SKy & eero - beginner

[Dukenuke69uk]

Hi there, I've recently got Sky Gigifast, and whilst great the wifi router (even with Sky "boost") drops speeds very quikcly outside the room i'm in.  I know the SKYQ boxes act as boosters, but seem to boost at a very low speed (in comparison).  I purchased and plugged eero into sky router and them more eeros to pick up the wifi signal and boost through the house (under a new wifi name) which worked and speeds throughout the house went up x 5.  Was getting 500mbs on the top floor of house so was very happy! The SkyQ boxes seem to strangle the wifi speed even without eeros (down from 500 to about 70mbs throughout house.)  Hence why I invested in eeros in the first place.  All was working well however, now they keep dropping out and I'm thinking it's the SkyQ boxes and their wifi channels interfering with the wifi channels.  

I have a few thoughts on how to proceed.

1) I'll hardwire all the 3 SkyQs into the Sky Router and turn off all the WIFI channel on the SkyQs.  Just involves alot of drilling and wires.

2) I'll do same as above, also plug in eero into Sky router and (somehow?!?) disable the wifi signal from sky router as it's not needed? Is that possible? So i'm only broadcasting my new wifi network?

3) disconnect Sky Router and just have the eero plugged straight into the fibre point. Would that work or is there alot of programming on router need doing?

4) Delete new wifi network and just pickup the signal from sky using the routers from eero (but speeds are strangled still by the Skyqs)

Sorry for all the text, I like to think I'm tech savvy, but am struggling so it appears I'm not!! Thank you

[peter-marlow+1966]

Gigafast broadband is 900mps. I have it and get between 790mps to 850mps , I have sky glass tv  and a booster 

[peter-marlow+1966]

Minimum speed  with gigafast is  granted  at 500mps  

[jamesn123]

@peter-marlow+1966 

What relevence does your comment have on the topic OP is asking about which is moving Sky Q to ethernet?

[jamesn123]

Hi @Dukenuke69uk 

Sky Q only runs on either Channel 36 or 44 so if you configure your eero system to run on channels higher than that they should not interfere.

What I would recommend you do is switch WiFi off on your Sky hub, Switch WiFi hotspots off on your Sky Q devices & then connect them to your eero's WiFi. This would then allow you to keep the eero system in place while also not allowing your Sky Q boxes to interfere with the speeds. This also means you wont need to drill holes and run wires everywhere.

[Dukenuke69uk]

thanks @jamesn123  that sounds like a great plan (and a lot less work!).   How do I disable wifi on the hub/router?  I know how to do it on qboxes but not sure on the actual router itself

So to get this straight (sorry)

Gigafast->hub->eero (just wired)->skybox(wired)

wifi eero extender->skybox(wired)

Cheers, 

[jamesn123 · Accepted solution]

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@Dukenuke69uk wrote:

thanks @jamesn123  that sounds like a great plan (and a lot less work!).   How do I disable wifi on the hub/router?  I know how to do it on qboxes but not sure on the actual router itself

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To disable WiFi on your router go to 192.168.0.1 in a web browser, to go WiFi settings and untick the Enable WiFi Access point & broadcast boxes. You will need to also do this for the 5ghz band in the other tab. 

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@Dukenuke69uk wrote:

So to get this straight (sorry)

Gigafast->hub->eero (just wired)->skybox(wired)

wifi eero extender->skybox(wired)

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Yes you could do this or you could do the following;

Gigafast > Sky Hub (WiFi Disabled) > Eero (Wired to Sky hub) > Sky Q Main Box (Wireless) > Sky Q Mini Box (Wireless)

Then all you do is disable the 'WiFi Hotspots' feature on the Sky Q boxes. You can disable this feature while still maintaining the WiFi functionality of the Q boxes therefore you do not need to wire them if its easier not to. 

[Dukenuke69uk]

Fantastic, thankyou @jamesn123 you've saved me a world of pain this weekend it looks like!! Thanks again! 

