Mesh not working or ?

[TheDrownedApe]

Hey, so have 500mb fibre and ethernet connections in two rooms show decent speed. Wifi in same room as router shows correct speed. If i move one wall away and still connected to router I get same high speed. If I move 5m and across the hall to the kitchen my wifi reconnects to a minibox. Speed drops from, say, 400mb, down to 30-50mb and it's the same in all locations connected to miniboxes. The Q mainbox which has ethernet shows on netflix checker a speed of 80-120 and wifi as 50-80. No issues shown on sky. No other known interruptions such as microwave, baby stuff or wireless tech. Why?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

The Sky Q hotspots will give you a max of 195 Mbps for the main Q or 150 Mbps if they are meshed ofer WiFi. If they are connected over Ethernet the WiFi capability on either box drops to a max of 90 Mbps.
Boosters are slightly better with a max WiFi speed of 500 Mbps if its hardwired to the router, or 290 Mbps of meshed over Wifi. Depending on how big the mesh is, node routing and device capability the speed can drop even further. For example example a booster will still be limited to 90 Mbps if meshed to a main Q STB which is connected via Ethernet. The WiFi speed you are seeing from your mesh nodes is as expected unfortunately.

[TheDrownedApe]

Thanks for the time to reply. Thats disappointing. Time to leave sky then. 

[TimmyBGood]

@TheDrownedApe 

Worth remembering that the Q mesh was revolutionary for its time, but that time was 2016.

Sky wireless boosters are loaned WiFi 5 hardware, and realistically not intended to be comparable to purchased WiFi 6 solutions.

[TheDrownedApe]

worth remembering it isn't 2016 anymore and thery haven't bothered to update them. 

[Anonymous]

@TheDrownedApe The Q mesh is designed to provide multi-screen TV first and foremost, with the added benefit of adding WiFi coverage. Given that most devices cannot use more than 30 Mbps for normal usage anything more is a waste. The only exception are devices which need to download large files, such as PC's or gaming consoles. In this case its best to connect over Ethernet, especially anything used for gaming as WiFi will almost always give higher latency, thus produce lagging. Anyone who has teenage kids must hear this complaint a lot!

The future of TV is via streaming services, so users of Sky Glass and / or stream are not limited by the Sky Q mesh. Similarly the hub 6 / Max router does not use the Q mesh and uses its own X1 based mesh to provide faster coverage. This is however evolving, and takes a little more fine tuning to work optimally out the box.

Final note is that the faster broadband services isn't just about giving you the fastest possible speed to a single device, but about providing more bandwidth, which allows more devices to work seamlessly without grinding your home network to a standstill.

[TimmyBGood]

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@TheDrownedApe wrote:

worth remembering it isn't 2016 anymore and thery haven't bothered to update them. 

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Q was the last product from Sky as an independent British company: it's never going to get an update now Comcast is the owner and has Glass/Stream as the successor platform.  The final main Q box hardware version was released in late 2019 (actually after the Comcast acquisition, but presumably designed before it) : Mini boxes never changed.  The Q mesh hotspot functionality was always more of a marketing thing, and has simply been overtaken by FTTP availablity and much better dedicated WiFi units, now sold in trios for under £100.