Sky Q and thirdly party MESH system (want to start but don’t know where)

[GFJtechnophobe]

Hi,  

I hope you can help.  I know my way around tech a little bit but get so frustrated with complex set ups and I don't want to go and throw a lot of money at problem only to fail and still be in the same position

WE have had sky Q for 10yrs or more.  At our current hom we have a sky router and pan sky box and 2 sky Q mini boxes.  WE also have 2 sky WiFi extenders.  It is a relatively large house (3000sq ft)

Everything was working fine until about a year ago. - then it all went wrong.  WiFi speeds weren't great and we are very reliant on it.  We live rurally and only get 3G phone signal.  All of a sudden all the sky Q boxes were having intermittent connectivity problems.  They lost connection and repeatedly froze so that watching or streaming anything became a real problem

Several visits from sky and the ultimately concluded that somebody within our village and installed a super powerful router/mesh (whatever).  They were also convinced that this was broadcasting on the protected sky 5ghz? Channel.   They spent a lot of time helping us,  replaced several bits of hardware but ultimately we  agreed to have the sky box and both mini boxes hard wired to the router using a switch.  TV problem solved.

We still have the issue with the WiFi -  speeds are very poor, signal drop off and several devices. (iPad, iPhone etc) that loose connection and then have to be manually reconnected to the WiFi network

I want to install a 3rd party MESH system but keep reading lots of stuff about conflicts if we run two networks.  Therefore my questions is ?  (Finally).  Is it possible to switch off all the WiFi on the router and sky boxes (as they are all hard wired) and then connect a MESH network to the current Sky router using an Ethernet.  Will this work and solve the problem or am I being completely stupid. (Please be gentle)

Thanks for helpling

[TimmyBGood]

@GFJtechnophobe 

Q was released in February 2016, so isn't ten years old yet.  5Ghz is a legitimate band for anyone to use, but any hardware is supposed to operate within regulated UK broadcast power limits.

The best way to use Q with a mesh is to have each Q box connected by ethernet cable to a mesh node, and then switch off all the Sky WiFi.

1) Press the ‘Home’ button on your remote control.
2) Scroll down to highlight ‘Settings’ but DO NOTpress select.
3) Press ‘001’.
4) Press ‘Select’

Then: Network -

- 2.4Ghz wireless - Off

- 5Ghz wireless - Off

[TimmyBGood]

@GFJtechnophobe 

I'd hope the Q WiFi is already off for all your television boxes anyway: presumably it's still on at the Hub, and can be switched off there too through the Hub settings.

[GFJtechnophobe]

Hi 

THank you for replying,

THe sky engineer did say that was an option but didn't do it.  ( I'm not sure hwy -  would the rest of our devices utilise the mini boxes as WiFi access points?

[TimmyBGood]

@GFJtechnophobe 

With their WiFi left on and Sky as the ISP, the television boxes are wireless hotspots by default.