With my 18 month contract finally up, I made the move to o2 (now Sky) from Orange. I'm going to catalogue the progress for the benefit of others.
Monday, March 30th 2009:
20:35 - Phoned Orange on 0844 973 8586 and went through the menu to get through to the "transfers dept" as I'll call it. I politely requested a MAC and was asked why I wished to move. I just said I wanted to bundle all my phone costs together. I was then told I could get 6 months free. "No thank you", I said. There was no persuasion tactic or repeating of the offer, so I didn't feel pressured.
I was asked for my landline number and 2 of the letters from my password (I didn't need my Orange account number which I'd had ready too). I then had the option of the MAC being emailed or sent by post.
20:40 - A short time on hold (maybe 60 seconds or so) and it was all confirmed with a thank you for calling.
Onto the o2 (now Sky) site and filling out personal details and landline number, along with selecting a username. I already have an o2 (now Sky) username (for my mobile) but it wouldn't be suitable for be used as my email address, so I chose a new one and a password. When you enter your o2 (now Sky) mobile number, a code is sent by text within seconds. Enter that into the form and you can proceed.
There is an option where the MAC is concerned. If you have it already, simply type it in. If, like me, you've only just requested it, there is an option to say you don't yet have it. I selected option 2 of course. o2 (now Sky) will contact you if the MAC is necessary.
Page 2 concerns your basic bank details so no problems in filling that out.
Page 3 confirms your expected download speed (7Meg for me hopefully, which is very nearly twice what I get now), and the price - £7.34 as I'm an o2 (now Sky) mobile customer, with the first month free as I've applied before the end of March. Nice! You also have the option to change anything (e.g. incorrect details or to pay extra for a fixed IP address if applicable).
Page 4 confirms acceptance of your order and gives you an order reference.
And that's it. (You will also get 2 texts - one each to confirm your username and your password).
1: Thanks for my order and again a confirmation of expected speed which BT have supplied them, as well as the URL to check my order status.
2: Confirmation my Direct Debit is being set up, and the URL to see that.
3: As expected, a request for my MAC key (and another URL).
On checking my Orange emails, there was the MAC
Minor issue: I'd asked for it to be sent to my Hotmail address (as it's more reliable than Orange!) - which the guy at Orange had repeated carefully down the phone. Still, it got to me fine so no real problem.
A bigger issue was being unable to get past logging into my new o2 (now Sky) account using Firefox I made sure to allow any cookies which were fully blocked or session only but that made no difference. I finally had to use Internet Exploder (intentional typo there!) and all was well with that. Once I'd typed in the MAC, it was accepted.
Strangely, if I pasted the URL of that status page into Firefox whilst signed out, I was taken to the sign in page and then onto the correct page from there. I'm not sure if it's a Firefox incompatibility issue (shame on o2 (now Sky) if it is) or an issue with my security/privacy settings. Any ideas?
So, I currently have up to 2 weeks to wait for my o2 (now Sky) service to start, and 4 weeks of Orange to go, meaning I have what should be a comfortable overlap if there is a slight delay down the line.
Very soon you'll be enjoying o2 (now Sky) Home Broadband. So we thought we'd let you know the latest update.
Your landline (xxxxxxxxx) should be activated (Your Predicted Delivery Date) on 08/04/09, so we'll be sending out your o2 (now Sky) Home Broadband pack to the delivery address you chose (this is on your Order Confirmation email) so it arrives just in time for then.
A text confirmed the wireless box should be here on the 6th, so all looking like progressing in a week rather than a fortnight.
My status page now shows the wireless box has been dispatched so I may even get it in less than a week (although I'll still have to wait for activation of the account).
The first (at 7am!) to say my router (aka wireless box) will be delivered today by 6pm. But there is also the option to have it delivered up to the 6th, merely by texting back a single digit (1=2nd Apr, 2=3rd etc). I stick with today.
2 hours later, another text to confirm it's on its way.
At least I should have plenty time to get used to it before going live.
At least I should have plenty time to get used to it before going live.
Believe me.........it's plug and go......totally opposite to the Livebox.
Well, it arrived at 4:20pm.
And I couldn't resist hooking it up to my laptop to check it out (unconnected to the phone line of course, just in case any settings were messed up by doing so - especially as that would be pointless).
Looks like nice simple configuration pages so far. Thumbs up!
I'll kind of miss the Livebox's quirky look in a strange way but it's nice to see the Wirless Box II is wall-mountable - a handy way to keep it safe from harm.
With all the texts o2 (now Sky) have sent me, I actually missed the fact they expect to have the migration completed by this Wednesday, the 8th so that would be just hours over 8 days from phoning Orange to being connected. So far, so good.
Still very frustrated though that the o2 (now Sky) site doesn't work properly with Firefox.
