I have a SKY hub and currently i am getting the occasional drop out and subsequent lock out of various wifi devices. A quick reset of the box, or a power cycle, clears the problem but it's becoming a chore. I suspect part of the problem is I have a minimum of 11 devices connected at any time and occasionally go up to around 18. I am guessing the SKY hub is not really up to the job? The thing about the SKY hub though, is it's pretty much locked down and as someone who doesn't work in IT don't really want to screw with any of it's settings other than to change channel and passwords (if you can guess my level from that). 

 

So I wondered if a simple and effective solution would be to get a second more advanced router and simply bolt it on? The SKY hub could look after my SKY box and everything else could be linked to the new router. Something like the LINKSYS WRT1900ACS caught my eye. Multiple channels and bands sounds like something that might help and it's in my budget.

 

Any thoughts on specific gear or especially an overview of the idea would be much appreciated

 

Ta 

Doesn't need to be a router.

 

You need a wifi access point which you could then connect to the sky box with a Cat5.

 

You might want to split your devices across the two wifi points. You might well be maxing out what can be done on the available channels. Either that or buy some enterprise kit that can cope with the number of concurrent connections you need.

 

Do you have a friendly network geek at work? They should be able to keep you right.

 

Or use some powerline networking kit and get some of your devices off wifi and connecting through the cat5 network points.

I upgraded my router 2 weeks ago like you the sky one kept dropping the wifi signal, 

 

I ended up buying this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01132GCP0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Once you have your user name and password the setup is easy here is a how to ....

 

http://taupila.co.uk/blog/2016/04/17/replace-sky-router/

 

If you do buy that router it already comes with the sky firmware upgrade in it. 

Doesn't need to be a router.

 

You need a wifi access point which you could then connect to the sky box with a Cat5.

 

You might want to split your devices across the two wifi points. You might well be maxing out what can be done on the available channels. Either that or buy some enterprise kit that can cope with the number of concurrent connections you need.

 

Do you have a friendly network geek at work? They should be able to keep you right.

 

Or use some powerline networking kit and get some of your devices off wifi and connecting through the cat5 network points.

I think I am maxing out whats available, but like the idea of a better performing router too, hence the idea of coupling up a powerful router for most applications and leaving the SKY hub just to do SKY stuff. I have tried various powerline things before and had partial success, but really I want a 'do it once, do it right' stylee thing. Hard wiring isn't really an option for most things (already have a SKY extender box coupled to a Gbit switcher for AV stuff). 

I upgraded my router 2 weeks ago like you the sky one kept dropping the wifi signal, 

 

I ended up buying this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01132GCP0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Once you have your user name and password the setup is easy here is a how to ....

 

http://taupila.co.uk/blog/2016/04/17/replace-sky-router/

 

If you do buy that router it already comes with the sky firmware upgrade in it. 

Looks fiddly, but the instructions are pretty comprehensive  

If you haven't checked channel congestion, download a mobile app called WiFi analyser.

Worth checking especially if you have a lot of BT customers around you

I have thanks. Moved to a quieter channel thanks to a glut of BT and Virgin routers in my area hogging a few channels  :( Smart phones are so......smart!

Ok, so I have bought a Netgear thingie called a Nighthawk, whatever that is. Anyhoo, it has lots of lights and flappy paddles (ariels I think) and is super whizzy. I've shared the load of all my devices across my SKY hub and the 2.4 and 5ghz Nighthawk frequencies. So far - no dropouts and stuff connected to the 5G flavour move along very swiftly. Pages load very quickly and a speed test shows that downstairs (router upstairs) I get 37-38mbs as opposed to the directly connected PC that is attached to my 'master' SKY router which gets around 38-39mbs at the time of testing. I moved the 5ghz channel after downloading the very helpful Netgear Genie app and it telling me the best 5mhz channel to aim for. The 2.4 frequency sorts itself out and found a nice quiet backwater of a channel to run on.

 

So far all tickety boo  

When I got my Nighthawk to replace the Virgin SuperHub it was a night/day change. So much better and much more reliable signal. Not been keen on Netgear stuff in the past but quite impressed with it even if I do think I should have bought the ASUS in hindsight.

When I got my Nighthawk to replace the Virgin SuperHub it was a night/day change. So much better and much more reliable signal. Not been keen on Netgear stuff in the past but quite impressed with it even if I do think I should have bought the ASUS in hindsight.

I read about the Asus too, but to be honest I figured they were both probably more than I needed so went for the Netgear as I have used their extenders and such like before, so I felt happier with their interface wizard.  Much quicker than the sky hub. I've just done a speed test and can connect 3 laptops, 2 phones and stream 1080p to the telly and still get just under 30mbs on one of the lappies. My SKY hub would have melted by now. 

Which sky hub do you have?

I ask ask I don't have sky q, but do have a q router and it's much more stable than the old one on the WiFi front.

it's the latest HD hub, not the Q one. When I bought my new additional router, the salesman identified which router the SKY one is based on. Can't remember which manufacturer he said, but it ended in 300. 

I had the new HD one and like you thought it was garbage. I was almost ready to put a draytek in it's place.

