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Discussion topic: Need help upgrading wifi

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This message was authored by: Edwards7

Need help upgrading wifi

Hi,

(Just posted this a couple of minutes ago then realised it wasn't my account, sorry he it is again)

I currently have a sky broadband hub (sky app calls it a sky hub 4.2).

I have the Gigafast package and run a 10m ethernet Cable from the hub to a netgear 5 port hub which is in an extension on the side of the house, I use it to run cables to the Tv, Pc & PlayStation 5 the last port go to a wifi extender.

the extension isn't that far from the hub but it's on the other side of a really thick outside wall (500mm thick) which the wifi barely penetrates, using the cables from the netgear the devices get speeds over 800mb/s which is great.

The  problem I have is with the wifi I'm using a dual band wifi extender (which advertises speeds up to 300mb/s on 2.4GHz & 867mb/s on 5GHz), the extender is connected to the netgear hub (all the cables are cat 😎 but I only get around 35mb/s on 2.4GHz and 95mb/s on 5GHz.

95mb/s has been enough for the phones/iPads but I just bought a couple of Quest 3 for me and my son for Christmas and the wifi now seems to be the weak point.

What I need help with is the best way to improve the speed/stability of the wifi in the extension, the Quest 3 can do wifi 6, would I need to upgrade my hub to get wifi 6 or can a cable from my current hub provide wifi 6 if I was to connect it to something like AX3000 WiFi 6 from TP-link.

Hopefully what I have written makes sense, just need to know what to buy, I have looked and there are so many options 

 

thanks

kevin

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This message was authored by: Chrisee

Re: Need help upgrading wifi

Posted by a Superuser, not a Sky employee. Find out more

@Edwards7 not sure why your current extenders offer such a limited speed but if you have run speed tests it sounds as it is sensiblectommend it with a

 

Buying  a WiFi6 access point is sensible although in practice few of your devices will ever use much more than 100Mb/s. As the area is effectively shielded from the main house's WiFi you should not hit interference issues. There is a wide choice of possible choices but make sure the unit you buy can be configered in access point mode as if set up as a router devices attached to it wont be able to see devices on the Sky hub and vice versa

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65inch Sky Glass, 3 Sky Streaming Pucks, Sky Ultrafast + and Sky SR213(white Wifi Max hub) main Wifi from 3 TP-Link Deco M4 units in access point mode
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This message was authored by: Edwards7

Re: Need help upgrading wifi

@Chrisee thank you for your help.

I think I know why the extender wasn't faster, it was setup as an access point and although the cable to it had 900Mb/s going through it the extenders through put seems to be capped at 100Mb/s, I did a speed test on the LAN out of the extender, (I'm guessing the higher speeds are when it's in wireless repeater mode, which was not an option in my case.)

 

so I ended up buying tp-link's AX3000 and have 3 x Deco X55 which I have just finished setting up.

Our house phone plugs into our sky router and the 3 units I got didn't have anywhere to plug the home phone into so the first unit is connected to the sky router with an ethernet cable and is set up as an access point the second unit is in the extension and is connected to the first unit with another Ethernet cable and the third unit is upstairs connected to the first unit wirelessly.

I have got rid of the netgear 5 port hub so the PC and PlayStation connect directly into the second unit, the TV now connects wireless.

On the sky router there is a cable going to the sky Q box and the home phone is plugged into the back as well, I turned off the sky's WiFi so the only WiFi network at home now is the one from the Deco, obviously the 3 units are all connected so it's now the same network everywhere which is so much better, The wifi speed varies from 300Mb/s in the corners of the house to 800Mb/s if you are near a unit which I am really happy with.

 

many thanks

This message was authored by: Chrisee

Re: Need help upgrading wifi

Posted by a Superuser, not a Sky employee. Find out more

@Edwards7 glad its working for you  one possible explanation of your previous spedds is simewhere in the Ethernet connection there was a port set to fast ethernet (100Mb/s) rather than gigabit ethernet. 

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65inch Sky Glass, 3 Sky Streaming Pucks, Sky Ultrafast + and Sky SR213(white Wifi Max hub) main Wifi from 3 TP-Link Deco M4 units in access point mode
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