Split band boosting query

[philip23333]

Hi - getting hold of a sky booster (se210 am assuming is latest still) to extend broadband is hit and miss (esp. on cost) and so looking at alternatives, but this has tweaked some questions for me....

- Firstly; is the se210 still the one to go for for latest sky broadband ftth ultrafast?

- Secondly; as I split bands on my router, does the se210 take both bands and boost both retaining their separate SSIDs?

- Thirdly; does anyone know of a 3rd party booster/extender/bridge that can take split bands and boost both? I.e. most I see operate by connecting to 1 chosen SSID and boosting that - so what happens if you have split bands?

thanks,

p.

[philip23333]

Correction - gigafast, not ultrafast 

[Chrisee]

@philip23333 the SE201 is designed to boost wifi for the SR203 Sky hub so while it is the "latest" it may not work with earlier hubs. It should replicate the SSIDs delivered by the hub so if you have split the bands you should see both SSIDs. However like any booster the bandwidth it can offer depends on the bandwidth of its connection back to the hub. In practical terms boosters only deliver 50% of the backhaul bandwidth. 

If you want decent wifi speeds around your home you maybe better advised to buy a third party mesh wifi system running in access point mode. Given the inflated prices of the SR201 (legally they are all Sky's property so shouldn't be sold) these are not that much more. My own three satellite Deco M9 set up cost under £100 and can split bands if you require that feature assume you know you should only split bands if you have devices that cannot link to dualband SSIDs

[philip23333]

Thanks - I have started to look at mesh... problem with not splitting bands is that the router just isn't 'clever' enough. 2.4g devices won't always find the WiFi, and 5g supporting devices are commonly 'given' the 2.4 band even if less than half the speed of connecting specifically to a 5ghz band.

[Chrisee]

@philip23333 its the device that chooses the band used not the router. Which gets used depends on several factors first is the wifi protocols the device can use the hub can offer up to 802.11ac now onown as wifi 5 but supports older protocols such as 802.11 n to allow legacy devices to connect.

Many newer devices can use both bands simultaenously which is why leaving the bands together is theoretically better. However some devices especially IOT kit like smart bulbs etc cannot link to a dualband SSID then splitting is unavoidable. The other factor is while having greater bandwidth 5GHz signals have a lower range and suffer greater attenuation when passing through solid objects. Then the slower 2.4GHz band may give better results but they  are more prone to interference.

Installing a wifi analyzer app on a phone or lapptop enables you to see wifi strength around your home and will show whether there are neighbouring network signals causing interference.

[philip23333]

Yes, was being emotional rather than technical lol - you're right of course on devices, the point being that I have latest MacBooks, iThings, smart TVs etc that will suffer from download performance buffer while streaming etc and turns out they are jumping on 2.4 freq, when with same conditions, if I have split bands and put them on 5g channel, they have fine sig strength and much faster performance --- basically just can't trust it not split. And do have some IOT that gets confused.

So hence wanting a booster that takes the split channels for a far part of the house extension which suffers on coverage, and seems only Sky's own does that simply, which surprised me.