Aren't most of the HD hubs sagem? Pretty sure that's what mine is

Aren't most of the HD hubs sagem? Pretty sure that's what mine is

It may well be, but I was standing in the middle of lots of shiny things (mostly kettles) and was distracted from the words the salesman's mouth made. I'm pretty sure he said it ended in a "300" though

Edited 24 October, 20169 yr by Lady Elanore

So as i am suffering from a spot of insomnia at the moment, I thought I would have a fiddle and read on my new router. I was interested in the Beamforming capability. If I have read correctly, then 'ac' spec wifi devices are needed to support Beamforming, but not all do. So I had a look at my device and it appears I have a couple of laptops with the  Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 WLAN module, which in turn-as far as I can make out-does support Beamforming. 

 

​Beamforming is the ability for a router to locate your wifi device's actual postilion and 'target' it with a more focused wifi beam. This should provide a stronger and potentially faster data transfer. If your device doesn't support Beamforming then you are out of luck, except Netgear offer Beamforming+ which although seems pretty vague in it's description, would appear that if you have an 'ac' spec device that doesn't support Beamforming, it shouldn't matter as the Netgear can help to focus the RF. Not sure about how reliable this is, but it sounds a little plausible, but I'd be surprised if the effect was more than a few dbs improvement at best. Anyone know anything about the technology? 

 

My Dell XPS lappy showed a medium strength signal upon switch-on (Netgear 5G channel) but once connected to it, the signal showed as being significantly stronger. Perhaps it does work. 

 

 

I found this on the interweb

 

Netgear's Beamforming+

As mentioned earlier, beamforming support is an optional element of the 802.11ac standard, and any vendor offering it must support a specific technique. But the vendor can also offer other types of beamforming in addition to that standard technique.

Netgear’s Beamforming+ is a superset of the beamforming technique defined in the 802.11ac standard, so it’s interoperable with any other 802.11ac device that also supports beamforming. But Beamforming+ does not require the client device to support beamforming, so you could see range and throughput improvements by pairing one of Netgear’s routers (specifically, Netgear’s model R6300, R6200, and R6250) with any5GHz Wi-Fi device (Netgear’s R7000 Nighthawk router also supports beamforming on its 2.4GHz network).

Edited 25 October, 20169 yr by Lady Elanore

A bit late to the party but

[edit]

The longer I use this the more impressed I am.

Edited 25 October, 20169 yr by john999boy
Link removed.

Thats a weird link on my pooter?!!!! It goes to a thread called 'Wifi woes' for about 1 second and then redirects to a car speaker thread????? Odd

 

Beam focusing isn't going to give dramatic improvements, but offers a slight improvement on speed and stability. I reckon it's probably no more than 3db, but there again, 3db is more than it sounds 5G does make a difference though. In theory it has shorter range as higher frequencies find it harder to penetrate things like walls (EE use a higher frequency for it's 4G network and the building penetration is rubbish), but even more in it's favour is the fact it's still a relatively unpopulated frequency range. Cleaner RF space more than compensates for the slightly inferior penetration of the RF, at least imho. Certainly when Radio mics went to the higher UHF band, we noticed that although the penetration through walls etc was not quite as good, the clean airspace was fantastic and radio mics suddenly became reliable and a thing that anyone could use. That's not quite the case nowadays though, as the UHF band is getting pretty full now :(

Edited 25 October, 20169 yr by Lady Elanore

So this morning I am streaming audio from a laptop via my TV to my Av receiver, surfing the web, transferring photos from a second laptop to a drive plugged into the new router as well as downloading a movie onto a tablet, all simultaneously (11 wifi connections on the 5G side of the router at present) and so far nothing has dropped out. Seems to be a teeny bit better than my SKY hub's Wifi  

That's a weird link on my pooter?!!!! It goes to a thread called 'Wifi woes' for about 1 second and then redirects to a car speaker thread????? Odd

 

I think the link should have led to this thread.

I think the link should have led to this thread.

 

 

I did wonder if my new wonder router was playing up :D 

I used to have the black SR102 sky router. They are well aware how poor they are. They paid for me to buy my access point to hang off it.

Subsequently got them to send out a Q router once they were released.

I think the link should have led to this thread.

It did when I tested it in preview !!

Ok, so I have bought a Netgear thingie called a Nighthawk, whatever that is. Anyhoo, it has lots of lights and flappy paddles (ariels I think) and is super whizzy. I've shared the load of all my devices across my SKY hub and the 2.4 and 5ghz Nighthawk frequencies. So far - no dropouts and stuff connected to the 5G flavour move along very swiftly. Pages load very quickly and a speed test shows that downstairs (router upstairs) I get 37-38mbs as opposed to the directly connected PC that is attached to my 'master' SKY router which gets around 38-39mbs at the time of testing. I moved the 5ghz channel after downloading the very helpful Netgear Genie app and it telling me the best 5mhz channel to aim for. The 2.4 frequency sorts itself out and found a nice quiet backwater of a channel to run on.

 

So far all tickety boo

 

This?

 

 

J.

I think someone has too much time on their hands :p