Router upgrade for non-fibre broadband

[Doo-Dah]

I recently re-signed with standard SKY broadband (ie non-fibre) and I'm using an old standard SKY router because the new one they sent only has 2 ethernet ports (ridiculous) and the old one has 4 which I need.

Although this works well enough for TV stuff most of the time (Netflix etc), my PC is connected via a powerline adaptor so it gets less than great speeds, especially when downloading game or software updates.

I'd like to upgrade to a router that improves speeds overall, but I gather that only certain specs will work with SKY.

Can anyone recommend  which routers would give me a significant speed improvement that will also work with SKY standard broadband ie NOT fibre?  And are they easy to configure?

Thanks.

[Highlinder]

@Doo-Dah  Was there anything wrong with the older router?

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

@Doo-Dah 

You could achieve the same result by using the Q Hub plus an unmanaged 8 port gigabit ethernet switch: the last ones I bought were under £20 delivered.  

I don't think anything related to the router will improve your Powerline speed though: even a Sky Hub has 100Mbs ethernet which is faster than your FTTC, so the bottleneck is almost certainly the adapters themselves or the mains cabling within the property.

[Doo-Dah]

Thanks @TimmyBGood  - sounds like a good plan - but what does 'unmanaged' mean and why would I need this type of ethernet splitter?

[mae-3]

@Doo-Dah 

For standard Sky essential broadband, an ADSL2+ router that supports PPPoA will work which will almost certainly be all of them that support ADSL2+. 😀

[mae-3]

@Doo-Dah 

Managed Ethernet switches have to be configured manually and don't fair well with Sky router setups, usually, they cause issues. An unmanaged ethernet switch doesn't need any configuring and will allow more ethernet devices to be connected to the 2 ethernet ports Sky Q Hub without issues. You should confirm that the unmanaged ethernet switch has 1Gbps ports and you will find these cheap at places like Amazon at and around the price specified by @TimmyBGood in various extra port configurations.

[Skull+Treaty]

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@Doo-Dah wrote:

Thanks @TimmyBGood  - sounds like a good plan - but what does 'unmanaged' mean and why would I need this type of ethernet splitter?

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@Doo-Dah 

In addition to @mae-3 comments above, they look something like this (ones with more ports are available):

[TimmyBGood]

@Doo-Dah 

Switch, not splitter (that's something different, although confusingly a switch does 'split').

Managed switches are capable of software configuration, but are typically much more expensive without bringing any benefit to a domestic network.

[Doo-Dah]

Thanks @mae-3  - so essentially if I see one that's plug n play it'll be much the same 'unmanaged'?  ie I just plug it in and it'll just work

[mae-3]

@Doo-Dah 

Correct, just plug cables in and away you go, all done.

[Doo-Dah]

No, it works fine - but someone told me that the newer ones perform far better

[ameett]

I need to resuldule the engineer as I'm stuck at work. My house phone isn't working plus my Wi-Fi not working still. This is a ongoing problem kind regards Ameet Singh

[Highlinder]

@ameettIs this visit for today?