Sky Stream causing Network Outage

[TheWarden]

Background: I'm a network performance engineer and use commercial monitoring software as well as proactive testing on my home network - it's how I "joined up the dots"

After switch ISP and changing to Sky Stream for TV I started to notice network drops. This initially manifested itself as Amazon Alexa saying it couldn't connect to the internet when we tried to run the "good night" routine. As part of my monitoring I do 10second connection tests to various external sites and I noticed I did indeed get packet loss at exactly this time. I also noticed drops in service at various random times during the day and ALWAYS at around 3:15am

When I expanded my checks I noticed that the Sky Stream box started responding to ping tests at 3am and stopped at 3:15am - it was waking up, doing something and then sleeping again (software update check I assume) - but this was too much of coincidence. By narrowing it down, by physically unplugging the Sky boxes at night, I found the culprit was the Sky Stream box using the wired connection - wireless has been disabled on this one.

So what is this box doing that it causes my whole internet connection to die when it goes to sleep - and yes, all the other outages can be tied to this - and is fully reproducable.... My ISP has replaced their Router and ONT as well as checking the fibre (I'm on a 900Mbps fibre connection) and I have since replaced their Router with a Protectli V1410 running Opnsense (so I can get more detailed logging) 

There is definitely something wrong with the Ethernet on these Sky Stream boxes....  as switching back to wireless stops the issue

Over to you guys for suggestions....

[Stottie]

Have you fully disabled Wi-Fi on the pucks that are connected via Ethernet? (In the puck's network settings)? I've not seen any of these issues but it sounds like some form of network loop.

[TheWarden]

Yes, as stated in the post, WiFi is disabled.

[Stottie]

Yeah sorry I can see that now. Have you tried swapping the pucks round to see if it might be a hardware fault on the wired one?

[TheWarden]

[TheWarden]

That is next on my list "to do" list

[WarrenBoz]

Yep getting same issue here, when we turn the puck off we loose the internet, we have a VM router in modem mode to Orib Wifi6 , with the puck into the back of the Orbi. Wifi is disabled on the puck.

[TheWarden]

Happens will all my Sky Stream boxes

[lettice]

On ethernet.

Are you using any kind of Managed switch rather than unmanaged.

As with Sky Q in the past,  Sky Stream may not well work well a managed switch and could cause problems.

Sky kit has had problems with this in  the past.

The Sky Stream boxes will make firmware, OS and UI in the early hours.

Some of those may even happen during daytime to engage an update , so it will often show packets and pings for short periods across hours.

Like Sky Q, expect the firmware does a regular sense check up/down that probably is that 15 min period you saw.

Sky Stream is very much server based, so would expect it to be doing that quite regularly, with its checking/sharing/updating.

Make sure you change both your pucks to following recommended settings set in Settings>
Turn wifi OFF under Network if connected via ethernet
Set Network standby mode to ON and Overnight power saving is OFF.

Would recommend also, after making those changes to do a puck restart in settings, just to be sure those setatings changes are actioned.

Would suggest trying a restart of your Sky Stream box
Go to Settings>Systems Management>Resets & Updates
Select Restart device
Your Sky Stream puck will perform a reboot. It will take a few minutes to complete

[TheWarden]

I'll make the changes and monitor the systems overnight

[TheWarden]

The changes made no difference 

[Kelsingra]

Hey @TheWarden 

Welcome to the Community! 😊

Sorry to hear about the issue with your Stream pucks. The details you've provided are very helpful. I just wanted to confirm a couple of things:

• Are the pucks currently all hardwired?
• Do you use any switches?

[TheWarden]

Only one is wired, the others wireless.

The wired one is connected to an ASUS RT-AC86U Access Point, then into a Linksys LGS310C then into a Protectli V1410 (which provides the connection to the internet)

[Stottie]

Did you try swapping the wired and wireless pucks round?

[TheWarden]

One of the first things I tested. Same result. So it's not the puke, it the use of a wired connection