Sky Q and Mini Boxes - Broadband Connection Issues - Non Sky Broadband,

[Pete-the-Archer]

Good Afternoon All.  

Like what appears to be hundreds (if not thousands) of other users, I am experienceing issues maintaining a broadband connection to my Sky Q box and minis using a non Sky broadband provider.  I gather this is a software issue that Sky are supposed to be working on.  I am not the best at trawling through multiple posts trying to find answers so I thought I'd post here in the hope that someone has the definitive answer.  

By wack of background....   A local fibre to the premises (FTTP) company were offering a fantastic deal where, if you were still in contract with your current provider (In my case Sky)  they would connect you for free and provide free service until your current deal expired.  The thought of 300mbs to the property free for 12 months proved to be too big a lure so I signed up. 

We are now connected with them and thier standard router is a Zyxel EX3301-TO and they also provided a matching Zyxel wireless extender.  I am a bit of a technophobe but I understand it is a MESH 6 router (whatever the hell that means).  Once connected we unplugged the Sky Router and stopped using it.  Right from the start we had issues with the broadband connection dropping out and constantly having to reset it as it would not just simply reconnect.  We put up with it as we were off on holiday shortly after.  

We came back from holiday to find the Q box (which was very old) had decided the throw up a hard disc error and, long story short, the box had to be replaced. (Shiny new 2TB box).  The very nice engineer who attended got everything connected up including our three mini boxes and off he went.  The following day the broadband connection had dropped out and we had to keep resetting and reconnecting and at best got few hours of stable connection before it would drop again.

I carried out a software update on the Q box which gave us five whole days of connection before (you guessed it) it dropped connectiin again and we went back to the vicious circle of regular resets.  As you can imagine this has proved quite frustrating and seeing as we like to watch stuff on the streaming channels somewhat inconvenient.  

This is where it gets a bit strange, in an attempt to stop my wife from bending my ear about the connection issues I decided to plug the old Sky router back in and use that as we were still paying for it.  I followed the instructions to reconnect to the Sky router using the WPS button and was a little suprised to see it then come back as connected to our new providers network.  Thinking I had done something wrong I tried using the connect to another router option and our old Sky network name was nowhere to be seen.  I reconnected using the WPS and low and behold it connected but shows our new providers network name.  I know full well that I did not press the WPS button on the Zyxel router so it looks liek our old Sky router has somehow morphed onto the new network.  

On the plus side the broadband connection has been stable since I plugged the old router in but, the internet is only at the Sky speed (around 69mbps) and disconnects if I remove the cable to the phone socket.  Obviously this is not what I want, I want the FTTP speeds to enhance the streaming experience and I really dont want to have to run both routers just to maintain the Sky connection.  No other device anywhere in the house has had connection issues just the Sky box so I am more than happy its not an issue with the new providers equipment.  

Any useful (simple) hints or tips as to how I might be able to get a stable connection from the Zycel router and take the Sky router out of the equation would be greatfully received.  Connecting the Sky Q by ethernet is not an option due to siting issues.  

As an aside, if I were to connect the two routers using an ethernet cable then unplug the cable to the phone would the Sky router pick up internet via the ethernet?

Thanks in advance

Pete

[nigea99]

hi @Pete-the-Archer 

I am not an expert in this area but can give some thoughts.

I think the SKY router will still be connecting to SKY servers to provide you with a service when you plugged it back in - although your line will be capable of providing more bandwith it will be capped at the service you had with SKY

When you use the 3rd party router and it's wifi you need to be aware that the minis do not connect  to your home wifi but instead a wifi signal generated by the main box  so it depends on the wifi signal path from Main box to minis for their connectivity

To provide a more stable connection to the router are you able to connect your main box to the router via ethernet (that is how my main box is connected to my BT router & never had a problem) 

I think connecting 2 routers together is unwise  as they will both be trying to provide a network and I think likely to cause conflicts or other problems 

[Pete-the-Archer]

Hi @nigea99 

Thanks for your reply. 

Both routers are running at the moment and all devices seem to be connected OK. 

Ideally I want to turn the Sky one off again even though it seems to have morphed into part of the new network.  Ethernet not really an option at the moment.  

As I said, I was hoping someone had a simple fix or could tell us where Sky are with the fix. 

[Chodley]

Your sky service is still running. If disconnecting the sky router from the phone line stops it working and it's only running at fttc speeds, you're still using the Sky internet connection.

if you were to connect the sky router over ethernet to the fttp router, and remove the phone socket connection, I think it might possibly act as a wifi hotspot, bridging the two networks. But its wifi could well be contending with your new router's wifi, need to check the channels in use.

The network naming is always a bit of a mystery so don't worry about that too much.

(it's "lo and behold" by the way 😁)