(Sigh) Sky Q network - using mesh boosters?
Discussion
I've searched. My goodness I've searched. I've even spoken with Sky and had engineers visits in the past. Useless!
We have a peculiar Sky Q issue where, whenever we use the one mini box attached to the other TV in the house we run into a series of problems, including:
1. Mini box not connected to the main Q box. Go through saga of trying to connect. 9/10 times it won't (I get messages about DHCP - no idea what that means - and IP addresses and no network etc.)
2. Mini box does connect (yay!) to main Q box. Q box connectivity to broadband router falls over moments later. Whole lot then falls over.
I get annoyed and fight with them (latest move to ensure the router's 5Ghz is on a different channel and disabling the mini's 2.4Ghz wifi) then, because the other TV is rarely used, I calm down and just get the main box up and running and ignore the fact I'm paying for a pretty pointless product.
We have FTTP into a BT smart hub 2 router. The Sky Q main box is connected to this over wifi - these devices are in separate rooms, around 3 metres apart with a lightweight concrete block wall in between (60s house). The mini box is in a room upstairs directly above the router - less than 3 metres in a straight line. The distance between main and mini boxes is no more than 4 metres.
Using wifi boosters?
The internet is littered with people pissed off at the flakiness of Sky Q connections over wifi. It seems to me that ethernet is the answer. However, before I start drilling holes in walls, I was thinking whether a couple of BT wifi boosters/access points sited next to each of the main and mini boxes and then connected to each of them with ethernet might not be a bad way of solving the problem without too much domestic disruption.
Before I go and find a Black Friday deal, does this make logical sense? I am (as you can tell) no networking expert, but it seems to me that this isn't awfully different from ethernet cables from each box being run back to the router (directly or via a switch).
Am I making sense or am I barking wildly up the wrong tree..?!!
Thanks!
We have a peculiar Sky Q issue where, whenever we use the one mini box attached to the other TV in the house we run into a series of problems, including:
1. Mini box not connected to the main Q box. Go through saga of trying to connect. 9/10 times it won't (I get messages about DHCP - no idea what that means - and IP addresses and no network etc.)
2. Mini box does connect (yay!) to main Q box. Q box connectivity to broadband router falls over moments later. Whole lot then falls over.
I get annoyed and fight with them (latest move to ensure the router's 5Ghz is on a different channel and disabling the mini's 2.4Ghz wifi) then, because the other TV is rarely used, I calm down and just get the main box up and running and ignore the fact I'm paying for a pretty pointless product.
We have FTTP into a BT smart hub 2 router. The Sky Q main box is connected to this over wifi - these devices are in separate rooms, around 3 metres apart with a lightweight concrete block wall in between (60s house). The mini box is in a room upstairs directly above the router - less than 3 metres in a straight line. The distance between main and mini boxes is no more than 4 metres.
Using wifi boosters?
The internet is littered with people pissed off at the flakiness of Sky Q connections over wifi. It seems to me that ethernet is the answer. However, before I start drilling holes in walls, I was thinking whether a couple of BT wifi boosters/access points sited next to each of the main and mini boxes and then connected to each of them with ethernet might not be a bad way of solving the problem without too much domestic disruption.
Before I go and find a Black Friday deal, does this make logical sense? I am (as you can tell) no networking expert, but it seems to me that this isn't awfully different from ethernet cables from each box being run back to the router (directly or via a switch).
Am I making sense or am I barking wildly up the wrong tree..?!!
Thanks!
I had countless issues with Sky Q Minis and connecting to my main box, Sky supplied me with an extender to help them connect but even that was terrible.
I now have my main Sky Q and 2 Mini Boxes hardwired via powerline ethernet into a £10 switch and then wired to the router (I have turned Wi-Fi off on all my boxes and its been rock solid) the only way I can reliably get them to work.
I also run a BT-Whole home mesh system for my other devices and have zero issue with it.
I now have my main Sky Q and 2 Mini Boxes hardwired via powerline ethernet into a £10 switch and then wired to the router (I have turned Wi-Fi off on all my boxes and its been rock solid) the only way I can reliably get them to work.
I also run a BT-Whole home mesh system for my other devices and have zero issue with it.
Cheers.
So, rather than trying to rely on mesh boosters as the method of getting the connectivity, just go ethernet over powerline?
In which case I probably wouldn't bother with the boosters if it will do what I need over powerline instead (the medium term plan is to extend the ethernet wiring in the house, but that's happening as a job related to some upcoming building work next year).
Cheers.
So, rather than trying to rely on mesh boosters as the method of getting the connectivity, just go ethernet over powerline?
In which case I probably wouldn't bother with the boosters if it will do what I need over powerline instead (the medium term plan is to extend the ethernet wiring in the house, but that's happening as a job related to some upcoming building work next year).
Cheers.
