Failed remote network problem

[Chodley]

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@Craigv9 wrote:

Sadly that only checks the IP address your using, not your ISPs and there's no way to search on any other address other than your own

Why would we check anyway, we've proved this is the issue with the practical demonstration last night...

In any case, it's moot. Sky chat has said it's not their problem. It's not gonna get sorted, imho

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The IP you're using is the ISP's that they've allocated to you. Not sure what you mean there.

[Chodley]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I went to that IP check URL and my ISP public IP is showing as OK. Also I noted this on same page

Akamai does not block users from accessing our customers' websites. However, our customers can use tools and policies which may in turn block you (the end user). Our customers use these rules to protect them and you from malicious actors on the internet. Some common reasons could include:

• Explicit IP blocking / blacklisting
• Location-based backlisting
• Rule-based blocking (i.e. web application firewall protections)
• Reputation-base blocking
• HTTP request rate controls (e.g. DoS protections)

So there it is in black and white, Akamai do NOT block us, SKY DO! They are the "customer" to Akamai, and it is clear one of those blocks above is being used against my IP, despite Akamai showing it is not a bad IP!

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This seems odd. Why would there be any difference between a Sky controlled control list depending on whether the CDN was edgio or akamai?

[Craigv9]

Ok..this is all new to me. 

Yesterday, I used my phone to do some downloads via the Sky Go app..standard Sky 50% failure rate...

Then I realised this AM that my phone had been connected to my broadband!

This morning, I turned off WiFi and relied on my phone provider rather than my home ISP and things went very well...I did get one failed download, but then discovered a message saying my phone had disconnected from the box, which I presume could result in a fail...

So, it appears using a phone's internet and Sky Go app is an alternative...(EE in this case for anyone keeping score). The problem is I then got a message saying I'd blasted through a month's internet allowance in 1 morning...

I now have a slew of Young Sheldon episodes (that I used to test various hypothesis), because they're relatively small files and also available in SD. Must have downloaded them well over a thousand times in the last few weeks, but am loathed to delete them  now because they used up my data allowance, so somehow now feel more valuable!

[Sean+Delaney]

Thanks for all your hard work here guys. 

I've being following this for the last few days, as guess what popped up for me ~2 days ago. "Failed remote network problem'. Before that, everything worked fine for me. No issues downloading stuff.

I'm with BT.

I have some networking knowledge, and setting my DNS settings within SKY Q box set to 1.1.1.1 resolves the issue.

However, I also have a RaspberryPi running PI-hole and all devices on my local network use my custom DNS.

I've since configured Pi-hole to resolve ondemand.cdnselector.skycdp.com to 87.248.204.0. Seems to work fine with my SKY Q box back to using my custom DNS.

[Craigv9]

Sean,

I've nkmidea what you said, but I know I like the result. We have the solution. It shouldn't be US buying kit to fix SKY's issue, but her we are

I'll add you to my list of 'folk who can help me setup' when my kit arrives next week...

Please hang around as there's plenty of people will need this help...

[DalikVee]

I've been spending the day messing around with a similar idea and set up a DNS redirect (to the limelight server) in NextDNS, which I use for phones etc, and sure enough this works, confirming our theory once again. However it is not a viable solution as the Sky Q boxes run extremely slowly under NextDNS and downloads take forever. Using an RPi would probably be a better solution but the point remains that this is an issue with Sky and we should not have to resort to things like this.

[Sean+Delaney]

The same issue occurs within SKY apps too. For example, the Paramount+ plus app loads. I can browse. But as soon as I attempt to play something, I get the infinite loading icon.

If I open the Paramount+ app installed directly on my smart TV (Samsung), and play something, everything works just fine. So also shows that it's a SKY issue within their network of things.

My home network is all UniFi based. ui.com  Not got much experience with Cisco equipment but I'm sure we can figure it out. 

[Sean+Delaney]

Nearly all TV's only have 100MB network card. I have hardwired all my TVs as putting them on WiFi with 600-700MB throughput is pointless as the TV hardware (network card) can only handle 100MB anyways. RaspberryPi + Pi-hole is fast enough. I don't have any lag or slowness, but then again I have my home network all configured for performance. 

[Chodley]

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@DalikVee wrote:

I've been spending the day messing around with a similar idea and set up a DNS redirect (to the limelight server) in NextDNS, which I use for phones etc, and sure enough this works, confirming our theory once again. However it is not a viable solution as the Sky Q boxes run extremely slowly under NextDNS and downloads take forever. Using an RPi would probably be a better solution but the point remains that this is an issue with Sky and we should not have to resort to things like this.

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Can't see why using a special DNS would slow downloads. It's just looking up the address initially. Everything else happens independently.

[DalikVee]

No idea either but it does seem to slow the loading of everything in general, not just particularly the downloads although they do seem to hang roughly wherever there's an ad break. Really getting annoyed with this whole thing now to be honest.

[Craigv9]

Hey,

We're in the 'looking for solutions' business...can you please translate what you did into non tech English so we can add this to the list of easily achievable solutions...

What EXACTLY did you do to get this to work

Thanks for taking the time to find a fix. Let's make it more shareable!

[DalikVee]

I spoke too soon because I'm now back to failed downloads once again, so that DNS rewrite couldn't have been set up correctly and I was getting directed to the good server just by chance. Wish I could assist more, apologies.

[Craigv9]

Well, standby

Mark does have a fix. I've played with it. It works.

I hope to have a real life network engineer in my house tomorrow.

It may be I can rustle up a router so it may be I can post a defacto, idiot proof fix...

Failing that, I'm a week away from tech arriving in the past and with Marks helpmwill do the same

There's always the lol concept that Sky might do something in the meantime....

I

[Chodley]

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@Sean+Delaney wrote:

Nearly all TV's only have 100MB network card. I have hardwired all my TVs as putting them on WiFi with 600-700MB throughput is pointless as the TV hardware (network card) can only handle 100MB anyways. RaspberryPi + Pi-hole is fast enough. I don't have any lag or slowness, but then again I have my home network all configured for performance. 

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The ethernet socket might well top out at 100Mb (not MB) but the wifi hardware isn't restricted by what the ethernet port can handle. It might well not be able to do those sorts of speeds anyway though. And there's no point having anything over about 30Mb for video streaming.

[Craigv9]

Just an update...

I downloaded a PC DNS server program on mini PC today

The mini PC has an IP address of 192.168.1.59

I put in a forwarding rule on the mini PC stating that ANY DNS request WHATSOEVER should result in 87.248.204.0

I set the DNS on my Sky box to 192.168.1.59...pointing it to the mini PC, assuming my DNS server would do the rest...

No joy...downloads stuck at 0%. Not failing or erroring out, just stuck

Don't claim to know what I'm doing, but thought I'd throw it open to folk whilst so wait for my router solution to arrive...