Asus ET12 with SR203 - odd behaviour

[ceejaysix]

Hi all,

I asked a few months ago about replacing Sky's mesh with a third party network to improve connectivity throughout the house (Sky mesh not strong enough to carry TV reliably after we extended - yes we should have run ethernet before plastering, but we'd never had an issue so didn't even think about it). 

We have an SR203 modem, main Q box and 4 miniboxes. All wifi etc turned off, each box and the modem is ethernetted to an Asus mesh node sat next to it. Yes this is massive overkill from a wifi perspective, but only way we could get Sky reliably working without running a load of ethernet through various walls, ceilings and floors (many of which are solid rather than boarded).

Following advice on here, originally tried Asus XT12s in AP mode; connectivity fine but sound stuttered (and when it did, it also caused the projector hooked to one of our miniboxes to flick to the splash screen, so was unwatchable). 

Returned and tried ET12s. Same issue (actually a bit worse) in AP mode. Before returning again, I flicked the mesh into router mode just to see what happened. Problem instantly solved (yes there's a double NAT, whatever that means, but it doesn't impact what we use it for). All works flawlessly...almost. 

The master ET12 is in the hall, next to (and ethernetted to) the SR203. 4 of the 5 nodes (Q box plus 3 minis) connect directly to this and have no issues. The 5th node can just about connect to the router, but with poor connection and intermittent streaming, so it's set to daisy chain to an intermediate node rather than direct to router. This provides excellent wifi signal (75mb DL at the limit of the outlying node).

The minibox attached to this node however has weird behaviour. When turning on, it has the 'cannot connect to Q box' screen; I have to force the ethernetted mesh node to connect to the hall, at which point the minibox will connect to Q box but has insufficient signal strength to stream reliably. I then flick the node back to the daisy chain, and get solid streaming. Every now and then (usually after 1-2hrs, halfway through a film!) it will drop back to the 'cannot connect to Q box' screen and I have to repeat the process, flicking the node connection back to the master router in the hall, waiting for Q to reconnect, then flicking the node back to the daisy chain for good stream.

Any ideas what would cause this behaviour and whether there are any settings in the mesh network I can fiddle with to fix it? I'm IT-literate at a user level so happy to experiment, but no clue of the technicalities of networking so need a bit of a paint-by-numbers. 

Thanks

Chris

[Chrisee]

@ceejaysix Sky Q is getting to be quite an old system and its networking uses a complex system provided by a company Sky no longer deal with and was never designed to operate in such a set up..

At a guess your 4th Q mini is having issues connecting to the main Sky Q box which acts as the server due to the multiple network jumps possibly caused by an increase in latency due to the daisychain. Sky have a number of systems designed to detect and prevent multiple households sharing a Q subscrition which your set up is triggering. .As I say that is a guess but given Sky never discuss these security systems you are unlikely to get anything from them. One work round would be to connect the Q mini using a powerline adapter kit from the main Asus unit eliminating the double network jump.

[ceejaysix]

Thanks Chrisee. Will try Powerline but suspect non starter as A. Have tried in the past for work computer which (pre-ET12s) struggled with Teams on the Sky mesh - only got 10-12mbs across it; and B. problem minibox is in new extension which I suspect is on a different power ring.

 It's an inconvenience rather than critical, just feels odd given it works perfectly 99% of the time.

 Is there a replacement for Q in the works or are they trying to force everyone to Stream?

[Chrisee]

@ceejaysix modern powerline adapters use all 3 conductors and should work if circuits are on the same consumer unit.