topic Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900 in Broadband

Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

khan712 — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 11:53:33 GMT

Hi all, I'm looking for a 3rd party router to replace the white Sky Max hub included with Ultrafast 900 and have seen that I should look at some ASUS routers for compatability, but I'm unsure on which one. Ideally looking to spend within the 200 region, though I will consider up to 400 so please provide a few recommendations. Thank you.

Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

TimmyBGood — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 12:07:31 GMT

@khan712

It helps if you indicate what you are hoping to achieve.

Wireless coverage is more likely to be enhanced by a cheaper multi node mesh system rather than a single expensive router, for example.

Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

jamesn123 — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 12:11:58 GMT

@khan712

Would also be useful to know what kind of devices you will be connecting as there is no point buying a WiFi 6, 6e or 7 router if you dont have any compatible devices.

Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

khan712 — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 12:14:36 GMT

@TimmyBGood At the moment, if one person is uploading on YouTube or downloading something on a games app store for example then it completely nukes the internet for everyone else, which shouldn't be the case on 900 FTTP. Sometimes it'll just randomly go down even, which makes me suspect that the Sky Max hub has a crap processor that throttles under load compared to what I could purchase. I'd be looking to purchase a 3rd party router and then further support it with 3rd party extenders, rather than using Sky Max and Sky extenders which has been a bit poor so far

Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

khan712 — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 12:15:46 GMT

@jamesn123 Gaming PC, Macbooks, PS5, Xbox Series X, iPhones and iPads, TVs and various other devices

Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

cookiemonsteruk — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 12:34:09 GMT

@khan712

Certainly the ps5 is wifi 6 and with the other gaming devices you'd be looking at the asus rt ax82u, asus rt ax86u, asus rt ax88u also the asus tuf and asus rog routers should also work directly connected to the ont but you may need to verify with asus uk as to whether they support client identifier (option 61)

Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

jamesn123 — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 13:33:39 GMT

@khan712

I would go WiFi 6 then maybe even WiFi 6e.

Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

khan712 — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 13:34:21 GMT

@cookiemonsteruk Phoning ASUS was a great suggestion so thanks for that! Was going to say yolo and go for theASUS ROG Rapture GT-BE98 but sadly this doesn't support option 61, so now waiting for a call back from ASUS sales specialist to go through other options

Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

cookiemonsteruk — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 13:38:31 GMT

@khan712

The GT-BE98_PRO can be flashed with asus-merlin firmware (beta) that opens up client identifier but you can raise that during the callback.

Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

khan712 — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 13:54:08 GMT

@cookiemonsteruk So going based off stable Merlin firmware availability, the GT-AXE16000 would be the next best thing. What would be the benefit of going for something like this vs for example the RT-AX88U that you previously mentioned?

Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

cookiemonsteruk — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 14:02:21 GMT

@khan712

Here's a blow by blow comparison

https://versus.com/en/asus-rog-rapture-gt-axe16000-vs-asus-rog-rapture-gt-be98

Re: Best 3rd party routers for Sky Ultrafast 900

cookiemonsteruk — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 14:09:38 GMT

@khan712

P.S. couldn't find a comparison for the rt ax88u . The main one would be gt axe16000 is quad band whilst rt ax88u is wifi 6 dual band