No Sky HD network connection since software update - No Sky On Demand
Hi, I've always had a static IP as I have several IP CCTV cameras I can access remotely, but I do remember switching on the eco mode a few weeks ago and have thought no more about it, so I will switch that off again just in case
More googling revealed suggestions about port mapping so I have added 3700 & 43115 to my NAT settings even though someone else said they should not be needed and I did not have them previously when t was working.
Another suggestion was to use OpenDNS as opposed to PN DNS and that is something else I changed a few weeks ago to try and stop eBay pages failing to load, So I have added them back and after I did another Planner Rebuild and power cycled the Skybox it did for a short while start downloading again but after downloading only 30% of a program it ground to a halt and then timed out and failed again 
So what could possibly allow it to download over 600 Mbytes of data before failing ? and it must mean the connection is correct ?
Under settings the sky box says
gateway = drm
DRM Enabled = true
Secure Channel = NOT ESTABLISHED(4)
The error code on the failed download is "Technical fault - 10(259) - whatever that all means ?
@daveg6hni wrote:
I have also changed the router DNS back to the OpenDNS settings and I intend to try a few other Open DNS alternatives to Plus Net as I think that is a definite area of concern.
I'm not so sure about that. Remember that DNS is only used like you or I might use telephone book. It's entirely possible that the Sky box doesn't even use DNS. The IP address(es) that the service use might be hard coded into the box. Sky are an ISP so they can easily choose to allocate an address to On Demand 'for all time'. And they can issue box updates OTA to change it if they have to.
Now if I were writing a web based service (and I do for a living) personally I'd prefer to use DNS simply because that's what it's for. But in Sky's position - DNS may be a security risk so there's an argument for them not using it. Anyway when I say that it's 'used like a telephone book' I mean exactly that. I might occasionally look someone's number up more than once if I know they have a tendency to move around a bit but most of the time I use the last number because it's likely still correct.
DNS is the same. There's something called 'TTL' which is basically how long a given address can be assumed to still be valid. Now that varies across the internet from a couple of seconds to several hours or even days. And if Sky's On Demand service is using DNS at all I'm pretty sure that the TTL will be in hours or days.
And one thing's absolutely certain: In the same way that you don't keep checking the phone book during a call neither does a computer. Once the box has started downloading DNS is not going to be used again 
(separated for clarity from technical waffle)
In your position I would try a different router. Routers have been known to have compatibility issues with various bits of kit. And anything media related is usually where such silliness shows. I'm still a little loathe to suggest a compatibility issue like that because I'd expect more such complaints but I'm proof that there's nothing about PN's network that is incompatible and we're running out of suspects 
@MrSilver wrote:
This is how dns used to work but for things like sky on demand it's not.
Hmmm. Whether it's coming from Sky's servers or if they have a deal with Akamai wouldn't really make any difference. The source(s) are still known ahead of time and reasonably unlikely to change. DNS' primary purpose is for looking up things that are unknown or likely to change.
They can't serve all on demand from one big server farm.
Oh I think they could if they wanted
Sky started off hosting media. That was how they managed to create the market for satellite TV in the UK. They could offer a standard hosting and uplinking package to people. I believe their uplinking system is still the defacto standard in the UK. On demand content will require more bandwidth so it's possible Sky have done a deal with Akamai by now and of course stuff like iPlayer will always be coming from there but I'd be very interested if you have any links that suggest Sky has stopped hosting content.
When you you do a dns lookup it goes back to sky auth dns who will look at what dns server is asking (usually) and will return the ip of the cache nearest you with the content you want on it.
so moving from day plus net dns to google dns can change where your content comes from
It's possible but seems unlikely to me. There's not a lot of point doing that for a service that is (officially) only available in the UK. Akamai only have 19 global locations so it doesn't sound like there are multiple ones around the UK.
We just don't know. However for a service like On Demand I can't see DNS problems causing the kind of behaviour the OP is reporting. It may perform DNS lookups some of the time but I don't see any reason to expect them any more frequently than whenever the user launches On Demand or Catch Up.
I halve sky q and on demand works ok as does sky go, but on different versions of sky firmware I've had to put a static ip on the box.
Well that's down to DHCP issues and has nothing to do with DNS and you're right that it doesn't sound a likely explanation. Still worth a try though. As per my earlier reply - never assume anything
@Andrue wrote:
@MrSilver wrote:
They can't serve all on demand from one big server farm.
Oh I think they could if they wanted
Sky started off hosting media. That was how they managed to create the market for satellite TV in the UK. They could offer a standard hosting and uplinking package to people. I believe their uplinking system is still the defacto standard in the UK. On demand content will require more bandwidth so it's possible Sky have done a deal with Akamai by now and of course stuff like iPlayer will always be coming from there but I'd be very interested if you have any links that suggest Sky has stopped hosting content
The one above was a sky italia study.
there are two things that i think you are mixing up.
sky built a broadcast market over satellite, thta sends all the channels to everyone at the same time, you dont get individual tv streams which is why they all start at fixed times.
sky on demand is ip based over the internet and so you can warch on demand etc.
if sky had just 500,000 customers (5% of their base) watching say football and other channels on their ipad at the weekend that would be 500,000x4mb/sec so 2,000,000mbit / 2 terait/sec.
it would not be commercially viable for them to buy that much peering across the whole internet, so no they wouldnt host all on demand in house from one location, especially with their 4k content on the rise at 25mbit/sec - not all their live 4k content is over ip today not satellite yet so causes bigger peaks at kickoff.
it would also give a crappy service not having content close to the users, thats why youtube and netflix also do the same - distribute the content on content distribution networks close to the use (as does apple for ios updates, microsoft do etc) very few people host high bandwidth in their own data centre.
anyway, sorry to the op as that still doesnt help fix the problem but hope people fin it useful to see how it works.