TP-Link AX5400

[andyjack]

Hello, could anyone confirm if the above router would be suitable for Sky Broadband Ultrafast? Or suggest a router with good reviews for coverage?

I have so many dead spots around the house, even when my device shows good signal pages won't load or video calls freeze. I have 2 Q boosters too. 
Tonight I tried to install my Ring cameras but as soon as I step outside they say no connection and are unable to reconnect, so I've decided enough is enough.

Thanks in advance.

[JimM1]

@andyjack 

You need to supply just a little more detail for assistance,

What is the model of the current sky Router and also your 2 boosters ie hopefully from sky.

Give an idea, how far your camera's are from Router or Booster location, and i assume that

you are trying to do this all wireless so do you have loads of other devices connecting it all

takes a toll on the system.

If you have your mobile on WiFi, and you have it on you were you wish to locate the camera,

if you have no signal for WiFi on mobile then camera more than likely will not get a signal also.

The new router's are just as powerfull signal wise but faster in operation.

You may find that moving your booster closer to the camera gives a signal, the laws of physic's

apply signals do not like to go through walls, tripple glazing etc, each time signal gets weaker and weaker.

I alone have had to do powerline WiFi to get my Ring Doorbell and Camera to work on the Wireless WiFi so know your pain...

If you wish to go down the third party router route advise can be given but you need to supply the detail.

It is not easy to say XYZ is the best and here you go no issues there will be some to overcome...

Hope this helps

Regards Jim 

[JimM1]

@andyjack 

P.S. if your mobile is an android device, there is an app called Netspot, the free version

is good, allows you to see the wireless strength and works on mobile data, so wifi does not

interfere and mess with you.

Sorry if you are on apple, cant give any advice on those.

Jim 

[andyjack]

Thanks Jim,

It's the Sky broadband hub, the vertical one. The boosters are the Q mini boosters from Sky. Both White, horizontal boxes.

It seems as though the mesh network just doesn't work, bearing in mind we have 4 room on the ground floor, main broadband hub and main Q box in living room, Q mini TV box in dining room adjacent to that connected via LAN as was always disconnecting, Q mini booster in kitchen which is to the side of the living room, attempted to connect to power line but unsuccessful as I think the kitchen must be separate electrical ring. Finally, Q mini booster in office at corner of house connected by LAN.

Upstairs 3 bedrooms, all Q mini TV boxes, the one furthest away (above office) connected via LAN, bedroom above dining room and above living room are connected wireless.

The camera is not high up as it is a dorma bungalow. Max 10 metres from main broadband, I moved the booster to the kitchen, tried it in the loft at the same height and maybe 4 metre distance connected by LAN then in the kitchen approx 2 metre distance connected wireless as explained above.

Our foster son often comes out of his bedroom and sits on the stairs as he can't video call his family, but there's a mini TV box on LAN in his room. WiFi 2.4 and 5 is active on all the boxes.

I use iPhone btw.

Thanks again.

[andyjack]

Also @JimM1 I know the router is not in a perfect place as the master socket is under the stairs, and the living room is the rear of the house but I thought the idea of the mesh network was to help distribute the network around the house.

I am happy to have the master socket moved but not sure that would resolve the problem and I wouldn't be able to move it too far if I'm wanting to keep the LAN connections.

Not sure if the pictures are any help 🙂

 

 

[Chrisee]

@andyjack it sounds like your current boosters have poor connectivity back to the hub so devices connect because the booster's wifi signal is strong but speeds are marginal . Boosters need a decent backhaul signal to work properly so should be mounted midway between the hub and where you need the signal. Each jump from the hub to booster halves speed so if your boosters are daisy chained you only getting around a quarter of the speed. Simply moving your hub to a better position so it is out in the open and reasonably high and position the boosters properly could sort your issue.

If your home is large or has solid walls any Wifi router will struggle without help. The transmission power for Wifi is strictly regulated while the more expennsive routers have sophisticated aerials and can use vsrious software tricks in many homes you will still need multiple wifi sources. The TP-Link ax5400 is a well specified unit but its performance is still subject to the laws of physics. You do not need a Wifi6 unit for Ultrafast  as your incoming speed is around 150Mb/s which is well within Wifi5 capability which tops out at 700Mb/s but if you can afford it it is a good investment for the future. You can buy One Mesh Extenders to improve range but again that unit will need a strong signal from the router. 

TP-Link routers do not support the main method Sky use to authenticate connections which is DHCPv4 Option 61 but do support the secondary method of DHCPv6 PD which most but not all exchanges support. Asus routers support both. Using any third party router rather than a Sky hub means you lose the landline. 
If you have Sky Q mini tv boxes you will still need a Sky wifi 5GHz signal to connect them as they cannot connect to a third party wifi.

Hope that helps.

Edit seeing your second post if your hub is connected to a copper line through a master socket rather than full fibre you would need a G.Fast modem to connect to the line or set up a Double NAT setup behind the Sky hub. 

[JimM1]

@andyjack @Chrisee 

Andy also please move the hub on the picture and the phone close by, they ideally should be further

apart, this can also be a source of issue, they are both wireless devices....

If the SKY Broadband Booster's can be backhalled by the ethernet connection's this also improves but depends on 1. the SE210 booster do you see an ethernet port, the new version does not have one. And does you current home wiring allow, as chrisee points out there are many good points but also issues to overcome.

[JimM1]

@andyjack 

If you are on G.Fast, your master socket will indicate this as the type, and also your Broadband Hub will

be the SR204 label on the back will also have this model number printed on it.

Jim

[JimM1]

@andyjack 

On re-read of your post, not sure, so if mini-q-tv boxes have all got the wireless turned on they will

also be acting as hotspot's for wifi connection, you may be having interference with them also.

You may have to take a step back, turn off the q-mini's, and test your wireless speed at this point.

I would test as is, test1 note your speedtest at various positions. test2 switch of q mini's and retest same

positions and see the difference.

This will give you the starting point.

[JimM1]

@andyjack 

I found some info from a post chrisee made a while back, as i have not had q system now for a while,

which i dropped because of many issues, and eventually got sky to WIRE back all to satilite dish, mini though nice was not what was expected, and wireless was a mess, so below is from the post.

unless you hard wire the Q mini boxes you cannot disable their hotspots. Q minis require a wifi feed from your main Q box. In the absence of a Sky hub the main Q box acts as the source of thst signal. The main box connects to the 2.4GHz band of your new system and radiates a 5GHz signal for your Q minis to pick up. Thst signal uses a Sky SSID and can only be joined by Sky Q boxes and boosters. 

The most common issue people face is interference between the Sky 5GHz.signal and their main wifi network as they often are using over lapping channel ranges. By default Q boxes use ch36 with a 80MHz bandwidth which will interfere with ch36 to ch52. The best solution is to set your new system to use a higher range but that is not always possible. There is a setting in the Q box's engineers menu.- accessed by going to settings entering 0,0.1 before select - to use either half of thst range by choosing one of the two 40MHz bandwidth options.

What many people do is where they have multiple wifi satellite units is to hard wire the Q minis to those and disable the Sky wifi.