Easy/cheap replacement for sky Q hub ER115?

[anonymous-user]

I've used Sky broadband for years and put up with the ancient hub and it's poor WiFi coverage and dropped signals but decided I wanted something more reliable. So upgraded to Sky's faster broadband which came with a Sky Q Hub ER115. I had hoped this would have improved coverage.... it doesn't. It's equally crap to the old one.

I don't want to pay for Sky's WiFi guarantee where they give you transponders. I have tried Develo extenders and these are good for ethernet connections (to TV etc) but the WiFi extenders seem to occasionally lose connection and need a reboot. Similarly I've tried BT's extender which worked well but again needed the occasional reboot, so don't want extenders, I just want a better WiFi coverage and more reliable connection.

My WiFi doesn't get interference from neighbouring houses, at a push my neighbour's SSID is visible. To be safe I have changed my WiFi channel to 1 and disabled 5GHz so everything uses the 2.4GHz band which should have better coverage. I am more interested in reliability and coverage than speed.

Is there a simple router out there at reasonable (low) cost that is a simple swap out with my Sky ER115? I don't mind changing a few config settings if needed.

Many thanks.

[Captain_Morgan]

What size home?

1. floors?

layout (square, long & thin, ‘L’ shaped, etc, etc)?

Construction type?

Where is the isp line presented in the home?

What speed is the line / any plans to upgrade?

Any structured cabling in place / plans for?

Any dead zones (now or with the previous fw/router/switch/accesspoint box)?

Budget?

Are you using sky q mini boxes?

[dogbucket]

The current SKY router SR203 is generally regarded fairly well compared to the older models and come up on eBay regularly. Would not require too much if any configuration for the VDSL side of things. I have one still boxed as I have a Netgear D7000 and cannot be bothered to swap it out, but anything third party needs more config on the VDSL settings.

Alternatively keep the router but turn off its WIFI and add on some mesh WIFI extenders.

[rossmc88]

Sky router is rubbish but you need to keep it for internet connectivity. Switch the Wi-Fi off on it and use access points - I’ve got TPlink WAPs for example

[Captain_Morgan]

rossmc88 said:

Sky router is rubbish but you need to keep it for internet connectivity. Switch the Wi-Fi off on it and use access points - I’ve got TPlink WAPs for example

Why?

Plenty of modem/fw/router/switch/accesspoint boxes will do dhcp option 61 & therefore work with sky vdsl.

[somouk]

I'd agree to replace the Sky router completely if you can.

Means one box, no double NAT and you can change your DNS to something you want instead of passing your DNS to sky.

[anonymous-user]

Captain_Morgan said:

What size home?

1. floors?

layout (square, long & thin, ‘L’ shaped, etc, etc)?

Construction type?

Where is the isp line presented in the home?

What speed is the line / any plans to upgrade?

Any structured cabling in place / plans for?

Any dead zones (now or with the previous fw/router/switch/accesspoint box)?

Budget?

Are you using sky q mini boxes?

Two story old "square plan" house with 2ft thick stone walls which obviously is why the WiFi doesn't get far. The line comes into a corner of the house, the router is located on 1st floor, near ceiling level in the middle of the house. I have just upgraded from 10Mbps to 50Mbps not because I wanted more speed but because it came with a new router that I hoped would give me a bit more signal strength in the furthest reaches of the house, but it was almost identical. No cabling in place, no significant dead zones that I can't work around.

Overall I can live with the coverage but would like it to be just slightly stronger where it is weak at present as it can be ok one day then not the next. But I find the router seems to lose connection now and again. I have an app called "WiFi Analyser" which sits there and every 30 seconds or so measures current speed which shows it drops to zero now and again before recovering again.

What I would like is a simple replacement for the Sky Q hub ER115 that as far as possible is one for one albeit I will do some config via a UI if necessary which gives maybe a little better signal strength and fewer drop outs. Cost £100 or so?

I can live with what I have, but if some easy replacement is available I'll give it a go.

Many thanks.

