topic Re: Not what it's cracked up to be in Broadband

Not what it's cracked up to be

Ziggy52 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 16:58:05 GMT

Background - I'm non techie & in my 70's.

Recently had City Fibre in our area - prior to that fibre to cabinet about 3/4 of a mile away. Had a decent connection with Plusnet - but contract up for renewal & Sky offer of 900Mb line very little difference in price, so I went for that.

Great signal up to about 3 mtrs away from the router - then very rapid deterioration, so much so that in parts of my house the signal is worse than it was on my 50Mb Plusnet line. I'll come back to this.

Next problem was certain home apps no longer work, they need a 2.4Ghz connection - tried to split the router signal, and as other have found, you can't with the Max Hub. No worries, the internet showed me how I could use my old Plusnert hub as an access point, turn off the 5Ghz on that, rename it & connect up my household apps up to that. Quite a faff & a lot of time later I have actually made that work. Would have been a lot easier if the Sky Max hub would let you separate the signals - anyway, I've got it working.

How to improve the signal round my house without upgrading to the next level hub & using the rented sky domes or whatever they are called, over 24 months contract that would add significant cost. I bought a TP link extender capable of carrying 5Ghz..

Configuring the TP link - WPS didn't work, it connects to the 2.4Ghz but not 5Ghz. Arh - I need to go into the router controls and make some simple changes........ except that you can't, all greyed out as those items are not changable. So I have an extender that does now give me a easonalable signal around the house, but 5Ghz only in one room as the Sky Hub loses power so quickly & I have solid walls. So opposite my hub I can get about 500-600Mb, everywhere else 50-80Mb. So basically hardly any different from my old Fibre to cabinet system from plusnet.

I'm still well within the time I can return my system to Sky & get a refund on my TP link extender........ & I'm weighing up if I will or wont. I really wanted to love this Sky system but after 3 days of faffing around & finishing up with something which is a marginal improvement on what I already had it's really taken the shine off what I hoped would be a good experience. As you might have guessed, as someone in their 70's I'm not a gamer - just wanted to try to future proof a few things and have a good internet experience. Disappointed 😞

Re: Not what it's cracked up to be

Chrisee — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 17:58:41 GMT

@Ziggy52 understand your frustration. There is a reason why the Sky Max hub foes not allow band splitting as to offer high spedds it requires to support WiFi6 which requires the bsndscti be synchronised. The way to get eequipment that wint link to a dualband set up is to temporarily turn off the 5GHz band while you connect the equipment then turn the band back on again and the kit should stay nnetworked.
The controls for the consumer settings are in the My Sky app which is why the web interface has them greyed out

Honestly running a variety different manufscturers WiFi kit can cause more issues than it solves as they are not matched and are likely to cause interference. My own approach is to yurn off the Sky hub's wifi and use three Deco M4 units to cover my home. This has paid for itself in around 18 months as I dont have to pay for the Sky WiFi Max package.

Re: Not what it's cracked up to be

JimM1 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:00:25 GMT

@Ziggy52 Can you say what model of the Tp-Link RE you have, there are a few that do not have the 5Ghz band and also a good few that will not work up in the very high Frequency Channel if the sky Max hub goes there to avoid other 5Ghz around about it!

Re: Not what it's cracked up to be

Ziggy52 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:42:20 GMT

Hi JimM1 - it's the TP Link RE705X - when I checked out the problem a solution offered was to restrict the router from going into the high freq channels, and when I went into both the settings via the connection to the hub, and the Sky app - it seems to me that just about the only control either of those offer on the max hub is the ability to turn on/off either 2.4 or 5 GHz - which isn't really an option.

I'd obviously like to get some of the faster speed that the 5Ghz can provide a bit further round my house otherwise there's not really much point in having it. I live in a bungalow - so more floorspace to cover on one level but no upstairs to contend with.

The business with using the Plusnet hub as basically a dumb acces point ( I found out how to reset it to be just an access point) where I can ensure only the 2.4Ghz signal gets to my household apps (solar & smart meter apps) seems to be a solid solution - so I'm just going to let that run.

I guess more than anything I was just looking to vent some frustration - but if I can get the 5Ghz signal to travel further then that would be great. I'm not particularly tech savvy & not looking to spend a fortune to achieve it.

Re: Not what it's cracked up to be

JimM1 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:58:44 GMT

@Ziggy52 You are correct on the 5Ghz on / off side, but a lot of the RE devices etc just do not operate up in those High Channel spec's but your RE should be fine, as the higher you go CH wise the lower the distance get's so with that said have you moved the RE closer to the sky Max hub, let's say open space 30' away fine but stick a brick wall in the way, then RE would need to be 20' away, think that version you have indicates all the bands by sticking on a led green to show a working connection, will go take a quick look at that RE model. back shortly!

Hopefully now the post does not get pulled by adding in the Tp-Link ref! But there are 4 blue lights, so look at the 5Ghz light for off/on!

