Using a TP-Link Deco BE85 with Sky Full Fibre broadband

[ToeKnee60]

I currently have a pair of TP-Link Deco BE85 Wi-Fi 7 mesh routers. I am currently with Plusnet and the main router connects direct to the ONT.
I would like to continue using these routers as they allow me to get speeds of up to 900Mbs over Wi-Fi all over the house including my office which has thick internal walls. Other routers have struggled to exceed 300Mbs here. We have 4 Wi-Fi 7 devices in the house so really benefit from having Wi-Fi 7 routers.

I will be changing over to Sky Broadband in a few days time and would like to still connect my router direct to the ONT without using the Sky Hub as a modem.

I understand that Sky use DHCPv4 Option 61 (MER) authentication.
I read somewhere that this can be achieved by changing the Internet Protocol from PPPoE to Dynamic IP and entering your Sky username (e.g. abcdefgh@skydsl) and password in the Deco app. It may also be necessary to enter a VLAN ID such as 101.

We do not have a landline, only broadband.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

[Chrisee · Accepted solution]

@ToeKnee60 Sky use two authentication methods the DHCPv4 Option21 which as far as Inknow the Deco units do not support. However in roughly 80% of Openreach connections and 100% of City Fibre connections the alternative DHCPv6 PD method can be used which I believe Deco units support 

However if you only require high speed WiFi you can use my own set up where a Sky hub remains as the router but its WiFi is not used instead a Deco unit set to Access Point mode is connected by Ethernet which with my two other unitsxsupply WiFinaround my home. This has two advantages first.iis the landline voicecservice Sky providesxworks and secondly I can grt support in case of line issues withiut having to reconnect the hub.

There is an alternative set up where the connections are the same but the Deco run in router mode behind the Sky hub setting up a Double NAT which works for almost all applications but can have issues wiith some messaging services.

[Me134]

@ToeKnee60 As above, if on OR then you have an 80% chance the Deco will work, although you have to try it to find out, if on Cityfibre then it's 100%.

Your other option even if it works is to use a cheap Asus router and disabling it's internal WiFi. You can even get wired only Asus routers.

[ToeKnee60]

After I got the notification that my Sky broadband connection was live I reconfigured the Internet connection on my TP-Link Deco BE85
to Dynamic IP and left the DNS Address to auto and the MTU size at 1500. 

I also enabled IPv6 with Prefix Delegation switched on (the default) and DNS Address as Auto.
The Internet connection dropped for a few seconds then came up again.

I have run a speed test at speedtest.net over Wi-Fi and it told me that I had 912Mbps down and 106Mbps up.
It also told me that I am connected to Sky.

The TP-Link router is still connected directly to the ONT.
I will give it a few days to ensure that the connection is stable and doesn't drop when the DHCP lease is renewed, for example, before I consider it a total success.
This is preferable to using the Sky router and my TP-Link router in Access Point mode, but I will do that if the connection becomes unstable.

Stangely I got the text fom Openreach saying my Sky connection was live late this morning, but the router carried on working using a PPPoE connection to Plusnet until I reconfigured it about an hour ago.

[Chrisee]

@ToeKnee60 glad its working as expected. To answer a couple of points first the texts are often sent hours beforecthe service is switched. Secondly the IP lease renews hourly so everything looks fine.

Keep the.Sky hub around as if you hit an issue you will need to connect it before Sky can give support.

[ToeKnee60]

Thanks Chrisee and Me134. The connection still seems to be working reliably.

You are correct that there was no way to enter the credentials required by Sky for DHCPv4. Option 61 (MER). Maybe enabling IPv6 with PD has allowed it to work?

I have just done another Speed Test and it was 924Mbps down and 109Mbps up, which is a little better that I was getting from Plusnet.

I wasn't going to change my broadband, as I still have 15 months to run on my Plusnet contract. However, Sky offered to pay the Early Termination Charge from Plusnet and the price was £11 less per month than I have been paying Plusnet, so I accepted their offer.
Hopefully Sky Broadband will be at least as reliable as Plusnet.