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Thinking of buying separate router to plug directly into the Sky one to give better WiFi coverage in the house (house is 18 years old, pretty much all plaster board and stud work but not a WiFi challenge). When we were with TalkTalk ages ago i replaced their router with a netgear one that worked well as both a modem and router for the WiFi. I know Sky dont make it easy to replace their router so so using a third party Wifi devices seems like a plan.
Yea or nay, and if yea any recommendations for a router sub £100?
Just give them a call and they'll send you a booster.
If you're on a certain tariff there is a guaranteed in every room.
I did the same with BT after loads of problems, I’ve had practically trouble free service ever since.
I used a combination of older BT fibre modem (from the days of separate modem
and router for fibre) and an Apple Airport Express.
I have the same issue. Regular drop outs are a real pain. The free boosters you have to pay extra for but they don’t stop the drop outs.
The replacement router I have looked into but I really don’t know what I’m doing with it and the only ones I could find recommended were quite expensive. 🤨
I bought a 2 point Google Nest home WiFi,even with the single point it gives much better coverage than the sky hub. The only minor downside is that there is some technical incompatibility wirh using as the router so I've had to put an ethernet connection between the sky hub and Google Nest hub and run two WiFi networks.
Which router from sky do you have? I complained awhile back and got moved to fibre and sent a new router for £1 less per month...
The new router stands up, where as the older one was a horizontal to the floor affair, seems to have improved coverage across the house, apps no longer hang or take ages to load.
I had similar problems with the free sky router - tbh I think its the same for all "free" routers supplied with a broadband contract as they are the minimum spec to get you up and running. I'm pretty sure it was down to the number of devices connected as its surprising just how many things connect to wifi these days (thermostat, tv, echo dots etc).
I went with a mesh wifi system which is connected to the sky router for broadband access, even though we live in a modest new build where one wifi point could probably cope. The mesh has the advantage of splitting the load between the access points and maintaining strong connections upstairs & downstairs. I went with the Netgear Orbi system which is very easy to setup, but mainly because it was heavily discounted at the time (just lucky timing with Amazon!). The google one is also well regarded for its ease of setup.
I've kept the Sky Wifi enabled purely for the Sky Q boxes as there was some Internet chatter that there's some funky protocols or ports used which means it can be problematic with other Wifi services. If you don't have Sky Q, or you're not comfortable configuring IP routing and DHCP then its probably better to switch off the Sky Wifi and just use you're new wifi only serive, with it hardwired via ethernet cable into the sky router
As sniff said call them... a bit of a b&llache as you have to jump through hoops on their phone system. They initially set us up with an additional wifi id but that didn;t work so they sent through a booster.
The new upright Sky router as mentioned above has doubled the connection speed in all of our rooms and pretty much eliminated blackspots and connection issues we had with the old 'flat' one. I've even ditched the Netgear repeater we had half way round the house.
We got it sent out when renewing contract, there's a speed guarantee and you can (allegedly) cancel the contract if it doesn't improve.
Which router from sky do you have? I complained awhile back and got moved to fibre and sent a new router for £1 less per month…
Got the new stand up router just before lockdown after complaining, it's the slow downs and reduced signal from the router upstairs plus drop outs that are annoying. Normally get around 30 meg but have problems on Teams calls sometime with poor signal and no one else in the house, using a Wifi extender upstairs probably isn't helping.
superlightstu, that's where I'm at, 'free' routers seem to be minimum spec, thinking of turning off the Sky Wifi completely, no SKY Q should should be no issues. Any recommendations on what to buy, is Mesh really the way to go in 4 bed detached with walls made of cardboard?
It sounds like mesh would be a better solution for you
- You've been using a wifi extender, but this just repeats your network traffic to extend range and its effectively doubling the amount of traffic (device > extender plus extender > router) on your finite wifi bandwidth. Mesh uses a separate back-channel between the wifi point and the primary nod in the mesh, meaning there's a second hidden wifi network that doesn't consume your bandwidth.
- If your router is upstairs and you are downstairs, then you can have a mesh node close to you, and all wifi signals degrade as you move further away. Therefore having a wifi point close to the locations you commonly use can only improve things.
For a 4 bed house a two node system should be OK, one on each floor. It is still one of those things that you get what you pay for - if you can spend more you'll generally get higher speeds and more reliable connections. The following article reviews a few systems https://uk.pcmag.com/wireless-networking/87178/the-best-wi-fi-mesh-network-systems