Poor weather means bad luck for Sky TV customers

The question on performance is difficult to diagnose remotely, but how does your fibre results compare to your ADSL results?

The information that you are 2.1km to your nearest exchange is irrelevant. If your area has BT fibre coverage, it means that the connections between the Exchange to the street Cabinets have all been replaced by fibre and are effectively lossless. So the degradation occurs on the copper connection from your home to the street Cabinet. Previously when you were on ADSL2, the degradation was all the way back to the Exchange because it was all over copper, so by switching from ADSL2 to FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet), you eliminate the copper losses from the Exchange to the Cabinet and should get much better ADSL speed and response.

So someone is telling porky pies or has no idea what they are talking about.

Don’t go for the satellite option. Satellite has massive, unavoidable delays which kill response times and will definitely be unsatisfactory. I suggest that you investigate the location of you nearest street Cabinet and calculate the distance. Then armed with this information escalate the fault with Plusnet.

Finally, if you go to the BT Broadband sales site, you can enter your phone number and postcode and it will give you an estimate of the speed you should get at your address. It usually is a reasonable (though not accurate) guide.

Hugh Terfar has given good advice he is quite right to say that with fibre the “exchange ” is actually represented by the street cabinet.No,if,buts,or maybe,s my exchange is 1.5 miles from me ,my cabinet 2 is just over a 100 yards (as the crow fly’s ) .I got FTTC a month ago it made a vast difference I am on the top Infinity 2 . Downloads are very fast and internet browsing is much faster . What also counts is the loop resistance between the cabinet and your master socket . How good is your internal wiring ? is your router plugged into the master socket ,if not that can have an effect . To stop any arguments with BT I ran cat 4e with twisted pairs from my master socket 2 feet from my PC and router(HH5) this runs Directly out my window to a O/H lead-in joint .No internal wiring in house only 2 dect cordless phones. Also check that your master socket hasnt a small capacitor still inside it (bell circuit ) if so cut it away.As a user of over 20 years of satellite use non-Sky -Freesat /and other sats I too would not advise broadband by sat. Its expensive ,you need a big dish for good reception and very bad weather can effect it. I never got to metres /centimeters etc I take it that translates as just over a mile as Terfar says is that the Exchange or the cabinet ,if exchange then the cab will be a lot nearer so somebody it trying to put “one over on you ” Its ONLY counts in FTTC from the cabinet to your house thats the ONLY thing ,apart from faulty house wiring that counts . Your ISP seems a bit “tricky ” .

The channels available on a Sky receiver don’t come from a single satellite but a handful in almost, but not exactly the same place in the sky. If you get poor signal on a group of channels when the weather is poor, your dish may be pointing to left or right edge of the cluster rather than the middle.

Dave-JS has a point but normal satellite installation by an engineer is that the dish is pointed towards the weakest signal so that they average out . I just checked my non-SKY 28 Astra -Freesat dish and yes freesat -freeview programs output a signal Goodness of 85 % and signals relating to the equivalent programs that SKY output are 73 % but even in bad weather there is no drop out as my dishes are much larger than the standard Sky dish. Dont take that to mean a larger dish has a better signal than a smaller size if the SKY dish is set up correctly the SIGNAL strength will be the same BUT its the Goodness that counts this should be displayed as is my Technomate box in percentage terms on a display of that program. The problem is a smaller dish has to be aimed more accurately for best reception and as has been said even a small knock on the angle of the dish can put goodness at 45 % or less and then no picture.Yes it is worrying about no reception in warm weather normally its the other way around when metal contracts it causes a disconnection on a termination . Check the termination on the LNB / re-terminate it ,as you say snow can have a big effect so can a bird sitting on the arm of the dish. First off check the signal strength AND the Goodness percentages (both different ) on your SKY box the instructions should tell you how to see them and get back. I almost forgot ,do you have a clear view of the Southern horizon ?

The Astra satellite 28.2°E is in reality a cluster of 4 colocated satellites (Astra a, b, c and d). They carry far more services than just Sky and Freesat. But the Sky and Freesat satellite transmitting dish (up on the satellite) are aimed to provide a signal footprint that covers the UK.

Most of the UK should be able to receive a quality signal using a standard 45 cm dish. If you lose signal except under exceptional circumstances (such as massive electrical storms in your area) I would suspect something wrong with your installation.

Get a reliable (recommended) aerial installer to come and check it out. It could be that the dish has moved a little out of alignment, water ingress in the LNB/coax or there’s just a kink or fault in the coax cable run. Satellite signals are comparatively weak compared to terrestrial broadcast signals, so the dish antenna has 100+ times the gain of the average yagi antenna. It also has a much tighter beamwidth – which is why it needs to be accurately aligned. Larger dishes have even narrower beamwidth, so need sturdier mounting and really accurate alignment. And the coax connecting the receiver to the LNB (Low Noise Blockdown converter) are all part of the aerial tuning, so are just as important as the dish itself.

Unless there is an obvious local problem such as a trees or buildings blocking your line of site or some industrial process causing interference, every home in the UK should be able to get reliable, quality pictures for Freesat and Sky.

We have had repeated problems with the sky signal. At the slightest breath of wind (not an exaggeration) the programmes are interrupted. There is a thin tall tree with minimal thin branches about 9 metres away from the dish in its line of sight. Can this be the cause? Sky are on last chance saloon to fix this with an engineer arriving tomorrow. If it’s not fixed this time once and for all we are moving to Virgin. (Interesting to note for all readers: Sky wanted to charge for the engineer visit. When I said I wasn’t happy I was put on hold for 2 mins then offered it at a discount of £20. When I said I wasn’t going to pay anything otherwise I would leave sky, I was again put on hold for 2 mins and then given a free call out). Totally fed up with trying to resolve our issues with sky and am starting to think that satellite systems are just not up to the job so cable is the only way forward. Will soon know.

Yes it could be the trees. Satellite signals are weak. The dish gain may be high, but it needs a good signal to amplify. You may have to lop the tree or relocate the dish.

Tim,

Have you got time to send one more email?

Briefly and politely summarise your story to Mr Barney Francis, CEO Sky UK. Email barney.francis@bskyb.com Then request his help.

I hope that you will find that Sky suddenly become more responsive to the point of amazement.

Good luck,………..Topher