Non-Sky HUB / 3rd Party Routers - Troublefixes

Nytex — Tue, 19 May 2026 08:20:38 GMT

I'm not looking after any support here, as i've spent since 7pm last night trying to troubleshoot and there's a lot of old, or conflicting information online so thought i'd post this for anybody else trying this also.

I am on the Gigafast line, 900MB, with the Openreach ONT installed November 2025.

I purchased the ASUS AX3000 v2 to replace my Sky Hub6 - A few reasons, mainly the parental controls, monitoring and WiFi / Mesh as we have an older house with children of several ages. It's beyond what Sky can offer, even with the paid extra WiFi Max.

With the ONT acting as the modem, I didn't want to have to "Double NAT" which is where you go ONT > Sky Hub6 > Asus Router as that was just asking for trouble. To make this happen, everywhere online tells you that with Sky you need;

a router that is capable of DHCP Option 61
the client identifier of "anything@skydsl|anything"
VLAN (VID in LAN>IPTV on ASUS) of 101
a DHCP Query Status of "Normal Mode"
Some suggested I had to clone the MAC address of the SKY HUB6, which i did at one stage.

I updated the Router firmware to the latest version, which at the time of posting was 3.0.0.4.388_23986.

Nothing worked. Completely dead. The DHCP would not connect, and I couldn't pull internet from the ONT despite multiple resets, settings changes and varying levels of frustration.

This morning, I came across something that told me newer Sky FTTP lines do not actually need Option 61, and that the latest firmware was bugged. This turns out to be true on both fronts.

Here's what I did:

Turned off the ONT at the wall
Rolled back the firmware to 3.0.0.4.388_23947 - The latest "stable" build
Did a factory reset of the router
Powered on the ONT (I didn't turn off the router, but ONT was off for over 5 minutes)
1. The standard 3 of 4 lights came on as GREEN
2. WAN light came on the router as a solid RED.
I went into the ASUS Admin Panel (192.168.50.1 or asusrouter.com on a local, connected device)
Ran the Quick Internet Setup, with no extra settings - No DHCP, no VLAN - Just created my Network ID and Admin credentials.
Went into Network Map and WAN IP immediately appeared, with no issues. All services are now active, with expected speed.

Having looked back into the settings I can confirm;

Advanced Settings > WAN

WAN Connection Type - Automatic IP

DHCP Client Identifier (Option 61) - Blank

DHCP Query Frequency - Aggressive Mode

MAC Address - Blank (e.g. not cloned the SKY HUB)

Advanced Settings > LAN > IPTV

Select ISP Profile - None (This is where you would select the VID/VLAN if following old instructions)

I do still believe you require a router capable of Option 61, but you no longer need to configure it with a client-identifer. I hope this helps anybody who is considering / struggling changing from the HUB6 to a stand-alone router.

Re: Non-Sky HUB / 3rd Party Routers - Troublefixes

Fearitself — Thu, 28 May 2026 14:30:12 GMT

Don't take it the wrong way, but you overcomplicate it. Connect your Asus router to the ont and setup a new connection. It's that easy. Option 61 is only required in 20% of cases. 80% of people don't need option 61 anymore

topic Non-Sky HUB / 3rd Party Routers - Troublefixes in Broadband

Non-Sky HUB / 3rd Party Routers - Troublefixes

Re: Non-Sky HUB / 3rd Party Routers - Troublefixes