Advice requested please on replacing my Sky router with a WiFi 6E router

Tykey · 29 Sep 2023 at 10:48

Hi

I'm soon going to require a router that can do WiFi 6E, my current router is the standard Sky one that doesn't do this. I know about the recent Sky Max router that does 6E but it's £10 per month and in a year of paying that I could have bought my own router, so I want to buy my own.

I would appreciate some recommendations from people who have done this on what router to buy, preferably a more budget friendly router, I don't need lots of bells n whistles.

Also, how do I go about setting it up with necessary settings to connect to the Sky network? Will Sky Tech support help with me this or are there guides out there? I'm not bad with computer stuff and can follow guides.

Any help/guidance is appreciated.

Glanza · 29 Sep 2023 at 10:53

Sky support will not help you with anything other than their supplied kit. Are you on FTTP or FTTC?

ChrisD. · 29 Sep 2023 at 11:01

Why do you need 6E?

MrRockliffe · 29 Sep 2023 at 11:06

WiFi 6E alone won’t give you better speeds. You’ll need one which supports 4x4, along with a good client.

I max out at around 700 over WiFi 6 with a 4x4 router and 2022 MacBook Pro 16.

That’s super close to it though. In a different room I get 300-450.

Thing is, as you increase the frequency, the speed (generally) goes up but material penetration can drop off. There are times where 2.4 GHz is quicker than 5 GHz, for example.

Tykey · 29 Sep 2023 at 11:23

Glanza said:
Sky support will not help you with anything other than their supplied kit. Are you on FTTP or FTTC?

I have Sky Superfast, not sure if it's fttp ot fttc, i don't think it's a full fibre connection.

Tykey · 29 Sep 2023 at 11:24

ignore.

Caged · 29 Sep 2023 at 11:36

It's unclear what you are trying to do here - do you need 6E because you're moving lots of files around within your network and want to do that on Wi-Fi? If you don't have full fibre then the quickest Sky service you're likely to be on is a 160Mbps Gfast, which Wi-Fi 5 is more than capable of pushing.

What problems are you having now, and what assumptions have you made to determine that Wi-Fi 6E is the answer?

Tykey · 29 Sep 2023 at 11:55

Caged said:
It's unclear what you are trying to do here - do you need 6E because you're moving lots of files around within your network and want to do that on Wi-Fi? If you don't have full fibre then the quickest Sky service you're likely to be on is a 160Mbps Gfast, which Wi-Fi 5 is more than capable of pushing.

What problems are you having now, and what assumptions have you made to determine that Wi-Fi 6E is the answer?

I'm buying a Quest 3 that does wifi 6E on a local network to stream games from pc to quest 3. my pc has a 1gb ethernet connection to my router.

WJA96 · 29 Sep 2023 at 14:12

Don’t buy a WiFi6E router, buy a WiFi6E access point. That way you can maintain full support from Shy and get the WiFi6E you’ve been convinced you need.

Zyxel NWA220AX-6E is probably the cheapest at the moment, or the UniFi Enterprise models. Do be aware that WiFi6E is very new technology and you’re paying a huge premium for being an early adopter.

You may well find that setting up a unique SSID in an unused group of channels for the headset in the 5GHz bands will be more than adequate.

Orcvader · 29 Sep 2023 at 15:01

tyke_ said:
I'm buying a Quest 3 that does wifi 6E on a local network to stream games from pc to quest 3. my pc has a 1gb ethernet connection to my router.

+1 to @WJA96 idea, especially if the router is in a different room than where you usually use the Q3. 6E is on 6GHz and the penetration power on it is bad, you want it to be in the same room. A dedicated 6E access point will work much better for VR.

Tykey · 29 Sep 2023 at 15:24

Thanks chaps, that's exactly the sort of info I was after.

Kenny1763 · 14 Feb 2024 at 09:39

Tykey said:
Hi

I'm soon going to require a router that can do WiFi 6E, my current router is the standard Sky one that doesn't do this. I know about the recent Sky Max router that does 6E but it's £10 per month and in a year of paying that I could have bought my own router, so I want to buy my own.

I would appreciate some recommendations from people who have done this on what router to buy, preferably a more budget friendly router, I don't need lots of bells n whistles.

Also, how do I go about setting it up with necessary settings to connect to the Sky network? Will Sky Tech support help with me this or are there guides out there? I'm not bad with computer stuff and can follow guides.

Any help/guidance is appreciated.

Hi, just saw your post while looking for similar advice. We are also using a Quest 3 and recently upgraded our Broadband to Sky Gigafast and looking at meeting the 6e that the Quest 3 offers. I also looked at the Sky Max router (now £6.50 monthly) and decided to go with the Asus rt-axe7800 tri-band wifi 6e router. I did this because the Sky Max router does not support Wi-Fi 6e it supports 2.4 and 5ghz it is dual band not tri band and does not support 6ghz (6e), I also chose the Asus as it can replace the Sky hub using Option 61 (anything@skydsl|anything) in the Asus WAN setting and very easy to setup. Sorry I didn't see your post earlier you have probably solved your issue, hope this help and enjoy you Quest.

