My experience with the new Sky Broadband Hub

[Laing1]

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@aberdeen19032012 wrote:

@Sinth  found it! 

When You Should Use 20 Mhz for Channel Width?
If you use 2.4 Ghz broadcasting radio, you should use 20 Mhz for the channel width. The simple reason is that 20 Mhz is really a supportive measure for your older devices. Using 20 Mhz on a 5 Ghz radio setting defeats the purpose of actually using 5 Ghz radio setting.

The only exception is that you somehow has a devices that support 5 Ghz broadcasting while only accepting a 20 Mhz bandwidth, however that is fairly uncommon. But if that does happen, see if your router supports duo bandwidth for both 20 Mhz and 40 Mhz.

When You Should Use 40 Mhz for Channel Width?
If you use 5 Ghz broadcasting radio, the chances are that your network is only consisted of the latest devices that support 802.11n. This is when you should use the 40 Mhz bandwidth.

When You Should Use Combination of 20 / 40 Mhz Combination.
Only use 20 Mhz / 40 Mhz combination if one of your devices require it. If not, just set it to 40 Mhz.

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@aberdeen19032012  this is from the help on the router regarding the 20/40 Mhz setting for the 2.4 Ghz setting

Bandwidth:

We set the bandwidth of your Sky Hub to 20 MHz by default to minimise interference with other WiFi networks in your area. It shouldn't be necessary to change the bandwidth unless you know it won't conflict with another nearby WiFi network. It's recommended you leave this set to 20 MHz.

there is a corresponding setting on the 5 Ghz channel of 40/80 which the default is 80

[aberdeen19032012]

Yeah I will be using 5 mostly but my cameras only operate on 2.4 so by reading it I need to have 20/40 setting and if want to be able to choose split SSID @Laing1  is that wrong?!

[Laing1]

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@aberdeen19032012 wrote:

Yeah I will be using 5 mostly but my cameras only operate on 2.4 so by reading it I need to have 20/40 setting and if want to be able to choose split SSID @Laing1  is that wrong?!

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@aberdeen19032012 I dont have cameras so havent spit mine and left it on the default of 20 Mhz all works fine I think it may be a bit of trial and error to see whick works for you.

From what I have seen and read on here then splitting the channels doesseem to be done for cameras whether changing to 20/40 from the default I dont know as I said may be try it and see on both settings see which one works best

[aberdeen19032012]

@Laing1thank you very much.

So basically 20 setting doesnt really get you full benefit of devices that use the 5 wifi setting it to 20/40 potentially could help more and splitting down the SSIDs lets you at least decide what you connect to and what you dont..

I have everything wifi related at home on the 5 setting and only the cameras on the 2 and it works great.

part of me was thinking why change but I really really really grudge paying BT £48pm for just broadband I dont even use the phone...  something Virgin keep banging the door about!  "take our 350 broadband and phone with 30 upload speed for only 39pm...."   reality is the wifi on the hub is awful and the level of complaints I have read about has put me off it forever!

£32pm from Sky seems a reasonable price.

[Laing1]

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@aberdeen19032012 wrote:

@Laing1thank you very much.

So basically 20 setting doesnt really get you full benefit of devices that use the 5 wifi setting it to 20/40 potentially could help more and splitting down the SSIDs lets you at least decide what you connect to and what you dont..

I have everything wifi related at home on the 5 setting and only the cameras on the 2 and it works great.

part of me was thinking why change but I really really really grudge paying BT £48pm for just broadband I dont even use the phone...  something Virgin keep banging the door about!  "take our 350 broadband and phone with 30 upload speed for only 39pm...."   reality is the wifi on the hub is awful and the level of complaints I have read about has put me off it forever!

£32pm from Sky seems a reasonable price.

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@aberdeen19032012 only the 2.4 Ghz channel as the option of 20Mhz only or 20/40 option.  When you get the hub I personally would try setting it as close to the BT settings as possible then go from there. As I say I dont have cameras and have left my hub in the default settings since getting it.

I do have Sky Q and everything works fine.

I did do a video unboxing the hub 4 its in this thread somwhere also tested the old Q hub against the new hub 4 and found it more powerful

[Sinth]

@Laing1 @aberdeen19032012 

Regarding my choice to use the 20/40 on the 2.4ghz was purely speedtest result. Just the 20mhz gave me around 50 on the downstream whereas on the 20/40mhz setting gives me the same as I posted previously (same as the 5ghz speed).