RE705X V1.0/2.0 Setup Guide

Re: Not what it's cracked up to be

JimM1 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 19:24:26 GMT

@Ziggy52 So looking at the Tp spec for that RE, does look ok, only a V1 or V2 versions and FW not been updated since way back 2024, A sky Max hub and that one RE should be all that is needed to cover your area, so power off your plusnet at present just to get the wireless off that out off the way...

Use the light's led's on the TP as a guide, same room as the Max all blue, then move it outside say 30' away on again and see if the all blue show's again, you may need to let it settle for 10mins in the new location as it works itself out to the Hub....

Mesh is NOT easy on the Max it has to be handled with care and that is why the PODS designed with all there little foibles are better, but the cost off that is just stupid at £240 with no discount for a whole 24 months, way better gear out there for that kind off money as @Chrisee has pointed out!

So you know not a sky Max user and NEVER will be, far too many downsides for me!

I had one off my Asus RP-AX58's lashed onto the back off the older SR203 wifi connected with zero issue's split bands warts and all, with my Main Asus double NAT running at the same time, RP never caused any problems and used the daughters room direction as with her everything but the kitchen sink got thrown at it, and handled it all without breaking sweat! But the SR203 is a lot more friendly than the Max hub!

Re: Not what it's cracked up to be

Ziggy52 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 20:02:48 GMT

Hi JimM1 - the extender is about 15ft away with a direct line of sight, just one open door between the two. I actually set it up about 4ft away but it made no difference - 3 lights on, the 5Ghz light not on. When it was about 4ft away I could get around 500-600Mb by connecting direct to the Sky hub, but about 90Ghz by connecting to the extender - which would only connect to the 2.4Ghz. I tried both WPS & the extender app. The extender app says it doesn't like the high value channels - but as noted earlier there is no way to stop the max hub from using whichever channel it see's fit. I think the Sky system works fine by itself providing you only want to use it in one room - it's probably a way of trying to get you to upgrade to the next level, which I won't do. Interesting thing on the Sky "mesh" is the internet in every room guarantee is limited to 3Gb. Have to say I'm unimpressed with the performance from the hub, I'd expect some drop off but the drop off is more like a cliff than a slope.

Re: Not what it's cracked up to be

JimM1 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 20:25:44 GMT

@Ziggy52 When you get some time, using your mysky app as you know that is the only method to get to the Max, have a look, at the 5Ghz signal does appear to be on as you have said 500/600Mb/s close to it, but also the advanced wireless securities, if on WPA3-T drop it back to the WPA2-PSK mode off operation.... You may have to look at the TP-Link just to be sure that 5Ghz band is NOT switched off in that. If using a wireless wifi connected PC that is windows based, you will be able to see what the sky Max hub is at in the properties of the wireless, shows sync and channels... Will find a pic a threw up the other day and link the posting.

Post 10 off this link! This is my laptop PC setup to connect on a Asus RP-AX58 with a 160Mhz channel at 1733/1733Mb/s sync speed for

wifi6 operation although the PC is only wif5 it supports such operation, never get that speed, best flat out is around the 1200Mb/s mark.

Answered: Full Fibre upgrade - how long to reach its full sp... | Sky Community

Never having used a Max, i would be wary off setting up the Max/RE using the WPS function off both units! SR203 no issues it works well but is a way different sky Hub!

Wifi6 is only good if you have all wifi 6 devices, i have 3 out of twenty or so, no gain whatsoever all bands are split for triband operation!

Re: Not what it's cracked up to be

JimM1 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 20:30:50 GMT

@Ziggy52 It's all about the landline phone operation if that is important and needed for you then Max has to be used, if not let me know, will link a post with 2 Asus BD4 from few months back direct on the connection for the ONT and a happy camper that OP! Or search it for yourself.

Re: Not what it's cracked up to be

Ziggy52 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:18:43 GMT

Thanks JimM1 - Security is set to WPA, and when i looged into the extender 5Ghz is on - I did a reset on it to confirm as well. I do need the telephone port on the Sky Max - so will now just leave things as they are. To be fair evrything is now working fine & it's "quick enough" although nowhere near "as advertised". For me it was a case of frustration of having to spend 3 days getting everything to work and having to find various "work arounds" and then not getting anything like the advertised speed.

I'm a bit old school and much more used to taking things apart to make them work rather than "wrestling with fog whilst running through treacle" which seems to be the way with all plu & play connections - in my experience they rarely are plug & play so I then have to use the magic of google to find out how to actually get them to work. All of this would be uneccessary if there was a way within the Sky hub to isolate the 2.4 & 5.0 Ghz bands. I'm at an age when I can get a bit grumpy 😂 Thanks for your help, Cheers Ziggy

Re: Not what it's cracked up to be

Ziggy52 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:20:08 GMT

Should be WPA2 not WPA!

Re: Not what it's cracked up to be

JimM1 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:24:50 GMT

@Ziggy52 Thats getting a hold off a SR203 to seperate the bands, still able to use your landline, and a good chance that your Tp-Link will work way better than on your Max! Butting heads with a Max it will win hands down and you will have the headache!