Tykey · 14 Feb 2024 at 14:05

Kenny1763 said:
Hi, just saw your post while looking for similar advice. We are also using a Quest 3 and recently upgraded our Broadband to Sky Gigafast and looking at meeting the 6e that the Quest 3 offers. I also looked at the Sky Max router (now £6.50 monthly) and decided to go with the Asus rt-axe7800 tri-band wifi 6e router. I did this because the Sky Max router does not support Wi-Fi 6e it supports 2.4 and 5ghz it is dual band not tri band and does not support 6ghz (6e), I also chose the Asus as it can replace the Sky hub using Option 61 (anything@skydsl|anything) in the Asus WAN setting and very easy to setup. Sorry I didn't see your post earlier you have probably solved your issue, hope this help and enjoy you Quest.

Hi, in the end I kept with the standard Sky 5GHz router. I bought an Asus 6E router and set it up as an access point for my Quest 3, however the network latency as measured with Virtual Desktop was basically the same, so refunded the router. That's not to say anybody else won't be helped by a 6E router but it did nothing me.

Kenny1763 · 14 Feb 2024 at 14:25

Tykey said:
Hi, in the end I kept with the standard Sky 5GHz router. I bought an Asus 6E router and set it up as an access point for my Quest 3, however the network latency as measured with Virtual Desktop was basically the same, so refunded the router. That's not to say anybody else won't be helped by a 6E router but it did nothing me

Kenny1763 · 14 Feb 2024 at 14:34

Tykey said:
Hi, in the end I kept with the standard Sky 5GHz router. I bought an Asus 6E router and set it up as an access point for my Quest 3, however the network latency as measured with Virtual Desktop was basically the same, so refunded the router. That's not to say anybody else won't be helped by a 6E router but it did nothing me.

I’m replacing my Sky 5GHz router with the Asus, won’t be using Asus router as an access point, surprised you had no benefit even as an access point the Sky router wasn’t very good when released 2019.

Orcvader · 14 Feb 2024 at 15:50

Tykey said:
Hi, in the end I kept with the standard Sky 5GHz router. I bought an Asus 6E router and set it up as an access point for my Quest 3, however the network latency as measured with Virtual Desktop was basically the same, so refunded the router. That's not to say anybody else won't be helped by a 6E router but it did nothing me.

If your 5GHz spectrum is not congested, then assuming Sky's router is WiFi 6, 6E won't offer any advantages. I can only recommend 6GHz if you do live in an area with a lot of neighbouring 5GHz WiFi networks.

Tykey · 15 Feb 2024 at 18:54

Kenny1763 said:
I’m replacing my Sky 5GHz router with the Asus, won’t be using Asus router as an access point, surprised you had no benefit even as an access point the Sky router wasn’t very good when released 2019.

Yeh it was quicker, was surprised myself tbh.

Orcvader said:
If your 5GHz spectrum is not congested, then assuming Sky's router is WiFi 6, 6E won't offer any advantages. I can only recommend 6GHz if you do live in an area with a lot of neighbouring 5GHz WiFi networks.

My Sky router only does 5Ghz and it was as quick as a 6E Asus router, there is not much network congestion where I live afaik.

Kenny1763 · 17 Feb 2024 at 17:28

Tykey said:
Yeh it was quicker, was surprised myself tbh.

My Sky router only does 5Ghz and it was as quick as a 6E Asus router, there is not much network congestion where I live afaik.

We have now replaced our Sky Q (sr203) router with Asus rt-axe7800 tri-band wifi 6e router and the results are amazing we have doubled our 2.4 and 5g connections going from 250 / 300mbps to over 600, 6e on Quest 3 has gone from 300 to over 800mbps stable with virtually undetectable delay, Ethernet connections have also improved, couldn’t believe the difference the Sky router must be really poor quality, best move we’ve made wish we had done it earlier, hope this helps you.

Tykey · 17 Feb 2024 at 18:37

Kenny1763 said:
We have now replaced our Sky Q (sr203) router with Asus rt-axe7800 tri-band wifi 6e router and the results are amazing we have doubled our 2.4 and 5g connections going from 250 / 300mbps to over 600, 6e on Quest 3 has gone from 300 to over 800mbps stable with virtually undetectable delay, Ethernet connections have also improved, couldn’t believe the difference the Sky router must be really poor quality, best move we’ve made wish we had done it earlier, hope this helps you.

Hmm as I mentioned I honestly never saw any improvement in network latency when gaming as shown by Virtual Desktop where it shows what your latency is in ms, glad it worked for you.