Advice on Virgin Broadband and Sky Q compatibility

[tomlip02]

Hi All,

i have seen lots of articles, some conflicting, about the compatibility of Virgin Broadband (looking at Media hub3) and Sky Q. I am paying a small fortune for Sky Fibre Max, and am looking to change providers but some of the posts talk about constant disconnections between virgin hub and sky Q and others talk about the SkyQ minbox not working properly. 

Is there any frank and easy to understnad advice out there? I would be connecting teh Sky Q box to the Virgin media hub via WIFI (as position of hub wont allow erthenet cable)

[fizzdisco · Accepted solution]

@tomlip02 

The short answer is yes, Sky Q can work using Virgin broadband over WiFi, but whether or not it will work in your individual case is impossible to answer without trying it. 

There are too many variables such as distance to router, WiFi channels, thickness of walls, distance to minibox etc. 

The easiest way to guarantee a stable Sky Q/Virgin broadband connection is to get powerline adapters and connect the main box and minibox using them rather than relying on WiFi. It'll save a whole world of pain as many people on here will testify, and will not impact on any of your other devices connecting to the Virgin WiFi.  

[CDUK]

I had a world of pain a couple of years ago trying to get Sky Q to work with VM. one of the main reasons I got rid of VM.

Just gone back, with the new Hub 4 have no issues whatsoeever in fact it's working better than it did with Sky BB. Only difference is I've got my Sky Q main box cabled to the router not over Wifi

[stereohaven]

If VM give you a hub 3 the best advice for anyone is to turn it on to modem only mode and invest in some mesh WiFi to plug into it.

The issue much of the time with any device connecting to the hub 3 is its poor WiFi. Take that out of the equation (just like the powerline suggestion), and you should be fine.

Feel free to Google "hub 3 WiFi issues", loads of confirmation of the problem out there, which as suggested already, is fixed in the hub 4.

[Gemster85]

I have nothing but trouble with sky q and VM hub 4. Cannot wait until my contract is up with VM to switch away. They are next to useless, I currently use a nighthawk router and use the hub 4 in modem mode. Works better but still isn't great. The minis constantly freeeze and we see network issues on the sky menus frequently. Not sure who to really blame, sky for not making their q products compatible with other broadband providers or terrible WiFi from VM

[kop32]

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@Gemster85 wrote:

I have nothing but trouble with sky q and VM hub 4. Cannot wait until my contract is up with VM to switch away. They are next to useless, I currently use a nighthawk router and use the hub 4 in modem mode. Works better but still isn't great. The minis constantly freeeze and we see network issues on the sky menus frequently. Not sure who to really blame, sky for not making their q products compatible with other broadband providers or terrible WiFi from VM

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Regardless of your ISP, Sky Q only ever piggy backs your WiFi network it never joins it,the only way to do this is by using Sky Broadband,I use VM Hub 3 in modem mode while using Google WiFi for my wireless network and I foungd the only stable,reliable way to connect my 2 mini boxes to the main box is via ethernet cables and unmanaged switches.

[Gemster85]

Are you connecting the minis to the main sky q box via Ethernet or to your router? My minis are a mission away from the main box and know that's probably an issue too, but to run Ethernet cables to them is another headache in itself. 

[kop32]

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@Gemster85 wrote:

Are you connecting the minis to the main sky q box via Ethernet or to your router? My minis are a mission away from the main box and know that's probably an issue too, but to run Ethernet cables to them is another headache in itself. 

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My minis ,main Sky Q box and Google Router  are connected via unmanaged switches.