sky

[russdev]

ok I have managed to convince my better half we should have sky

 

Anyway reading up on stuff and in t & c says should be connected to fixed phone line...

 

Does anyone know if sky engineer will plug it into a semi fixed extension (does he want to see a box connected to plug into into or can i just leave the standard socket on the end...

 

anyone got any ideas previous dealings etc so know what need to do before i get it...

 

Last but not least anyone know what average wait times from ordering it to it being installed..

 

Russ

 

Russ

[plexer]

They will run a long extension lead to you phone but just ask them to leave it running on top of carpet saying you've got carpet guy coming to lift carpet and put it underneath.

 

Then when he's left just unplug it.

 

Ben

[webman]

Most people who deal with cables now won't touch carpets anyway as insurance doesn't allow them to, incase people sue for falling over a trailing thread or something.

[MkII]

Sky connected into my gerry rigged extension.

[russdev]

well just order it coming to install it next sunday

 

in time for start of nfl season...

 

russ

[webman]

So I take it you got a promotion then Russ?

[russdev]

lol

 

nar but worked out paying 8 quid for topup tv plus load of subscriptions that i am not using very much and if stop them pays for sky sub...

 

Also it was make decision time as our digi box we had was about on way out and either pay for new box or get sky... (box did well it was our old ondigital box)

 

So made sense to do it now...

[john]

I cannot live without sky and you will be the same Russ! The only thing bout the fixed line phone connection is its worth it for it as it downloads software updates via it sometimes.

 

When it does do updates its a freephone number it dials so don't worry you wouldn't be paying for an 090 number, and without a phone line to it you cannot use Sky Box Office and other pay per use active things such as competitions etc...

 

Also, a mate of mine used to install Sky a few years ago, and Sky do during your 1st 12 months tell your box to "phone home" as it were and if it fails you will get calls, and you can only muddle on with the broken cable for so long as you cannot say the box is faulty as the sky man will come and visit and if the box is fine you will be charged. So keep it in for 12 months then un-plug if you are that worried, also when he sets it up, he needs it to phone home then so it must be a working line otherwise you got problems from day 1.

[russdev]

not bothered about being connected to phone more just the fact didnt want them to come and say we are not connecting to that diy phone extention cable we want a box to plug into. As where box going is not near the main phone socket.

 

russ

[john]

So long as it works they seem happy enough so you will be fine

[Gatt]

I recall when my parents ordered Sky -

 

first they said they couldnt install it for 10+ weeks cos they thought Fort William was an island!!

 

Next problem came a few years later when we finally got Broadband installed.. the ADSL connection kept dropping, even after checking that all the filters were installed correctly

Around about the same time - my parents lost the ability to order movies online, etc.

 

I took a look at it after a few months of everyone blaming the other (BT, said it was Sky, Sky said it was BT, etc) and found this..

 

BT were correct - the problem was with sky..

 

ADSL had been installed correctly - filters were all in the right place

The engineer who installed had actually HARDWIRED the extension cord into the back of the master BT Phone socket!!

 

As a result the Sky signal wasn't going through the ADSL filter, thereby knocking each other out..

 

As soon as i replaced Skys extensioin with my own (BIG ext cord & old modem to pc lead) everything worked..

 

Sky still refused to acknowledge their error..

[indiegirl]

Russ -

 

No problem for extension sockets, as long as it's wired properly - friend of mine's had a few letters from Sky complaining that her box wasn't plugged in... got my dad over (BT Engineer), extension had been incorrectly wired.

 

Oh, I wish I could get Sky - my attempt resulted in a late Saturday evening appointment with a couple of cowboys who told me that the house opposite interfered with the signal - allegedly I can only get an 11% signal.. they cleared off (funnily enough it was World Cup time and there was a game on they wanted to see)... and I still have no Sky. When time permits I'll get an independent bod to test the signal and if it's over 50% I'll go ape at Sky...

 

I hope you get better 'installers' than I did!

[StewartKnight]

Under the telecoms act, it's actually illegal for a Sky engineer to plug in the Sky box to the home phone, according to my ex-boss, who was very high up in BT.

 

One of the reasons they like a phone line, is some people have taken to "sharing" their sky cards with friends, so they like to phone the box to see which card is in the slot.

[Ric_]

I was under the impression that only BT (and possibly licensed telecoms engineers) were allowed to tinker in the 'Master' socket. Gatt, I'm sure if you told BT what happened they would get further with Sky

[Gatt]

This was my impression as well - i did tell my folks this and to get in touch with BT.. whether they did or not is a different story...

[bossman]

i used to deal a lot with ondigital and sky in my misspent youth days and i logged the sky communications port via a logger on my computer which then proceeded to log all access to the sky box and results were astounding.

It would send all relevent accessed programs what you had watched and upload the results to a central database were they could then analyse and sell information to various subscribers of sky incorporated including the advertising moguls who could then pick the best times to advertise their wares and to the best audience. Also the box would recieve via satallite every 6mins a code which your box would respond to within 20secs and if your box for some reason did not respond via the telephone line it would be logged by sky and you would recieve an alert via your screen to plug your telephone line in. Don't know if anything has changed since then as i have given up all night vigiles for sleep.

anyway just thought i would mention it.

[TechMonkey]

Well they must not check too often now as ours was unplugged from the with in the first month or so as it totally killed teh phone line. People couldn't phone through as it was engaged, we would pick up the phone and there would be dial tone and we would get the phone ring and no one there. Sky wouldn't touch it as it wasn't their engineers, the engineers claimed not to know what it was and spent a few hours prodding the line before telling us the best advice was to buy a realllllly long extension and run it to another plug to check if it worked at all and that they couldn't do anything until that had been done. So we left it unplugged and everytime Sky phone us up about anything we mention it to them, tell them we can't buy films and what a shame it is as we would love to and they seem non-plussed!

I did go up on the roof a while after all this and found the cable had been wrapped around our chimney and the wire exterior was pretty roughly warn, that they had just drilled a hole and put the extremley long cable through that sealed up with mastik. I wonder now if the cable ahd been so badly put in that no one wanted the hassle of putting it right!

[plexer]

One of the reasons they like a phone line, is some people have taken to "sharing" their sky cards with friends, so they like to phone the box to see which card is in the slot.

 

Not possible as soon as a card is inserted into a sky box it is paired with that box and cannot be used in another.

 

Ben

[budgester]

Who needs sky, I've not even had a TV for 7 years.

[ChrisH]

Who needs sky, I've not even had a TV for 7 years.

 

8O

[ConTheITGuy]

Looking forward to switching to Sky (from Telewest) when this new broadband arrives - anyone taken it up yet?

 

 

Andy

[Irazmus]

Who needs sky, I've not even had a TV for 7 years.

 

I'm with you on that. I've just cancelled Sky as there was never anything worth watching on it.

[russdev]

arr but nfl games at decent time of day and not using unoffcial ways of watching nfl means...

 

and with motorsport as well....

 

worth every penny..

 

Russ