topic Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box! in Sky Q

Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

cruisehill — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 14:12:09 GMT

I am looking for advice and new things to try to improve the performance of my sky Q mini boxes.
I have a BT smarthub2 and a 2TB sky Q box.
I use the black bt wifi discs to create a mesh network and several of them are hard wired in, and the mini box is connected to the Wi-Fi disc by an Ethernet cable. My main sky box is on one side of the house and is connected via Ethernet cable to a bt disc, this one is not hard wired. My main router is in another room and the mini Q box in that room is connected via an Ethernet cable.

My problem is we get constant drop out of the skyQ mini boxes, this occurs with ALL mini boxes both those connected by Ethernet and Wi-Fi.. .. sometimes the picture just freezes or pauses either momentarily or for longer periods of time, or we get a blue screen and error messages, these can vary from there is a technical fault, to there is a connectivity issue, or mini box can't connect. This has got much worse over the last few weeks.
I have searched these forums and followed lots of advice.. I have gone into the engineers menu changed the 5ghz channel width, to every variation option! I have logged into the bt hub and tried switching the 5ghz wireless connectivity off, I have also made sure the channels (2.4 &5) both use are different to the sky hub. And I understand at a very basic level that the problem seems to be a conflict between BT & Sky but for the life of me I can't seem to resolve it for anymore than a few days at a time, a reset might buy me a few hours of uninterrupted viewing but the next morning, I'll turn it on and it's playing up again.. for the considerable amount if money we are paying both these suppliers surely we should be getting a better service than this! We are in the country so our Wi-Fi signal is not brilliant but if the sky Q starts playing up, if I turn it off and change input to the smart TV, then I can log into APs such as Netflix, and watch TV in that way and there is NEVER an issue. Is there something I'm missing or haven't yet tried..? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

oldfella — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 15:16:24 GMT

Hi @cruisehill

I think you need to try to get all Q boxes on the same connection method and on the same network.

If your main Q box is Ethernet connected to a WiFi (non wired disc) then maybe you should try all minis connected by Ethernet to a non Wired disc.

If you can do this then When all boxes are connected by Ethernet you can then switch off all Q box WiFi.

Start with main Q box and first carry out a Network reset with the Ethernet connected.
Network Reset found in Q box Home - Settings - Setup - Network.
Highlight Status and then select Reset on the right hand side. Select connect wired to non Sky Router. Do not carry out any WPS and just wait for the box to connect. It may take a couple of minutes. If it does not connect there is an issue with the Ethernet connection.
As soon as it connects go into the Q box hidden menu and turn off WiFi.

To enter hidden menu press Home and navigate down to Settings but do not select Settings.
With Settings highlighted press 0 0 1 Select.
Go to Network to turn off both bands of WiFi. Confirm before exit.

Repeat the network reset on any minis in the Mini Home menu with the Ethernet connected. Again do not do any WPS and just wait for it to connect.
Once it is connected go into the mini hidden menu (same procedure as above) and turn off both bands of WiFi. Confirm before exit.

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

n97user — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 16:00:17 GMT

I feel your pain. Was the same for on BT with same router. As soon as I could I moved to Sky broadband and all problems disappeared. Must be something to do with the BT Hub.

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

TashPra — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 23:28:34 GMT

This has been happening to me the last month and I am not even with BT I'm with KCOM which is our local telephone and broadband company. It's been fine for years until the last month just out of the blue signal loss or or recordings not working at all.

I've had my main box on ethernet and mini boxes on WiFi and it's been fine, I've never needed it to be on the same WiFi network at all. Whatever is going on its clear the mini boxes are either broken or something with my main box is.

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

Chodley — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 02:45:04 GMT

@TashPra wrote:
This has been happening to me the last month and I am not even with BT I'm with KCOM which is our local telephone and broadband company. It's been fine for years until the last month just out of the blue signal loss or or recordings not working at all.

I've had my main box on ethernet and mini boxes on WiFi and it's been fine, I've never needed it to be on the same WiFi network at all. Whatever is going on its clear the mini boxes are either broken or something with my main box is.

Signal loss and recording failures are likely nothing to do with the internet connection.

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

Chodley — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 07:45:32 GMT

... oh is this only happening on the minis?

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

Tink4870 — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 20:27:04 GMT

Just stumbled across this discussion and we are having the same issues with loss of connectivity between the main Q box and mini box. Both are WiFi connected, initially via our previous BT hub and now via a local fibre broadband company. We also have a Sky WiFi booster. We have had no issues until the last month and now almost every evening I'm having to reset connections, reenter broadband details and reactivate the connection to the boxes! Also the WiFi booster connected light will not illuminate despite every effort to connect.

All other devices in the house are connected and working correctly.

We've insisted on an Engineer visiting as multiple tech. Support calls have proved fruitless and its completely unwatchable sometimes.

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

StuHare — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 22:54:03 GMT

We are having exactly the same issues started approximately a month ago.

