Upgrade to Full Fibre Sky Q Minis

[Robs14]

Hi,

our current home set up is sky broadband, Sky Q and 2 minis. After loads of problems a few years back we Sky wired everything in and we use our minis as access points / hotspots. In the main this works ok for us and covers the whole house (3 extensions so lots of steel and brick to block WiFi). 

our broadband has reduced in speed over the last few weeks and Sky are now offering a contract exit or full fibre upgrade. 

if I change things will our set up still function or am I looking at network switches, mesh or access points to cover our house? Does anyone know what cable rating would have been used around 2 1/2 years ago to wire in our Q system? 

thanks in advance

[TimmyBGood]

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@Robs14 wrote:

if I change things will our set up still function or am I looking at network switches, mesh or access points to cover our house?

Q Mini boxes can be persuaded to act as wireless hotspots when a Max Hub is in place, but realistically they are now a decade behind current mesh technology standards and cannot be expected to shift the kind of speed that the higher FTTP tiers can deliver to an address.

Does anyone know what cable rating would have been used around 2 1/2 years ago to wire in our Q system? 

Probably Cat5e unless the contractor cheaped-out and used copper-clad aluminium (which doesn't get a Cat rating). Cat5e can be expected to handle most current FTTP speeds over any reasonable domestic distance, although Cat6a would be preferable for the Gigafast+ bands.

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[Robs14]

Thanks. That's what I was worried about. So will I need to use a mesh or access points with the Ethernet cables and plug the minis into these? Disable q WiFi and use them for tv only? 

[JimM1]

@Robs14 No, the Fibre upgrade just requires you to keep everything that you have as it is especially if it is all working. The position off your sky hub to the position off the new Fibre ONT that will be installed, and you run another Cat5e Ethernet cable between the two devices, but there are only 4 ports on a sky Broadband Hub and port4 Wan needs to go to the ONT, if you have them all currently in use with the wiring now then you will need one switch and a patch cable for the additional cabling required!

[TimmyBGood]

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@So will I need to use a mesh or access points with the Ethernet cables and plug the minis into these? Disable q WiFi and use them for tv only? 

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You don't 'need' to do so, but if you are considering a higher tier FTTP speed (anything above 150Mbs) then realistically the Minis become a bottleneck.

[Robs14]

Thanks both. Sorry I'm not up to speed with cabling etc. so from what I'm understanding- upgrade to fibre (probably don't need much above 150 for general family life, WFH etc.) and everything should work as is, including the minis as hotspots. 

I'll need a network switch as I have sky q main, 2 minis and a tado bridge in the back of the router. 

is that about the crux of it?

[JimM1]

@Robs14 So the switch answer is yes and with a patch cable as you will need one, something like the Tp-Link TL-SG105S or equivalent will be fine, patch cable of the length you need, the mini's i think the Ethernet is 100Mb/s max on those so that is your max hotspot speed back to the switch, the Q depending on which one goes at 10/100/1000Mb/s, so potential to full speed on that, but the old SR203 wireless wi-fi maxes out around the 600Mb/s on wireless wi-fi.

Yes FF150 is pretty good, i settled on the FF500 but have seen it as low as 200Mb/s sustained when the External network got real busy and could not supply, FF500 covers all that is needed max draw depending on the Daughter and what she is doing will be around the 100-150Mark, Just not having the wife kick off when on the 40Mb/s speed before Fibre and the daughter decided 4K movie, then the screaming all started between them both!!!

Switch is 5 ports all 10/100/1000Mb/s so you can wire it all as you need and spare connections to boot now!