Looking for advice on replacing SR203 with my current SKY Q + mini box + wifi extender setup

[RW2000]

Hllo all,

Looking for some advice. I have Sky Broadband with Sky Q with a SR203 router, 3 Sky Q mini boxes and a Sky broadband extender (the white box). We live in a modern 4 bed house and the internet in it has always been a bit crap. We had an engineer out who added the broadband extender but still we get issues with TV's losing signal and the wifi strength not being good. I think we have FTTC ADSL broadband. We have a lot of devices connected to the router so not sure if that makes things worse. Having looked at a few posts I really want to try and replace the SR203. I wasn't sure whether to add a Google Mesh 3 pack onto the existing set up but looking at a few posts it seems you can just replace the router. However, with my setup having 3 Q mini boxes and the wifi extender I'm not sure what will work.

I've seen a few posts recommeneding the ASUS RT range and I'd quite happily buy the ASUS RT AX86U or preferably the AX88U. With my current set up can I just replace the SR203 and configure it? Or do I need to also buy a modem? Would all the Sky Q mini boxes then just be configured to work with the new router? What about the wifi extender? Would that work as well or would I have to remove it from my system and add an extender to the the ASUS RT?

Hopefully someone could please advise - having crappy wifi is driving me nuts and I'm really frustrated with it all.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can advise.

Rik

[TimmyBGood]

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@RW2000 wrote:

I think we have FTTC ADSL broadband. 

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ADSL and FTTC are different technologies

If you post your Hub stats, we'll have some information about your particular phone line and internet connection to work with.

[RW2000]

[Chrisee]

@RW2000 you are on a FTTC connection using VDSL - a shorter range but faster system than ADSL.Because you are on a relatively long line you are only getting 32Mb/s into the hub so in reality all of your devices are sharing roughly 28Mb/s which installing the world's fastest wifi isnt going to change. Nothing much you can do about that until fire is run to your road or you have access to a third party network like Virgin Media. 

You are right to be cautious about changing wifi with 4 Q TV boxes and a boister. Not only are these boxes commiunicating between themselves they are acting as wifi mesh nodes for you other devices. If you switch off your hub's wifi the Q boxes will still be communicating over wifi but your other devices will not be able to join that network. If your Q minis are dropping now changing the router could make thst worse.

Haviing a second mesh network in your home can cause interference as the Sky signal uses ch36 to 52 in the 5GHx band which is the default for most third party systems. You can reconfigure the Sky boxes to use either half of that range and then configure the new system to use the clear section. 

However given your poor connection speed it msybe worthwhile considering an alternative approach which is to buy a Powerline adapter kit which uses your mains wiring to carry the signal to your most distant Q mini. That will improve the backhaul connection making the wifi hotspot faster and more reliable. It will also help any Q boxes within range as well. 

There is no simple way to connect the Google mesh to Sky Superfast but the Asus systems will connect and you can buy combined modem routers which are the simplest solution. However remember they still can only share your linited external bandwidth which can soon be used up someone watching the latest Amazon Ring thing in UHD will use around 25Mb/s of your 28Mb/s. The main gain of a third party router is they allow you to prioritise certain types of traffic (QOS) to help,gamers but they can't create extra bandwidth. 

[RW2000]

Hi - thanks for the detailed response. The slowish download and upload speeds of the connection I'm not too worried about - I've had to live with these speeds for some time and get by. I am awaiting FTTC to be installed in my area - it may be soon but still no timeline. Just to be clear, my main issue is with the strength of the wifi and the fact that the connection is nearly always very slow, the tv drops out every 5-10 mins, and I think my setup struggles maybe with ahving 50 odd devices on it. Despite boxes being separated by plasterboard walls and never being more than 1 room apart - the wifi strength and capacity is dire. The broadband booster has helped but its still bad. I did have powerlines in my old home, but when I moved, in the new house the transfer rates were very power so I disconnected them and relied on wifi. I may give them another go. Aside for waiting for FTTC for better overall connection speeds 🙂 I will still suffer with poor wifi throughout the house. From what you say it's not worth me looking at replacing the sky router with a modem and asus router given the numer of mini boxes and iwif extender?