WiFi is Awful!

[Ph03nix]

Right, I'm on the edge of giving up here... 

Since moving to sky fibre (500mbps) my WiFi has been awful! Before moving to sky my WiFi upstairs was roughly 450- 500mbps. Now, upstairs is barely pushing 80mbps. Granted on my last package it was 900mbps so a ~50% loss. But acceptable. I expected the same loss percentage from sky but in reality I'm getting only 20% (if I'm lucky) upstairs. 

Now I don't live in a large property. In fact, it's a small three bed property roughly 18 years old now. On my landing (where my son's gaming set up is) he's lucky to get 60-80mbps and has constant packet loss and lag spikes whilst gaming.

Downstairs, we range from 500mbps in the living room (where the router is) to 120mbps in the downstairs loo - roughly 10 metres away from the router. The signal is shocking. 

I asked sky if I could split the bands. Broadband technical engineer said yes; router said no. It's completely locked. My router is the equivalent of fort Knox! They sent me a new router. Same issues. Then they closed my complaint considering it solved. It wasn't solved! 

I got my own TPlink boosters for upstairs and they can't hold on the the 5Ghz signal. Only stable on 2.4Ghz but this slows my speed to no quicker than 100mbps. 

Has anyone else got any ideas? I've heard that apparently when the Q box is connected via WiFi that can restrict bandwidth and cause WiFi issues... Anyone know if this is true? 

Failing that, I'm ready to leave sky broadband and move to YouFibre. Faster speeds (back to 1gbps), £5 less a month and they'll even cover upto £300 in termination charges. Seems like a win-win to me. 

[Ph03nix]

Sp

 

Speed test as proof 

[Ph03nix]

Even as I sit here typing this. The signal is better on my booster upstairs than what is coming from my router... Look at the connected network! 

 

[Ph03nix]

I should also point out... My firstick in the back of my TV (which is roughly a metre from the router) keeps telling me it cannot connect to my 5Ghz network.

I'm just lost all faith in sky broadband and wish I'd stuck with BT! 

[Chrisee]

@Ph03nix which Sky hub do you have black or white? The former you can split the bands although quite what that achieves is questionable unless you have devices with antiquated wifi chipsyou need to keep away from faster devices..The latter you cannot split bands because to offer WiFi 6 speeds require the two bands to be synchronized. Things have moved on a long way since the introduction of dualband routers.

I have used both models and have found the wifi ranges to be roughly equal but not as good as some BT/EE units family members have. Sky sell an upgrade package called WiFi Max ( https://www.sky.com/help/articles/sky-wifi-max) which can offer up to 3 matched pod extenders which communicate with the hub using a closed 5GHz band signal which is not ideal in UK homes which do not have internal partition walls. My own solution is to abandon the hub's wifi but instead use my own 3 unit WiFi mesh system having tried the Sky solution.. 

For most activities speed is less important than stability as your son is finding. 80Mb/s is ample for gaming and roughly double what a device streaming UHD video can use. The only domestic activity thst can really benefit from higher speed is downloading files. A mesh wifi system where the units work together trades some speed for stability which means video files no longer buffer and games have improved latency. Serious gaming however requires ethernet connections although powerline networking can come close. One issue depending on your booster is the white Sky hub will use higher frequency band B and C. 5GHz channels which your unit may not support meaning you are only boosting the 2.4GHz signal. You cannot manually select the channels the hub uses due to regulatory requirements that it must auto-detect higher priority users like radar.

Distance is far less important that what lies between the hub and the device. Taking thr example of a firestick these units are normally plugged into the back of a TV which contains metal which severely reduces the signal level. Amazon used to bundle  HDMI extention cables with the esrly Firesticks thry stopped doing that but still sell them so the unit can be placed in an area with better signal. 

Sky Q boxes can cause issues with high speed ethernet connections due probably to the proprietary mesh network system the Q system offers where paired with a black Sky hub. The white hubs like your old BT router do not offer that support. Given the limited life of satellite broadcasting in the UK Sky stopped developing the Q system a few years ago.

Overall my recommendation is to buy a reasonable 2 or 3 unit third party mesh system turn off the Sky hub's wifi and connect your new set up in Access Point mode. This need not cost a fortune unless you go for a complex WiFi7 system and stick to WiFi6 or 6e. 

[Ph03nix]

I can appreciate everything you've said, and I have considered doing my own mesh network, however why should I have to pay more money when other companies offer better products - if you get what I mean? 

Why should I pay an "upgrade" when standard packages worked without boosters fine from other companies? This seems more of a hardware issue/lacklustre product than a speed issue. It honestly feels like sky trap you into spending more.

Last time I had this issue, I was with virgin a few years ago. They sent me two mesh disks for free. If sky would send them for free, it wouldnt be so much of an issue. However it's like they're forcing you into paying more to actually get the product you already paying for.  

In regards to router, I have the white one. 

My firstick is a new one. It used to connect to the 5Ghz no issue. We do game nights with Luna and the lag on some of the games in unreal in the 2.4 due to the streaming side of Luna gaming. 

In regards to my son's gaming, since locking him to the 2.4Ghz network, it's definitely more stable. However, it takes him hours to download anything! I shouldn't be losing so much speed in such a small space. Not when I've experienced better from other providers. I've not had this issue with BT, Talk talk or Plus net. Only ever virgin but their router was 💩 to start with. Much like I feel with sky. 

I've even considered my own router but sky used a stupid protocol that means I have to be specific on which I use and they will refuse to give you the required info to set it up properly meaning you have to use other methods to obtain the information. 

It's just a big faff for what doesn't feel like a very good service! 

Thanks for the reply though! 

[Ph03nix]

I wrote a very detailed response to yourself but it seems sky have censored it and deleted it... 

What a joke of a company! 

[JimM1]

@Ph03nix You may find that if you have a sky Max hub, then the Tp-Link booster's are just not going to operate in the 5Ghz band very well!

You also need to look on the Max if the wifi is on WPA3-T or the WPA2-PSK mode, to see that it will need to be looked at with your MySky app and under the advanced setting's i believe!

Posting pulled then it is possible a mod is looking at it, they may just require some edit's on it and also it may just reappear later!

[Ph03nix]

@JimM1 I'm currently on WPA2. What's best course of action to take? 

I'm getting the feel that sky have really locked down their hardware so that many 3rd party devices won't work properly/effectively. Thus, forcing you into paying more for Sky boosters 🙄! 

[JimM1]

@Ph03nix The sky Hub is locked down to keep prying fingers away and to work as designed, nothing to do with your theory and yes they have went pod control with the design to make that work with minimal CS assistance, there is NOT one piece off wireless wifi connected hardware from another manufacturer 100% guarantee to work and with no issues, that is were you are at with the Tp-Link just now, had it not been sky Max would have been easier to look at and work out, just not easy on a Max!

[Ph03nix]

I'm going to have to agree to disagree on the point about the routers being locked down. They can be locked down to a point so that people can actually sort stuff should they need to. It mainly needs to be locked from the outside world, not from the user.

[Chrisee]

@Ph03nix why not go back to BT? If you are the first 31 days you can cancel without cost. If you raise a complaint Sky will probably release you from contract if you are beyond that linit. You are entitled to your opinion of course personally I look to solve issues but we are all different.

The reply you mention was not censored it simply hit the forum fliters but was released by one of the forum moderators as they clear the filters this happens. If you search the forum you will find numerous posts on how to connect third party routers not every router will connect to every line but in practice most routers can be made to connect. Asusxare axsafe choice.