Woken up by Wifi Max lights in the middle of the night

[Tfreelander]

I am totally amazed that this is not already on the forum but I am shocked by both the terrible design flaw in the Wifi Max pod and also shocked by the lack of service from Sky who have no one that you can talk to or email to explain a fundamental problem that affects this product.

I just called Sky to see if there is any way to disable the light on the device it should be possible that this could be done via a software control or via a firmware update (if anyone at Sky cared enough to listen).

We are told that for the Wifi device to work properly it has to go in the recommended installation locations when the engineer comes around to survey the house (who was brilliant by the way!).

I estimate that this would mean that at the very least 25% of homes have a wifi max booster in their bedroom.

What idiot thought... 'I know lets have bloody great flashing white light go off every time it updates. Oh and then lets have it update between the hours of 12 midnight and 3:00am sometimes even 3 times a night! Yeah and to really mess with people's sleep and mental health and wellbeing. Lets make it so that you can't turn it off or speak to anyone with the power to do anything about it!'?

I don't want to turn it off because inevitably it will not get any updates and will start to fail. 

Come on Sky much better service needed with this!

[Chrisee]

@Tfreelander while I would argue that installations in bedrooms are pretty rare they do happen.. Couple of suggestions the hub does not need to be close to the ONT as you can use a longer Ethernet cable. Alternatively you can buy stickers designed to fully or partially cover LEDs pretty easily on line.  I did this search on a well known online retailer which msy help.

[Tfreelander]

Hi Chrisee

Thanks for trying to help, but, unfortunately, it doesn't sound like you have fully understood the issue, but perhaps my initial post wasn't clear enough. 🙂

1. I don't have fibre so no ONT.
2. It is not the hub that is is causing the problem and the hub is not installed in the bedroom. It is installed in the office right next the main phone socket.
3. It is the Sky Max Pod (hexagonal shaped device that plugs straight into an electrical socket) that is causing the issue and I expect it is far more common for these to be installed in bedrooms as they have to be installed throughout the house in order to increase the range of the wifi.

I have tried to put a sticker over the light but the light emanates from all around the pod and I am concerned that wrapping tape all around the pod might affect it's functioning and possibly lead to it overheating.

I did try to wrap electrical tape around the entire device briefly just to see what would happen and the light is so strong that it it still shows through.

The only real solution would be for Sky to remotely deactivate the light. This must be possible, especially with a firmware update and they are clearly updating the pods all the time, hence the issue in the first place. Unfortunately it seem impossible to get through to any kind of department that could deal with suggestions like this and they really don't seem to care about the health and wellbeing of their customers because this is an urgent issue.

Thanks again though.

PS. I would even hazard that it could be possible to add controls for this to the MySky app as the app can be used to view each ppod and everything that is connected to it.

[Tfreelander]

Just as an additional afterthought in their own advert for the pods. 2 out of 3 of the devices are installed in bedrooms.

[Peter_Taylor]

Got any solutions for turning white light off the sky max hub while your at it lol

[Chrisee]

@Tfreelander thecsuggestion of using the stickers to cover the led should still work on the pods.