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Sky Broadband being throttled!

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  • 16-10-2014 6:54pm
    #1
    Gamer Bhoy 89
    Registered Users Posts: 3,614 ✭✭✭


    I am supposed to have "Unlimited Broadband" but yet my download speeds have been very poor in the last few days. It took me 20 minutes to download a 30mb file. I have tried using Speedtest and other broadband speed checker apps/sites and they have all shown me that I have my expected download speed (which is between 7.5 and 10 meg).

    This has happened before, earlier in the year, where I couldn't even do something as simple as watch a video on Youtube without it buffering every 3 seconds and resorting to streaming at a diabolical 144p resolution (the lowest video quality on Youtube) when I have usually managed to stream 720p and on occasion, 1080p!

    I was beginning to think that maybe I actually don't have unlimited and they put me on something else. So I checked my Sky account and it has shown that I do, indeed, have Unlimited broadband usage and they said that I can use as much as I like.

    This is especially irritating because of the fact I'm a very frequent gamer. With every new game I buy digitally I have to wait for it to download. Furthermore a patch is required, so usually the game is about 10 gb plus a patch of the same size (it varies), it should have taken no more than 2 or 3 hours to download according to what I counted up in my head. But with this problem, it took me the whole evening and almost through to the early hours of the morning to download that game. I didn't get to play it until the following day.

    Is anyone, with the same package as me, suffering this problem as well?

    To clarify, my broadband should be Unlimited, but the only time the speeds go up is after midnight and then slows down to a crawl sometime after 4pm or 5pm. This suggests I'm getting throttled by Sky at peak times when I shouldn't be.


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    #2
    Avada
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,411 ✭✭✭Avada


    No it doesn't, it suggests congestion. More people on the network at peak time, if there is contention, speed slows down


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    #3
    WhatsGoingOn2
    Registered Users Posts: 518 ✭✭✭WhatsGoingOn2


    I am the same. Only started happening 2 days ago. And I would be a relatively light user. I have only noticed that apps on my phone are very slow to update. It's not congestion as my speeds from speed test.net haven't changed


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    #4
    Gamer Bhoy 89
    Registered Users Posts: 3,614 ✭✭✭Gamer Bhoy 89


    Random_Name wrote: »
    No it doesn't, it suggests congestion. More people on the network at peak time, if there is contention, speed slows down
    WhatsGoingOn2 wrote: »
    I am the same. Only started happening 2 days ago. And I would be a relatively light user. I have only noticed that apps on my phone are very slow to update. It's not congestion as my speeds from speed test.net haven't changed

    I was just on my way to write that too. I already stated that my speedtest results have been fine, more or less lying to me in any other case.


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    #5
    Avada
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,411 ✭✭✭Avada


    Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »
    I was just on my way to write that too. I already stated that my speedtest results have been fine, more or less lying to me in any other case.

    I missed that bit, but I can tell you that they aren't being throttled. Traffic management isn't used by Sky. Probably worth ringing them


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    #6
    Gamer Bhoy 89
    Registered Users Posts: 3,614 ✭✭✭Gamer Bhoy 89


    No phone or credit so will have to wait it out. I just wanted to see if I was the only one or not


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    #7
    Colonial
    Registered Users Posts: 87 ✭✭Colonial


    Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »
    No phone or credit so will have to wait it out. I just wanted to see if I was the only one or not

    If you have bb with them then its free to call from your landline, borrow a friend of family phone or buy one for a fiver in argos :)


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    #8
    Gamer Bhoy 89
    Registered Users Posts: 3,614 ✭✭✭Gamer Bhoy 89


    Colonial wrote: »
    If you have bb with them then its free to call from your landline, borrow a friend of family phone or buy one for a fiver in argos :)

    They'll talk me through the same basic procedures I've already went through for the past 3 years whenever our internet plays up;
    • Is there a dial tone?
    • Is there an amber light?
    • Have you plugged the phone cable in directly?
    • We will call back in 30 mins (really they take over an hour, leaving me sitting there like an idiot for half an hour)
    • How many phone sockets are in the house?
    • Could you switch to the Eircom socket?

