New wireless access point or new router?

Hello all! I have Sky Fibre Max and am connected to a Huawei cabinet. I sync at 72mbps down and 15mbps up.

I am currently using the Sky SR102 router which is connected to another SR102 router across the house via cat5e and all works as it should. I would like to use the Sky Q hub Sky kindly sent to me, but it won't play nice with the SR102 meaning I can't have WiFi across the house.

I looked at wireless access points on Amazon and they are around £60 - £80 for ones with 4/5 ethernet ports (I connect the second SR102 to my Sky box, nvidia Shield TV, Blu-Ray player so the four ports on the hub are handy).

It occurred to me that I could keep the SR102 and just do that but I would like the benefit of ac wireless so I was thinking of buying a 3rd party router to use as an access point, or to use as the main router and use the Sky Q hub (and an unmanaged switch) as the wireless access point, but don't know where to start really.

I would like to maybe squeeze a bit more out of my line if possible and also have more in depth stats (attainable rates and the like).

Can anyone advise?

Many thanks,

Giggsy

No idea who the Sky Q hub will behave in an access point mode, theory says doing the usual tricks mean it should work, but the Sky Q device is a bit of a mish mash and expects things a certain way. Some reports suggest the Sky Q may not always play so nicely in terms of speed with the VDSL2 but can only know for sure if you try it.

If buying a router to use as an access point, hunt out one that has a specific access point mode.

Thanks Mr Saffron. Something just jumped into my head - I don't think the Sky Q hub has an access mode, which means I would have to either have it as the primary router and buy a wireless access point with ethernet ports built in, or abandon it all together, buy a router better than the Q hub and use the SR102 as an access point (albeit with slower WiFi). Do you (or anyone else) have a recommendation for a router that will provide better WiFi and more stats details (Inc max attainable line rate, etc.) that I could connect the SR102 to? Thanks.

Tp link routers such as the VR900v3 or VR2800 work very well on sky and are far better than the sky stock router for Wi-Fi. They are very easy to setup on sky as they already have DHCP Option 60/61 hard coded into their settings provided you select ‘Sky MER VDSL’ as the isp in the router settings. If you can afford it, go for the VR2800

Thanks baby_frogmella - shall check them both out and let you know how I get on!

Drop Sky a call, they can issue a Sky Q booster. They are pretty decent at picking up a weak signal and maintaining speeds and use 5GHz.

I had one in a spot my laptop would not even pick-up the WiFi network and got 25Mbps consistently, placed where my laptop got a weak-ish signal I got full speeds.

This way you get to maintain the mesh etc

Typically, the sky Q devices do not work well as APs due to IPv6 configuration, you end up with an IPv6 address on the "AP" and ipv4 only devices work, the others just do nothing.

You can have multiple Sky Q boosters, I've used 3 at once. It is how Sky connect the TVs for multi-room now when they cannot pickup the main router, they are good for 4K streaming etc which Sky Q TV supports.

Some info here https://www.sky.com/help/articles/connecting-a-sky-q...

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 08-Apr-19 20:01:46)

ukhardy07 - thanks for that. Do you know if the booster can be connected via ethernet to my existing router? Does it also have ethernet ports on the booster to connect to other equipment?

Wireless but it should handle your speeds just fine.
One Ethernet port, you can connect a cheap switch as required.

There is the option to enable powerline, but I’ve never needed it and it can cause line instability as can all powerline. The idea of the boosters is you get a high enough density of them that the signals good all over. I

Some detail: https://www.maravedis-bwa.com/2016/01/28/airties-can...

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 08-Apr-19 20:38:35)

Great stuff ukhardy07 - thanks for your input. Shall check that out. I only have Sky+HD as opposed to Sky Q (Sky sent me the Q router as they said my SR102 was outdated and no longer supported when I was having broadband problems). Do you think it would still work?

The sky q WiFi boosters work fine without TV.

You can have like 4+ if you fancy

Just call and say the range is much worse than the old router and you would like a booster. Ask for retentions if the price is high.