Connections to a sky+ HD box?

RobertP

RobertP

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I have virgin, my daughter has ordered sky for her new flat. As she is at work I get to house sit the install.

The previous owner had sky in more than one room and there were phone wires running everywhere. I've ripped out a bin bag full of the stuff - fixed wiring and extension leads all clipped to skirtings and door frames in the messiest way possible.

Anyway, not having sky before it now seems a phone wire is needed to the sky box and possibly Ethernet too?

Just wondering why and how it works so I can sort out sensible cable routes (if necessary) before the phone/broadband install next week. The box is in and working as of last week.

I have had a quick search on the subject but mainly found the reason given for the phone line was something about being a new customer in the first 12 months?? Does it need a phone wire?
 
needs a phone line officially, some say you dont need it others say theyve had letters from sky telling them to plug it back in.. i leave mine plugged in, it does no harm.

doesnt need ethernet unless you want the anytime content.
 
Hmm guess the BB and phone installer is going to want to plug it in then. Floor up and flexible conduit then. can't abide surface wiring even if its not my flat :)
 
technically no you do not need the phone line for a single box but sky insist on this and the installation engineer will plug the HD box into your phone socket. Once the engineer has gone you can unplug it. You do not need the ethernet connected to anything, maybe thats for future use.

However if you you want to order on demand stuff like box office or look at your account billing then you need to be connected to the phone socket

It's different for multiroom though where you do need all boxes connected to the phone line at all times as sky periodically dial back to make sure both boxes are connected, if there not then you'll get a warning then you'll get billed 2 separate subs. This is to stop people paying £10 for an extra box and having it at a differentent location other than your home.
 
Fla5h said:
You do not need the ethernet connected to anything, maybe thats for future use.
Click to expand...


The ethernet is required if you want to use the Anytime+ feature, the box downloads whole series etc using your existing broadband connection. This used to be limited to Sky Broadband customers only but now any broadband will do.

Paul.
 
She's opted for the 2 Gig a month free broadband. Does the anytime content count against that? Not that I think she will use it...

The phone wire tying the box to a location reason makes sense.

Think I know what's needed and why now, thanks.
 
PaulF said:
The ethernet is required if you want to use the Anytime+ feature, the box downloads whole series etc using your existing broadband connection. This used to be limited to Sky Broadband customers only but now any broadband will do.

Paul.
Click to expand...

My bad, I stand corrected
 
Fla5h said:
technically no you do not need the phone line for a single box but sky insist on this and the installation engineer will plug the HD box into your phone socket. Once the engineer has gone you can unplug it. You do not need the ethernet connected to anything, maybe thats for future use.

However if you you want to order on demand stuff like box office or look at your account billing then you need to be connected to the phone socket

It's different for multiroom though where you do need all boxes connected to the phone line at all times as sky periodically dial back to make sure both boxes are connected, if there not then you'll get a warning then you'll get billed 2 separate subs. This is to stop people paying £10 for an extra box and having it at a differentent location other than your home.
Click to expand...

We haven't had our Sky boxes connected to the phone line since we moved into the property (Sept 2010) the engineer at the time told us there was no need. Never had a problem, been billed as we should.

Jez
 
Just as an update...

The phone and BB from sky is now installed and phone not connected to the Sky box. The (BT) engineer said connecting the box is down to sky. He confirmed it is a requirement in the first year but also said the purpose was to interrogate the box overnight and collect your viewing habits for targetting marketing at you.
Advice was if sky ask for it then let them do it.

Ethernet (by me) is in place between the router and sky box.
 
You don't need to run cat5 or phone line if you don't want to you can get power line adaptors for both. It's down to how much your times worth vs. £100 for the adaptors. I was in the same situation as you a ripped out all the phone line but had luckily installed cat5 which I could adapt back to phoneline.
 
We had sky + for about 5 yrs then moved over to sky HD when it came available, engineer said we don't really need to have phone line connected to the boxes UNLESS we were ordering a Sky Movie. He was good enough to make a phone extension cable for us for free in case we ever wanted to get a movie, just connect it when you need it. Also said firmware updates came via satellite dish so phone line not needed for that either.

Sky did not ever ask us to connect the phone line, the above was for a single box I may add, not sure on requirements for multiple boxes.
 
Last edited:
if im reading it right skys terms state that if you have taken up on of the "free dish and box" deals and you disconnect your box from the phone line before 12 months is up and fail to reconnect on request you could get charged £25. :)
 
neil_g said:
if im reading it right skys terms state that if you have taken up on of the "free dish and box" deals and you disconnect your box from the phone line before 12 months is up and fail to reconnect on request you could get charged £25. :)
Click to expand...

I seen similar in the t&c's but it's the gamble you take innit. If they request you to connect a line which is unlikely unless your getting online content fair enough.
If you don't use online content via the Sky box then theres no need for the line
 
neil_g said:
if im reading it right skys terms state that if you have taken up on of the "free dish and box" deals and you disconnect your box from the phone line before 12 months is up and fail to reconnect on request you could get charged £25. :)
Click to expand...

Pretty sure they did away with that requirement about 2-3 years ago (apart from for policing multiroom)
 
I have heard that having it connected causes interference on some Broadband Filters.

So haven't had mine connected for 2yrs
 
Sky anytime works ok on the wired network connection but as it counts towards her internet usage she'll have to pay the £7.50 a month for unlimited internet if she wants to use it. Think it is less than 2 hours viewing to use up her monthly 2Gb allowance on the free broadband :)
 
Bullysrus said:
I have heard that having it connected causes interference on some Broadband Filters.

So haven't had mine connected for 2yrs
Click to expand...

That doesn't make sense, as long as the skybox is the right side of the microfilter is shouldn't matter just by the nature of the pstn connection.
 
neil_g said:
That doesn't make sense, as long as the skybox is the right side of the microfilter is shouldn't matter just by the nature of the pstn connection.
Click to expand...

No - it's true... some models of Sky box pump out so much interference that you had to double or triple filter them... when the standard filters are 6dB/octave and the interference source is both powerful and wideband, they easily overwhelm the DSL signal...
 
hunnymonster said:
No - it's true... some models of Sky box pump out so much interference that you had to double or triple filter them... when the standard filters are 6dB/octave and the interference source is both powerful and wideband, they easily overwhelm the DSL signal...
Click to expand...

Quick google gives a lot of results from 2009 but nothing really more recent. Any more info on that?

Personally I've not had any bother with the amstrad hd+ box or the old white square + box
 
I think the newer boxes will also display a message that no phone line is connected when you switch it on.
This might only be from a full reboot, not from standby.
 
neil_g said:
Quick google gives a lot of results from 2009 but nothing really more recent. Any more info on that?

Personally I've not had any bother with the amstrad hd+ box or the old white square + box
Click to expand...

My suspicion (based on the ones I've personally seen) is that it's something to do with the PSU capacitors - there was a rash of them where the capacitors in the PSU part of the box started to break down and fail. I can imagine that if the switchmode PSU didn't have adequate smoothing it could become a lovely wideband white noise generator...

Or of course nobody has had their Sky box plugged in since 2009 :lol:
 
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