Free Broadband Blog

One million people have registered for Sky Broadband and it seems that most of you have come here at one point or another drawn by all the problems you have been having.

I am sincerely sorry for these people and hope this place is giving you an opportunity to vent some of your anger. I like anger and i like ranting so please keep the comments coming!

Anyway Sky are naturally very happy with so many people signing up but do me a favour get out of it now and go somewhere better. To be honest free broadband still isn’t upto scratch anywhere yet so dig deep and spend a little it will be worth it.

Some of my friends have been patiently waiting for Sky Broadband for over a month now, the muppets (they are my friends so i guess i can call them that) have now been educated hopefully and have gone with someone better. If Pipex isn’t you bag then try….. err actually im not gonna reccomend anyone else but there are some out there. Thats just given me an idea for a new post!

I am afraid problems just keep on building up with Sky Broadband. I have read this week about a continuing issue with accessing certain websites on Sky, this problem seems to be either due to the IP address Sky Broadband are using for there client or is due to the Anti Virus Software that Sky is giving away for free.

Firstly i would download a free Anti Virus Checker such as AVG from Grisoft then uninstall the software given to you by Sky and install the AVG software. Also make sure you switch on the Windows Firewall. Now try your Sky Broadband again.
As for problems with your Xbox 360 i think this just isn’t a priority with Sky at the moment. I would consider cancelling Sky Broadband stating the issues you have had. I’m not sure if you will have to pay a fee but obviously try and avoid this. Be aware however you will have to send back your router and you will have to get another MAC code.
Even getting a MAC code and cancelling supposedly isn’t simple at the moment they will obviously try dissuade you from doing it but even then a MAC code doesn’t solve your problems. This is because Sky use a different Technology to normal broadband ISP’s and this technology need to be completely cleared from the line before a normal broadband ISP such as the excellent Pipex Broadband can use the line again.
On a plus point when there internet connection with Sky is running well it seems to be mega fast but only of course to the sites that do work. I think it I Still best to hold off with Sky at the moment and use a more trusted and reliable ISP if you want an internet connection that is available when you want it.

Sky are constantly bringing out new special offers and the latest as you might be well aware is Free Sky Broadband with your Sky TV.

So if you want to know the other current offers available from SKy and you want to take advantage of Sky Broadband go over to the Sky Website.

AT present you can also get Sky from only £15 per month which is an exceptional deal.

Reports seem to be showing that Sky have finally started emailing users who have registered there interest in Sky Broadband but the wait to get the service is not over.

Users have been asked to ring a 0870 number or national rate number and there have been reports of waits of upto an hour. Sounds like another reason why Free Broadband might not be that Free afterall.

Click here to visit the Sky Website and register your interest to find out if you can get the right package
Many users are now starting to take advantage of a Genuine Sky Broadband package. The reason for the delay has been the installation of the equipment needed to run the service.

The first wave of installations were completed early this month and if you are in one of these areas you should be trying frantically to take advantage of the offers available to you (see my earlier article on free Sky Broadband).

However there have been a few issues with sites such as Morethan and CNN and XBOX 360 sites being inaccessible.

The man from Sky he say:

“This is the same issue as CNN - Morethan’s hosting provider’s upstream ISP hasn’t updated their filters to allow the Sky IP range in.

As Sky’s range is rather large (1.05 million IPs - 90.192/12 for net anoraks), RIPE allocated us this range from a greenfield IP range which until now has never had anyone on it.

Consequently, IP carriers round the Internet filter out these ranges (bogon filters).. mainly to stop things like spam/DDoSes spoofed from these illegal IPs.

Now that this range is no longer “illegal”, these ISPs need to update their bogon filters.

Most are pretty good at updating them, however there’s always a few that fall through the cracks, hence situations like this.” Sourced from adslguide.org.uk

So basically the problems people are having should get sorted over the coming weeks as more servers update there allowed IP addresses.

Click here to visit the Sky Website and register your interest to find out if you can get the right package

So you want free broadband? Well you probably won’t find it from Sky but you will find a good offer and one i might well even recommend.

Click here to see what Sky say about their broadband

So what’s the offer?

Well there are four packages all with different costs and strangely different names (I think this is for identification purposes) so which one suits you? Well I don’t know that but I know which one suits which type of user.

The packages are available here in a easy to read table.

Ok so as you can see there are four, each have varying costs and connotations.

So which one should I choose?

Well first off if you aren’t a Sky subscriber then none of them (maybe this is a bit rash see my conclusions). But if you do subscribe to Sky TV then you might be in for a good deal.

BASE
This is the first package and is the one for you if you use the internet for checking email now and again and basically don’t download anything of magnitude such as music or video. Unfortunately if you don’t then it is likely that your kids probably will whether or not you know it or not. So I would simply forget that one.

MID
Things start looking a bit better here. It’s only £20 for the activation fee but you do have to pay a subscription of £5 a month. If you combine this with the fact that you can download up to 40GB of data a month and with speeds up to 8mb and the fact that if you compare this offer with other providers who can charge up to £20 a month for a similar spec package I would say it was pretty competitive if you don’t have Sky TV, but even more so if you already subscribe to Sky TV.

MAX
So you want an ultra fast broadband connection? Well you better check first to see if you can get it. This is currently extremely limited as to it’s availability in the UK through ADSL and I really do doubt you will be able to get anywhere near it unless you are in the centre of a major city. For example I live in the centre of Newcastle I can only get 8Mb broadband but to be honest I don’t even get close to that and its usually around 4Mb. But this package does offer unlimited downloads within the realms of Sky’s fair use policy which to be honest I can’t find anywhere so I can’t help with that. So I reckon it is likely to be about 60GB a month without question which to be honest for the increased monthly payment of £5 isn’t really worth it in my eyes. So, considering that a lot of PC’s still only have hard drives of around 80 – 100GB I doubt that you would ever break through the 40GB offered on the MID package and couple this with idea that you will never get anywhere near 16Mb download speeds it ain’t worth the bother.

CONNECT
I haven’t a clue why you are even considering this package it gives no obvious benefits over the other packages on offer and it costs a fortune. However this is what you will be offered if you cant receive the other Sky broadband packages in your area. STAY AWAY!

Click here to see what Sky say about their broadband

Conclusion

• If you have Sky TV and you want to check your email now and again and not much else go for the BASE package.
• If you have Sky TV and you want to download music and video and generally not worry about how much you can download get the MID package, it is a bloody good deal.
• If you don’t have Sky TV but you are going to get it then I also recommend the MID package.
• The free McaFee Software is worth about £50 and there is a Mac option.
• If you dont have wireless connectivity on your PC it will cost you extra.
• Sky uses a different system for the BASE, MID and MAX package and this is very limited in availability so dont get your hopes up, but give them a ring anyway.
• Leave the rest well alone if you meet none of the above then check out another provider.

Click here to visit the Sky Website and register your interest to find out if you can get the right package