Sky Q booster NOT entitled unless using sky broadband !

[OW07]

Hi. 
We have had sky for some 24 years. We  have three mini boxes and recently moved one from a bedroom to a playroom further away from the main Q box. The playroom box will not connect and numerous attempts result in the same message saying a booster would be needed. 
So my wife just called sky (she's the account holder) to firstly take up a new contract as our present contract is ending shortly and we had a renewal offer favourably cheaper than present. 
After telling sky about the need for a booster she was told we can't have one as we are not getting broadband via sky and must get our internet provider to supply a Wi-Fi booster. 
is that correct as I thought it required a specific sky booster for the sky mini box?

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

@OW07 

Sky will supply (loan) Q wireless boosters to users of non-Sky broadband where this seems likely to solve a Q television problem.

[OW07]

Thanks and will see if they will respond more helpfully. 

[nigea99]

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@OW07 wrote:

Hi. 
We have had sky for some 24 years. We  have three mini boxes and recently moved one from a bedroom to a playroom further away from the main Q box. The playroom box will not connect and numerous attempts result in the same message saying a booster would be needed. 
So my wife just called sky (she's the account holder) to firstly take up a new contract as our present contract is ending shortly and we had a renewal offer favourably cheaper than present. 
After telling sky about the need for a booster she was told we can't have one as we are not getting broadband via sky and must get our internet provider to supply a Wi-Fi booster. 
is that correct as I thought it required a specific sky booster for the sky mini box?

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As SKY Minis don't connect to 3rd party wifi then there would be no benefit in getting a booster from your provider to help with SKy Mini to main box connectivity.  The SKY minis connect using a wifi signal generated by the main box

Thus you/your wife might need to make it clear it is for the SKY Q mini to Main box connectivity and nothing to do with your own wifi 

[OW07]

Thanks @nigea99.Funnily I had already sent sky an email complaint stating more or less what you indicated. They've got back to request we call again and I've clarified with mrs what we need and it's not Wi-Fi related. Thanks again. 

[mappion]

Hi @OW07 

Out of interest, I have a sky booster to assist in the connection between the main Sky Q box and a mini in my bedroom and my broadband supplier is and always has been BT Broadband.

When first installed about 5 years ago the engineer when setting things up said that due to the distances involved the signal to the mini from the main Q box was weak so he supplied a booster to solve that problem. It works fine.

Sounds like they were trying to tempt you into switching broadband suppliers.

[OW07]

Thanks for your input all. I had a further phone call + video with sky tech who agreed a booster as we all suspected would be needed. It's not guaranteed it will work over the distances involved but at least it's worth trying. Will update once I've received the booster etc. 🙂

[Chaffinch1]

Did this work out for you? Will a Sky Q booster work in a mesh with a main hub + mini box on a sperate wireless network to the rest of your house? 

I currently have Sky Q 1TB with one Sky mini box on the other side of the house and a Sky Q booster in between. I get my broadband from Sky but I'm thinking of switching to another provider on cost grounds - literally half the price for gigagbit internet. 

Having read all the horror stories I'm worried I'll end up with cheap internet and rubbish TV .... 

I've seen this solution on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilB5Yl0QQEk&list=PLcJe9CPDabpNwUWO0AfMer0ihBvT630cs&index=4&t=44s  - but I find it quite confusing ... 

[OW07]

Just getting back and sorry for not doing so sooner. All working as hoped for. It's another piece of equipment to monitor but nothings simple I guess. One additional factor is I had the master openreach socket relocated to our living room and am now able to hardwire the router to the tv/sky Q box. Not sure that's significant but I don't have to keep running up and down stairs if I have to do the sky reboot palava🙄. 

[TH06]

Just in case this is of any use to someone - I switched internet providers this week and also use a mesh system throughout the house. My skyQ mini would not connect after the new broadband router was installed (moved to sky from Voda).

We actually have 2 sky boosters (installed by the sky technician about 7 years ago when we first got sky) to make the connection between the main Q box and the miniQ.

I connected the main SkyQ box to the new broadband via password but my mini box was connected to the mesh system which operates under a different SSID. The mini is too far from the main Q box to receive the signal.

After various troubleshooting I realised both had to be on the same network (we have 2 given the main router and the Deco mesh system) and once I connected the main Q box to the mesh system SSID then the mini box worked fine.

It's a pity the skyQ mini cannot just use the available wifi in the home rather than having to use separate boosters to make it's way back to the main Q box.

I also had 'hard wired' from a mesh node into the mini Q box but I realise now afer reading earlier posts on this thread that it's pointless. Shame when you invest in a mesh system with ethernet ports that you cant avail of them in this instance.