Third party ASUS router suggestions that work with Sky Ultrafast FTTP?

[DanDoc]

I can connect the sky Q box to the Asus ax 88u - I did by pressing WPS and via a manual connection. The box asks if you have sky broadband which I do still, just not the sky router. Either way it works.

The sky Q box connects wirelessly - it's literally next door to the Asus and my phone gets a fab connection. It works fine for a while but then seems to randomly disconnect and then I have to do it all again.... 

I can't go back to the sky router as the Asus combo blows it out of the water performance wise.....

[TomThumb5ive]

@DanDoc  I'm guessing all your Q tv boxes are wireless!

Without the sky router, the Q mini's revert to a closed mesh from the main Q box, 

try setting Q on the lower wifi channels 1 (2.4 GHz / 5GHz ) 36, & the asus the other end, channel 11 & 52??

If you can patch the Q box's in to the Ethernet from the router or node, even better.

I don't know if the old trick of patching one of sky's boosters to a 3rd party router, then wps the sky Q box back to the booster still works. (Hopefully someone will have the answer)

The Q box's then act as they would with a connection to a sky router, bringing the Q mini's able to pull wifi  & link to the main Q from the Asus('s)

But then the 5GHz1 from the Asus needs to match the lower channel range set by the Q kit.

Tom...

[DanDoc]

@TomThumb5ive can you talk me through that first bit again? 

Set the main sky Q box to lower channels and then change something on the Asus AX88. 

I thought I'd done well to get this far but not quite keeping up. Guessing it's to try and avoid a clash between the sky mesh and the Asus mesh? 

Also l, and sorry, but if I've understood that right, how do I change those settings.

Sorry.

[TomThumb5ive]

@DanDoc  The Q kit output on the 5GHz band is usually set to channel 36, 

so to avoid any channel interference, you need to keep your Asus output on the 5GHz1 band away from channel 36. you can check the Q kit with the engineers menu on the Q box's.

Home > scroll down to the settings tab (Highlight only) > 0 0 1 select > Network 

Only 5GHz channel selection is available, (don't know why I thought 2.4GHz was configurable)

All you're doing is making sure is the Q kit & the Asus 5GHz1 are not clashing.

You can also manually set the Asus channels if needed.

If still no joy, try another channel offered by the Q engineers menu, it could just as well be local interference from neighbouring properties.

Tom...

Tom...

[DanDoc]

Thanks Tom will give it a try. 

I wired in the main sky Q box out of frustration and that seems to have stabilised it all. 

Who knows why but if it stays good I'll tack it all in as it's no drama.

It seems there must have been a clash with the main Q box connecting wirelessly to the Asus and then broadcasting on the mesh. The lack of wireless connection seems to have improved it but we'll see.

Thanks for all your help - very much appreciated 

[tangoed]

@DanDoc @Weasel-in-jeans @TomThumb5ive 

Re the Asus rouer. I am nowing having complications with a bunch of so-called Smart Plugs and Alexa. - These all use the 2.4Ghz frequency. To set them up I manually turn off the 5G channel on the Asus router and then connect the Plug / Lighbulb to the 2.4Ghz. Once connected re light the 5G frequency. Have used the same SSID name for both the 2.4 and 5 channels. 

Then at some point later the plug / lightbulb loses the connection and vanishes from Alexa.

Have tried to separate the 2.4 and 5 channels with separate SSID names but this drastically slowed down the network speed on the computers / iPads.

I did have the ASUS to reboot once a week and though that this may be the cause so removed the Auto reboot, but has not cured the issue.

Now thinking about adding a separate 2.4G router just for smart devices. When I looked at the logs I can see that we have a large number of these devices connected at 2.4. Car charger, solar battery pack, 6 light bulbs, 5 smart plus, Alexa and a few more things.

Networking seems to be an ongoing battle….. And advice?

[TimmyBGood]

---

@tangoed wrote:

Now thinking about adding a separate 2.4G router just for smart devices.

---

If you really want to go down that route, I'd suggest an old (802.11g) wireless access point, rather than another router which will inevitably complicate things even more.  You should be able to pick up such hardware for a few pounds second-hand as it's not exactly in demand these days.

