WiFi boosters

[JG200]

The upstairs in my house is a bit of a dead zone for WiFi, so spoke to someone at Sky today about getting a booster. I was told unless i upgraded my package I couldn't have one.

I'm quite happy to pay for one, but was outright refused.

This can't be right can it?

Do aftermarket boosters work or have Sky configured their routers so only their hardware will work with them?

Cheers

[JimM1]

@JG200 What sky hub are you using, see the link if you are not sure!

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/broadband-diagnostic-which-sky-hub

[JG200]

Thanks for the reply Jim. It's the Sky Broadband hub. 

[JimM1]

@JG200 Wide open with that sky hub for getting boosters to work, have a look then post will say what to look out if i have used in the past!

Some more technical than others, but do look at reputable makes, Asus / Tp-Link / Netgear etc

[JG200]

Thanks mate,

Was looking at something like this. 

https://amzn.eu/d/bQYq3vp

[JimM1]

@JG200 Should be fine, the only thing to watch and this you will not know until you set it up is that the Tp-Links like to add a _EXT behind the sky name so ie SKY?????_EXT is what you see, you just have to use the Tp-Link app to adjust it to the SKY????? and then you get seemless roaming, but you are best to check in both to make sure it's working fine, speed test before is normally good enough or wireless off on a mobile device back on again and that is normally enough to latch onto the RE and work on it!

Just download the Tp-Link guide if needed! You can set and work on them via a web manager interface but you need to find the IP for the Tp-Link from the sky Hub!

Edit:- Just checked the Tp-Link site, full user manual is available for it and a very high chance it is going to do the _EXT to it!!

[Chrisee]

@JimM1 & @JG200 one word of warning is while the matched Sky booster SE210 will extend a Sky WiFi network without issues with interference there is no such protection with third party extenders. With the Sky Broadband hub SR203 you can choose a 2.4GHz channel as I expect you can on the TP-Link ensure they are not using the same or adjacent channel. The 5GHz band is less if an issue but by default the Sky hub uses ch36 to 52 an 80Mhz bandwidth but can be switched to use a 40MHz signal of either ch36 -44 or 44-52 if you hit problems.

[JimM1]

@Chrisee The CSMA/CA works really well with the Tp's and the SR203, although will admit other model i have used and not that specific one, and no issues at all with the powerlines, the Asus RP-AX58 also good, but that sucker is not so easy to setup on a connection to the SR so tend to not push that to hard unless the skill level is a little higher!

[Chrisee]

@JimM1 my warning is about WiFi interference which can happen with boosters because by definition their WiFi spread overlap with the hub. It is less likely where an AP is connected by Ethernet or powerline as they may not overlap. Ansered numerous posts over the years where this was an issue.

Personally I dislike eiither set-up and prefer using a single system for WiFi not mixing two but its horses for courses and a lot depends on layout and luck as to whether you get a problem or not. . 

[JimM1]

@Chrisee 👍 With you 100% on that, have double checked / tripple checked the operation with a SE210 and a Tp in operation, made sure that the 2.4Ghz and the 5Ghz where crossing each other and folding back when needed, also in auto operation the SE210 you can get to and adjust also just not so easy and a lot do not know that it even has a web interface... If sky would sell them 100% would recommend but the second hand market is a block for me, was lucky enough that sky never asked for mine back but i had run the boost 24 month period so it had well paid for itself, still good and working unit but they are both boxed back up again!