Sky Fibre

[Ian]

Just changed from BT to Sky. SAving £360 a year too much to ignore even though BT very stable service. Was using an old TalkTalk Router H635 and getting full download speed on 52Mb service via wifi.

Great router with Wifi strong signal, kicks the pants out of the Sky Q router. Through Sky Q ethernet I am getting the full 38Mb download but for wifi this is dropping off to around 30Mb even standing 1m away from the router and my galaxy S5 is only getting around 20Mb. Very strange, anyone come across this before?

The signal also tails off a lot quick than the old TT one and I am toying with changing router or just getting a wifi access point.

Could probably pick up a Netgear D6400 which I believe supports MER  that sky use or just go for Google wifi or TP Link WAP like this one

http://www.ebuyer.com/748436-tp-link-ap300-ac1200-wireless-gigabit-access-point-ap300

Interested if anyone has any thoughts?

 

Same name same person

[Dave Rice]

I’m surprised the Sky router is that bad, but it is what it is. However I have found that doing speed checks on Android phones can have very different results than a Windows laptop in exactly the same place so I’m not surprised they are different. It doesn’t seem to be related to signal strength (in db via a proper app, not the number of bars). My own WiFi is business class with regards diagnostics and I can see it from the other end too.

You cannot change the router, you will not find out the credentials even if you have a router that supports MER without serious dicking about. A third party access point is the way I went and makes a lot of sense. You are no longer dependent on your ISP.

I can’t comment on the specific AP you linked to, but TP-Link kit has always served me well. Search for my posts on WiFi and you’ll see what I do and what is involved. It’s not for the faint hearted in a DIY situation, but once it’s done it’s done.

[Ian]

Thanks Dave, I have read your posts on the ubiquiti kit before.

The layout of my house (with rear extension) does not lend itself to ceiling mounting the WAP’s and my wife hates any exposed cables.

In all truth, the Sky Q is not that bad but there is quite a big drop off. My google tablet, seems fastest, followed by laptop then phone, all varying speeds. Just never seen such big differences before. Other than that seems pretty stable and does not drop off peak times, which Virgin has been bad for in my area (over utilisation).

Funny when Talk Talk, a smallish company can provide a better bit of kit than than a big corporate beast like Sky, but there you go……

Will likely suck it up for a bit then look at a separate WAP.

 

 

Same name same person

[Dave Rice]

The TalkTalk router is way better then anything Sky have managed. I’ve looked into what they do with Q and it’s quite crude (you cannot change the channel 5Ghz uses) and there are situations where the mesh just isn’t mesh. But in your average house with a single extra unit it’ll work OK. In your non average house you can’t use a third party network at all to help you out.

In the mesh world, NETGEAR Orbi (bloody expensive), LINKSYS Velop (bloody expensive), BT Whole Home Wi-Fi and Google WiFi (neither are cheap) are better at the mesh bit,  but introduce double NAT i.e. you have a second router in your network now. Fine if everything, including printers, servers, TVs etc. is on that WiFi but murder if they aren’t or you want to do something that involves port forwarding.

[Bob Williams]

I have the Sky Q box and router. I live in a rural area which has very poor broadband: ADSL is never better than 1.5Mbps download. Plusnet FTTC was never better than 6.5 and absolute garbage, dropouts every week, several engineer visits which gave ‘sticking plaster’ solutions. I had initial problems with Sky, beginning with them not providing FTTC, but ADSL. You may imagine what that did for TV and bband. Eventually Sky lost patience with local engineers and sent a smart young guy from up Newcastle way. He replaced the line (as I had asked PN to do, they said unnecessary) and the BT boxes internal and external. I then received 13 to 14 Mbps and, more importantly, a stable service. Recently my Downloads have dropped to 11 Mbps (still stable) and I am recording speeds daily in order to present Sky with evidence. I have speedtests from the start of the service.

Incidentally, my phone has a Link speed of 72Mbps — the Lenovo Tab 3 8″ tablet has 65 Mbps. The phone does not drop any speed at distance, but the tablet does.

I will not take Sky again when my contract is up in October. I have a great TP Link 9980, which I bought when on Plusnet, rather a waste at the time, but using that or another will depend upon the ISP I choose. If the TTalk router is as good as Dave says and their service is better than Sky (not difficult) I will probably go with them. I know Steve sings TT’s praises.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

My TT issues last week turned out to be a 15 yo son issue. The knocked the filer out the master socket and plugged it all in wrong!

O the up side I got 15£pm knocked off my bill, as u was out of contract.

 

It’s not I sing their praise, just, for me at least, they have better customer services that. I both BT and sky had. So I don’t have anything bad against them.not bad as I must of been with them ten years now.

I also go a new “super router” out of my phone call. Though haven’t opened it, and only will if I have A major issue and need their real help in remote diagnostics.

 

[JayCeeDee]

Steve, get one of THESE filtered face-plates, that way it won’t happen again.

 

See YT video HERE.

 

I actually got a speed increase the first time I used one, due to the cr*ppy electronics in those cheap give-away filters.

[Bob Williams]

JayCeeDee wrote:

Steve, get one of THESE filtered face-plates, that way it won’t happen again. See YT video HERE. I actually got a speed increase the first time I used one, due to the cr*ppy electronics in those cheap give-away filters.

That’s the one I have. During the time I was with Plusnet, the BT OR engineer fitted the incorrect one, when I had Sky their engineer shook his head, removed it and fitted the one JCD shows. Then later another Sky engineer said that was wrong and refitted the old one. I waited until he went and refitted the correct one again.

Sometimes you wonder how they can be called “engineers”, there is so much variance in experience and knowledge from one to another. I can usually tell which ones are putting on a front. It starts with a realisation that they are talking to elderly people: a cocksure attitude develops, followed by some “engineer talk” which is mostly BS. I love watching them crash and burn when I point out the inaccuracies in their statements. A little knowledge is….

” A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again. ”

Alexander Pope, 1704.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Tippon]

I’ve found that the newer Sky routers are awful. I bought my house in 2008 and went with Sky, switching to fibre in about 2010. On BB I was getting 5Mb+ compared to 2 Mb at my parent’s in the next street, and on fibre I was getting 38Mb on a 40Mb contract. I moved house and took Sky with me, but they sent a new modem and router combo. After a load of complaints, they sent an engineer with an all in one router. At both points I was getting a maximum of 13Mb, and as low as 2! My brother moved into my old house and could barely get a connection on BB, and struggled to get 10Mb on fibre.

Both of us switched providers within a few months of each other. Now I get 15Mb+ pretty consistently ( good for the distance from the exchange ), and my brother gets 50Mb+

[Ian]

Dave Rice wrote:

Fine if everything, including printers, servers, TVs etc. is on that WiFi but murder if they aren’t or you want to do something that involves port forwarding.

I presume you mean the mesh network options. I would only be planning to turn off the sky Q WiFi and using the WAP for WiFi assuming I can get a better signal out of it.

Anyone any recommendations? Thanks for input

Same name same person

[The Duke]

@jayceedee I’ve had one of them on my todo list for about 10 years. ?

[JayCeeDee]

Shame on you, I’m sure none of us have any similar things still waiting in the wings.

[Author]

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