Sky Q Disconnecting from Ethernet connection to Orbi Mesh System

[jezmiles]

For years (not a joke) I have been trying to get my Sky Q box and Mini's to have a stable connection in my home. I have scanned these forums extensively to seek advice but have until now tried to resolve my connection issues myself.

I have tried everything and although I have a reasonable understanding of my network and certain settings I have now come to the conclusion that there is something fundamentally wrong in my set-up that is causing my seemingly endless SKY Q issues.

My initial set-up was a SKY Q hub with SKY Q and 3 mini boxes connected by wifi. It was reasonably stable for a while but then I started getting continual disconnects on the SKY Q mini in our kitchen. Not the farthest away mini but continually needing a reset. I swapped it with another one of my boxes to see if it was a hardware issue but exactly the same happened.

I decided to invest in an ORBI mesh system and now have and RBR850 router and 6 Satelittes........now I don't live in a mansion so this may seem a bit excessive, but there was method to my madness.

Over the years I have tried many different combinations with the Sky Q hub and ORBI system but never achieving stability with the SKY Q system.

So recently I changed my set up completely. 

I have a TP-Link Router (Archer VR2100) that is connected to the ORBI Router. The ORBI is in AP mode and the wifi is turned off the TP-Link. I was going to set the Router in Bridge mode but the ORBI RBR won't connect to a bridge moded modem. I Believe the earlier ORBI's will. So the TP Link has a configuration for SKY (Mer) which is what I have set up.

I know have the SKY Q etherneted into an ORBI Satelitte, and all of the 3 mini's are also hard wired into ORBI satelittes. I have turned off 2.4ghz and 5ghz wifi on all the SKY boxes so it can't try and reconnect to WiFi. This has completely solved the problem of the Mini's losing network connection. The problem now is that the main SKY Q box loses it's internet connection on average twice per day. When this happens it will not reconnect to the router however I may try. Even if I turn the wifi back on it will not connect to the router.

To get it to reconnect I have to go into the Engineer settings and reset the box. I then finds the network straight away and works until it mysteriously loses connection again. This is a pain as apart from the obvious resetting issue I then have to go and change all the audio and visual settings again.

I have Sky Q broadband that consistently gives me 40Mbps and all of my connected devices work fine. Hive, Sonos, Ring Doorbell, Hue, loads of Apple products etc.

I thought the hardwired option would be a foolproof solution but I'm now at a loss as to why my SKY Q box just decides to lose connection.

I apologise for the lengthy post but ANY advice would be greatly appreciated. I accept that I may need to provide some more info which I'm more than happy to do.

Thanks in advance.

Jez

[seandouglas2]

@jezmiles  seems like you have used a  sledge hammer to crack a nut!  is there any reason you didn't use the Sky booster? also whom is your BB with?

[jezmiles]

I have considered taking a sledghammer to it! Yes, I have a booster and tried that as well. It worked but didnt stop the drop outs in the kitchen. Not connected now as all hard wired.

BB provider is SKY

[seandouglas2]

@jezmiles  How far is your kitchen from your Router?

[jezmiles]

15 to 20 feet

[Crawford+Woods]

I'm in the same boat with just a few differences. I have sky q and two mini's and for years now I get daily dropouts on the two mini's. A year ago I got two sky boosters but this made no difference. Sky q is 14 feet from booster which is 14 feet from the mini.

I have the latest orbi and one satellite. My broadband provider is Vodafone and this router is configured in bridge mode and connected without problem the the primary orbi. I have 100 mb down and 15mb up with 10ms lag.

The orbi signal is excellent all over the house and I'm assuming at this point given all I have tried that the dropout could be caused by the two mesh networks being in contention. I have just ordered a number of netgear powerlines to hard connect all sky devices to once and foreall disable the sky mesh which is absolutely no good to me as they are not my isp. Would be great if sky included an option to turn of their mesh and allowed you to communicate using you own network.!!

My orbi connection speed is 200mb all over the house and it can easily handle the sky overhead. 

Anyway, I'll circle back when i install the powerline but having read your post above I'm not sure now this will work either 🙄😓

[jezmiles]

Hi There. I gave up with hard wiring into the Orbi's. I have connected the Sky Q by WiFi again to the main router and set the Orbi up in AP mode. My general internet is now fine and hasn't crashed for a month now. The Sky plays up all the time and I'm still having to reset everything a lot but it's a bit more stable.  I've tried power lines in the past and had loads of issues with them dropping out. Realistically I can't connect my Sky Q directly to my hub because of wiring issues. So I thought hard wiring to the Orbi would solve that but it just made everything go bananas!

Im already kinda hoping and waiting that sky will sort out their mesh network properly or get rid. If there was a sky go type app available on smart TVs then I could have a ritual burning of the Sky Q mini's. 

Will be interested to hear how you get on. Best of luck. 
Jez

[Tricky01]

I have the same challenge with sky q working over orbi. With 4 mini boxes, hardwiring them isn't an option.

bizarrely, for no rhyme or reason, having the main box plugged into Ethernet connected to a nearby satellite. They're all connected via WiFi, but if I unplug the main box from Ethernet things get worse, so I leave it plugged in!

after months and months of daily disconnecting of mini boxes, I added a smart socket/plug behind the main box power plug. I was resetting it manually but it was getting so regular I now have it set to reset at 4am every morning. I also have it setup as an Alexa routine ("Alexa reset sky") to cycle the smart plug on the fly. It's not ideal, but it's a work around that works.

on the sky booster point someone made, these are USELESS unless you have Sky broadband. They screw with your orbi mesh network and do nothing to help sky q. What more useful is an extra sky q mini box acting as a booster for sky q mesh. This did work where the booster didn't.

sky q is a pain in the **bleep** though. I do resent spending so much each month on something that didn't work.