mean is, there are variants of the problem.

In my case I was able to download sometimes, and other times it fails. - This means the of the 2 download providers that SKY use, my IP is blocked on one of them and my fix for this was to ensure my SKY box always got the good working IP. The process to do this is quite involved and may not be easy for a standard home user with a basic router.

However, if you are completely unable to download with your circuit, then it is very likely that SKY have not set the region code and allowed, your ISP's subnet. There is nothing that can be done to resolve this from your side (other than buying a SKY circuit! or one that does commonly work).

The real fix here is for SKY to whitelist your ISP's subnet on their download sites.

It is a shame that SKYs tier 1 do not seem to have copies of the allowed/whitelisted subnets. If they did, then when a customer complains, they could ask the customer for their IP (Google what is my ip and it will tell you) and then SKY could check their whitelists very simply to see whether your IP is allowed. Immediatly the problem would be obvious, and they wouldnt have you on hands and knees, playing with routers, connections or anything else!

[Craigv9]

55 years ago we put a man on another planet, but because I've changed my ISP I can't download 50% of Sky's on-demand content. (FAILED: Remote network problem)

•  

The issue is well known and these forums are littered with this problem and supposed solutions

I have little faith Sky will resolve the issue, because some of the threads re this are years old and remain unresolved

But I'm wondering if there is someone lurking on the forum who views but doesn't post who cracked the case and fixed the issue? If thats you, this is a request to post the fix

Here's what I've tried:

1: Changing the DNS on the Sky box and my router to all the stated alternatives...8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1, 8.8.4.4 etc - FAILED

2: Using the Sky Go app to download to the box in HD and SD - FAILED

3: Using the Sky Go app to download to my phone, rather than the Sky box...works 100% of the time

4: Download only in SD to the Sky box - FAILED

5: Download only in HD to the Sky box - FAILED

6: Don't queue episodes...just download 1 at a time: FAILED

The issue ALWAYS happens when people ditch Sky broadband and move to another supplier. Sky deny it's a whitelisting issue, but they would, wouldn't they!  Sky won't talk to my ISP about this...

I have given notice to leave Sky as I object to paying for a service I don't receive

So does anyone have any suggestions before I become a Virgin Media customer?

I did think about switching to Sky Stream, but my understanding is that might make things worse, rather than better due to the downloading nature of that service?!?

Has anyone had his issue, switched to stream and the problem has disappeared?

Has anyone sorted this? Cracked the case? Got a result?

Any sane advice welcome...

[Craigv9]

I have exactly the same issue as you...50% failure

Is there a noddys guide to fixing this?

Thanks

[Chodley]

I've tried a dns lookup from our office network for that host and get the first address. I'll take your word for it that it's limelight and that sky randomly use akamai as well.

Interestingly if I dig that hostname on cloudflare's DNS (1.1.1.1), I also only get the limelight address

but if I do it on google's DNS (8.8.8.8) then I get a whole list of hosts and IPs resolved;

cdn.sky.akadns.net.

a2047.sky.akamai.net.

95.100.252.51

2.21.34.17

2.21.34.8

95.100.252.49

95.100.252.56

95.100.252.50

2.21.34.9

2.21.34.10

2.21.34.11

none of which are that 87. address

So it seems to me that setting your DNS to 1.1.1.1 should have the same effect as Mark's home cisco fixed address solution.

if that's what's causing the problem.

but I saw another thread where @xenon81 said a potential cause was accessing admrs.sky.com which injects ads.

[Chodley]

... and that host also returns different addresses, and only a single one, depending which dns you use!

local and cloudflare both give - 151.231.253.129

google gives 90.197.190.1

bizarre

[NAwi]

To add to the weight of evidence...

I have both Virgin and Lit Fibre lines coming into the house - both in modem only mode and to the same balancing router. 

I only get the problem when the Lit Fibre line is being used. 

so anyone having this issue and if they are on one of the smaller ISPs then no amount of router restarting is going to give a stable solution 

[Anonymous]

Ok, this is going to get heavy, but you asked for the solution.

I have a Cisco 897 router, it's IP 192.168.100.1

I have configured this to act as a DNS server and to use Cloudflare for anything it can not resolve itself

I am using this config

ip host ondemand.cdnselector.skycdp.com 87.248.204.0
ip name-server 1.1.1.1
ip name-server 1.0.0.1

M<y sky box uses 192.168.100.1 for DNS server

This means when SKY Q asks the internet for an IP for ondemand.cdnselector.skycdp.com it always gets the IP 87.248.204.0, which is the IP that worked for me. I went through the selection of IPs that the name resolves to with public DNS, one at a time, to prove that the Limelight IP was the only IP that worked for me.
Honestly I have had this issue for 4 years since my local FTTP provider installed my new 1Gb circuit, both on my new SKY Q box and also on my old SKY HD+ box. I phoned SKY to cancel (within 30 days of getting SKY Q) and they removed the 18 month contract terms, so I can cancel anytime. Meanwhile it looks like I fixed it with the solution above. If it breaks again i will leave immediately. but for now, I am very happy, amazed actually how simple it was. 

I can't  believe that SKY are refusing to admit their download sites have regional IP awareness and block downloads from for example Russia. The simple fact is, a new ISP takes a global free IP subnet, and if that isnt listed as UK then how would SKY allow it? If they dont know how to allow UK ISP subnets and do not know what whitelisting is, then I would just say "excuse me, you don't seem to know your **bleep** from your elbow, can I speak with someone that actually knows networks?"