topic Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi in Broadband

0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TB1555 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 11:43:45 GMT

We have the old Sky box because we are unable to have WiFi in our house when our son ( who has Electromagnetic hypersensitivity), comes to stay for respite. We disable the WiFi on our router during this time but we use the internet through an ethernet cable. At some point out cable from the sky box to the router was accidentally pulled out. Suddenly our catch up, etc stopped working. We thought it was to do with the WiFi so I enabled it again on the router. Even though the cable was not connected we then got catch up, etc back on our TV. How does that work if, as we have been assured, there is no WiFi on the sky box we are currently using.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TimmyBGood — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 11:55:59 GMT

@TB1555 wrote:

Even though the cable was not connected we then got catch up, etc back on our TV. How does that work if, as we have been assured, there is no WiFi on the sky box we are currently using.

It has to be WiFi: there's no other way for on-demand data to arrive as the satellite link has no such functionality.

All Sky Q television boxes and several later (2014-2016) models of Sky+ HD have built-in wireless capabilities, as do all smart television sets from about the past decade.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

Chrisee — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 11:57:34 GMT

@TB1555 if you have a Sky Q box or boxes these act as wifi sources so as well as disabling the wifi on your Sky hub you would need to turn off both bands on the Q boxes thexsetting is in thecengineer's menu which is accessed by navigating tomthe settings menu in each box and entering 0,0,1 before select.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TB1555 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 12:03:03 GMT

But the sky agent I spoke to today assured me that there is no WiFi on the old box we are currently using.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TB1555 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 12:04:08 GMT

We are using an old television with no smart features.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

Chrisee — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 12:09:00 GMT

@TB1555 the agent was clearly wrong if you have access to catch up services which require a connection to the internet either by ethernet or wifi. Sky Q boxes all act as wifi sources if powered unless the wifi has been manually disabled. Sky HD+ boxes and the newer Sky Stream pucks bith can use wifi but dont act as wifi sources.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TimmyBGood — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 13:44:57 GMT

@TB1555 wrote:

But the sky agent I spoke to today assured me that there is no WiFi on the old box we are currently using.

They may simply be unaware that the last few releases of Sky+ HD hardware (from 2012 onwards) had built-in WiFi.

Given manufacturing ceased in 2015 with the transition to Sky Q, a substantial proportion of current Sky support staff will never have seen one...

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TB1555 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 14:58:00 GMT

So what do we do about it now? We were told there was no WiFi on it and our son is severely affected by WiFi.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

Chrisee — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 15:39:58 GMT

@TB1555 turn off the wifi on the hub. If you have a Sky Q box follow the instructions I posted. A Sky +HD box with wifi receiver wont be active unless connected to your hub.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TimmyBGood — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 16:59:09 GMT

@Chrisee wrote:

@TB1555 A Sky +HD box with wifi receiver wont be active unless connected to your hub.

I wouldn't necessarily trust a wireless device not to be broadcasting even when it isn't connected to anything: they do get lonely...

If anything it might be shouting more frequently as it tries to find a friend.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TB1555 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 16:57:36 GMT

That's not helpful,!

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

JimM1 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:30:55 GMT

@TB1555 Do you have a mobile device that shows you the wireless wi-fi signal?

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TB1555 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:37:38 GMT

My son has a metre that reads WiFi signals. He has gone home now and taken it with him. When he was here last week the metre was picking up high readings from around the TV and sky box. When we switched sky off the readings dropped dramatically to very low. There were no high readings from the TV itself when we switched that back on as it is not a smart TV. We didn't put sky back on until after he had left but we have no way of checking now. It's just very annoying because we keep being told that there is no WiFi on our box

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TimmyBGood — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:41:10 GMT

@TB1555 wrote:

It's just very annoying because we keep being told that there is no WiFi on our box

If you can find a model number, this would confirm the situation.

If there's a WPS button on the casing or access to wireless settings in a menu, that's also fairly conclusive.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TimmyBGood — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:42:39 GMT

@TB1555

Press the "Services" button on your Sky remote, then select "Settings" and highlight "Details" (which may be listed as "System Details"). The model number will be displayed there.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

JimM1 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:44:49 GMT

@TB1555 Does not matter what you where told, everyone is telling you that the Sky HD+ range off TV box onwards has the possible ability to have a wi-fi signal, if you don't want trust what the Forum is saying to you, or what your son's meter showed you then nothing else can be said about it, just don't switch it on when he is there, or get into the TV box settings and have a look see!

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TB1555 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:48:11 GMT

The model number is DRX890WL and yes there is a WPS button on the casing.

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

Chrisee — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:50:05 GMT

@TimmyBGood wrote:

@Chrisee wrote:

@TB1555 A Sky +HD box with wifi receiver wont be active unless connected to your hub.

I wouldn't necessarily trust a wireless device not to be broadcasting even when it isn't connected to anything: they do get lonely...

If anything it might be shouting more frequently as it tries to find a friend.

Your the expert @TimmyBGood 😀 .

Essentially these days @TB1555 it almost impossible to have an area clear of EMR in the microwave range unless it is shielded so forming a Faraday Cage as WiFi is a comparatively small part of man made EMR signals. As @JimM1 points out a wifi analyzer app on a mobile device can show wifi sources in your area but wont show other sources like bluetooth or cordless phones etc

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TB1555 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 17:58:12 GMT

Can we disable the WiFi on our sky box?

Re: 0Connecting a sky box without wifi

TimmyBGood — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 18:55:29 GMT

@TB1555 wrote:

The model number is DRX890WL and yes there is a WPS button on the casing.

Then it's from 2014 and has definitely got onboard WiFi, which the 'W' part of the model designation confirms. The 'L' is for 'Lite' because some legacy sockets were removed.

It's the final 500GB Sky+ HD version to be released, alongside a last 2TB. Manufacturing of the whole Sky+ family ceased at some point in 2015.