Sky Q Hub - ethernet port issues

[dibriggs77]

Has there been a Sky Q Hub firmware update within the last week or so as I have this "odd" technical issue with both ethernet ports on the ER110 Sky Q Hub (firmware:  2.20.2745.R)?

My setup is as follows

Sky Q hub ethenet 1 connected to a powerline ethernet adapter. the second powerline adapter connects to a switch which has Hive/Philips Hue/Synology Server/PiHole connected.

Sky Q Hub ethernet 2 connected to an Apple Airport Extreme for WiFi (WiFi turned off on the Sky Q Hub)

All has been working fine until the last few days.

Now I find I'm unable to connect to the web interface of the Synology Server nor the interface for the PiHole, and the Philips Hue won't connect to the iPhone app (but does work OK over 4G via the cloud connection it supports)

I've unplugged the Apple Airport Extreme from ethernet 2 on the Sky Q Hub, and directly connected my laptop to ethernet 2 instead. Same issue - unable to get to the Synology/Pihole web interfaces.

I *can* ping the IP addresses of the devices though, so connectivity is there.

Tried the same in ethernet port 1 too (swapping the cables around), and find the issues persists.

Internet browsing remains unaffected.

My powerline ethernet adapters have two 1GbE ports, so I connected my laptop to that instead and find I *can* access the Synology/PiHole web interfaces. If I connect the Apple Airport Extreme to the powerline adapter's second ethernet port, this also works as expected - it's not going near the Sky Q Hub so I would expect it to work.

Now comes the odd part... I have a Netgear 5 port switch that I connected to ethernet 2 on the Sky Q Hub, then plug my laptop into the switch. I find I can now access the Synology/Pihole interfaces. If I plug thre Airport Extreme also into the switch, I can access the Hue system via the iPhone as well as the Synology/PiHole interfaces also.

Remove the switch and plug laptop directly into ethernet port 2 (where the switch was), and now I can't access things anymore. Can still ping the devices successfully though.

Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening all of a sudden, (no changes to my Synology/Airport Extreme nor other equipment)?

For some reason, internal web browsing is affected, but not external web/internet access.

Unfortunately, I don't have a spare router to test in place of the ER110, nor do I understand why adding a switch between my laptop and the Sky Q Hub gets things working!

Thanks in advance.

[Maxcherry2]

I have a similar issue, Philips Hue Hub connected directly to the SkyQ router, all been working fine for over a year until last week or so. Hue app can’t connect to Hub directly but can cloud connect. Hub lights all on and can see the Hub from my PC. Hub plugged into router port.

If I move the Hub to my switch it works, no problem. So definitely something to do with the SkyQ router. Been doing my head in for the last two days!!

I will look at router setting tonight and feedback if I manage to find a solution….

Regards

[GwenlliH]

I have exactly the same issue.

All was fine until yesterday morning. Connected via an ethernet cable and has been for some time. All of a sudden, they stopped talking to each other. 
Disconnected, turned off, plugged back in, nothing happens. 
Tried another device on the same ethernet cable and that cable works. 
There must be a fault with the SKY Q 2TB box. 

[Chrisee]

@GwenlliH  @Maxcherry2   can you confirm which Sky hub and firmware version you have - it is on the main maintenance page accessed by using a browser typing 192.168.0.1 into a browser clicking on maintenance and logging on with admin as the user and either Sky or the default WiFi code as the password - depends on which hub you have.

Also which Hue bridge you have round or square as Philips have recently stopped supporting the older round bridges which could be a factor see https://www.philips-hue.com/en-gb/support/release-notes/bridge

[Chrisee]

@dibriggs77 which mode is your Apple AirPort Extreme using - bridge (client mode in Apple speak) or as a router? If operating as a router you have a Double NAT which can cause all sorts of issues. Which device is acting as the DHCP server?. Can you confirm that your switches are simple unmanaged switches - managed switches can also introduce oddities. 

Also which type of Philips he hub do you have?

Not ruling out an issue with the hub just trying to understand what might be happening.

[GwenlliH]

Thanks, I'll have to check later, as O'm not home at the moment. 

