Sky Max Hub router defaults to Channel 149. Google TV broken.

[Mor3]

I've joined Sky Broadband, from Virgin, a few days ago and mostly good except for the Max Hub router which seems crap. On 5Ghz the router defaults to channel 149. I've restarted it a few times and only got another channel for a few hours before it switched back overnight. My Chromecast with Google TV is broken as a result. Is there any work around for this? The router is a few metres away from the TV. What's causing it to go to channel 149?

[Lisa-P1987]

Hi there, I’ve escalated your post to our Community Messaging team who will invite you to a private chat shortly and help you with this. 

Just look out for the colourful bubble to start the conversation.

Here's more information on how Community Messaging works - https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Did-you-know/Escalating-a-post-to-a-Sky-expert/ba-p/3711147

[Mor3]

Thanks Lisa. When will I beer invited to chat and resolve the issue?

[Sodafountain1]

Hi Mor3,

Was this sorted?

I have just got the new white hub, all worked, but overnight it's changed the channel to 149, and won't allow to to change it anywhere.

Did a factory reset, changed it back to a lower channel, everythign worked for 5 minutes, then it rebooted, and changed back to Auto, and channel 149, so 3 of my devices just won't work, so had to plug the old SR203 back in.

[Chrisee]

@Sodafountain1 you cannot control the wifi channel the Sky Max hub uses it is entirely  automatic. There is nothing wrong with ch149 which the hub only can use if it does not detect a priority user. The higher 5GHz channels are normally far less lisble to interference

. Are you sure its the choice of WiFi channel that is causing the devices not to connect rather than the quite frequent issue with the default security setting of WPA3-T which does cause issues for some devices. If that applies change the Hub's setting in the My Sky app to WPA2

[Sodafountain1]

Yes, definately the channel number, as i had already changed to WPA2, and when i scan for networks while it's on 149, it can't see it, as soon as I change it to 40, it sees the router fine and then connects, and stays conencted until the router changes back to automatic and 149.

I'll have to send it back, not paying £10 a month for wifi max (or whatever it's called) for it not to work with all my devices, can't believe Sk y don't allow you to cahnge the channel (even under super user admin), as for some, it makes it unusable.

I plugged the SR203 back in, and everything works fine, just the wifi is slightly slower, i can live with that as long as ALL my devices work.

[Chrisee]

@Sodafountain1 not heard of that fault before what devices are you having issues with?. You may  hit an issue with Sky as customers who reject the WiFi Max bundle normally stay with the Hub 6 and are not reverted back to the Hub4 which is required to be returned.

[Sodafountain1]

Wifi to ethernet bridges, 2 of them, TP-Link, and none of them like channel 149, already arranged to remove Wifi MAx from my account, and will return the new router tomorrow, as i still have the SR203 which works fine.

[Chrisee]

@Sodafountain1 best of luck with that as I said Sky do not normally allow customers to go back to the Hub 4once they have been given a hub6 it has been known to becallowed but only by special agreement. 

[Sodafountain1]

They don't have much choice, the SR203 is plugged back in and working, the white hub is back in the box and been returned tonight in their return box, with a certificate of posting, so there's not much they can do about it!

[Mor3]

Hi @Sodafountain1 , this was not resolved for me. Had Sky Broadband with the new Max Hub for a week now, and stuck on channel 149. When I switch the router off then on, a couple of times I got channel 36 and channel 100 which allowed everything to work fine, but then it reverted to channel 149 after a couple of hours. It's pretty rubbish to provide such a poor performing router to customers.  I live on a residential street with only a few other WiFi networks in range, so no idea why it defaults to channel 149. I think I need to replace it with another router. I've seen Asus ones mentioned in the forums.

[Sodafountain1]

I have a TP-Link RE500X which connects fine when on a lower channel, and if I plug a PC into the gigabit ethernet port, it does an Internet speed check at over 750Mbps, unfortunately it disconnects as soon as the router changes back to 149, there's none wifi kit in the room connected to this TP-Link.

As it happens, you can run it in Access Point mode, and with a gigabit ethernet port, I might get one off Amazon, and connect it to the router direct, with a different SSID, then the other 2 upstairs should connect direct to that instead of the router, if I get decent speed, no reason why not as the receiver does, then that could be a workaround for the 5g devices that don't like channel 149.

[Sodafountain1]

@Mor3 

So i got the router back out the box, was taking it to the post office before I had the thought last night about the RE500X.

So with the old router, i was getting about 600Mbps on the Wifi Bridge upstairs, with the new router, when on a lower channel, i got about 750Mbps, but then the channel would change to 149 and it wouldn't see it anymore.

So I got the TP-Link RE500X, connected it to one of the new routers ports, and set it up as an Access Point, and used a different SSID for it, then went upstairs and connected the Wifi Bridge to it, and it connects fine, at about 600-650 Mbps, but that will do.

Just done an analysis of the local Wifi network, and it's showing my router on channel 149 (155) at -60dBm, and my new Access Point next to it on channel 36 (42) at -64dBm, we're at the top of a cul-de-sac, and only nextdoor's shows up on the 5G network, they are on channel 44 (46), so will see how it goes over the weekend, but can't see there'll be any problems.

Of course, the other problem was my works voip phone connected to BT Voice, which used to work, but when i plugged it in, it said it was connected, but couldn't make or receive any calls, luckily I found another thread about that, it was to do with SIP-ALG and and VPN, but Sky had a form to fill in, which fixed it.

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/SIP-ALG/m-p/4846517