TP-Link Deco / Sky Q

[JimM1]

@Pandy Have you setup the sky Q now as a third party network connection?

sky connecting devices
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/connect-devices-to-broadband-start

[Pandy]

I have been unable to get Sky Q box to get a stable connection over WiFi to a 3rd party router. Sometimes it's ok for a few days but more often than not once the Sky Q goes into standby overnight then next day I'm told there is no connection and I have to go into Settings to reset the network and re enter password for the WiFi network. 
I have tried this with several 3rd party routers and always the same result. 
There must be some difference between Sky routers and 3rd party ones when using WiFi as you have to select which router type you are connecting to in Network Settings. If the Sky router was operating the same then it shouldn't be necessary to choose router type. It would be just 2 menu options Connect via WiFi and Connect via Ethernet and not the current 3 menu options (the above plus Connect via Sky router). 
I've had Sky engineers out in the past and they have been unable to solve it. Perhsps it's a problem with firmware or something on my particular Sky Q box as it is an early edition. 
As I said before it's ONLY the Sky Q box having issues. No other device in the house has any problem. So it's not a weak WiFi as the tv in same position as Sky Q box has no issues. I have tried lots of tips I've found in various forums but none have worked. 
I've solved the problem by connecting the Sky Q box via Ethernet. But from experience I cannot recommend trying to get a Sky Q box to work over WiFi to a 3rd party router. 

[JimM1]

@Pandy Sorry but because you have not been able to get it working you cannot lump it all in the one basket, and not connecting to other hubs/routers is complete rubish!

[deroo]

@Pandy it is very possible that the routers don't like the Sky boxes due to the way they network. If you read up this thread a bit you'll see that the Sky boxes broadcast a lot of traffic, and when hardwired they can throttle your connection quite severely. I wonder whether the routers you've tried are simply blocking the connection due to the Sky box's broadcasted traffic. The router might just drop the Sky box because of this broadcast storm. Most network switches will give you options on how to deal with broadcast traffic, in particular with multicast traffic. The easiest way for a switch to deal with traffic storms is to block or drop the packets, in turn dropping the device off the network. 

I've spent hours troubleshooting this gen of Sky kit. For now I've left my Sky router running just for the Q boxes, my TP Link Mesh is used for everything else. A few years back I also had issues with the Sky Router dropping devices off the network as it seemingly struggled with lots of devices. This seems to have been fixed with newer firmware to address this very issue (search these forums and you'll find a couple of threads on this topic). 

If you've found a solution by hardwiring to your mesh node, then at least you've got a solution for now. 

[Pandy]

OK I am just giving my experience.

Before I joined Sky Broadband I was with Plusnet. I could not get a stable connection between the Plusnet router and the Sky Q box.

I then bought a router from Netgear - same result. It would be ok for a few days then lose connection. At one point it would not re-connect no matter how many times I reset everything and I even had a Sky engineer out who also had problems. Eventualy it did connect but I would have to re-enter password every few days.

I then moved to Sky Broadband - and using their router everything worked fine.

Then after Sky notified me of a price hike I moved to Airband Broadband and they supplied a Nokia router - and the problems with Sky Q box losing connection every night re-appeared. As the router was now in a different place I bought the TP-Link Deco units to expand the network - but again the Sky Q box would lose connection every night forcing me to reset connection and re-enter password every day.

So I have tried the Sky Q box with 4 different routers from 4 different manufacturers and could not get a solid consistent connection over WiFi. It was OK whilst using - but as soon as the Sky Q box went into standby, more often than not it would lose the network settings and could not re-connect until I re-entered wifi network password.

And yes I also tried the setting on the Sky Q box to disable Eco mode so that it would not go into standby (as suggested by Sky themselves and others in these forums) but this not work either.

There are a lot of postings in the forums where people are having trouble getting SkyQ working with 3rd party routers so I know I am not alone. If you have any suggestions as to why my system does not work then please say but do not dismiss my experience and tell me what I am saying is rubbish.

Ive cured it by connecting the SkyQ box by Ethernet to one of the Deco hubs. I am just suggesting that if others are having same issues getting SkyQ connecting over WiFi to their router then they should perhaps look at the TP-Link Deco units or something similar so that they can also connect over Ethernet and stop wasting their time with changing various settings.

[deroo]

@Pandy I'm totally with you. Even when everything is Sky hardware I've had issues with mini boxes disconnecting, constantly! I later find through a 3rd engineer visit that if the satellite signal is low, the Q main box will prioritise its own connection and drop the minis. This particular engineer the adjusted the dish and ran a new cable from dish to Q main box, signal strength much improved, I've since had virtually no connectivity issues with the minis. Coincidence it isn't. 

So, my point is... if the hardware has issues within its own ecosystem then issues with 3rd party kit is inevitable. If someone is rubbishing your experience, ignore them. I like having Sky at home, but their hardware is not faultless regardless of what others tell you.

[Pandy]

I wonder whether the routers you've tried are simply blocking the connection due to the Sky box's broadcasted traffic. The router might just drop the Sky box because of this broadcast storm

Possibly - but strangely the connection never dropped when streaming - it would drop overnight after not being used for several hours. It was like the SkyQ box would go into standby and forget the wifi network password so it could not reconnect when taken off standby.

It may just be because I have an old SkyQ box and its firmware needs updating. I know it is 'supposed' to do updates automatically overnight but perhaps because it was losing connection it was never able to download any update.

As you are still using a Sky Router then my problem is probably not the same as yours. You have kept SkyQ on the Sky Router network and your other devices on the TP-Link Deco one - whereas I was trying to get SkyQ on the Deco one. When I was on Sky broadband using a Sky router I never had any problems.

[JimM1]

@Pandy Sky Q and a sky mini, both wireless and 2 years on a vodafone hub, then 2 years on a VM hub!