Configuring Sky Broadband on a 3rd Party Mesh - My story

[DigitalElysium]

@MikeRN - yes, that's essentially what I did with the powerline subnet. You can just connect the switch to one of the Orbis (the router and the satellites all have ethernet ports)

[MikeRN]

@DigitalElysium do I still need the Option 61 if I will be hardwiring all of my Q mini boxes and Main Q box? 

I am looking at this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07T4CJBDG/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza?th=1 as it comes with 2 satellites too but is a little cheaper.

I looked at the link someone posted about the Netgear kit that has this option but that shows the RBK50 which only comes with 1 satellite. https://kb.netgear.com/000062426/Which-NETGEAR-routers-support-DHCP-option-60-and-61

[LlionE]

I have a switch connected via the ethernet port because I have a number of devices which need to be wired in.

From what I remember when I was buying the Orbi, I found an option where I could buy just the router and just the satellites. Obviously buying them all separately was more expensive than when bought as a set, but if you only need one satellite, then this would be cheaper.

I think 'Option 61' is to do with how you connect to your ISP and nothing to do with how you connect your devices internally. i.e. if you're replacing your Sky router, your only option is to consider ones with option 61 available.

[reprasent]

noticed this post on the Netgear forums where a user  has managed to get a Orbi that doesnt support DHCP60/61 to work with Sky - https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Sky-UK-DHCP-Option-61-Client-ID-Workaround/td-p/1984357

Although the user doesnt mention Sky Q or mini hubs so dont know if his setup is working purely for Sky broadband only

[DigitalElysium]

@MikeRN - You will still need option 61 as that's the protocol the system uses to talk with the ISP.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@MikeRN 

In this sense option 61 is a means of an isp assigning dhcp leases so comes in handy as a means of authentication in fttc vdsl. On fttp 100% of sky connections can be authenticated by dhcp prefix delegation in addition to option 61

[Coco7927]

Thank you so much for the detailed guide, seems to all be working! 
Just a heads up the defult orbi router MAC you use to setup the orbi is on the bottom of the router unit.
I used the one showed on the page just above where you put the email and password and didnt select that MAC and it crashed and I had to start again.

Luckily worked second time!

Thanks again!

[LlionE]

Having had my setup up and running for a few weeks now I thought I'd add a bit more.

I needed to split my 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands into two separate SSIDs. I orinigally followed the setup at the post below. But I was getting so many dropouts and generally poor performance that I was actually at the point of prefering my original sky router.

https://www.tech21century.com/separate-ssid-for-2-4-and-5-ghz-on-orbi/

In the end I went back to combining both bands, but I named my guest network as the 2.4GHz band. So far, the devices that require a specific 2.4GHz band seem to work fine despite the guest network broadcasting on both bands. The question will be when I next try to setup a new device which has this issue. From what I read, it should be possible just to temporarily switch off the 5GHz band during device setup then turn it back on.

Hopefully this is helpful to someone.

[MikeRN]

well, I bought it all (RBK53S & Draytek) and it has all been fine for a month or so, now it is a nightmare. Some of my devices don't connect anymore, my ipad I have to keep turning wifi off then back on and it works straight away.

what the hell has gone wrong? I am about to rip it all out and plug the original kit back in, I feel like it has gone worse. It all seems to be to do with Wifi though as my wired seem to work ok.

we have really wifi sapping walls so it is hard to decide where to place these.

[DigitalElysium]

@MikeRN 

If it was working fine and now isn't, then I'd be thinking of things like interfering neighbouring WiFi, new devices or appliances in the house, any changes to the house (moved appliances, moved furniture), dodgy firmware updates, etc. You suggest you're moving the satellites around; could this not be the cause?

It was the opposite for me; it was quite unstable for the first few weeks (during which I did a complete re-setup from scratch) but then it settled down and has been pretty stable. One thing I did do, which may or may not have anything to do with it,. was reset the entire system and then very gradually introduce each satellite and give it time to settle in. Over the last year, I have rebooted the router a couple of times just to give the system a kick, but it's been fine.

I HAVE been getting lots of issues with the Sky Mini, but that's wired so I think that's Sky's issue, not really anything to do with the Orbi.

Hope you manage to get it sorted.

[Madeupname3]

Congrats to the OP, great work. That said, I don't know about anyone else but after reading this, my first thought was F* it... I'll just get Internet from someone else

[exAmerican]

Thank you for a brilliant post.  I've bookmarked it for future refrence.  

What it tells me is that it's far too much of a pain and I'll just cope with the poor speeds I have now.  

[whitey26]

Thanks to the OP for this guide. Managed to ditch the old Sky Hub and set up a Draytek and Orbi mesh without too much bother thanks to this post. 

Now, I'm thinking about upgrading to Sky Ultrafast but the advisor told me they need to come and install new line & sockets and supply an upgraded hub. Will my current setup (as described in the OP) still work with the Ultrafast or will it need reconfiguring?

[cookiemonsteruk]

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@whitey26 wrote:

Thanks to the OP for this guide. Managed to ditch the old Sky Hub and set up a Draytek and Orbi mesh without too much bother thanks to this post. 

Now, I'm thinking about upgrading to Sky Ultrafast but the advisor told me they need to come and install new line & sockets and supply an upgraded hub. Will my current setup (as described in the OP) still work with the Ultrafast or will it need reconfiguring?

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@whitey26 

On fttp connections the draytek is obsolete. If the orbi mesh has successfully been configured for sky dhcp option 61 then it should work directly connected to the ont optical modem without modification

[Dannyboy202]

With a Google nest or Eros mesh network can you just buy a compatible 3rd party router which is MER ready, put it in bridge mode which will act as a dhcp server and remove the double nat but will act as a gateway from nest to sky? This is a question not a statement, can anyone advise?