topic Slow Ethernet Connection To Sky Mini Box in Broadband

Slow Ethernet Connection To Sky Mini Box

StuartW1 — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 22:47:18 GMT

Hi, I've recently had Sky Fibre fitted with speeds to the Sky Router showing a very respectable 500mbps. I have two separate Cat5 cables, one running from the Sky Router to the main Sky Q Box, and the other to my Sky Q Mini Box.

Using the Netflix App on the Sky Q Main Box I can see there is a healthy 300mbps connection. WiFi in the same room as the Sky Q Main Box is a good 250mbps.

On the Sky Q Mini Box the speed, using the Netflix App on the Sky Q Mini Box, is sub 50mbps. WiFi in the same room as the Sky Q Mini Box is a poor 25mbps. (An iMac connected via Ethernet to the Sky Router, in the same room as the Sky Q Mini Box, gets a very healthy 500mbps connection).

How do I increase the speed to the Sky Q Mini Box? The poor speed means poor WiFi in that room and I think it is also resulting in the Sky Q Mini Box sound sometimes dropping for a second, especially if people are using the WiFi in that room.

Any help would be very much appreciated!

Re: Slow Ethernet Connection To Sky Mini Box

Chrisee — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 07:27:13 GMT

@StuartW1 Sky Q boxes were designed well before Ultrafast speeds were thought of and the system while clever back in 2016 is looking distinctly primative by today's standards. However I am not sure there is anything you can or need to do as the Q minis are limited to HD quality video which uses under 10Mb/s maximum therefore any extra bandwidth will be unused. Audio drop outs will not be being caused by lack of bandwidth.

As far as using the Q minis as wifi hot spots check thst you do not have a Wifi interference issue by using an app like Wifi Analyzer but I think you are expecting a bit much from the system. If you want high wifi speeds through out your home you may need to invest in a third party Wifi mesh system. If you do that switch off the wifi on the Sky hub and Q boxes and let them use the ethernet connections.

One point people frequently forget in the excitment of getting full fibre is that in practice few apps oon wifi devices can use speeds above 60Mb/s let alone 600Mb/s so unless you have multiple devices requiring simultaenous connection your expensive Wifi system may not actually be needed

Re: Slow Ethernet Connection To Sky Mini Box

StuartW1 — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 13:52:10 GMT

Thanks Chrisee, I very much appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Your response makes logical sense. I had hoped that having an ethernet connection to my Sky Mini Box would help WiFi in the area (quite a way from the main house and router). Downloading movies etc to iPad would have benefited from the faster speeds although, in reality, I'm not doing that very often!

I just used Netflix on my TV to test my TV's ethernet connection and it was about 75mbps...so similar to the Sky Mini Box. That does seem to suggest that the Sky Mini Box and TV don't have fast ethernet cards installed - old tech.

I am finding the faster broadband speeds useful on my iMac...good for conference calls and downloading large files that come with my music production hobby; I use lots of very large files that now download really quickly. So happy to be spending the extra couple of pounds a month on fibre to the property.

Thanks again for your response.