On demand download failure Sky+ on 2 boxes

[Eddy99]

Ok so I also gave in and dug out my 10 year old router from the attic and blew the dust off, I have parked my lovely modern expensive router for now.

*up and running again, but let me be super clear to the Sky Firewall, i am extremely not happy having to do this, this is NOT a fix* 

Thanks to the great technical support / advice from the hard paying customers on this forum - take care and the best of  luck fixing your issues……..yourself 😔

[Shut-ins]

@Eddy99 Glad you got the same result switching routers. 

After getting over the shock that it's working, we plan to reinstall our original router to see if it works...well worth a try ..no thanks to Sky.

[SMBP]

So you chose to ignore the point, and as for the small number, seriously you believe Sky? I don't, the last person I spoke to lost interest in trying yet again to get me to upgrade when he grasped I understood the problem and guess what, I got cut off again. Like I said previously, Sky is the new Virgin, no customer service, just a cheap product pretending to still be high end.

[PocketDog]

Yes replacing the router worked for me back in the beginning on May (I swapped they is Plusnet Technicolor router for the new Plusnet Two) however going back to the old router stopped the downloads again. Assume this will be the same for everyone but hope it isn't.

My post for info

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky/On-demand-download-failure-Sky-on-2-boxes/m-p/4314076#M139574

[Kayelaina]

Downloading again.  No thanks to Sky.  New router set up and everything is working as it was before Sky caused the issue 4 months ago.  Not happy that I have had to get a new router to solve this issue but I just gave up hope of Sky resolving the problem.  Thank you to all the people on here who have been suffering the same issue, especially @MogwaiSatTV  who gave far more help than anyone at Sky.  I would have just believed the CGNAT tale at the start of this fiasco without your knowledge of how to check. Also I now know what Wireshark is! So although it has cost me money to resolve an issue which was not of my making it is at least back up and running. Also thankyou @Shut-ins for the info on the router  it was an easy set up as you said. It is really thanks to you all for staying the course and giving your advice and help.  I know not everyone will be able to or want to change their router but it seemed to me my only option for a fix.  Good luck and thank you all again.😊

[Shut-ins]

@Kayelaina So glad your new router fixed the problem caused by Sky in January.

We must all now go after some sort of recompense and partial refund from them due to their incompetence, as we were without downloads for 4 months and in the end had to buy a new router.   

Let's all keep in touch and hopefully get some money back .

They were never going to fix it for us and their Answer by Kirsty should be retracted. 

Good luck everyone 🙂

[pkjp]

Just a thought - has anyone tried flushing the DNS cache on their router?

Unfortunately, I think most of the time this would probably need to be done by performing a (factory) 'reset' on the router (so, you may want to note any ISP connection/configuration/SSID details before doing this in order to be able to connect again).

Sky have admitted to changing their infrastructure that then required them to amend their related DNS entries to point to their new server(s). For this to work, it needs any new download request from a user's sky box to go to a DNS server to get the latest IP address. Normally, a DNS lookup would only maybe be performed the first time you request access to a particular server. After that, your browser and/or router may cache that entry to save time on the next request. If the router has already cached the old DNS entry, this may explain why some routers are struggling to get the new DNS information - it's just going to the local router cache instead (which then resolves to the old and wrong IP address). It also explains why new routers or phone hotspots also work  - they won't have the same cached information.

Eventually, the local router cache should be refreshed (as it only has a certain life span) at which point any request will go to a DNS server and get the latest IP address. This is probably Sky's 'fix' - they're just waiting for each user's local router cache to expire. 

Might be wishful thinking but possibly worth a try for anyone not wanting to buy a new router.

[MogwaiSatTV]

The DNS cache will be on the devices connected to it rather than on the router. I am wondering if I might just need to change the mac address of my modem or router to make sky see it as a new connection and route me to the new Dns Headend instead of the old one that is mention in the supposed answer to this thread.

As it clearly isn't reliant on my external static ip address changing. As I had Plusnet change it which has now partially broken the config of my domain they host as at the moment I am unable to email any gmail addresses. So yet another inconvnience and expense caused by Sky's inaction on this issue.

[pkjp]

@MogwaiSatTV  Routers can also have a DNS cache. https://www.gadgetreview.com/how-to-clear-cache-from-router 

[thegfb]

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@Annie+UK wrote:

People have change their routers and fixed the issue, in that case it is you not them 🙂

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If that's the case, it's incredibly unlikely (to the point of being almost impossible) that all those 'people' did something simultaneously meaning they caused the problem and not Sky.

I know there is some very over-zealous moderation on this topic, but I feel I'm speaking on behalf of the majority in that the contributions from forum superusers are on the whole not only unhelpful, but also unwanted and antagonistic.  If that applies to you, go and suck up to Sky somewhere else because all you are doing is making fun of people with genuine problems.  Your posts are simply not welcome on this topic!

I've read posts from pensioners who are evidently being caused substantial distress.  To read superusers posting disingenuous responses like 'it is you not them' is completely disgraceful and you should be ashamed.  Maybe take a step back and ask yourselves is this really you?  Does the Superuser status really mean that much to you that you conduct yourselves in such a way?

[Annie+UK]

@thegfb From the evidence I have seen, Sky changed a servers IP address and sent the new address to the DNS servers around the world, companies do this all the time as have I in the past for my own web server, this has highlighted that some customers routers have not updated to the new IP address correctly, how on earth can you hold Sky responsible for hardware and DNS server updates outside their control? or do you think that changing a server IP corrupts peoples Internet hardware?

Disclaimer: We have not had 100% cofirmation of the entire issue so the above is using the info we have thus far

[RPembo]

I recommend using the messaging service to contact sky and register your issue.

They deny the issue exists at HQ and just want to send engineers out for a problem they don't even know about locally either!

*Daniel*
It's not a know issue that we have identified on our current status page. It might well be something some of our employees have heard of but not something Sky are currently investigating, which again as you mentioned may be down to low numbers affected by this.

I understand it's frustrating I really do and I'm sorry it's affecting your services. I don't want to have to force you on to Sky Q if it's something you don't want to do.

Reluctantly I've signed up for sky Q, no charge or increase at least. If that doesn't work then it's a reset of my £300 router network I guess. I'm certainly not buying a new one!

PS, I would agree the superusers are rather irritating and unhelpful in here, and antagonists. 

[MogwaiSatTV]

I just checked the status page and it says my equipment is working fine and makes no metions of the known on demand issue.  It just makes a vague comment about download issues being down to your internet connection.

[Annie+UK]

The status page usually only shows outages that affect a large number of customers, when Sky bother to update it 😞

[PocketDog]

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@thegfb wrote:

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@Annie+UK wrote:

People have change their routers and fixed the issue, in that case it is you not them 🙂.

I know there is some very over-zealous moderation on this topic, but I feel I'm speaking on behalf of the majority in that the contributions from forum superusers are on the whole not only unhelpful, but also unwanted and antagonistic.  If that applies to you, go and suck up to Sky somewhere else because all you are doing is making fun of people with genuine problems.  Your posts are simply not welcome on this topic!

I've read posts from pensioners who are evidently being caused substantial distress.  To read superusers posting disingenuous responses like 'it is you not them' is completely disgraceful and you should be ashamed.  Maybe take a step back and ask yourselves is this really you?  Does the Superuser status really mean that much to you that you conduct yourselves in such a way?

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I literally could not have said that any better myself and 100% agree with you, hence a lot of my comments.