    All of this goes on for like an hour and it never gets me anywhere. They've never been any help, not once - it's a waste of my time, personally.

    I disconnected the house phone years ago because we were getting nothing but offers from so many companies and not a friend or family member called when we had it in. We just use mobiles. (But that's a story for another thread, maybe) I'll wait it out. The last time it worked after about a week or so, and I'm gone for the weekend so my fingers are crossed.

    Again, I just wanted to see if it wasn't just me that had the issue, if other people are having it then I know I'll be fine in a few days or at the most 2 weeks. I'll just have to stick to overnight-downloading if I want anything big.

    I don't mean to dismiss anyone here. I just needed some piece of mind.


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    #9
    stoutykid
    Registered Users Posts: 113 ✭✭stoutykid


    I am having problems with my sky broadband the past few days too but mostly just with watching videos on youtube.I can stream video content on other websites bizarely and it's accross all tech in the house. Can't watch videos on youtube on phone, tablet or laptop. Thought it was just me so thats why i havent called....


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    #10
    dalta5billion
    Registered Users Posts: 1,034 ✭✭✭dalta5billion


    AFAIK speedtest.net uses a multithreaded TCP download.

    Try downloading your files with a multithreaded download manager, see if that gives you full speeds.


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    #11
    Gamer Bhoy 89
    Registered Users Posts: 3,614 ✭✭✭Gamer Bhoy 89


    dalta5billion wrote: »
    AFAIK speedtest.net uses a multithreaded TCP download.

    Try downloading your files with a multithreaded download manager, see if that gives you full speeds.

    Could you give me an example of one?


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    #12
    mikeym
    Registered Users Posts: 3,984 ✭✭✭mikeym


    Im with Sky Broadband and the buffering on youtube are slower than usual.

    Its so annoying.


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    #13
    dalta5billion
    Registered Users Posts: 1,034 ✭✭✭dalta5billion


    Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »
    Could you give me an example of one?

    ugetdm.com


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    #14
    Gamer Bhoy 89
    Registered Users Posts: 3,614 ✭✭✭Gamer Bhoy 89


    Downloading a podcast using that program now, it's not downloading the speed it's supposed to so I don't know what it is. Well at least I can watch something after 12 before I go to bed.......


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    #15
    stoutykid
    Registered Users Posts: 113 ✭✭stoutykid


    no I lie it's not just youtube. It's taken 45min and counting to download a programme from on demand... I know nothing about computers other than how to turn them on. Hope sky can fix this problem as otherwise I will be like this for a long time....


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    #16
    Colonial
    Registered Users Posts: 87 ✭✭Colonial


    I am with Magnet fibre and youtube seems slower lately... :S Otherwise an excellent connection!


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    #17
    Gamer Bhoy 89
    Registered Users Posts: 3,614 ✭✭✭Gamer Bhoy 89


    Colonial wrote: »
    I am with Magnet fibre and youtube seems slower lately... :S Otherwise an excellent connection!

    Strangely, Blip.TV works fairly okay


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    #18
    darrenw5094
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,126 ✭✭✭darrenw5094


    Downloading from SKY on Demand service has gone dead lately. Problem at Sky's end, they need to sort that out.


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    #19
    todd10k
    Registered Users Posts: 76 ✭✭todd10k


    Sky doesn't throttle downloads at all. Youtube has been slow for most people lately. If your internet connection was being throttled then you'd be getting zilch from your speed test. I recommend you use internet-speedtest.net instead of speedtest.net anyways, as you're pulling packets off ooklas main server then.

    You do not need to ring sky everytime a website doesn't load instantly. If you do a speedtest and everything is fine on your end, it's probably the remote server you're trying to connect to.

    And yeah, the On-demand server has been having issues, we're looking into it. Might be something to do with the gating of HD content starting in september. Sky are working on a fix.


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