topic Re: SR203 Firmware in Broadband

SR203 Firmware

philam2-Mobile2 — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 13:20:37 GMT

Hello!

Here is my tale of woe.

Several years ago I was given the "upgrade" to the SR203 router.

I say "upgrade" because out of the box it wasn't fit for purpose, it had major handshaking issues - we have many dozens of wifi devices and if we had to reboot the router it would take several hours for everything to connect. Apparently this was a known issue with the first release of firmware for this router. As I only use the router to bring the signal into the house and then distribute it via my own mesh network I simply plugged the old one back in and all has been well.

However, in 2 weeks I am upgrading to Gigafast and the old router doesnt support it; I therefore need to plug the SR203 back in (which I have done) but obviously it is still stuck on the grotty original firmware. I would like this to update before the upgrade is done (otherwise I run the risk of having 900mb broadband and a load of devices that take forever to connect to it); everything I read says that "roll out of firmware is controlled by Sky" but my question is "can I alert them to this pressing need and get the button pushed on it now" to avert frustration in two weeks?

When I spoke online to the sky guys at the time of the order and said I had had some issues with the SR203 they said "we will give you a new router with the installation if you need one" which didn't really fill me with confidence and they certainly havent sent me one. The "upgrade kit" I was sent consisted of a single ethernet cable.

Thank you!

Re: SR203 Firmware

JPR007 — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 13:27:12 GMT

@philam2-Mobile2 There is no way to ask Sky to force a firmware update, as you have already alluded to it is purely automated, although i don't know if there are certain trigger times for it to check for updates.

The only thing you can do is just leave it plugged in from now and hope it updates (which will be overnight).

What version of firmware is it currently running? I had the SR203 when i was with Sky and i didn't have too many issues with it, but any aftermarket kit (as you have) will always be far superior than any ISP supplied kit.

Re: SR203 Firmware

philam2-Mobile2 — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 13:57:58 GMT

@JPR007 thanks for this, it is pretty much as I suspected; I'm on firmware version 5 point something and the latest is 7 point something, so I guess I will just leave it plugged in and hope for the best. As I say, I have the wifi on it disabled and just use it as a "passthrough" device so maybe the issue is less of a problem than when I was trying to rely on it for everything to connect. The issue is I have a houseful of people who will all **bleep** as me soon as the internet isn't perfect (and 3 of us work from home and are totally dependent on it) hence my desire to pre-empt the issue and try to head it off 🙂