How install mesh system with Sky broadband

[greenbike]

Good morning

I am moderately tech capable. But not brilliant so forgive me if this is asking silly questions.

I (think) I want to install a wifi mesh system. That will work with my current Sky setup and then in future with any other supplier. We only ever have broadband and phone calls. We don't have a TV.

We have broadband (fibre to cabinet and then telephone pole to house) and landline (24/7) from Sky. We don't have TV as we don't own one.
It came with sky hub ER115
The phone line comes into the house. Goes to the voice splitter thing. One cable goes to phone. Other cable goes to ER115.

From ER115 I take an ethernet cable to an ethernet switch. From there I run 4 ethernet cables to access points in the house.

In reality I never use the wifi from the ER115. And one of the access points is not needed.

My plan is to somehow(?) remove all 4 APs and replace 3 with Google mesh wifi (the older one not the new one with speaker). I want to use the existing ethernet cables to each Google mesh thing - is that possible to they work on ethernet?

Can anyone please explain to me how to do this?

Some questions:
1. Does one of the Google mesh wifi cylinders need to be the 'main one'? (or are they all the same)
2. Would it be better to buy a cheap router that works with Sky and use it as a modem only? (is that possible with the TP-link TD-W9970 ??).
3. If I did do that then could I go out from the ethernet ports on the TD-W9970 to the 3 access points that would now be Google mesh?

Many thanks for any help

[greenbike]

Sorry should have said I have the service which is about 60Mb/s and it's ADSL

[TimmyBGood]

@greenbike 

Nope, 60Mbs has to be FTTC.

[TimmyBGood]

@greenbike 

The main issue with Google WiFi, like many other similar products, is that one 'node' also wants to be a router because they are primarily designed for the US market to sit behind a cable modem.  Sky Hubs don't have a modem-only mode, so some complication inevitably results.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@greenbike 

Any 3rd party mesh system would need a seperate vdsl modem like the one you mentioned

Instructions for setting up tp link td w9970 as modem bridge

select sky vdsl from isp list

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/faq/1332/

But more importantly the mesh needs to support dhcp option 61 authentication which google mesh doesn't

You could just switch wifi off on the sky hub and ethernet the main google mesh router to it in access point mode

[greenbike]

Many thanks. Would there be any difference between using a dedicated vdsl model like the draytek or continuing to use my sky device with wifi turned off? Does that get over the double something or other problem?

[TimmyBGood]

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@greenbike wrote:

 Does that get over the double something or other problem?

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Double-NAT.

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/6277579?hl=en-GB 

https://kb.netgear.com/30186/What-is-double-NAT-and-why-is-it-bad 

[greenbike]

Would I be better using

Linksys Velop AC3900 

??

[greenbike]

What do you mean by 'nope, 60Mbs has to be FTTC?

I thought I had fibre to the cabinet which I took to mean the roadside cabinet around the corner from me (is that the FTTC you mention). But from the cabinet to my house uses a telephone wire to the telegraph pole outside my house then into my house. Is that called ADSL or something else?

[Skull+Treaty]

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@greenbike wrote:

What do you mean by 'nope, 60Mbs has to be FTTC?

I thought I had fibre to the cabinet which I took to mean the roadside cabinet around the corner from me (is that the FTTC you mention). But from the cabinet to my house uses a telephone wire to the telegraph pole outside my house then into my house. Is that called ADSL or something else?

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ADSL is copper from the exchange right up to your dwelling.

[jamesn123]

@greenbike 

ADSL = Copper from exchange > cabinet > copper to your home. Tops out at 24mbps

VDSL = Fibre from exchange > cabinet > copper to your home. Tops out at 80mbps or 300mbps for G.fast

FTTP = Fibre directly to your home. Currently tops out at 1gbps for domestic lines. 

[greenbike]

Many thanks

Can I get G Fast on Sky?

[Skull+Treaty]

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@greenbike wrote:

Many thanks

Can I get G Fast on Sky?

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Potentially, I don't think G.fast is actively sold these days (I may be incorrect) You can give Sky a call and see whether Ultrafast is available for you (top speed is circa 145 mb/s). 
If available it's likely that an engineer will need to change the master socket. 

[jamesn123]

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@greenbike wrote:

Many thanks

Can I get G Fast on Sky?

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Only if its avaliable on your cabinet and to your property and Openreach havent ceased sales of it in your area as G.Fast is pretty much EOL at this point. 

[Chrisee]

@greenbike there is a somewhat simpler solution which is to buy a wifi mesh system that can operate in Access Point mode which while you lose bells and whistles like parental control you should get good stable wifi coverage.

TP-Link Deco units can do this. I have 3 Deco M4 units operating behind a Sky SR203 hub with its wifi disabled. One Deco unit is connected to the hub by ethernet and the other 2 linked by wifi.  It's a wifi5 system but gives me 400Mb/s wifi across the 3 levels of my relatively wifi unfriendly home. Suspect some other systems can be configured in the same way if you look at those from network suppliers rather than "brands". Avoids all sorts of complications.