Changing from Sky Router to Third Party One

[drake55]

I have read a lot of stuff on here regarding alternative routers, which is great. However, the conversations quickly turn quite technical and I’m not particularly tech savvy.

I have Sky Ultrafast Plus (ROI) with speeds up to 500 Mbps. The router (model SR203) is connected to the ONT by the front door, but there is a significant drop in our living room and upstairs bedrooms. Our TV has a Fire TV stick 4K max, through which the kids watch Netflix etc, which supports WiFi 6, but my understanding is that the Sky router doesn’t support WiFi 6.

To get better strength WiFi in our living room and upstairs, and maximise the use of the Fire TV stick I was proposing to upgrade to a third party router, which I can plug directly into the ONT. I see Asus recommended a lot on here. So, would somebody kindly recommend a particular Asus router that would work in my situation. If I search on Amazon the array of choices from Asus is confusing for non technical people. 

Many thanks.

drake55

[peter-marlow+1966]

Call sky and ask for a booster for your  WiFi 

[drake55]

Hello Peter, thanks for the reply. I requested a booster from Sky when I upgraded to Fibre, however, the agent told me that Sky doesn't provide them and that I would have to buy my own. Even then I would still not be able to fully utilise WiFi 6. One of the reasons that I upgraded to fibre was to improve the reach of the WiFi, and whilst Fibre is a vast improvement, the reach is no better. 

If I am to make a financial outlay I would rather future-proof it by buying an Asus router that would hopefully sort out all my issues. Can somebody recommend one?

Many thanks

[drake55]

Hello, perhaps

@Chrisee 

@cookiemonsteruk 

@jamesn123 

Would have an opinion? I've noticed you guys are very helpful on this issue,

Cheers Drake55

[cookiemonsteruk · Accepted solution]

@drake55 

In ireland any wifi 6 router should work fine

Unlike the uk which uses dhcp option 61 ireland uses pppoe using the credentials

Username     anything@skydsl

Password       anything

Then locate vlan id and enter 10

I would suggest the asus rt ax58u, rt ax68u, rt ax82u, rt ax86u, rt ax88u or any asus zenwifi mesh

[cookiemonsteruk]

@drake55 

By the way if you use the above method you lose your sky internet calls however you can switch wifi off on the sky hub and ethernet the asus to the sky hub and set the asus operating mode to access point

[drake55]

Thank you very much for your swift reply @cookiemonsteruk.

I'll check them out and see how far the budget can go,

Many thanks,,drake55

[drake55]

@cookiemonsteruk 

Thanks for the extra info. The Sky internet calls shouldn't be an issue. Would you recommend connecting the Aus router straight into the ONT or via the Sky SR203 router?

[cookiemonsteruk]

@drake55 

Either.  Its up to you.  With an asus directly connected to the ont you have a few extra functions

Free aiprotection with parental controls

Vpn can be used on the router instead of each device

Adaptive qos allows you to prioritise gaming, streaming, browsing etc using the asus router app

[drake55]

@cookiemonsteruk 

Many thanks. I'll probably go with the rt ax58u and see how that goes.

Many thanks

[cookiemonsteruk]

@drake55 

They do a rt ax56u but its not as sophisticated as the rt ax58u but may be useful if you set the rt ax56u in aimesh mode and blanket the house in wifi

[drake55]

@cookiemonsteruk 

Thanks. yes, I was thinking along those lines i.e. which Asus product would link wirelessly with the Ax 58U in a mesh system. So thanks for that.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@drake55 

Yep. No point buying say 3 rt ax58 when 2 are going to be mesh nodes.  Hence rt ax56u for mesh where asus recommend 8-9 nodes before the mesh falls apart.

So the main rt ax58u router is 1 node and each rt ax56u mesh unit is 2 nodes where each can cover 2200sq ft (i believe) . 

[drake55]

@cookiemonsteruk 

Would the other option be to spend the combined cost of the ax56u & 58u on a more expensive router and just have one piece of equipment?

[cookiemonsteruk]

@drake55 

Would depend on your requirements and whether you want to mesh the house and of course the size of the house

For example if you are an avid gamer then you might want a asus tuf or asus rog router (not sure what price they go for) but also the rt ax82u , rt ax68u and rt ax86u are regarded as gaming routers.  If you just want a powerful general purpose router then i'd just stick to the rt jx58u