[kaykenton1199]

Hi DukeNuke69uk, did this work?? I ask because I am about to buy some Eero 6 pro (3 pack) and hoping that I can somehow plug the 2 mini boxes that are not already hard wired to the Router (SR203) directly into the 2 EERO boxes...I then disable WiFi on the Router and Mini-Boxes and hope they attach to the Eero...is that what you have done? 

I am very frustrated with Sky, ive been with them 25 years but their stupid system says that as I have SkyQ and Mini's plus 2 extenders, I cante Sky-Max...I would much prefer they to say honestly that they are not interested in Sky Q any more, and I should stream everything to puk's.......but with a house with concrete walls and solid walls I dont want to risk it....hence going Eero.

Many thanks

[Dukenuke69uk]

Hello mate no it caused me no end of issues to br honest. The mini boxes just strangle bandwidth but also wouldnt play nice when linked to the eeros. Now I basically have 2 networks one (sky) for the mini boxes and then my own eero which is for all my wifi devices. The mini boxes are speeds of like 100mb.(lame) but the eeros give my laptop and Xbox etc 900mb. 

[kaykenton1199]

Many thanks...I did worry that this would be the outcome...I think I will be fine with this....hang everything else off the Eero and get good WiFi and just use Sky for itself....ie two mesh's. Anyway, many thanks for taking the time to reply 🙂

[John+Derbyshire]

Just to confirm that approach,  that's what iI have except the EEROs are in bridge mode and hardwired in series from a port on the sky router with the sky router resolving all of the ip addresses. The sky network is untouched and the 2mini boxes connect without issue over wifi to the Sky Q tv box. I  have an old router name for the EERO mesh so when i changed from BT to Sky fibre all I had to do was plug the first EERO into the sky router and my home was back on line in no time. Gone are the days of reconnecting every smart bulb or socket or phone when the router is changed.  And if i move from sky fibre or they change the routerit's once again a simple switch

[kaykenton1199]

Hi and thanks for the reply...I "think" I have an identical set up to that, but not sure about what "bridge" mode means? Basically i have the  Sky router plugged into the UTP, which is plugged into a Gigabit switch. The switch is hardwired to another switch, and on that is the main Sky box and the main TV (About 20 metres away) plus a 2nd EERO ...ie Switch to switch hardwired (only Cat5e, Sky supplied) and then 2 other EERO's around the house, currently not hardwired to anything ....All devices other than SKY (about 50) are on the EERO, only SKY on the SKY wifi/Extenders and all seems ok now (ie WiFi in every room)....having said all that.... I have lost my 2 minis this week, both at the same time, on two occasions, so Sky are sending a  "Network engineer" round to check things on Saturday (they could not fix via the phone)....I dont think its anything Ive done......but it is a bit of a coincidence 😞

[Chrisee]

@kaykenton1199 in bridge mode the eero units simply acts as a wifi access points as opposed to the eero acting as a second router it is simpler and in most cases a more reliable set up.

The main issue you have is that the Sky Q mesh dystem is pretty old tech and simply was never designed for today's faster systems. The Sky Q minis cannot connect to third party wifi. However your set up,has two wifi networks operating in thecsame property so interference is highly likely. Sky Q boxes use channels 36to 52 in the 5GHz band by default to communicate it is quite likely your eero system is using the same range of channels. The Sky engineer will probably switch the Q boxes to use one half of that range which often helps. I dont believe you can manually change channels on the eero system but hopefully that will  allow the twonsystems to play nicely.

Sky Q was great when launched in 2016 but given the likely end of Satellite broadcasting by 2030 Sky have not brought it up to date so it does struggle a bit with modern networks.

[kaykenton1199]

Ok I get it now, many thanks for the detailed response....let's see what he does today. I have has 2 mesh networks for years, I used to use a Tenda system but it was wifi5 so just ran out of steam with 50 + devices on it....I am hoping that the installation of the switches at least means the 2 main eeros's get as much bandwidth as they can even though currently only on 5e cable.....I might treat myself to some faster cable when Sky fixes the current issue....but your point about the frequencies they use is interesting....I has assumed it used an "auto" mode to keep switching to the strongest signal....