We have gigabit fibre internet (not with sky) and an enterprise class network and wifi, the only issue we have is the Sky Q and Mini Boxes. Its all worked fine for over 18 months and in the last month we started to have issues with the mini box, not being able to connect to the main Q box and when it does the performance is just awful. Live tv and recordings are equally bad continually pausing.

We turn the boxes off overnight and there are issues when switching them on every day.

I have continuously rebooted the devices, reset the connection to the Q box, changed networks settings from 2.4Ghz to 5Ghz. Updated the software on both boxes. And nothing seems to be working.

Both devices have excellent Wi-Fi connections and the Wi-Fi is up and running on both when the connection to the Q box is not and fails.

Is there a resolution to this?

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

Derbywhite — Sat, 25 Nov 2023 18:17:54 GMT

Wouldn't be surprised if Sky did a update to cause this issue and people move their broadband back to Sky !!!!

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

craigbo — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 18:23:22 GMT

Glad to hear it's not just me! Same issue as others here. Q and minis were working fine until a month ago. Now I need to reboot boxes every day and I'm playing with Ethernet, wireless, mesh etc. everything else in the house works apart from the damn sky boxes all of a sudden!

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

Chodley — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 18:24:30 GMT

@Derbywhite wrote:
Wouldn't be surprised if Sky did a update to cause this issue and people move their broadband back to Sky !!!!

Well mine are working so their conspiratorial update clearly doesn't work properly.

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

Chodley — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 18:25:07 GMT

@craigbo wrote:
Glad to hear it's not just me! Same issue as others here. Q and minis were working fine until a month ago. Now I need to reboot boxes every day and I'm playing with Ethernet, wireless, mesh etc. everything else in the house works apart from the damn sky boxes all of a sudden!

If you can do ethernet, just use that and switch off wifi, surely?

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

craigbo — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 18:28:33 GMT

Ethernet as in Ethernet from the sky q main and minis to the mesh AP point that's next to them. I can't hard wire any of the boxes unfortunately. Annoying thing was it was working fine for years up until a month which is strange!

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

Chodley — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 19:21:36 GMT

You can still turn off wifi on the sky boxes if you've done that. They seem to enjoy trying to use it when they shouldn't.

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

craigbo — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 19:39:27 GMT

Thank you and yes, I have already done this... 😞

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

StuHare — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 20:34:16 GMT

So I found a solution after several days of trying different things that has so far worked for me, or at least significantly improved the situation.

In summary I have basically switched off 2.4Ghz WiFi and switched to 5Ghz only on both the main Q and mini box.

Start with the main box, then restart it.

On the mini box when you get the failed to connect to main Q box message. Press back or home to get to Sky dashboard and go to settings enter engineer mode and change the mini box to 5Ghz only. Restart the mini box it will connect to WiFi but fail to connect to main Q box. Restart Q box, when it's back up restart mini box. Then use WPS to reconnect the two boxes.

Initially I thought this hadn't worked but it has really improved things for me.

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

Chodley — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 23:24:06 GMT

@StuHare wrote:
So I found a solution after several days of trying different things that has so far worked for me, or at least significantly improved the situation.

In summary I have basically switched off 2.4Ghz WiFi and switched to 5Ghz only on both the main Q and mini box.

Start with the main box, then restart it.

On the mini box when you get the failed to connect to main Q box message. Press back or home to get to Sky dashboard and go to settings enter engineer mode and change the mini box to 5Ghz only. Restart the mini box it will connect to WiFi but fail to connect to main Q box. Restart Q box, when it's back up restart mini box. Then use WPS to reconnect the two boxes.

Initially I thought this hadn't worked but it has really improved things for me.

How is your Q connected to your router and is it Sky BB?

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

Chodley — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 23:26:04 GMT

@craigbo wrote:
Thank you and yes, I have already done this... 😞

Hmm

I would reset all the networking, starting with the Q. Get that talking to the router over ethernet/mesh on its own with the minis turned off.

a reboot of the router first is worth a try too.

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

Nick-NB2012 — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 00:11:25 GMT

We have sky broad band,

a sky wifi booster and we still have connection problems with our Mini box .

Our Main 2tb sky q box has no issues at all but the mini box has been playing up now for a few months, freezing picture, loss of connection/signal , however the wifi is fine as we can still stream from all apps. Netflix, prime , Disney etc,

can't understand. Why when we have all sky hardware and software we are having issues. We are paying a lot for our subscription and this seems unacceptable.

is it best to get an engineer out to visit to sort the mini box or simply replace it as there seems to be some unsolvable problems with the system .

hugely frustrating issues occurring everyday

Re: Totally Frustrated with SKYQ mini boxes keep losing connection to main Sky box!

Chodley — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 07:23:18 GMT

How far apart are the booster and router?

did you reconnect the mini to the booster with a network reset and the WPS button?