ISP Reviews by Equitan

I got Sky broadband because of a special offer to Sky TV subscribers, and it's a sensationally low price and has proved more than adequate to my browsing, email and download needs, though cold winter evenings do slow it up. I'd probably have given an 8 or a 9 for service up until recently.

BUT - and this but has proved terminal: I'm in process of taking my custom elsewhere - not long ago, Sky changed its servers (to Google, I think) and since then the Reply-To address for all outgoing email sent from the email software on my PC defaults to the dominant Sky address. (This is a Sky decision, not a Google one, according to the forums.) I have two websites, but can't any longer send email that shows the address of either, which has caused a certain amount of confusion to my correspondents and makes a mockery of the filters I've set up for incoming mail, since anyone using the Reply-To is sending mail to "xxx@sky.com" - and I have quite a lot of email…

This change seems to have been a result of Sky's decision to remove the smtp relay function, and was not announced in advance. I've had to find out for myself what has been going wrong and why. So if you want to run email accounts other than Sky, but using the Sky servers to send it, be warned.

I've not had to use support much: generally only to find out what's going on when the service suddenly stops entirely (very rare, and not at all recently), but the staff are very pleasant. However, it can take a while to get through to one of them, and Sky's redious on-hold muzak forms the backdrop to the even more tedious advertising of their services.

One other thing: if you're tempted by Sky's £5 upgrade to a higher download speed, make sure you check in advance whether the local exchange/cable setup can handle the speed. Sadly (and stupidly), I didn't - and nor did Sky, who happily took my cash for a service it was not going to be able to supply.