[Maxcherry2]

Hi Chrisee,

Details as follows,

Systems Details

Manufacturer Sky

Model ER110

Firmware Version 2.20.2745.R

DSL Firmware VersionA2pv6F039m1.d24m

I have the Square Hue Bridge, reading your comments does have me thinking as I use BT Mesh discs over Cat5 with a Netgear Switch (52 port) I think this might be considered a managed device however the router handles DHCP. I could see the Hub connected to the Sky box and on the PC with an IP address  but nothing could connect to the Hub, app or Alexa. Have the Hub running off the switch and it all works. I even factory reset the Hub first which was a pain as lost all bulbs ects.

Regards

[dibriggs77]

I thought mine was an edge case, but seems others have noticed issues too, so for sure something has changed in a, possibly recent, firmware update to the ER110 Hub (in my case).

@Chrisee I have the newer "square" Philips Hue hub. Airport Extreme is in Bridge mode (as it's always been), and DHCP being provided by my PiHole device (which it's been doing flawlessly for a couple of years now).

Again, I can ping devices OK - same as someone above mentioned, but it's the other connectivity (web interface, Hue connectivity) that's being affected. 

And - as above - connect items to a switch first, then into the Sky Q Hub and all is OK. Directly into the hub and not OK.

Very strange..

[M42tyn]

Same issue as OP.

I have same router with a single ethernet going into an 8 port switch.  One of those ports is for the devolo powerlines around the house that connect TV's etc to a NAS also on the same switch.

Connecting a laptop via ethernet to switch I can talk to all devices.  Switching to the WiFi I cannot.  It's seems like a disconnec t between wifi and ethernet traffic.

The router has issued all of the IP addresses and can see that they are all connected but the ether/wifi bridge is not working so at the moment I'm using both wifi and ethernet connected to laptop which is far from ideal.

[thrunobulax]

I had the old Sky hub with two sockets and I installed a netgear 8 port switch in it from when my Hue Hub would only connect via cloud and not direct via Ethernet even though you can see that the switch has issued an up number to the hue bridge whatever you try with network settings it does not work. It did work ok via the cloud but Local HomeKit connection was lost. Switched to the new Sky Broadband boost hub with 4 Ethernet ports and  thought this would fix it. Plugged hue hub directly into the sky broadband hub and it still will not connect tried resetting f it and now the hue hub will not connect the push button seems to do nothing. I queried Philips support and they admitted that there is an issue with Hue Hub and Netgear switches which will not be fixed till October. Nevertheless now it won't even connect when directly plugged in the back of the router. Square hue hub V2 and all worked fine until about. A month ago 

[Maxcherry2]

Hi, 

I have plugged the Hue Hub directly into my Netgear switch (48 port) I have not been able to connect directly to the hub without doing this, however it used to work. Let's see if they fix it? 

 

[Scott999]

Hi. I'm a professional network engineer and as far as I can see the new sky q hub that I have just had installed is intelligently blocking certain ports and services between the WiFi and ether ports. It allows www and ping clearly. I have had particular trouble with my Sonos. I have not had time to properly test this supposition yet but as far as I can see it is the only reasonable explanation. I have seen some routers do this kind of thing (as an option) to protect against IOT attacks.  Someone suggested changing the ports from gigabit to fast setting. I'll try this today if my son will get off the internet for two minutes and let you know if it works. Maybe sky could chime in here and confirm if this is the case and that certain ports on Ethernet are being blocked? 

[dibriggs77]

Let me know your findings.

im not currently able to check, but is there a syslog option on the hub that can be directed to a syslog server, and do you think this would give more info?

[Scott999]

Good idea, although the syslog output would be at the mercy of what sky want to show you. I have just done the fast Ethernet change suggested in the other thread I found. It suggested changing it from gigabit to fast, and also suggested that after this change you could reboot then change it back again to gigabit. I did this and very strangely, it appears to have worked (I can now see my Chromecast network on my other WAP behind the sky Ethernet port -couldn't before). I'm not sure what will happen when I reboot again though. I'll keep at it and eventually do a port scan or something...

[dibriggs77]

I tried the Fast Ethernet option, but no luck for me. Still cannot access the web interface of my Synology (on port 5000 or 5001) when laptop is directly plugged-in to the Q Hub. Also can't access the pihole web interface either.

It breaks the use of Synology's Cloud Drive app for me also, as well as Hue, etc.