[Captain_Morgan]

MikeStroud said:

Two story old "square plan" house with 2ft thick stone walls which obviously is why the WiFi doesn't get far. The line comes into a corner of the house, the router is located on 1st floor, near ceiling level in the middle of the house. I have just upgraded from 10Mbps to 50Mbps not because I wanted more speed but because it came with a new router that I hoped would give me a bit more signal strength in the furthest reaches of the house, but it was almost identical. No cabling in place, no significant dead zones that I can't work around.

Overall I can live with the coverage but would like it to be just slightly stronger where it is weak at present as it can be ok one day then not the next. But I find the router seems to lose connection now and again. I have an app called "WiFi Analyser" which sits there and every 30 seconds or so measures current speed which shows it drops to zero now and again before recovering again.

What I would like is a simple replacement for the Sky Q hub ER115 that as far as possible is one for one albeit I will do some config via a UI if necessary which gives maybe a little better signal strength and fewer drop outs. Cost £100 or so?

I can live with what I have, but if some easy replacement is available I'll give it a go.

Many thanks.

If I have understood correctly your line comes into the top floor around ceiling level?

You haven’t said how many bedrooms but I’ll assume 3?

If I have those two points correctly & you don’t mind running a single cable up to the loft then you could try running a single access point in the loft, in aprox the centre of the home & around 1m or more above the ceiling.

I run one like this myself & know a few others that do so successfully, it works because it allows the radio beam to form without any walls in the way & wifi has a much easier time going through traditional plaster board ceilings & wooden floors.

If you want more details on what or how then let me know.

If not then I’d suggest a mesh system that uses powerline technology for the interconnect between mesh nodes, tp-link & devolo both make options the tp-link is deco p9 I believe.

One node where you current ‘box’ is & the others ~2/3 of the way to the dead zones.


In both of these cases you’d keep the sky ‘box’ turn off wifi on it & use the other devices in ‘access point’ mode just to provide wifi

[anonymous-user]

Many thanks.

Having the router in the loft in the middle of the building is an idea I hadn't considered. From there it broadcasts down only through ceilings/floors rather than thick walls ... good idea!

This will sound like a stupid question: But is the ER115 likely to be omnidirectional, i.e. Will it transmit as well downwards as it would upwards, or should I put it upside down?!

[Captain_Morgan]

MikeStroud said:

Many thanks.

Having the router in the loft in the middle of the building is an idea I hadn't considered. From there it broadcasts down only through ceilings/floors rather than thick walls ... good idea!

This will sound like a stupid question: But is the ER115 likely to be omnidirectional, i.e. Will it transmit as well downwards as it would upwards, or should I put it upside down?!

I’ve done it with dedicated ceiling mount access points that are designed to fire download & devices with external antennas & aimed them downwards.

I’d invert it if your going to try the existing box, I take it you have power in the loft?

That said you can get a dedicated ceiling mount access point for ~£70 that powers over the ethernet cable look at the tp-link eap225 ceiling mount, I suspect that would work better but no harm in trying what you already have.

Before doing anything I’d doa speed test in the same room as the box ~2m away & then as directly underneath it as you can & compare them they shoul be within ~10% or less of each other.

Edited by Captain_Morgan on Tuesday 27th September 21:26

[anonymous-user]

Simplest thing as a test is just to put the router in the loft an an extension power cable and signal cable and see what the signal is like then. Thanks for your suggestions.

[MattS5]

Instead of starting a new thread, I'm keen to replace the same Sky router with another device.

I'm literally using the current oruter (Sky ER115) to handle the connection to the broadband service, with 1 ethernet port being used to a switch in the loft (supplying my PC, and 2 Xboxes via ethernet cables), the other port going into a TP Link mesh system. This then handles all the wi fi activity. This is (I believe) technically knon as an Acces point I think!

So, the Sky router (once daily) throws a breif wobbly, and powers up and down for 1 or 2 secs, enought to throw all the connections.

I dont want to be spending £100+ if not really required, but would be happy to move away fronm the Telecoms company supplied device. Currently with Sky buit might move to BT in the next 3 months, so any modem/router would need to be suitable for both.

Sky Broadband Superfast is my current plan, with a 60gb download and 15gb upload. Which is consistently solid speeds.

So, what router should I be considering?