sky is the limit

Its been a while since i posted, its been very busy in my worklife and i have been burning the candle at both ends lately, however the project i was heading has now finished, with the right ending thank god. Either way i thought i would comment on a couple of activities i have undertaken in my ongoing friends and family support.

Sky television recently launched a broadband service (based on the services easynet provided formerly (i think, as sky purchased easynet somewhile back)), the service includes a wireless package which i have installed twice now, once at my parents and once at my uncle's.

The package contains a nice netgear DG series router with pre installed wireless network name (SSID) of SKYXXXX where XXXX is an assigned number by sky, the wireless network being protected by pre configured WPA-PSK which is Wireless protected access pre shared key, which is lowest form of the WPA network encryption available (which is explained nice here at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WPA-PSK)

Both the installs worked well from the sky side but users need to be aware that before connecting your new or existing wireless card to the sky network (the password/key is provided on the underneath of the router and on a handy wallet card)that you should download and inastll the LATEST drivers from the cards manufacturers website (Difficult if this is your new connection or your PC does not have an ethernet port). The resaon is the drivers that are supplied on the CD with mosts cards can cause problems with WPA access, my fathers PC once connected to the netgear router simply rebooted, with the new drivers (from belkin) everything works very well.

Some things i would comment on regarding sky's wireless broadband
# Is it a Good idea having the access codes to wireless WPA network on the bottom of the router?

# Is it a good idea locking down access to the router by the user (yes from a corporate helpdesk perspective i would think)

# For users who have the sky TV box plugged into the telephone system, this can cause disruptions to service every 5 mins when the TV box 'calls home'.

# the speed seemed very good, but the reliability may in question as my father and uncle both have to power cycle the router once a week.

# good support at this website - http://www.skyuser.co.uk

Comments welcome....