topic Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection. in Sky Q

Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

BobbyLovesSky — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 16:44:21 GMT

Does anyone know if SkyQ is compatible with a large network of managed switches?

The switch with the main SkyQ box works for a few days then it get cut off the network due to STP loop detection.

Example network here is

Several managed switches on the network configured with (R)STP values from 0 at the main core switch connected to the firewall down to 4096, 8192, 12288 for the various connected switches.

All skyQ boxes are conencted via wired and wifi is disabled in the secret menu.

Seems the skyQ system does somthing funky on the network

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

MightyQuinn — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 16:46:25 GMT

Hi @BobbyLovesSky That's an easy one to answer. Sky Q does not like managed switches.

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

BobbyLovesSky — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 16:59:59 GMT

Wow OK, so what is the solution? SkyQ just not possible in this situation?

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

Chodley — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 19:05:43 GMT

What do those STP numbers define?

Interesting that they seem to think the Q is acting as a loop cause (which would impky they think it restransmits broadcast packets it should not . It does broadcast a lot of noise. Is it on the latest firmware?

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

BobbyLovesSky — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 22:49:33 GMT

Yep, on latest firmware.

Here is a little drawing showing the RSTP priority settings:

As a bad workaround, I've temprorily disabled STP loop detction on both

1. the SkyQ master port on SWITCH05

2. the port on SWTICH04 links to SWITCH05.

This is needed as the port attached to the SkyQ master on SWITCH05 kept getting disabled due to loop detected.

This is not ideal as after few hours the whole network across all switches from SWITCH01 to SWITCH05 grinds to a halt for 10-15 mins.

What is causing SkyQ to trigger STP loop detection on the skyQ master port? I can't even ping the SkyQ boxes as they have some software firewall running. Have they set up some internal mesh between themselves destroying the network?

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

Chodley — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 00:22:48 GMT

Yeah that network slowdown would cerrainly be a symptom of a broadcast storm

Have you got multiple physical ports between switches for redundancy?

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

BobbyLovesSky — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 10:27:22 GMT

@Chodley I have no redundancy links connected. Just a single CAT6 cable linking each switch as per the diagram.

@bob1234 The master and mini's do not have wifi enabled (checked via the "highlight Settings. Press 001" method).

Have to say this has me utterly baffled

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

Chodley — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 11:14:58 GMT

@BobbyLovesSky Ah. No point having STP then? No loops possible in your topology.

Unless whatever the Q is broadcasting gets rebroadcast back out on the same port it comes in. Hmm.

Does this thread help?

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-Q/SkyQ-main-box-loses-Ethernet-on-managed-switch/td-p/3691258

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

BobbyLovesSky — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 15:12:06 GMT

I ran a network packet capture and can see the sky q master box is sending approx 100,000 broadcast pactets to every device on every switch across the entire network every minute:

Is there a Sky Q support software developer contact I can report this bug to so they can fix this bug? Or perhaps I have a faulty sky q unit?

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

BobbyLovesSky — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 15:21:06 GMT

just to add - this is with STP disabled (otherwise the port get shutdown)

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

Chodley — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 16:17:32 GMT

Yeah it does stuff like that. What firmware version is the Q on as some fixes were done to reduce packet floods.

don't know what port 7a7a is. 31254 or something, probbaly proprietary to Sky?

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

BobbyLovesSky — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 17:03:13 GMT

On latest firmware on the master and mini's. It's actually very interesting the more I look into the wireshark logs. The Sky Q Master Box actually has 2x MAC addresses on the network. MAC#1 is the LAN NIC and the IP is first assigned by DHCP. This seems to be only used for the initial boot up as then that MAC disappears off the network switches. MAC#2 then appears. Looks like a "virtual" MAC but with no IP address assigned. (MAC#1 and MAC#2 and the same except the last digit) This "No IP" MAC#2 is the one responsible for the broadcast storm Another curious thing is the other Sky Q mini boxes are also broadcasting constant ARP's looking for the Sky Q Master by it's IP which doesn't exist once MAC#2 appears. Despite this they play fine. It's all still "working" for now but the network is getting absolutely hammered by the Sky Q master broadcast traffic (the cause of over 95% of the traffic in the wireshark packet capture).

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

Chodley — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 17:58:31 GMT

I've said Sky Q's networking is bonkers before and it bears repeating 😉 suspect that's maybe UDP traffic so it doesn't need a valid IP if it doesn't want anything back (might explain why the switches don't know where it came from so can't decide properly what to do with it) or it decides its own for its mesh and you can't see it. Is there a sender IP on those packets?

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

64monks — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 06:43:36 GMT

Was there any resolution or work-around to this? Ive had to isolate the SkyQ & Minis away from the rest of the network to avoid this issue. The only way I could do it was to hang them off thier own port switch on their own port on the hub.

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

BobbyLovesSky — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 08:29:10 GMT

You have the set up a separate vlan to put all skyq devices in it and disable wifi on all sky boxes. There is no other way and it will never be fixed.

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

64monks — Tue, 07 May 2024 18:29:16 GMT

I'm ready to switch over to Stream. I'm hoping it's less fussy....

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

ThePope27 — Tue, 07 May 2024 18:48:16 GMT

I've noticed that when minis are hardwired it creates a loop and it bombs my network as my minis connects via Ethernet to my core switch and for some reason still shows up as connected to my main q box which is on another switch which then creates a loop and a broadcast storm,

Enabling STP just kills the mini boxes from working, only way I got them to work was having my main q box hardwired to my switch and then connecting mini boxes to the main box with WPS, having STP enabled or disabled doesn't matter in this scenario

(I'm not with Sky Broadband)

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

BobbyLovesSky — Tue, 07 May 2024 22:14:12 GMT

The permanent solution is to turn off wifi on all the boxes then set up a dedicated VLAN and put all sky boxes on it up to 4 in total. If you have 5 or more create another VLAN with a 2nd master box.

Nobody in sky tech support will be able to help. The developers have network bugs in the skyQ network code that ignores the switch SSTP and causes broadcast storms using up 90% of the network bandwidth. You can see it in the wireshark logs they try to set up their own little network within your network and they all scream looking for a virtual mac address that doesn't exist. You can't even ping the Q boxes on the network. 100% VLAN will solve the problem.

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

ThePope27 — Wed, 08 May 2024 07:12:30 GMT

Whoever created the sky mesh system knows absolutely nothing about network...

Re: Main SkyQ causes network loop on switch and disconnects from network. STP loop dection.

Chodley — Wed, 08 May 2024 12:00:57 GMT

@BobbyLovesSky wrote:
The permanent solution is to turn off wifi on all the boxes then set up a dedicated VLAN and put all sky boxes on it up to 4 in total. If you have 5 or more create another VLAN with a 2nd master box.

Nobody in sky tech support will be able to help. The developers have network bugs in the skyQ network code that ignores the switch SSTP and causes broadcast storms using up 90% of the network bandwidth. You can see it in the wireshark logs they try to set up their own little network within your network and they all scream looking for a virtual mac address that doesn't exist. You can't even ping the Q boxes on the network. 100% VLAN will solve the problem.

Do you mean SSTP?