Switched back to old hub because the white hub is awful

[Kayleighmac1]

I thought getting the new white hub would be easy!?

I could set up timers for my kids. Turned out you had to try guess who's device was who's and the connection was awful.

I phoned sky, I can't get a decent answer out of them because I just don't understand what they are saying, in the end he said to unplug put old one back in,  So I unplugged it and put my old hub back in, I'd be refunded and cancel the contract on the upgrade because they could see it was performing badly...my old hub, while it performs better it now keeps dropping out, and my account says it's still updating over a week later.. All over the shop. 

He said the white hub was in addition to the actual black hub!? I just thought it was still as fast as the black one, I thought you just switch it out for the old one in order to put restrictions on, not have both at same time! That made no sense to me.

I asked them to sort out a return for the white hub and still nothing. I dare not call for having a non English person trying to talk to me telling me I don't get it!! 
any advice? Guidance? Or maybe sky will see this and send an engineer because I'm stuck! 

[Osmond]

@Kayleighmac1 - It can be difficult to identify devices in the app, for example if your children both have the same version of iPhone it will probably show multiple devices with the same name - not ideal! However, it is possible to rename devices in the app to make them easier to differentiate.

[JimM1]

@Kayleighmac1 Tou will not halve to worry about parental controls in the slightest with the black SR203 hub not supporting it in the slightest.

If you require to have parental / restrict access and have downtime then you need to use the white Sky Max hub, no other way off doing such!

[Kayleighmac1]

Yes, I tried for days, it was like musical chairs who's phones were connected to WiFi , some things were obvious, it said Xbox or sky tv, Apple iPad... I tried to name them but the adults in the house ended up getting WiFi cut off at 7pm, not ideal, especially when I accidentally did it to my own iPhone 🤦🏼‍♀️. I also had 14 devices attached, the caller said that's probably why it wasn't performing well... like my black super fast broadband. 

[Kayleighmac1]

Yes, I am aware of that but it just isn't working for me, it's just messed up my router and it keeps turning over saying it's still loading when I've switched back. 

This may be different for other customers but I couldn't get the hang of it. It's unfortunate but, now my old router is back in my sky app service is good but it's still trying to identify the white hub that's now unplugged and boxed up ready to return but they still haven't generated a return. 

I don't know how I'm supposed to correct this when I can't understand what they are talking about.. i can't even order an engineer anymore to come help. 

[JimM1]

@Kayleighmac1 Sky's stance is once you go max then you are not allowed to go back, your account is all max updated, so not sure what is going to happen at all! But do inform them that the return will be the Sky Max hub instead off the SR203 that they will be expecting back!

[Kayleighmac1]

That does shock me especially if it isn't working,l hope sky does get in touch soon! Thanks for your insight it's appreciated 

[JimM1]

@Kayleighmac1 You can forget about sky getting back in touch with you, that is more than likely not going to happen, but best keep hold off both the hubs at present, nothing will happen to they start chasing why they have not recieved the OLD hub back, then the fun will begin again for you!

[Derek+Lester]

I had the new SKY hub 6 delivered on Saturday, after 5 hours of trying to get it working I gave up and went back to the old hub. 

All this came about because I upgraded to the 1GB Fibre with guaranteed 600mbps throughput, but best I could get was just over 500, so they said I could get the new hub. They refunded me for the lack of speed, which I think they know about, as they only offer it once.

So the new hub came and I configured it online, the new menu was awful and I could only set up a limited number of settings I had in the old hub. In the old hub I had separate SSID's configured for 2.4 and 5 mhz, so I could keep my legacy equipment separate from the new kit (I have 12 security cameras and a number of smart plugs that only run on 2.4). I was able to set these SSID's up initially in the new hub, but then the fun started, for some reason a number of legacy devices would not connect, so I went back in to check by logging into my hub via a web connection, only to find all the options were now grayed out and the two network SSID's had been merged into one and there is no way to change this. Why they allow you to set it up as you want then overwrite it is beyond me. Having the config in the SKY app is both very limiting and a joke place to put it, in my opinion if they want it in the app then it should have a proper config interface built, with all the features of the SR203 one.

That was the first thing, so then I thought I would get the other kit tested, everything else worked OK, except for two things, the WiFI signal was so poor the SKY mini box couldn't maintain a connection and kept falling over and the WIFI itself kept resetting on all devices every few minutes. I believe the reasoning behind forcing the channels to be combined (an option in SR203) is a desperate attempt to get decent WIFI range, which it doesn't actually achieve.

That was enough for me to conclude that  this new box, while having great speed for network attached devices, has absolutely dreadful WIFI connectivity. Probably OK in houses which don't have internal brick walls. Even saying that the WIFI restarting all the time was a worry, even when sat next to the box itself.

So, in conclusion. The SR203 box has an issue with throughput and cannot allow speeds up to a GIG, but on the plus side, it has rock solid WIFI in my house. SKY pretty much confirmed this box has limited throughput, which is why they suggested the SKY 6 Hub, but the trade off of limited config, indifferent WIFI strength and poor connectivity far outweighs the benefit of throughput improvement for wired devices.

I called SKY this morning and got straight through! Anyway I said I was not happy with the new Hub and they put me through to the downgrading department, really nice guy did the downgrade straight away and sent out a returns package box for me to return it. I was expecting a fight but they didn't say a word and just did it, which suggests I am not the first to have these issues. Excellent customer service and not what I was expecting.

If only they had just given us all the features for the SR203 with the faster throughput, that would be perfect. Not everyone has the ideal house for a clamped down config. 

So now I will just live with the fact the SR203, while slower, is the best Hub to be on currently....

[JimM1]

@Derek+Lester Nicely put, the Max is just not the way to go with all the enforced restrictions so good job and caught well early. Speed gain is not that much so really you are not losing a lot with the good old SR203!👍

[Kayleighmac1]

That's reassuring, I suppose il have to try again, this hub is terrible. 

[Derek+Lester]

If you tell them it is not suitable for what you need, they will take it back, I had no issue, but then I only had it for 3 days, so well within the return window.

[Kayleighmac1]

fantastic! I just checked my sky account on messages which I wasn't alerted on email about or indeed on sky app, I just happened to go onto messages and they go on to say they apologise and organise to change my hub back to the old one. Phew... 😮‍💨 so they are aware now, they just didn't let me know.. will try call and arrange a return. Thanks for your advice