Sky Broadband not working: how to check for outages and fix it

When Sky Broadband stops working, the cause is one of three things: a fault on the network in your area, a problem with the line into your home, or the hub and Wi-Fi inside it. Sky gives you two tools to tell them apart, and the light on your hub tells you a lot before you even sign in.

Is Sky Broadband down?

Check our Sky status page to see whether other people are reporting problems right now. Then use Sky's own Service Status page, in the help section of sky.com, which shows planned work and known problems where you live. If that looks clear, Sky's Service Checker goes further: you sign in with your Sky iD and it tests your own line and hub. Do both on your phone using mobile data, since your broadband is the thing that's broken. The My Sky app has the same checks.

What the light on your Sky hub means

These are Sky's descriptions for the Sky Max Hub, the white hub with a single light on the front.

• White: the hub is working and connected to the internet. If you still can't get online, the problem is Wi-Fi or the device you're using.
• Amber: the hub is powering up.
• Flashing amber: the hub is authenticating, which means signing in to Sky's network. Sky says this can take a few minutes.
• Slowly flashing green: the hub has been authenticated and is about to connect. If it's still flashing after 5 minutes, Sky says to switch the hub off at the plug socket, switch it back on, and run Service Checker if that doesn't help.
• Flashing green and amber: a software update is running. Sky says it usually takes about 15 minutes. Don't turn the hub off while it's doing this.
• Red, or no light: neither is part of the start-up sequence Sky describes. Check the power lead and cables, restart the hub once, then run Service Checker.

On the older black Sky Broadband Hub, look at the Internet light. Flashing amber means the hub is trying to connect, which is normal just after a restart. If it flashes amber for more than 5 minutes, Sky's advice is to sign in to Service Checker.

Fixes to try

1. Restart the hub. Switch it off at the plug socket, wait 30 seconds and switch it back on. Give it a few minutes: the light should go through amber and green and finish on white.
2. Check the cables. The broadband cable should be pushed firmly into the hub and into the wall socket, or into the Openreach fibre box if you have full fibre.
3. Plug a device in with an Ethernet cable. If a wired laptop gets online, your line is fine and the problem is Wi-Fi.
4. Restart the device you're using, or forget the Wi-Fi network on it and join again.
5. On a phone-line connection, try the test socket. Many Openreach master sockets have a lower faceplate that comes off to reveal a test socket. Plug the hub in there. If broadband works, the fault is in your home's extension wiring.
6. Run Service Checker. Sky says that if the tests find a fault, it will show you how to fix it. If they don't solve it, report the fault to Sky through the contact options in its help pages or the My Sky app, and keep a note of the date and time you reported it.

Don't hold in the reset button on the hub unless Sky tells you to. A reset wipes any settings you've changed, such as a custom Wi-Fi name and password, and it won't fix a line fault.

Line faults and Openreach

Most Sky Broadband connections are delivered over Openreach's network, the same lines BT and many other providers use. That's why an area fault often hits customers of several providers at once. Openreach doesn't take fault reports from the public: you report to Sky, and Sky books the Openreach engineer if one is needed. If you have full fibre, look at the small Openreach box on the wall. A red light marked LOS means the fibre signal isn't reaching your home, which only an engineer can fix. Tell Sky what you see.

Work out whether it's the network, the line or your home

1. Look at the hub light. White means the hub is online, so look at Wi-Fi and devices. Anything else that lasts more than a few minutes points to the line or the network.
2. Ask a neighbour who uses Sky, BT or another Openreach provider. If they're offline too, it's an area fault and nothing in your house will fix it.
3. Compare wired and wireless. A wired device that works while Wi-Fi doesn't tells you the hub's connection is fine.
4. Check one device against another. If only one phone or laptop is affected, the problem is that device.

Compensation if it isn't fixed

Sky is signed up to the automatic compensation scheme overseen by Ofcom. Sky's current terms say that once you've told it your broadband or Sky Talk has stopped working completely, it has two full working days to fix it. After that it pays £10.34 for each day until the service is back. A missed engineer visit, or one changed with less than 24 hours' notice, pays £32.31. If a new service isn't switched on by the confirmed date, Sky pays £6.46 for each day it's late. Sky says the money is added to your account as a credit within 30 days of the fix, without you having to claim.

The clock only starts when you report the fault, so report it even if you think Sky already knows. Sky also lists what doesn't count: slow speeds, a connection that drops in and out, being able to get online on some devices but not others, and faults with the hub or wiring inside your home.

If it keeps dropping

A connection that cuts out several times a day usually isn't an outage. Keep the hub in the open, off the floor and away from cordless phones, baby monitors and other electronics. Note the times it drops, and whether the hub light changes when it does. If the light stays white while a device loses its connection, the fault is Wi-Fi coverage in that room. If the light changes colour, the line is dropping, and Service Checker's line test is the next step.

Related fix guides

• Wi-Fi connected but no internet: how to fix it
• BT broadband not working: how to check for outages and fix it
• Virgin Media broadband not working: how to check and fix it
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