I’d second the powerline suggestion
You’ll need three nodes, one for each sky box and the third to connect to the bt home hub
They should be plugged into the wall socket not into extension leads
I’ve used these to extend a wired network, successfully myself (not with sky, I don’t have it)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerline-Starter-Homeplu...
& buy a additional single.
You’ll need three nodes, one for each sky box and the third to connect to the bt home hub
They should be plugged into the wall socket not into extension leads
I’ve used these to extend a wired network, successfully myself (not with sky, I don’t have it)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerline-Starter-Homeplu...
& buy a additional single.
I had nothing but issues with my mini box losing connection to the main box constantly. Even with a booster wifi extender it constantly lost connection and Id be rebooting on a daily basis.
Things marginally improved with power line extenders however I eventually gave up and hard wired a cat 5 cable between my main sky box and my internet router/switch. With that main box connection now hard wired the mini box still connects via wifi but as it is within 5 metres of the router that connection is pretty stable.
I still occasionally have to restart both boxes to resync but the system is now reliable enough not to make me want to cancel.
I guess this system probably works well if you live in a small modern flat with paper thin walls however anyone with an older house with a bigger footprint is going to struggle.
Things marginally improved with power line extenders however I eventually gave up and hard wired a cat 5 cable between my main sky box and my internet router/switch. With that main box connection now hard wired the mini box still connects via wifi but as it is within 5 metres of the router that connection is pretty stable.
I still occasionally have to restart both boxes to resync but the system is now reliable enough not to make me want to cancel.
I guess this system probably works well if you live in a small modern flat with paper thin walls however anyone with an older house with a bigger footprint is going to struggle.
We had a nightmare with the BT broadband and Sky Q combination for years. Do you live in a small house or a large house?
The problem is you have two completely separate wireless networks. The Sky equipment won't talk to anything else. So you have to get get BT wi-fi from your hub to the main Sky box (using a separate booster if necessary, not a Sky one) and then Sky wi-fi from the main box to the minis. It's a shambles.
We've just switched the BT broadband over to Sky so now everything is with Sky.
I think the issue arises because Sky don't want multiple families in blocks of flats sharing one Sky Q system. So they,
The problem is you have two completely separate wireless networks. The Sky equipment won't talk to anything else. So you have to get get BT wi-fi from your hub to the main Sky box (using a separate booster if necessary, not a Sky one) and then Sky wi-fi from the main box to the minis. It's a shambles.
We've just switched the BT broadband over to Sky so now everything is with Sky.
- Mesh wi-fi working properly
- Huge cost saving (around £50 a month saving for 2 year contract).
I think the issue arises because Sky don't want multiple families in blocks of flats sharing one Sky Q system. So they,
- Don't allow more than three TVs in use at the same time
- Keep their wireless range pretty short (which obviously doesn't matter to customers IF they have a Sky mesh)
- Prevent their wi-fi from interacting with other systems.
Captain_Morgan said:
I’d second the powerline suggestion
You’ll need three nodes, one for each sky box and the third to connect to the bt home hub
They should be plugged into the wall socket not into extension leads
I’ve used these to extend a wired network, successfully myself (not with sky, I don’t have it)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerline-Starter-Homeplu...
& buy a additional single.
I’ve got 3 of these, they provide an Ethernet connection from my network switch in the lounge to my garage and conservatory. You’ll need three nodes, one for each sky box and the third to connect to the bt home hub
They should be plugged into the wall socket not into extension leads
I’ve used these to extend a wired network, successfully myself (not with sky, I don’t have it)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerline-Starter-Homeplu...
& buy a additional single.
My cctv dvr plugs into one unit in the garage and I’m then able to stream 4k 30fps video to my phone no problem at all.
I’d say these units must be at least 3 years old and I can’t remember the last time I had to reboot/reconnect them, they are rock solid.
They even work across circuits that are on separate consumer units, god knows how.
Yes, cabling the BT link should make your the Sky TV work properly. However, you may still need to separately boost the BT wi-fi if you want to use it all round the house.
One of the catches with having two wi-fi systems running alongside is they tend to fight/argue/interfere with each other.
One of the catches with having two wi-fi systems running alongside is they tend to fight/argue/interfere with each other.
Bobajobbob said:
I had nothing but issues with my mini box losing connection to the main box constantly. Even with a booster wifi extender it constantly lost connection and Id be rebooting on a daily basis.
Things marginally improved with power line extenders however I eventually gave up and hard wired a cat 5 cable between my main sky box and my internet router/switch. With that main box connection now hard wired the mini box still connects via wifi but as it is within 5 metres of the router that connection is pretty stable.
I still occasionally have to restart both boxes to resync but the system is now reliable enough not to make me want to cancel.
I guess this system probably works well if you live in a small modern flat with paper thin walls however anyone with an older house with a bigger footprint is going to struggle.
