arguing with Sky - again

[meriad]

A few months back I got a new Sky router, well Hub as they call it now. At the time Suff very kindly spend ages (he's far more patient than me!) on the phone to Sky for me and it was determined that the router was faulty and not the cable / connection and not long after my new hub arrived and has been working just fine.

However, for the past three days or so my internet has been down, but only in the evenings when I come home; it's always fine again when I get up in the mornings. Tuesday night I was out and got home quite late and it was working then as well so it really seems to be a 'peak hour' malfunction only. So back on the phone to Sky and they keep telling me that they cannot do anything until I have the splitter plugged directly into the telephone socket and not via the extension lead I currently am using. But, the socket is about 2 metres away from where I have everything so I cannot just plug it in as they want without moving my lounge around which just can't be done. So this morning I went online and bought some 3m RJ11 ASDL cables as well as a 3m RJ11 / BT cable, due for delivery sometime early next week (quite impressed at how cheap they were really)

In all honesty I'm not sure why the extension cable should be the issue and after throwing the strop I did yesterday I'll be very embarrassed if it does turn out to be the cable... but at least my throwing a strop got Sky to credit my account with £5.00 so I can buy the cable(s)


But just wondering if any of you clever people think it could be that extension lead? My phone and TV work just fine so why would it only affect the internet and why so regularly intermittent?

[Workingman]

Ria, I also had to go with an extended RJ11 cable from the splitter to router (gold connectors) because my main BT box is just inside a window and well away from the desk.

I originally had a phone line extension with the splitter plugged in to that. It was all neatly tucked away until it got to the desk and worked perfectly. When I upgraded and a new faceplate was fitted to the phone box the engineer was adamant that my 'solution' would not work - and he was right.

Having said that, are you losing the broadband to the router or is it between your computer to router, and is that via cable or wireless?

[meriad]

If I understand your question correctly I'm losing the broadband to the router which in turn is not allowing the computer to connect. I haven't tried it yet, but suspect that even if I hard wired the laptop into the router with an ethernet cable it wouldn't work as the hub isn't working. Usually the hub has three steady white lights, one of them being a smiley face to indicate that the internet is connected. But now that smiley face flashes orange, then goes off, flashes again, goes white, then back to flashing orange etc....

[Workingman]

Got it, it is Sky broadband to the router causing the problem.

Cabling up so that you have main box - splitter - router might help, but that will have to wait till the cables arrive. In the meantime does the dropping out coincide with any electrical appliances coming on such as the central heating, microwave?

[meriad]

Oh, very interesting question Frank and you may have just hit the nail on the head. Very close to the router I have two remote plugs, one that controls the TV, music (button 3) as well as a set of lights (button 1). I have a third remote plug (button 2) on the opposite side of the wall controlling another light. I just switched them all on and the broadband light started flashing - and it had been OK so far. So I switched everything that is controlled by the remote plugs off and the broadband started working again.

I played around a bit, and it seems that the router / hub is not very happy when the one set of lights (well it's two lights from the same plug) running off the remote plug (button one) is switched on.... hmmm a bit odd as I haven't really had this problem before. Not sure if it would make a difference, but the only thing I can think that is different now to before is that I saw that my upstairs neighbour has invested in a heated clothes drier and that would have only been in the past few days..... but surely their electricity usage should have no impact on my router?

all very weird if you ask me!

[Workingman]

It is one of those not well known problems Ria. In the home many rooms/areas share a ring - upstairs v downstairs, high drain areas such as kitchens and bathrooms v low drain living rooms, bedrooms.

Your electricity circuits do not only carry electricity, they can also carry frequencies and pulses, these can interfere with ADSL signals on the same ring. It is possible to buy repeaters for thing like Freeview because of this.

Unless upstairs is on the same 'main' ring for both properties it is unlikely to be that, but not impossible.

A direct RJ11 might improve things, but you might have to experiment.

[meriad]

thanks Frank - that is interesting. But as a matter of interest, would you know why this problem has only cropped up quite recently, ie this week only as far as I can remember? And when you say a direct RJ11 - from where to where?

I'm going to see what I can move around in the way of plugs - at the moment the remote plug controlling the lamps is plugged into the same extension socket as the router.

this could be fun

[Workingman]

Let me try again as I have not explained things too well.

This regular but intermittent dropping of your broadband could be due to a Sky fault. It is not likely, but it is not impossible. In order to find out you have to have your cabling as per Sky's rules and they are: Splitter in main phone socket; a direct link from splitter to the router/hub; phone direct into the phone socket on the splitter. At the moment you do not have that cabling structure so have ordered a longer RJ11 (splitter to router) cable to allow you to get rid of the phone extension lead. Once that RJ11 cable arrives and is directly connected to the router/hub you can 1) see if the problem persists 2) Get sky to check the line. Hopefully the problem will be solved.

However, it could also be due to interference on the line caused by electrical impulse noise frequencies from appliances on the house wiring, or even from outside, or from TV or smartphone signals or flashing Christmas lights. The setup you have at present, with the phone extension lead, is more vulnerable to this kind of interference and it might take a bit of trial and error to discover what is causing the problem - if it is not a Sky fault. Another tack might be to run all your computer equipment from a surge protected and interference filtered extension socket as well as a sheathed and low-loss hi-speed RJ11 cable.

But all that is way down the line..... the most important thing for now is to cable up as Sky want and let them have a play.

[meriad]

Thanks Frank - once I get the cables I'll plug in everything just as Sky wants and as you say then it's up to them if it doesn't work