Using third party router with Sky FTTP

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Kadmus 

There's no need to wirehark dhcp option 61 a simple

anything@skydsl|anything

Will suffice

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Kadmus 

The question is more have ubiquiti released firmware yet so that dhcp option 61 is displayed

[Daviesl]

After reading all of this I am left with one question. 

what is or are the best third party routers to use with Ultra fast Sky fibre that is also reliable?

my sky Q router is awful. 140mbps only if I sit literally next to it and halves 3 metres away. 

[Kadmus]

Hi cookiemonsteruk,

is that username: anything@skydsl   and password: anything

I haven't tried it yet. By all accounts the amplifi alien router does support the option 61. I'll give it a try with those credentials and see if it's accepted. 

[Crouchie77]

Hi, recently had FTTP gigafast installed at home to replace my previous sky Internet package, but having major issues with the quality of the Sky Router.  The WiFi speeds constantly change or drop out and max I'm getting is around 180mbps. When I connect via Ethernet on laptop I'm getting 800mbps at least.

Can anyone recommend a router that will definitely work with sky? I bought a TP-Link AX1800 router but couldn't get it to work and sent it back to Amazon.

Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated, cheers.

[Daviesl]

Keen on a reply to the above guys please 

[samfromoz]

I've been using Netgear Orbi RBK50 for nearly a year now. Its been stable and fast, not aware of any restarts. Its connected straight to the Openreach modem. Its configured in the advanced settings for DHCP Option 61, which is set to username@skydsl|mypass 

There are newer Orbi models but not sure if they work. Netgear list their models that support DHCP Option 61 here https://kb.netgear.com/000062426/Which-NETGEAR-routers-support-DHCP-option-60-and-61

[Kappo]

Recently ordered sky 900mb (gigafast) and realising after that there's no "modem mode" equivalent (I'm coming from Virgin). I have a Netgear Orbi RBK852 mesh set up now and believe from details here it's possible to remove the sky hub altogether and have the Orbi connect direct to the ONT. I'm not bothered about losing VOIP as we have no landline phones.

I wanted to see if anyone had actually successfully got an RBR 850 up and running in this way? From what I can see it supports Option 61 and ipv6 so I should be all set by configuring with the anything@skydsl|anything flag, and then plugging the Sky Q box into an orbi ethernet port?

TIA!

[nicky15]

We also swapped to Sky fttp and noticed a significant drop in wifi compared to our previous routers and have had to install numerous powerline adapters just to be able to get wifi throughout the house. I would rather not use any more electricity than we need so would prefer to use a third party router that works better than the Sky hub. However, as a result of the swap, we no longer have copper phoneline and the phone handset now plugs directly into the hub. There appear to be a limited number of routers that facilitate this - do they work with Sky, what settings or are there any better/easier/cheaper ways of keeping our phone connected. We still need a landline so can't just switch to the very shaky mobile network.

[Chrisee]

@nicky15 short answer is no the Sky IP voice line only works through a Sky hub. You have a number of options but firstly the power used by powerline adapters is minimal so whether you will see a saving that out weighs the cost of buying new kit is very unlikely we are talking a few watts each.

Personally I use a whole home wifi mesh system running in Access Point mode with the Sky hub acting as the router with its wifi turned off. An alternative is to use a second router connected to the Sky hub in a set up called a double NAT which for most set ups works prefectly well but some apps do object and if your chosen system has features like parental control these may not work on a double NAT. There are other options including porting your landline number to a VOIP provider but lers keep this simple.

There is huge choice of kit you can buy but my Deco M4 system from TP-Link has worked well giving me a consistent 400Mb/s on 3 levels with a 3 unit kit.

[ellivlum]

@KaaaarrrllI am just about to join Sky and also have a TP-Link router. In the marked answer, is that the only change that is needed from standard? If not, please could you provide all the settings required? Thank you in advance!

[ThePiedPiper]

It depends on what tp-link router you have. But generally speaking, yes it should work with just a few minor changes straight out of the box. It can take some time to settle and authenticate when a new router is plugged into the ONT though.

[UnopposedMango]

Hi @Chrisee - I tried to go to a similar setup, turning off the sky hub wifi and using the discs as APs.

It wouldn't work as I couldn't get my Sky Q mini boxes to connect reliably to the discs.

Any advice would be great as to how I should set this up! 

[Chrisee]

@UnopposedMango if you have Sky Q minis then you do have an issue as they require a Sky wifi signal unless you can hard wire them either back to the Sky hub or to your wifi satellites and can turn off their wifi which is the best solution.

Given Sky Q box's act as wifi hot spots for the Hub's wifi in many homes you should not need third party wifi kit to get decent coverage but where you do it gets fiddly as by default the 5GHz signal the  Q minis use where there no wifi from a Sky hub will interfere with moost third party wifi. The main Q box links to third party wifi only using the 2.4GHz band.  It prou]duces a 5GHz SSID which you can only link Sky Q minis or boosters to which is a 80MHz signal based on ch36 so interferes with your discs wifi if they use ch 36 to ch52. It is possible to set the Q boxes to use halk of that range - the setting is in the Q box's engineers menu navifgate to settings but enter 0,0,1 before select. 

[UnopposedMango]

@Chrisee - thankyou for your reply.

The problem I was trying to fix (and it has helped....just not solved it completely) is that my sky wifi was continually dropping out for a second or two. This was most notable when gaming.

At the moment, I have my BT Wholehome (white discs) setup with the main one plugged into the sky hub and 2 others positioned around the house. My connection to the BT wholehome is far more stable, but is definitely not perfect and there are dropouts. 

I've tried messing with the settings/channels on both the sky router and the BT discs but to be honest it is pure trial and error as I don't really know what I'm doing...any advice as to the best channels? From your helpful advice is it best to set the Q boxes to use a non channel 36-52 range and keep the Bt discs in that range?

Thanks again.