100%. We live in reasonably big old stone cottage that has been highly insulated with those big thick aluminium foil boards. Consequently we get really poor wifi in the house and had a huge amount of issues connecting our Sky Q box to the mini and back again, we have full Sky kit, router etc. I pretty much pulled my hair out with this and it would seem to go down on a semi-permanent basis and one box, the other or sometimes both would go down and literally nothing I could do would get it going again. I've spent hours of my life on hold to sky, rebooting boxes or running around to unplug/plug in routers. It would suddenly just pair up and start working again of it's own accord which was also immensely frustrating as I think Sky thought we were making it up. In the end we had another Sky router installed to bounce signal between the Sky Q and the Mini box....this fixed 90% of the issues.Things marginally improved with power line extenders however I eventually gave up and hard wired a cat 5 cable between my main sky box and my internet router/switch. With that main box connection now hard wired the mini box still connects via wifi but as it is within 5 metres of the router that connection is pretty stable.
I still occasionally have to restart both boxes to resync but the system is now reliable enough not to make me want to cancel.
I guess this system probably works well if you live in a small modern flat with paper thin walls however anyone with an older house with a bigger footprint is going to struggle.
What seems to have fixed it permanently (furiously touches wood) is we had a load of major internet outages and Sky got a very keen BT Openreach engineer in to fix it as it was outside the house where the fault lay. We had a guy here for about 2 days and he found water in the internet cable so had to replace that, sort of fixed it and then found there was a major issue with the junction box...replaced a load of switches and since then it has been fine. So I don't know how stable your system is but that was the root cause of ours.
Cheers guys.
I'm going to give the powerlines a go as the first effort here. Frankly I'm prepared to spend a little to see if I can shift this issue along.
I do have some ethernet in the house from a long time ago and (after finally making use of it during lockdown) understand the basics, but foolishly when having the previous building work done I didn't have more installed in the rooms where the TVs now are (or where TVs/other network attached devices may go in the future).
So, before I go for a more permanent solution, I'll give this a try. Start pack of two powerlines plus a third to connect to the router makes complete sense.
Thanks all...!
(And if I still doesn't work I'll post the whole lot to Sky to dispose of under the WEEE regs.)
I'm going to give the powerlines a go as the first effort here. Frankly I'm prepared to spend a little to see if I can shift this issue along.
I do have some ethernet in the house from a long time ago and (after finally making use of it during lockdown) understand the basics, but foolishly when having the previous building work done I didn't have more installed in the rooms where the TVs now are (or where TVs/other network attached devices may go in the future).
So, before I go for a more permanent solution, I'll give this a try. Start pack of two powerlines plus a third to connect to the router makes complete sense.
Thanks all...!
(And if I still doesn't work I'll post the whole lot to Sky to dispose of under the WEEE regs.)
We had never ending problems about this but finally found solution with:
Virgin Hub is used for Sky Q and there’s a Sky Booster on the middle floor for the Sky Q boxes.
TP Link mesh work is what all over devices are connected too.
Got through to Sky in Newcastle, explained the problem, very helpful engineer came out the next day and sorted it all for us.
Been absolutely fine since.
Virgin Hub is used for Sky Q and there’s a Sky Booster on the middle floor for the Sky Q boxes.
TP Link mesh work is what all over devices are connected too.
Got through to Sky in Newcastle, explained the problem, very helpful engineer came out the next day and sorted it all for us.
Been absolutely fine since.
I bought an Orbi Mesh set up and Sky Q didn't like it at all. The main box was fine but the minibox wouldn't connect (I had no issues with my previous BT Disc Mesh system). I had the Sky Q connected by ethernet into the main Orbi satellite (which is connected to my Virgin hub) which was the problem. I unplugged it from there and connected to the ethernet port on my Virgin Hub and all issues disappeared. The Orbi just takes care of everything else.
rustyuk said:
Mine goes tits up when you put the microwave on.
That suggests they're connecting over 2.4GHz, so see what you can do to nudge/force then to use 5GHz - be it create separate channel names, moving the router to somewhere the signal propagates better, adding a hard wired extra AP, or buying a mesh system.I went down the Powerline route when I had the same issues as the OP, it has resolved the connection issues - however the issue I seem to have now is the Sky q box periodically reverts back to Wifi connection, even if I have selected hard-wired, and even turned off the wifi option in the engineers menu.
Such a crap wifi system on Sky Q, how do they get away with it?
Such a crap wifi system on Sky Q, how do they get away with it?
ukwill said:
Hope they work for you. I had no luck with them when trying to use them on different ring mains.
With Sky I've found there really isn't any substitute for hard-wired ethernet. If their mesh supported non-sky wifi devices none of us would have to deal with this s
t.
If it's not instant success they'll go back and I might spend Christmas drilling walls and climbing round the loft. Or I might phone uo Sky and shout at some poor sod in a contact centre. With Sky I've found there really isn't any substitute for hard-wired ethernet. If their mesh supported non-sky wifi devices none of us would have to deal with this s
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