My experience with the new Sky Broadband Hub

[Stubbsy85]

@Chrisee i had the openreach engineer here two days ago and he tested both routers. Our line has a speed of 42.1 (which is lower than the guaranteed speed and Sky have confirmed this as well and have refunded two months of broadband costs so far) I know the actual wifi speed will be slightly less than the speed to my hub. What the openreach engineer has found and confirmed to Sky is the new router is given out WiFi speeds that are 8-10mbps slower than the older Sky q router. Sky sent a second new router yesterday but that tests are confirming the same results which is still 8-10 less than the old router. I even plugged the old one back in myself yesterday and instantly faster speeds. All off the tests were done in the same place (right next to the router) on the same device and with nothing else connected. 

That makes sense about the ring doorbell, the new router has significantly improved the performance, still has its issues which I guess is down to what you have said and I can accept that as on the whole now it's connection is ok.

The bit that puzzles me is why the WiFi speed is lower and the 8-10 might not sound like a huge difference but as I am in a village every little makes a difference haha. 

[Ian27]

• As I also sad my old router gives much better wi fi speeds for some reason which is strange as the new SR203 is meant to be much better.

I did the same as you, same device, same location and the 203 was between 3-5mb. Switched to the old router and it was 38mb.

Switched back to the 203 and it varied between 3mb and 27mb with it regularly going up to 27mb but then dropping down during the test.

Back to the old router and instantly 37mb, sometimes going up to 45mb.

It too sometimes drops to 7mb or so but not as often.

To me this points to the 203 having some issue, quite why I really don't know, You changed yours with the same results so maybe they are sensitive to something else thT doesn't affect the old model.

God knows !

[Stubbsy85]

@Ian27  Yeah clearly there is some issue with the new ones. I'm going to ring sky again tomorrow but I don't hold out much hope. I'm not going to pay the extra £5 a month though if it's giving me slower speeds! 

[Brockholes]

Can anyone tell me does the new hub increase the speed of anything connected by cable os does it just improve WiFi?

[Stubbsy85]

It doesn't improve WiFi speed that's for sure! Reduces it but does extend the range. No idea about cables sorry I don't have anything connected via Ethernet 

[Giggsy1977]

My speed via ethernet remained similar but WiFi speed and range both increased. 

[Brockholes]

Cheers Stubbsy

[Brockholes]

Thanks Giggsy

[Giggsy1977]

No worries! 

[Chrisee]

@Brockholes The SR203 connects to your line at the same rate as any other router.

The ethernet ports on any router will deliver the  connection speed the port is set to which on the SR203 Is by default 1Gb/s (1,000Mb/s) which greatly exceeds the external connection speed. Therefore you will see speedtests up to 92% of the connection speed - there are network overheads you cannot avoid - lower if other devices are using the connection.

Despite what some members maintain the SR203 can easily deliver 700Mb/s over wifi dropping to 300Mb/s one room away again allowing you to easily use the maximum bandwidth of your external connection.

However wifi signals can be disrupted by interference from other networks and electrical kit in your home and are attenuated by solid objects. The internal walls in my house are blocks if they were dense bricks speeds one room away would be lower - stick a radiator in between speeds drop again. 

[Virgin1]

How to do I pair my boosters to the new Hub please? 

[SBrisbane]

Should be able to use the WPS buttons on the router and the booster, press and hold down the button on the router till it starts flashing and do the same on the booster within 2 minutes, when the lights on each go solid they should be synced up

[Dumitru+Daniel]

Hi!
I've been an old customer since 2016, I have since a sky broadband hub I want to switch to the new Sky broadband hub because my hub is only 2.4Ghz I want to switch to a 5Ghz hub. how can i do that?? Thanks

[Chrisee]

@Dumitru+Daniel the Sky Btoadband Hub SR203 is only availsble normally as part of the Broadband Boost pack at £5 per month see Can I get the new Sky Broadband Hub?

If you have an older singleband hub Sky will normally supply the dualband Sky Q hub (ER110 or ER115) if asked  nicely foc. The new hub has far better wifi performance.

[royce68]

Hi, I have just upgraded to the new sr203 from a [er115][it's in transit] I have already the following sky Q 2 and a mini box as well. and also a booster [ee120] i asked for the booster to be upgraded to se210 but they said to wait and see if this is ok.so question will it work on the old system or is it better with the new se210.i only upgrade because I  saw this thread so you sold me on the SR203 now try and upsell the se210.