[tangoed]

Yes - I do have a bunch of old kit including a oldish mesh system. Will blow dust off and configure as a pure 2.4G network. Good idea.

[TomThumb5ive]

@tangoed  I've only very recently invested in a small set of smart bulbs (wiz) 

No issues joining network with wireless smart connect on, 2.4 / 5GHz synced, 

I do get a bulb becoming unresponsive now 'n' then, but I'm sure that's down to the bulbs, 

Now the useful bit,

Not had the need to try myself, but I do remember seeing a couple of posts of people having better luck by enabling the guest network & dropping all the smart tech on that, 

Alexa should have no issues if guest network can be set up as isolated,  (would be my choice) but depending on your smart tech, that might not be an option.

Tom...

[kennyboy1021]

 Setting up my asus tuf ax5400 finnally got it going,option61   123@skydsl|123 placed this in the option 61 box and dont put any vlad id ie 101 in the box leave blank.turn on ipv6.the problem i had was the vlad read on forums put this in,thats why it took longer to set up,got to say sky loads of hassle to use our own router.

[tangoed]

@TomThumb5ive 

Had a similar issue that a bulb would continualy vanish from the network and the App no longer had a connection to it. After chnages to the netweork including a didicated 2.4 Ghz network that made no difference, I swaped out the bulbs. Respalced the origional ones with TP Link bulbs. and used the TP Link app Kasa and all is good.

[The+Warm+Nutter]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to express my gratitude to everyone on this forum. Recently, I made the switch from Sky Fibre (FTTC) to Gigafast (FTTP). For years, I had been using a TP-Link Archer VR2800 without any issues, except for the initial setup involving Wireshark to sniff out my username and password, with some assistance from this community.

However, with the upgrade to Gigafast, the trusty TP-Link became inadequate. Thus, I had to resort to the "old" Sky-supplied SR203. Initially, I was taken aback by the poor coverage, and spending hours reconnecting all my smart bulbs throughout the house was quite tedious, only to find them operating patchily.

The engineer informed me that it might take up to 48 hours to receive the full advertised speed. Initially, I was clocking speeds between 100-300Mbps, which was indeed faster than my old FTTC connection. However, after a week, there was still no significant improvement. Even my wired speeds were below par, with the fastest tests hitting 520Mbps but averaging in the 300-400 range, far from the advertised 900 and nowhere near the minimum guarantee of 600.

Following the advice on this forum, albeit against my better judgment after years of trouble-free use with TP-Link, I decided to purchase a second-hand Asus RT-AX88U. I initially connected it to the Sky Router and upgraded its firmware. Upon accessing the WAN settings page, Option 61 was already present, as described in this forum. I followed the instructions provided here, entered the username, and saved my settings.

After running a few speed tests on the Sky SR203, which yielded speeds of 130-140Mbps, I unplugged its WAN cable and plugged it into the Asus. Within seconds, it connected to the internet, and I immediately conducted a speed test, achieving 890Mbps! The time between tests was less than a minute.

Subsequent tests over the past week have consistently averaged between 800Mbps to 1.2Gbps! As a test, I reconnected my SR203 and achieved speeds between 300-450Mbps. Reverting back to the Asus, the speed surged to 950Mbps.

Having Wi-Fi 6 has been amazing as well, with speeds almost identical to wired connections, and the coverage extending over three stories. However, I chose not to split the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands, which may be causing some issues with my Nest camera in the back garden. I might resort to using an extender just for that purpose, instead of splitting the bands and having to reconfigure all my lights for a third time!

Moreover, the VPN integration feature is absolutely brilliant, allowing me to apply a VPN solely to my TV and stream Netflix to my heart's content (though this now results in hours of my wife deciding what to watch!).

The Asus app is also fantastic, far superior to the TP-Link one.

Overall, this has been an absolute game changer.

Many thanks to you all for your help!

[DanDoc]

Great post and mimics my experience.

Annoying it has to be this way though.

[JimM1]

@The+Warm+Nutter Keep in mind, the asus range of extenders although pricey are also an excellent product, fully integrated with your app, and may sort out your nest camera issue.

Its all about the hardware, and you have made an excellent choice.

[jamesn123]

I can vouch for the Asus RT-AX88u been using it for a while now and it has been faultless