Leave your current router connected but have your o2 (now Sky) router ready alongside. Soon as the current one disconnects, plug in the o2 (now Sky) and watch .......within a few minutes
_________________ An ex-Orange guinea pig
"The first third of our lives is ruined by our parents, the second third by 0range then along comes 02 and you die happy."
Leave your current router connected but have your <a href="http://postpaymobiles.at/theside?CTY=1&CID=6761" target="o2 (now Sky)">o2 (now Sky)</a> router ready alongside. Soon as the current one disconnects, plug in the <a href="http://postpaymobiles.at/theside?CTY=1&CID=6761" target="o2 (now Sky)">o2 (now Sky)</a> and watch .......within a few minutes
I'm getting quite excited at the anticipation! I don't know why, because I'm about to start with what I reckon must be my at least my 8th ISP (3rd broadband) - but then I always get a kick out of a new piece of tech arriving at my door!
From what I've read, I'm best ignoring the set-up CD, right? I must admit, I used the Orange one originally, but when I needed to wipe and re-install my PCs, I didn't use it a second time. From what I can see, the Network Assistant will be just another bit of bloatware taking up resources until it's "needed" and if I can configure the Livebox, the o2 (now Sky) should (by your reckoning) be a dawdle.
Received a phone call before 9am to say I was up and running.
I now have the router plugged in with all lights on. I haven't bothered with the setup CD so I'm slowly going through all the pages in the router's admin. A fair bit to take in but then the Livebox was like that at first.
So far, I've just tested the connection in the master socket and I'm getting the following:
I'm hoping that proves to be stable as it's better than the 2900kb/s I've been used to, if not quite the 7000kb/s "predicted" by o2 (now Sky).
Next will be to test it in the extension where I had the Livebox plugged in.
Well, for the most part, everything has gone well today but there are issues...
1) Unable to get my laptop to access the internet via wireless. It can see the other computers on the network which are connected via ethernet). I've played around with various encryption methods to no avail (although I've not been too methodical in my approach there!) [Laptop works fine via ethernet and the wireless was fine on Orange].
2) An emailing issue. Sending & receiving o2 (now Sky) emails is no problem. Unable to use smtp.o2 (now Sky).co.uk for other email accounts, I used relay.o2broadband.co.uk successfully for those (bizarrely changing those back to smtp brings up "Relaying not allowed - please use SMTP AUTH"!). Anyway, if sending from a non-o2 (now Sky) account to 2 or more (non-o2 (now Sky)), I get the same error message when it worked fine to one address only.
3) I'm concerned that my laptop discovers two wireless networks, one namedO2wireless****** and the other P2wireless****** (the *s are digits, identical to both). The first I can connect to (security-enabled) but the second is unsecured and inaccessible. What is this connection and is there a risk in it being visible? If so, can I either hide it or "delete" it?
FYI, my laptop is a Sony Vaio VGN-S31S/W and it's ethernet adapter is LAN-Express AS IEEE 802.11g PCI-E.
I know how to get into the super user section of the router and I've downloaded the Thomson manual from
I thought I'd try here before I wade into the o2 (now Sky) fora/forums, official or otherwise.here
Thanks for the links (a couple of which I already had in mind). As I said, I was asking here before heading out to the other options.
Anyway, no "goodbye" from me as I'll be sticking around OrangeProblems - it's been helpful to me and I've made a few useful contributions myself with hopefully more to come from me if I can be of assistance to others. I'll see if this thread may now be best moved to "Tell us about other ISPs".
Incidentally, I've contacted admin to look into the Speed Survey as I can't change my details of my profile for that. As soon as I enter my phone number in the exchange search it says it can't find it. As the remit of the survey was to compare other ISPs as well as Orange, I'd like to keep recording them on this site. I wonder if others have had that issue...?
Thanks again for your help up to this point nhyder.
Joined: 13 Aug 2006Posts: 1689Location: Marylebone Central London
Hi viao,
Can you explain how you have configured your non o2 (now Sky) email accounts, and who the accounts are with ie:Orange.
If its Orange i assume you have configured Orange pop servers for incoming and o2 (now Sky) smtp servers for outgoing?.
_________________ ex Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange Blog
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I made sure to allow any cookies which were fully blocked or session only but that made no difference. I finally had to use Internet Exploder (intentional typo there!) and all was well with that. Once I'd typed in the 
But there is also the option to have it delivered up to the 6th, merely by texting back a single digit (1=2nd Apr, 2=3rd etc). I stick with today.
.......within a few minutes 
I don't know why, because I'm about to start with what I reckon must be my at least my 8th ISP (3rd broadband) - but then I always get a kick out of a new piece of tech arriving at my door! 
