Mesh system with Sky FTTP

[gvcymru]

I know there are a few posts discussing this issue, but can't find a clear answer.

Sky will be installing FTTP next week. I currently have a Google Mesh system in the house, but from what I understand, this will not work with Sky, unless I get a 3rd party modem.

So 2 questions. If a 3rd party modem would solve my issue, what modem would you recommend, and how would I set it up (if it's not plug and play)?

And, am I right in saying that a system like one of the Asus mesh systems for example, would work with the Sky hub as it has bridge mode, or can I just connect an Asus router directly into the ONT box without the Sky hub?

Basically, I just want a simple mesh system to work with Sky.

Many thanks.

[cookiemonsteruk]

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@gvcymru wrote:

I know there are a few posts discussing this issue, but can't find a clear answer.

Sky will be installing FTTP next week. I currently have a Google Mesh system in the house, but from what I understand, this will not work with Sky, unless I get a 3rd party modem.

So 2 questions. If a 3rd party modem would solve my issue, what modem would you recommend, and how would I set it up (if it's not plug and play)?

And, am I right in saying that a system like one of the Asus mesh systems for example, would work with the Sky hub as it has bridge mode, or can I just connect an Asus router directly into the ONT box without the Sky hub?

Basically, I just want a simple mesh system to work with Sky.

Many thanks.

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The optical ont modem will negate the need for a 3rd party modem

 

[cookiemonsteruk]

@gvcymru 

The google mesh should work etherneted to the sky hub in access point mode

An asus zenwifi xt8 will replace the sky hub completely or as above will work with the sky hub etherneted and set to access point

[cookiemonsteruk]

@gvcymru 

The google mesh should work in access point etherneted to the sky hub

An asus zenwifi xt8 will work ethernet to the ont replacing the sky hub or as above etherneted to the sky hub

[gvcymru]

According to the google website-

"Bridge mode will only work if you’re using a single Wi-Fi device. If you want to create a mesh network with multiple devices, your router or primary Wifi point cannot be in Bridge mode."

[gvcymru]

PS- don't want any double NAT issues!

[jamesn123]

@gvcymru 

The Google mesh system does not have DHCP Option 61 authentication functionality as far as I am aware so it wouldnt work just connected to the FTTP ONT. If you connect it to the Sky hub then you'll have double NAT and double network. 

[gvcymru]

Exactly. So this is what I want to work around. Do I buy a new modem and switch that to bridge mode, or do I buy a complete new mesh system which can plug directly into the ONT? Either way,  I will have to sack off the Sky Hub. But I have read something about authentication issues if you don't use the Sky Hub...?

But another question-

I have a Sky Q min box also- so am I right in saying that this works as some sort of wifi booster? Does it work like a mesh system? And if so, if I still have a blackspot, would adding a sky booster in combintation with these also work?

[jamesn123]

@gvcymru A modem wont help you because the Google Mesh simply cant authenticate. You'd need to put the Google Mesh in AP mode if it has it or sack it off completely and use a different router.

All Sky Q gear acts as mesh nodes so adding boosters would increase your overall coverage

[Jellus]

Hi, I'm in a similar situation. Currently have a Google Wifi mesh which plugs into my existing ADSL router via ethernet. Looking to upgrade to FTTP and I'm wondering if I can simply plug my Google Wifi base unit straight into the Sky FTTP hub and everything will just work?

I assume it's straightforward to disable the Sky Wifi?

[jamesn123]

@Jellus 

As mentioned before you can do that but you'll be presented with Double NAT and two IP address spaces unless the Google WiFi system can be put in AP mode. 

[Jellus]

Got my Sky FTTP connection enabled today. Speed is great when connected directly to the Sky hub's wifi, but my existing Google mesh performance is dismal (70MB/s down) when plugged into the Sky hub with double NAT.

I may have to investigate another router.

[robotdave]

This is exactly the issue I am having. The Google WiFi mesh should be able to handle much higher speeds.

When connecting to the Sky router I get roughly 500Mbps, but the Google WiFi is giving me roughly 65Mbps.

With the old Sky router (pre FTTP) I was using the Google WiFi with the WiFi in the Sky router dissabled. My Sky Q box is connected to the Google mesh via WiFi and there have never been any issues.

Everything is stable now, I'm just not getting the speeds I expect. Is this a Google mesh issue, a Sky router isssue, or a bit of both?

If anyone knows how to resolve this I will be extremely grateful  🙂

[robotdave]

Curious!

I've been tionkering with setrtings and set up for a while, but after my previous post I tried one final thing.

I ran a speed test from within the wifi section of the Google Home app. I wanted to see if the bottleneck was the mesh netwrk itself, or the mesh talking to the Sky router.

Well, the speed came back over 400Mbps (my fttp only went live this afternoon, so I am expecting sleed fluctuations). So that made me immediately think that somethign in the mesh was not behaving as it should. Even so, I ran one more speedtest (fast.com) on my laptop and who would have thunk it but it was over 400Mbps!!!! So was my phone! and my second laptop!!!

Is it possible that running the speedtest within the Google software somehow reset a setting or an internal limit?? I have no idea and right now I don't really care, as long as it keeps working  🙂

If anyone else has similar issue then I would recommend trying this solution, just in case  🙂

[robotdave]

OK, so this hasn't worked.

For a short while I did get max speed on all devices, but now it has gone back to how it was before, with most devices now sitting at around 60-70Mbps speeds. Some will occasionaly jump up to over 400Mbps (or even over 500!) but not all devices and not all of the time (although I have a feeling it may be as the device moves around the house and connects to different Google wifi points??).

To reiterate, I have Sky Ultrafast Plus (should be around 500Mbps) with an SR203 Sky router. The wifi is dissabled in the router. I have three Google wifi units (the originals, not the Nest syetm) located around the house.

A speedtest from within the Google Home app returns high 400s which is what I would expect to see. Speedtests from my devices returns anything from 50Mbps, to 100Mbps, to 500Mbps.

This leads me to believe there is somehting not right within the Google wifi system? Is anyone able to assist with this please?

Many thanks,