Poor WiFi - Replace Sky Hub with 3rd party router

[Moyaleman]

Hi. Apologies in advance if this question has been asked (many times) before. I've trawled through various threads but am unable to find a definitive answer. Hope someone can help.

I've recently got Sky broadband (Sky Broadband Hub SR203 / Superfast FTTC - 61Mb/s). The landlord doesn't want to get full fibre in yet (???) so we're stuck with the copper for now. It would't be so bad except the wifi is pretty shocking - much worse than Plusnet who I was with previously. I've read/heard that it's possible to replace the Sky Hub with a 3rd party router...with the aim of improving the wifi signal. Could someone therefore recommend a direct replacement router (cost-effective!) I could use instead of the Sky Hub? I don't use/want Sky Talk and I also understand that I will have to plug back in the Sky Hub if I wanted tech support at any point down the line.

As improving the WiFi is probably my main aim, and the speeds are limited by having copper, I'm guessing I don't need anything too jazzy or powerful (ie £££). However, if there are any other significant benefits/advantages afforded by a particular model that costs a bit more, it would obviously make sense to consider that too.

Many thanks in advance for any help or advice you can offer me.

[jamesn123 · Accepted solution]

@Moyaleman 

You have 3 choices,

1. Replace the Sky hub with a modem & router - You will need to purchase a modem which can do the DSL translation and then purchase a cable router which will connect to the modem and authenticate with the Sky line to provide an internet connection

2. Replace the Sky hub with a modem & router combo - You will need to purchase a router/modem combo which does all of the above but in one box, these can often be more expensive & are becoming less common because of the adoption of FTTP. This is because a modem isnt required as such because the ONT (Optical Network Terminal) installed by Openreach or respective ISP does the job of being a 'modem' and you simply plug your router into it. 

3. Buy any router and just plug it into the back of the Sky hub - This method is the easiest and allows you to essentially 'plug & play'. You simply disable WiFi on the Sky hubs settings, then plug your new router into the Sky hub and use that for WiFi connections which should be more reliable. 

[Moyaleman]

Many thanks @jamesn123. That's really helpful. I wonder if I could push you a step further and ask what specific recommendations  - both modem/router combo and router on its own - you can give me please? As you say, I think option 3 is probably the simplest, and should meet my requirement of improving wifi, but how much will that depend on the router model I use?

thanks again

[jamesn123]

@Moyaleman 

Personally I would steer away from getting a modem/router combo box because when FTTP comes in half the box becomes redundant. I would recommend you go for any of the Asus Zen/XT/RT that have Ai mesh compatibility. Then its your choice if you just plug it into the Sky hub and run in that way or puchase a seperate modem for use until you can get FTTP. For a seperate modem something cheap like the TP-Link WD19s would be fine.

[Moyaleman]

Thanks @jamesn123. Asus as the choice of router then, as you suggest, is clearly the way to go!

In the interests of saving myself a bit of extra legwork, is there an obvious (preferably sub £100!) choice out of those various Asus models you suggested? Appreciate it can be a bit of a subjective topic, nonetheless grateful for your (or anyone else's) opinion.

[jamesn123]

@Moyaleman 

Not really depends on the features you want. I would note you probably wont get a decent mesh system below £100 without a pretty good deal because the whole idea of a mesh setup is to have multiple nodes and your often look at around £50-100 per node.

[Moyaleman]

Yep, understood. Ok, and many thanks again for your help with this @jamesn123 

[Chrisee]

@Moyaleman the advice from @jamesn123 is sound but if you have a limited budget the idea of using a mesh WiFi set up behind a Sky hub can be cheaper. My own set up uses a three unit TP-Link Deco M4 set up which can currently  be bought for a whisker under £100 but is only WiFi5 which is why it is cheaper.

One of the 3 units is connected to my Sky hub by ethernet and is configered in Access Point mode to avoid issues wth having 2 routers back to back. I have a split level home so one Deco unit on each floor provides 500Mb/s on my main living area dropping to 200Mb/s  on the top floor. The signal is rock solid so my Sky Stream pucks in the bedrooms are very reliable. 

[Moyaleman]

Thanks @Chrisee that also sounds like a great option! I'm particularly drawn to it as we're spread over 3 floors of a house with very thick walls, so increasing the potential to have a consistent signal throughout would be brilliant. Again not being hugely tech-savvy, but am I right in thinking that since we're still FTTC limited here (so 60Mb/s ish) that having wifi5 rather than 6 really  makes no difference?
If I'm honest I started this thread with no real awareness of ai-mesh systems etc, and just looking for a way to get stronger, more consistent wifi than the Sky Hub provides. It's been a learning curve! 😆

[jamesn123]

@Moyaleman 

Your right, WiFi 6 wouldnt be of much benefit to you right now. Its whether you want to solve the issue now or both solve it and 'future proof'

[Chrisee]

@Moyaleman WiFi5 top out around 600Mb/s so is amply fast enough for FTTC and in practice for 90% of full fibre customers who think they need gigabit speeds in every room but in practice will never use anything like that bandwidth except when running a speedtest. I am not a great fan of future proofing as in practice standards continually evolve and whst was premium kit when you bought it gets cheaper. 

One pont I found is the Deco system uses both the 2.4GHz and 6GHz band to communicate between units while the newer systems like Sky's WiFi Max use a third signal in the upper 5GHz band which has lower range and looses more strength in passing through walls and in my case a retaining wall. The Deco in practice was faster than the Sky Max hub and 2 pods. 

[Moyaleman]

Really helpful info @Chrisee and @jamesn123 - much appreciated, and think I'll almost certainly give the Deco setup a go as it seems to tick most of the right boxes for my particular situation. I'll feedback as & when I have something to report! Cheers