WiFi Hotspots

[Anonymous]

Just found the option on my Q box and have set it up

However - it doesn't appear to do anything to improve my TalkTalk wifi signal in the bedroom

I don't see how it can - anyway, because the Sky main box is in a different room to the router and could not get any stronger signal than anywhere else in the house to then send to the mini box?

[Chodley]

Yeah unless the hop to one of the sky devices is closer / stronger than direct to the router then this will only ever slow things down as it has to halve the available bandwidth (to duplicate the traffic)

[Anonymous]

@Chodley 

So you are saying that by enabling Q hot spots - I will slow down the rest of the network ?

Don't forget that, since my ISP is not sky - I share via Main Q box rather than the router

[Chodley]

Yeah the minis will need to go via the Q but by making them hotspots, loads of other devices will try to as well when they don't need to.

[Anonymous]

@Chodley 

Surely not - I get to chose which devices connect to what hotspot

In fact - unless I specifically request that, (for example) my tablet, connects to the mini-box hot spot - it should not affect anything .....?

[Chodley]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Chodley 

Surely not - I get to chose which devices connect to what hotspot

In fact - unless I specifically request that, (for example) my tablet, connects to the mini-box hot spot - it should not affect anything .....?

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If you aren't going to connect anything to them, why do you want to turn them into hotspots? And I think (but haven't used them myself), that they should transparently re-advertise the same SSID as the main router if they're going to work to extend the network, otherwise you'd have to be changing wifi networks every time you move from one room to another. If they don't do this then you're right, what I said doesn't apply to anything you haven't explicitly attached to one of the minis. Do they tell you a password to do that?

[oj01]

As far as I knew, they only act as Wi-Fi hotspots if Sky is your ISP 

[Chodley]

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@oj01 wrote:

As far as I knew, they only act as Wi-Fi hotspots if Sky is your ISP 

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Hmm, I thought that had changed but I could well be wrong.

[Anonymous]

@oj01 @Chodley 

I don't honestly know

It is TURNED ON - on the main box - but I can see no different network available on my mobile phone

The signal in the bedroom "may" be slightly improved but nothing really noticeable !

[lettice]

Follow the help here to enable hotspsots on non Sky broadband ISPs

How to enable WiFi Hotspots for non-Sky Broadband lines | Sky Help | Sky.com

The Sky Q backhaul impact for hotspots is very minimal and will redirect your device to the nearest Sky Q hotspot.
If setup correctly, this will deliver a good extra boost around your home.
Having helped setup this for many customers since its launch a few years back for non Sky broadband customers, the network impact on your devices connection is very little.
The hotspots in this case do only offer a 2.4ghz connection, but that is better than no or a poor connection speed in your property blackspots.  
What will drop your Sky Q network bandwidth more will be the use of the Sky Q boosters on your network. So, if you can its always best to reduce their use if you can. The Boosters are a quick fix for an engineer or customer to get a Sky Q mini talking with a main Sky Q box., rather than a full solution.

[simon194]

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@Chodley wrote:

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@oj01 wrote:

As far as I knew, they only act as Wi-Fi hotspots if Sky is your ISP 

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Hmm, I thought that had changed but I could well be wrong.

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That did change a quite a while back.

You can set up the main Q box and minis to act as hotspots with non-Sky ISP's but only on the 2.4GHz band.