3rd party router replacement

[TheSirFin]

Hi @mae-3 ,

Thanks for all that. We are in rural somerset, and there are no plan by sky, or any of the providers to do any upgrades for us .... even the new startups in the area are avoiding us.

So at least for the next 2-3 yrs we are stuck with what we have.

I will take your advice and just live with it for now ... and use wired connections for the things that are most critical!

[TheSirFin]

Hi @mae-3 

I hope you are well. I decided to go ahead and buy the router which you remmended to other users on this thread, TP-Link VR400, as I really do feel that the old sky hub is knackered. The wifi keeps dropping out for a few seconds across all my devices, its not just my poor broadband speed. And I was happy to try anything for £40, even if is only to eliminate poor wifi performance from the Router. 

So, I have received it and set it up physically as per the instructions given earlier in this thead, and it was a joy to set up. 
However, I failed to get it to connect to Sky. 

I have attached a screen grab of the set up .... big difference I can see is that there is no 

"Sky(MER)_VDSL" for me to choose from the ISP List. There is only
"Sky Broadband(BSkyB) _ADSL"

There are not other Sky related options in the list. 

So, I choose the only option, as you can see from the screen grab, and then, I tried both the following username and passwords shown below, as they were the ones referenced in this thread.  However neither of these combinations worked. After a 2 min timeout, I get an error telling me the username and password are incorrect and to contact my ISP. 

Login Credentials Attempted: 

        abcdefgh@skydsl

        1234567890abcdef

and

       77a6b2b278be@skydsl

       e11f1b12

Do you have any other suggests as to what I might be doing wrong? I'd be really grateful for any help, as I am pretty non-technical and am only blindly following advice on this thread, without really understand the underlying principles! 
Thanks a mill, 

Fin. 

[mae-3]

@TheSirFin 

How are you login into the router interface? Try using a browser on a computer or laptop to access the interface, and it will likely have the required options for Sky broadband VDSL2.

[BrianGJSteer]

I use the TP-Link VR2100 successfully with Sky VDSL using the details posted in this e-mail trail, Option 61 etc.

[BrianGJSteer]

I forgot to add, I keep the SR203 handy to plug in when I have to inevitably call Sky to complain about the speed so they can run thier tests which won't work with the VR2100, which is still dropping but of course they won't do anything about it until it drops below 20 Mbps. Now at 24,999 Kbps. 

[TheSirFin]

Hi @mae-3 

Thanks for the replies! 

I am accessing the new Router from a wired ethernet connection to a new Mac. 

Anyway, the good news is that I managed to get it working this afternoon. I was convinced from the error messages I was getting from the connection attempts that the username and password was not correct. 

For anybody else out there struggling I highly recommend following this chaps article on this. It shows you how to use a network sniffer to obtain your actual Sky BB Username and Password. I followed this exactly, and It game me mine, which are nothing like the generic ones posted here. They are then same format, but definitely not default! 

https://www.georgebuckingham.com/sky-fibre-router-vdsl-password/

The only difference I found (article was written in 2019, so maybe Wireshark or something else has moved on ... Instead of find the critical log record "Option: (61) Client identifier" under the Section "Bootstrap Protocol" 

I found it under the Section called "Dynamic Host Protocol (Discover)" as shown in the image. 

I hope this post helps anybody else with Username/Password Issues. 

For those who may be non-technical like me ... I was worried that the above link would be beyond me, but its actually really simple, and he has explained it in such a step by step process it should be easy to follow! 

And the final results....

Now that I am up and running with my TP-Link router replacing the old Sky Hub ... the Internet in our home is much much more stable. Its not faster ... (maybe just a tad, but it could be rose coloured glasses).. but the really annoying disconnects and mirco-hangs and general instablity have all be disappeared. I can even talk to my NAS for more the 30 seconds without it disappearing!

Good Luck!

Fin

[mae-3]

@TheSirFin 

There is absolutely no need to stiff information from a Sky Hub connection, and the community knows already and this has been confirmed by Sky community staff member the details are only validated as far as has been identified on the forum, eg: 'anything@skydsl|anything' without the single quotes and anything means absolutely anything in the fields as backend doesn't validate anything in that section.

[TheSirFin]

Okay! 
But be that as it may .....

If I use the generic credential provided here .... 
I do not get a connection from Sky, it just times out after 2mins. 

If I provde the specific ones which I obtain from sniffing the packets, I get a connection in seconds. 

And that is the only change I have made. 

Also note I am connecting to "Sky Broadband(BSkyB)_ADSL" 

and the not the "MER Option61" option mentioned in many places in this post. 

I am replying, not to have a disagrement, or critise, but only to inform other uses, who might be situation, and who have found this thread, what worked for me. 

Thanks for your replies. 

Fin. 

[BrianGJSteer]

Glad you sorted it out. I am much happier with the TP-Link Router.The SR 203 was an absolute pain in the proverbial.

Cheers, Brian.

[Gaggsyx]

Hello, i'm also trying to use a 3rd party router - A Vigor 2765 35b VDSL2 and i'm struggling to get it set up. Does anyone know if it is compatible and any idea of the settings to be used?

[pearsori]

Hi,

I currently have Sky Fibre (Sky Broadband Superfast) and looking to replace the current router (new Sky one) - I am hardwiring all my sky Q mini and main box, but wifi is still really really poor.

I have read through this forum and understand I can replace the router with a third party one.

I quite fancy a new tr-band wifi 6 router, but my questions are;

Does it need ot have a modem built in?

What does the router need to support to be compatible with connecting to Sky Fibre?

I was thinkning of the TP-Link Archer AX90 https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/wireless-routers/1414104/tp-link-archer-ax90-review

would this be a good replacement?

If anyone here has any recommendations I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

[mae-3]

@pearsori 

The TP-Link AX90 currently doesn't support DHCP Option 61 for authenticating with Sky, and the TP-Link AX90 is an ethernet router and therefore does not include a VDSL2 modem which is needed to connect to the BT FTTC cabinet.

[pearsori]

Yeah sorry I figured that out today 🙂

What's the best router out there currently that will work with Sky? I don't mind spending a bit more

[BrianGJSteer]

I successfullu use the TP-LINK VR2100

[Skull+Treaty]

---

@BrianGJSteer wrote:

I successfullu use the TP-LINK VR2100

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@pearsori 

I too have been using the VR2100 for 16 months or so.

The best is subjective, what is your budget? With FTTC, you will of course need a seperate modem as mentioned by @mae-3 or a combination modem/router