topic Re: Intermittent buffering and other network issues in Broadband

Intermittent buffering and other network issues

silverous — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 09:56:02 GMT

I have the white sky max router and behind it a number of wired devices including TVs and also some wireless access points. Everything was working great but recently have experienced lots of hanging on various devices, packet loss reported on Xbox, buffering on streaming on TVS (which are wired in).

I'm fairly technical and have spent hours following a logical approach. I can get a good steady environment on a few devices, then extend it but it seems inconsistent in when the issues kick in.

I've replaced cables, restored router to factory settings and lots of other things.

My sense is that it's some sort of router capacity / table issue.

How do I get a replacement router - will sky send one out or do I buy one?

thanks !

paul

Re: Intermittent buffering and other network issues

jamesn123 — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 10:37:34 GMT

Hi @silverous

Approx how many devices do you have connected, both WiFi & wired? Are you using switches? If so are these dumb unmanaged ones or managed?

Re: Intermittent buffering and other network issues

silverous — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:57:24 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Unmanaged, typically where I have one wired cable to a room I have a small unmanaged PoE switch which has a ubiquity UniFi 6 connected to it providing WiFi in that area. I don't have the number of devices to hand but quite a lot with IoT eg light bulbs, ring doorbells, alarm sensors. It's a lot but then it's worked fine for quite some time so I didn't think anything fundamentally wrong with what I'm doing. Appreciate you looking to help, thanks.

Re: Intermittent buffering and other network issues

jamesn123 — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:54:53 GMT

@silverous

The reason I asked about the number of devices is that histroically Sky hubs have struggled with anything past around 75-100 devices even though their theoretical limit should be 256.

Re: Intermittent buffering and other network issues

silverous — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:16:11 GMT

Thanks, I found this scam from 4 weeks ago, before the issue started. I don't recall adding any devices:

what's the fix ? Get a new router like a Draytek or something that's more industrial strength and supports the DHCP option 61 thing ?

Re: Intermittent buffering and other network issues

jamesn123 — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:26:53 GMT

@silverous

It could well be that then yeah. Considering your rather technical/prosumer setup already anyway I would just go for a 3rd party router. If your on FTTP the rules for a compatible router are more relaxed so you can go for most now, not specifically Draytek. I've used Asus routers on Sky with no issues.

Re: Intermittent buffering and other network issues

silverous — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:45:33 GMT

Thanks very much I'll give that a go as it may be more suitable anyway and even if not the issue I've ruled it out. thanks !

Re: Intermittent buffering and other network issues

silverous — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 23:40:02 GMT

Bought a decent Draytek router and all sorted ! Thanks