Sky Max Hub Turn Off DHCP

[Cooners]

How do I turn off the DHCP on the sky max router. I've got it up and running but can't connect it to my network as it'll crash everything until I can turn this off and I've got loads of reserved addresses setup in pihole.

It's probably looking right at me but I can't see it anywhere.

[Cooners]

OMG. This router is horrible. I'm sure my Mum would love it as they've removed half the stuff and moved it to the app and anything remotely technical has been lock down!!!

It's meant to be an advanced router not a locked down piece of doggy doo.

You can't even change thre SSID's and split them which is a nightmare for IoT devices that have a fit when they see a 5Ghz network and I have 20 odd ESP32 based devices that I hardcoded the SSID into!!!

Please tell me there's a way to turn off old lady mode 😠

[TimmyBGood]

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@Cooners wrote:

It's meant to be an advanced router

Not really: it's intended to deliver some technical advances such as WiFi 6 without the need for user intervention, because that's the mass market Sky caters for.

Please tell me there's a way to turn off old lady mode 

There are no alternative modes

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[Cooners]

So it's a much use as a chocolate teapot then.

There was absolutely no mention of this beforehand!!!! 

I just spent half an hour trying to ask someone at sky how the heck you disable the DHCP and split the WiFi bands and all he kept doing doing was telling me to turn off one band or the other. Tbh I don't think he even knew what DHCP was!

Obviously mine and sky's idea of advanced are different. 

I wasn't expecting OPNsense but I've had routers since 1999 and I've NEVER had one that you couldn't turn off the DHCP. 

I can get around the WiFi split issue but the only way I can think of getting round the DHCP is by blocking DHCP on the managed switch that the router is plugged into and running a separate access point after that point....and if I do that then the one good feature of this router (the WiFi which is great) is useless!!!!

What the heck were sky thinking 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

Also double annoyed as the bloke just hung up on me (Niether of us were annoyed, I just asked to speak to someone more technically minded).

[TimmyBGood]

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@Cooners wrote:

Obviously mine and sky's idea of advanced are different.

I'd think that's very likely.  The press release largely talks about the features available by default, not through user configuration.

What the heck were sky thinking

Presumably that the very small percentage of their users who want to do such things will source their own router hardware.

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[Cooners]

Well thays the next stage but MAYBE they should have mentioned these things when selling us the Max package. Right now I dont have £200-£300 burning a hole in my back pocket and this has NEVER been an issue before.

I'd understand of I was moaning about no VLAN support or something but tell me another router in the past 3 decades that you couldn't turn off the bloody DHCP.

At least have an option to unlock advanced mode and turn these things on.

I'm now having to jump through hoops to find a way around this before the missus comes home tomorrow to find nothing in the house works anymore and only our phones and the laptop can connect to the Internet

[TimmyBGood]

@Cooners 

I have to say I'm surprised it's not an option.  I'll copy in @Chrisee who actually has one of the things, just in case it's something you aren't seeing in the firmware version your Hub is currently running.

[Cooners]

Thank you. There really HAS too be a way around this with managed switches and access points.

[Chrisee]

@Cooners there is no option to turn off the DHCP server on the Sky Max hub as far as I can find in either the app or the web interface. The unit is designed for users who want a simple set up. Antinecwanting a greater level of control is better using a thitd party router.

[Cooners]

That makes absolualty no sense calling it an advanced router then getting rid of options that have been there for decades.

I imgaine all the control stuff needs the DNS to flow thorugh it otherwise it won't have a clue what anything is to control it but at least give us the option even if it comes with losing some help from support.

It's christmas next month I can't go spending money on some dead expensive router right now becasue sky decided after 30 years that the disable DHCP option was no longer needed.

It worked fine before, ssky need to be catering for all there customers not just the ones that don't have a clue what they are doing. People like my Mum wouldn't ever touch the settings to even find the DHCP toggle and people like me would so why remove it!!!!

I can't even change the DHCP config to match the DNS settings on pihole!

[Cooners]

I'm going to throw this piece of @#%**@ out the window in a minute. EVERYTHING I try to get around this **bleep** up isn't working. I now have a whole heap of stuff that's on an internal network with no Internet and a phone, one laptop and a virtual machine with a WiFi connection connected to the Internet. 

**bleep** are sky playing at.

**bleep** sky SORT IT OUT 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

[Cooners · Accepted solution]

I found a solution that works!!!!!

Go into the DHCP settings in the web settings and drop it down to only give out 2 addresses and set the lease time to forever (you can't do 1...I tried).

Find a couple of things to connect that you'll never use again (I used a couple of VM's then deleted them but two old phones or an old tablet/laptop will do, it doesn't matter if it's WiFi or ethernet either so you could use a laptop and connect to to both the switch on the router and the WiFi).

Connect them both and they will grab the two IP addresses forever leaving the stupid sky max box with no IP's to give out

Now connnect the router to the network, even though the router still has DHCP running it as no addresses to give out so the client device looks for another DHCP server and finds the proper one.

One last thing is if you want to get into the sky max router using it's IP it changes it to myrouter.io which if your not using it for DNS your DNS won't find so just add a manuel DNS record to point myrouter.io to 192.168.0.1 (Assuming you left the default IP range) and it'll work.

I hope that helps a few others because thats driven me nuts trying to find a work around that could have been avioded if Sky had just left the ability to turn off DHCP.

Sky please fix this in a future update, people aren't thick, we are capable of handling these things.

[Chrisee]

@Cooners vanishingly unlikely Sky will change the set up on this hub as your specific requirement is very rare. Sky are a mass market ISP and have never been interested in the small market for people who want to customise their network. Sky are owned by Comcast who if anything have gone further.

.Those customers who do need customisation either use a third party router or go elswhere simple as that. Smaller isps like Zen are a far better match for you than the Sky's or EEs.

[Cooners]

I'll bare that in mind. I'm not asking for much here though. I'd get it if I was asking for VLAN support or a static IP (I noticed I'm now on some sort of shared IP now too but it's not causing any issues yet at least).

I probably will get a new router soon but it's just a shame they have seemed to have gone out of there way to lock this thing down (just look how the SSID options are greyed out).

My solution is a bit janky but it works for now. I'll look at an Asus, Ubiquiti or OPNsense (I already have these internally for my VLANs) solution once Xmas stops draining all my funds.