WIIF Max/Max Hub question

[Garry777]

Hi there.

Was just wondering if anyone would have more information on when WIFI Max/Max Hub would be available for Sky Q customers.

I have been told it is not compatible but may be in the future. I eventually got to speak to someone I didn't need to use Duolingo to translate with (everything seems to be outsourced with Sky now its so fustrating)

Ideally I would just want to buy the hub, as its my  Dads account he is 80 so not long left, we don't want to be tied into any more contracts. But with the £6 a month offer for WIFI Max, that isn't too much of a stretch.

Were just not able to get it though. I was told its a compatibilty issue and it only works with Sky Glass and Sky stream. Surely it is just a router? I now have a MacBook air and the new iPhone 15 pro and would love to take advantage of WIFI-6 and better coverage around the house (which boost and WIFI boosters didn't help with in the past)

If anyone has any more info on this, I would love for you to enlighten me. Either that or  I would have to purchase an external router, which I have done in the past and tbh I don't want the hassle of setting it up with port forwarding again etc, and at the lower end of the cost spectrum, the routers are not greatly recieved

[JPR007]

If you don't want to have to re-negotiate with new contracts etc, personally I think you be much better off haggling with Sky to get the cheapest deal on the current setup, keep the current router.

Then invest in something like a TP-Link Deco set and use that in AP mode, with the Wi-Fi off on the Sky router (saves any faff with verification etc as Sky use MER as opposed to every other ISP). I believe @Chrisee uses such a setup🙃

Any aftermarket kit/mesh such as the Deco will provide far superior performance to any Sky kit, and there are lots of reports of numerous issues with that new Sky Hub, some members on here had the chance to test it, and pretty quickly deemed it as near unfit for purpose...and promptly sent it back🫠

[TimmyBGood]

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@Garry777 wrote:

Was just wondering if anyone would have more information on when WIFI Max/Max Hub would be available for Sky Q customers.

No-one here will have that information, or if they did then they wouldn't be allowed to say.

Ideally I would just want to buy the hub, as its my  Dads account he is 80 so not long left, we don't want to be tied into any more contracts. But with the £6 a month offer for WIFI Max, that isn't too much of a stretch.

Sky hasn't sold Hubs since the Q model was launched in 2016: that's when they transitioned to loaning hardware for both broadband and television.

Were just not able to get it though. I was told its a compatibilty issue and it only works with Sky Glass and Sky stream. Surely it is just a router? 

Max is a subscription hardware/software/service stack: the hardware is largely Plume, with a subset of their app features folded into the My Sky app and some server-side processing for threat detection.

If anyone has any more info on this, I would love for you to enlighten me. 

The main issue with Q television is that's also 2016 vintage hardware built around a proprietary mesh network stack from AirTies, which we're guessing doesn't play nicely with whatever Plume is doing in 2023.

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[Garry777]

Thanks. No luck for me then will just be stuck with an outdated router and no WIFI-6 (which we really need)

[TimmyBGood]

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@Garry777 wrote:

no WIFI-6 (which we really need)

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If you have 500Mbs or gigabit FTTP, possibly, but then very few client devices are running anything which benefits from that kind of bandwidth.

[Garry777]

Just want a more stable connection across my new WIFI 6 devices. I am on 70/30 atm and that is overkill for me apart from when I do some streaming

[JPR007]

@Garry777 Why do you "need" Wi-Fi 6?

There are still a large amount of devices that don't support it, and unless you have full fibre (FTTP), there is very little to be gained from any potential performance gains. Wi-Fi 5 is capable of several 100mb of throughput to a lot of current devices as it is, so if you have a 50Mb internet connect there's nothing to be gained.

Any decent aftermarket Mesh will be able to use DFS channels (60 upwards) which are prone to very very little interference if you're issue is Wi-Fi stability rather than actual speed 🙃

[Garry777]

Nice to have rather than need. I just want the new router lol. I am sure it will benefit us more if its a more stable connection. And maybe I will get more than 3 bars on my iPhone when I am in the living room or upstairs.

[JPR007]

@Garry777 Wi-Fi 6 won't give any better coverage than Wi-Fi 5 as it uses the same frequencies.

Wifi-6E is a big step up as it uses the 6Ghz frequencies but kit for that standard is in the many £100's.

If coverage is your issue you'd be much better off using an aftermarket mesh kit as I mentioned, and preferably either using Ethernet cables to connect each node up, or failing that try powerline kit. 

[Garry777]

I use ethernet to connect my PC. Rarely have any issues. I have some outdated powerline adapters, but thats just gonna cost more in electricity and my Dad already gives us enough hassle about that.

So basically you are saying the new hub would do nothing for us. Sorry I am autistic so I get things mixed up easilly. I also like to be up to date with the latest tech. If the new hub won't help us in any way then maybe ill just have to wait for the future

[JPR007]

@Garry777 Its entirely up to you what you do, how you set things up, and spend your money, but having worked in the AV industry in the past, the amount of times people come in with wish lists of kit that are totally overkill for what they need, or totally unsuitable and won't solve their problems, I could probably write an endless series of novels.

The look on people's faces when you actually sit down and explain what certain things do and are capable of, and you tell them well actually spend half that on XY, but that extra money can then be kept for something else a bit special they didn't think they could have 🙃

As for powerline adapters using that much electricity, you would not even notice it on a a bill, you are talking barely 1W at best. You'd save more money by not charging your phone at home 😉😆

[jamesn123]

@Garry777 

Have to agree that in your setup the Sky Max hub & WiFi 6 would not make any difference to you. WiFi 6 offers no extra coverage compared to WiFi 5 nor does it have anymore resilience to interference. Also since you are only on a 70/30 WAN connection you'd see no noticeable speed improvement either unless you were running local LAN file transfers between wireless clients which is a rare circumstance for domestic applications. 

[mae-3]

@Garry777 

It should be noted that only the Sky Max router is wifi 6, and the Sky Max Pods are wifi 5 only.