Technology

Technology Satellite TV and Internet by Stuart Wallace

Hello and welcome to April’s column. I hope this finds you well and fully adjusted to the clocks having gone forward. I always find it amazing how resilient I am to gaining or losing an hour every 6 months. I wouldn’t call it a superpower as such, but it’s certainly something I take great pride in. Maybe you’re the same and I’m not the only one? Anyway, you’re not here to marvel at my powers, you’re here to read about the world of satellite TV and satellite internet. You’re not? You’re only reading this article because you’re waiting for your other half to be ready to go shopping and you’ve read everything else? Oh…#frownyface

I know I say it every month, but Freesat is not the same as Freeview.

Many of you with satellite internet are likely to be using the Tooway service from Viasat. If you are, then no doubt you will have experienced the major service disruption last month. This was a direct result of a cyber-attack which started on the day Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. So, not exactly the fault of the service provider. However, users of the Tooway service will likely have noticed how, er, rubbish it has been over the last 18 months. The Tooway service is becoming obsolete and no new clients have been taken on for nearly 2 years.

So, if you rely on satellite internet but need a decent level of service from it, then I would point you (that’s an installer joke…funny lot aren’t we?) towards Neosat from Nordnet. It uses superior technology and offers average download speeds of around 70Mbps. This is excellent. Uploads are limited to 5Mbps maximum, but is more than sufficient for all but the most demanding users.

You will however need all new equipment. The only reusable component will be the coaxial cable that runs from the satellite dish to the modem. As usual, the kit is designed to be of a DIY nature. However, for those who prefer not to install it themselves, we can do this for you.

All that said, the Neosat service also suffered from disruption following the cyber attack, so nothing is perfect.

Speaking of which, if you do decide to install your own satellite dish, remember that line of sight is key. Dishes cannot receive the signals from the satellite if looking at a wall or trees etc. Or, if they can still receive a signal, it’s likely to be of greatly reduced quality. Also consider that trees will likely grow and get leafier in summer. So, if you get a signal when the tree is bare, you may well lose it when it’s full of growth. Dishes can be mounted up high or down low, as long as they have a clear line of sight, it doesn’t matter.

If you have one of the new(ish) Freesat boxes, not one made by Humax, and you accidentally press one of the streaming service buttons (Netflix, ITV Hub etc) you may notice that your receiver will no longer respond to the numerical keys on the remote control. As detailed above, a simple switch off and unplug should resolve this. Can I use a signal splitter for my satellite cable? The answer is both a guarded yes, but a more forceful, please don’t. The universal LNB on your dish cannot supply all of the channels at any one time. Depending on which channel you pick, the receiver will send a command up the LNB to switch between a quarter of the channels at any one time. So, if you split the signal in the cable to a 2nd unit and that unit isn’t tuned to a channel in the same ‘quarter’, you’ll see the ‘No signal’ message. You might of course get lucky and find the channel you want is within that same ‘quarter’, but it’s not ideal.

This is why it is better to fit a larger output LNB to your dish to allow extra cabling to come from it. This way, the 2nd and any subsequent boxes work completely independently of each other. It’s as if each receiver is connected to its own satellite dish.

As always, please feel free to get in touch if you would like any further information or would like to discuss your requirements. Contact details can be found on the advert. Have a good month.

Stuart runs The French House Satellite TV tfhsatellite@gmail.com Other contact details in his advert in the Buildings & Renovations section of the magazine