topic Sky Booster or 3rd Party? in Broadband

Sky Booster or 3rd Party?

tanddy — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 15:59:29 GMT

Ive got Ultrafast+ and get around 480mb/s at the Hub. Got a lareg house and currently have a Sky Booster mid house as Hub is close to a corner of the house.

I'm sure I was told (although not 100%) that current Sky miniboxes and Booster are limited for Wifi speed at a relatively low speed (I seem to recall 70mb/s - but Im not really sure). Can anyone confirm as I can't find any info.

If they are is it worth investing a decent 3rd party extender to replace the Sky Booster to increase Wifi Speed? and any recommendations. Dont want to go to the extent of replacing Hub etc.

Thanks

Re: Sky Booster or 3rd Party?

TimmyBGood — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 16:13:08 GMT

@tanddy wrote:

I'm sure I was told (although not 100%) that current Sky miniboxes and Booster are limited for Wifi speed at a relatively low speed (I seem to recall 70mb/s - but Im not really sure). Can anyone confirm as I can't find any info.

The 'Q Mesh' dates back to the release of the Q platform in 2016, so is based on technology from a decade ago. It long pre-dates home internet faster than 80Mbs, and realistically cannot be expected to sling 500Mbs and Gigafast connections around a property.

Re: Sky Booster or 3rd Party?

tanddy — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 16:38:34 GMT

@TimmyBGood yep I get that totally, hence my question of whether a good 3rd party extenders was worth it or not?

Re: Sky Booster or 3rd Party?

TimmyBGood — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 16:46:19 GMT

@tanddy

Any modern mesh (typically a minimum of three nodes with one node cabled to an ethernet port on the Sky Hub) is likely to be 'better'. Note however that a Q Mini box won't connect to the WiFi broadcast from non- Sky nodes, although it should work if cabled by ethernet to a node.

Re: Sky Booster or 3rd Party?

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 19:24:32 GMT

This chart shows the Wi-Fi limitations which boosters and Q nodes have on your Wi-Fi speeds.

You would struggle to find a third party Wi-Fi extender to match the hub speeds, not to mention it could mess up your mesh.

Unless downloading large files most devices can't utilise speeds anywhere near 100Mbps anyway. If you really need the full speed at a particular device, such as PC or console then it should be connected over Ethernet.

Re: Sky Booster or 3rd Party?

TimmyBGood — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 19:31:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

You would struggle to find a third party Wi-Fi extender to match the hub speeds, not to mention it could mess up your mesh.

Best to switch off the Q mesh entirely if another WiFi system is in use.

Re: Sky Booster or 3rd Party?

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 20:03:27 GMT

Wi-Fi should only be disabled on any of the Q nodes if hardwired. Mini boxes need to connect to the gateway box on 5ghz or the mesh will collapse.

Q will only talk to third party WiFi equipment on 2.4ghz.

Re: Sky Booster or 3rd Party?

tanddy — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 19:34:10 GMT

I've stuck a Netgear Nighthawk repeater where the sky booster 4 was and seen an immediate improvement to speed from 10-30mbs up to 70-140mbs