This may vary for other people. 

[aberdeen19032012]

@Laing1 @Sinth thank you.

I take it the settings to change it are within the hub settings online somewhere?

I went through all the smarthub settings and there is nothing other than the channel number 2.4 and 5 are set to 

[Sinth]

@aberdeen19032012 

Like any hub, everthing changeable is via a web address.

[mikejcowleyAaaaa]

Hi. I received the new Sky hub SR203 a few days ago and, initially, I found it to be significantly better than my two previous hubs. The signal is much stronger and therefore the available throughput was higher. However, I have since notice that the 2.4Ghz signal keeps dropping. My iPhone shows a strong connection but I am unable to connect to the internet. This is the same for other mobile phones, iPhones and androids. At the same time the 5Ghz connection is working well. At times it is difficult to reconnect to the 2.4Ghs signal too. What is happening and can it be fixed?

[aberdeen19032012]

@mikejcowleyAaaaa  smarthub2 settings cause your exact issues as well - they found on another forum I'm on that it was due to the SSID not being split.  The bad news on BT smarthub2 is you cant split it off !  Have you done that on the sky hub? I am no expert though with routers!

[sanevictor]

i have sky q tv with 2 minis will splitting the bands break the mesh system?

[Chrisee]

@sanevictor and others splitting the wifi channels will not "break" the Sky Q mesh it just reduces its overall efficency  as it reduces the ability of the hub to route packets dynamically. When the channels are joined the hub can use both bands simultaneously when split it can only use one. Therefore only split bands if you have devices that wont connect to the default set up. Indeed basic advice only change any of the default settings if you need to solve an issue as the set up has been designed for best performance.

The main reason why wifi speeds in the 2.4GHz band reduce is interference. There has been a lot of discussion about bandwidth what people have to realise is the 2.4GHz band is very heavily used. If you want to see what wifi networks are in your area download a wifi analyzer app onto a mobile device and check the signal strength of all wifi networks within range and the channel they are on. Unless you live over 50m from any neighbour you are likely to find multiple networks.

A relatively strong signal on the same or adjacent channel can cause your hub to have to resend data packets increasing jitter and lowering speeds. In practice there are only 3 20MHz channels in the 2.4GHz band that do not cause interference 1,6 and 11 although it is worth trying 3 or 9 as well. 

The same principle applies to the 5GHz band the SR203 can only use ch 36 to 52 which is the same as ch36 80MHz. The setting to use 40MHz effectively splits this range iin half to use either ch36 to 44 or ch44 to 52. This setting is there to allow the mesh network not to interfere with some wireless devices and other wifi networks. Interference with neighbours 5GHz networks is less likely as the signal range is less but you may have devices in your home that can interfere.

Not only wifi devices use the 2.4 and 5GHz bands. So for example Sonos wireless speakers use the same frequency as wifi ch36 as do Turtle Beach headphones. Some DECT cordless phones use the 2.4GHz band as do Zigbee wireless signals used in home automation systems and so on. Wifi analyzer apps only "see" wifi signals you need specialised equiipment to see all wireless signals on the frequency. If you have lower speeds in an area interference is something you need to investigate as no router, no matter how good its aerials are, is immune from interference this includes the SR203, 

In summary the SR203 is significantly better than the ER110 or ER115 but is not magic so is affected by interference etc. The settings out of the box are its optimum settings Only change them to overcome issues so 95% of people can hopefully plug and play.

[mikejcowleyAaaaa]

Hi. Thanks for the reply. I have ‘unticked’ the synchronise 2.4G and 5G option. Are you saying that I shouldn’t have? And that the system will work better if they are synched?

[Chrisee]

@mikejcowleyAaaaa it depends, if you have Q tv boxes potentially you will have reduced the performance but whether you notice a difference depends on lots of other things. My point is the new hub is designed to operate in its default set up only change these settings if you need to and understand what you are doing. 

Unsynchronising mesh hubs is not going to automatically improve performance and a lot of the "well known" networking tips do not apply. The more I learn the less I fiddle with.

[Sinth]

@Chrisee 

Great post a couple of posts back Chrisee. What I would say is although I find my best performance over wifi by splitting and using the 5ghz network, I also have my Q box connected to the router via ethernet which may negate some issues of splitting the channels. All wifi disabled on the Q box also (hotspot).

This is just a habit I have carried over from the Q hub and my mini box in the system works perfectly well.