Sky Broadband - connecting smart devices

[geoffshep69]

Hi, I am considering moving from Virgin to Sky.  We already have a lot of smart devices in the house, but I assume that I can just change the SSID and password on the Sky router to mirror what I already have on the Virgin router, and all those devices should automatically connect.

But I have a question about setting up new smart devices.  Most of these only use 2.4GHz, but I have read that Sky's routers do not allow the bands to be separated.  This means I can't 'force' my phone to connect to 2.4, so when using my phone to set up a new smart device it will cause issues if my phone is on 5 and the device only uses 2.4 ?  Is there any simple solution or easy way around this ?

I thought I had read that by signing in to your Sky account there was a setting to check / disable different bands ?  Is that correct ?  If so, then I could temporarily disable the 5 GHz band from there, do the smart device set up, and then turn it back on again ?

Thanks

[JimM1]

@geoffshep69 It all depends on what you are going for and what you want, also what sky will give you, so the SR203 the Sky Broadband Hub wi-fi 5 device do as you wish with that, seperate, combine etc.

The sky Max SR213 wi-fi 6 device, then it's per you last statement locked down so hard, tied to your account, admin'd by the MySky app only and so tight a duck would be more than happy!

Does VM Routers allow for seperate ssid bands?

As to everything connecting then that is device dependent and no 100% guarantees they will!

[geoffshep69]

Thanks for that.  It would probably be the full fibre 500 package, not sure what router comes with that.  And I wouldn't bother with any of the extras that they offer with it

Yes, the Virgin router allows separate bands with different SSID to be broadcast, so I can always make sure that my phone is connected to the 2.4 band before I start trying to set up any new device 

When you say that the routers are locked down tight, im  assuming  that doesn't include the network name and password ? Even on the most restricted routers I should be able to choose my SSID and password ?

[JimM1]

@geoffshep69 Correct the max allows but a few minimal changes, ssid / password are fine, here is the help link below to the Max. Sky Max is single ssid and one password, nothing else....

Sky Max change settings link.
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/change-wifi-max-hub-settings-a

If you go sky Max then unless you do wired AP or a seperate Mesh you will have to rely on there pod extenders, so extra will be required!

[geoffshep69]

Thanks for that, the link is really helpful.

In the advanced settings, there is an option to "disable WiFi", and it seems to imply that you can disable either or all of the bands.  So does that mean I could temporarily disable only the 5Ghz band ? That would force my phone to connect to 2.4, which would allow me to set up a new smart device ?

Once set up was complete, I could turn 5Ghz back on, and the smart device would happily stay connected to the 2.4 band ?

[JimM1]

@geoffshep69 That's the way, thought the help also said the way to do it, and be careful not to do by mistake and turn them both off!