Why does Sky Stream seem to have a permanent technical fault?

[AJ-45]

I am trying to watch a football match on Sky Sports 1 on Sky Stream. I have had Sky Stream for nearly 3 weeks and have been trying to use it for 2 weeks. Last weekend was when I first encountered problems watch Sky Sports. The channel kept on breaking. This is when I first posted a message sayign there was a fault. Since then, I have been getting a message in white over a blue screen saying there is a technical fault and you know about it  and are trying to fix it. This has been going on for a week now and  today, with Sky showing 4 matches at once from 2p, it seems that the situation is much worse and the stream cannot work. The picture frezes after a few seconds, sometimes up to 5 minutes and then the screen goes black. It's impossible to go back, return to the home screen or anything but unplug the puck and reboot. This is deeply frustraing. Thank good ness I have an ipad and can watch on Sky Go. So, why are you charging me full price when you have a technical fault that thate you can't fix and not warning telling us why today was likely to be near impossible for a large number of people trying to view a match? 

[TimmyBGood]

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@AJ-45 wrote:

So, why are you charging me full price when you have a technical fault that thate you can't fix and not warning telling us why today was likely to be near impossible for a large number of people trying to view a match? 

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As yours is the only such post today (and with relatively few in the past seven days), doesn't that rather suggest it's a problem at your address rather than with the platform as a whole?

Sky Stream does seem to be particularly sensitive to local issues generated by individual WiFi and internet connection.

[AJ-45]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have checked the download speed. It is 56.6 as provided under my contract which says Broadband plan Fibre 67 Full Works - Broadband add-on(s) Smart Hybrid Connect,Cyber Security Multi. Sky is operating fine on my ipad on SkyGo. The power to the puck seems fine and stabel, too. I have changed it to another plug to check it. 

As a technical fault is stated when it is booting up,  as I see no local faults at my end, does this not suggest that there is something writng at Sky's delivery, which is why I am receiving the technical fault message?

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@AJ-45 wrote:

As a technical fault is stated when it is booting up,  as I see no local faults at my end, does this not suggest that there is something writng at Sky's delivery, which is why I am receiving the technical fault message?

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Unfortunately not, the error messages displayed on screen tend to be rather generic.

Usually when error messages pop up ( and they will typically say the same thing), the cause is either a local network connectivity issue which has meant the Sky Stream puck has dropped its connection to Sky's servers ( and it can't operate without having that connection), or something on the puck has crashed ( in which a simple reboot of the puck through the settings would resolve the issue).

If you have the puck connected via Wifi, its more likely its a network connectivity issue as Wifi is incredibly prone to interference by numerous factors. If using Wifi you need to make sure the puck is out in the open ( i.e not in a cupboard, behind the TV or on an enclosed shelf on a TV cabinet), or alternatively switch to using an ethernet cable and disabling the Wifi in the puck's settings.

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

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@AJ-45 wrote:

As a technical fault is stated when it is booting up,  as I see no local faults at my end, does this not suggest that there is something writng at Sky's delivery, which is why I am receiving the technical fault message?

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No, because that would be affecting a substantial percentage of the whole userbase consuming the same content.

56Mbs arriving at a router doesn't leave much leeway for other device use and WiFi distribution losses.

Sky Go can function on a small fraction of what Sky Stream needs.

[AJ-45]

Thanks for the advice. Well, I think I'm just unlucky, then. My puck is not in a cupboard or sheltered from the signal and the device is connected to  the internet by a wifi cable. Thepuck does take time booting up and I suppose from what you say, as it doesn't find the internet straight away even those it is always conencted, that might exoplain the technical issue notice. But I am inclined to think my suggestion is correct that my puck to not connect or was forced out of the network after a few moments from 1-4pm today becuase there was so much traffic. I had given up trying to watch it on TV as it cionstantly froze if if started at all during that period but tried again after 4.30pm when only one match was playing. For the first time today, the conection was reached and stayed. So, as Sky has not sent me the bags to return my equipent for SkyQ yet, maybe it's best to return to that device and not have to contend with the lack of access that I've experienced over the last two weekends?

Thanks, anyway, for takign the time to inform me of the other things that could have caused the problem.