Correct details for Sky Broadband using 3rd party router

[mpj88]

Hi all,

I have sky broadband and also have a TP link archer C8. Love the archers wifi speeds!

I currently have one of the ethernet ports of the sky router going into the WAN port of the C8. I have disabled the wifi on the sky router. During setup, the connection was automatically detected as dynamic IP. It's been running fine over wifi devices. Today i connected my PC via a LAN cable to the C8, initially speeds were fine but shortly the DL speeds dropped to around 4Mb/s. A restart of the routers brought the speed back up again but also dropped off after a short period.

Are the connection settings correct. I've scoured google trying to find out. I've followed the method of using wireshark to find my sky username and password. Entered this in using a PPPoE connection type on the C8 but it never establishes a connection.

One website I've seen suggests sky uses PPPoA but the C8 doesn't have this as an option.

 

[MrBukey]

Hi all,

I have sky broadband and also have a TP link archer C8. Love the archers wifi speeds!

I currently have one of the ethernet ports of the sky router going into the WAN port of the C8. I have disabled the wifi on the sky router. During setup, the connection was automatically detected as dynamic IP. It's been running fine over wifi devices. Today i connected my PC via a LAN cable to the C8, initially speeds were fine but shortly the DL speeds dropped to around 4Mb/s. A restart of the routers brought the speed back up again but also dropped off after a short period.

Are the connection settings correct. I've scoured google trying to find out. I've followed the method of using wireshark to find my sky username and password. Entered this in using a PPPoE connection type on the C8 but it never establishes a connection.

One website I've seen suggests sky uses PPPoA but the C8 doesn't have this as an option.

Okay - you don't need PPPoE or PPPoA for what you're trying to do; the Sky router doesn't have a "modem mode" unfortunately. You just want a normal ethernet connection with DHCP on the WAN port (as if it was a Virgin Media Cable router).

So is your setup at the moment like this?:

Master socket > Sky Router with WiFi switched off > WAN port of Archer C8

Clients attach - either by LAN wire or WiFi to the Archer C8

If it is then that's exactly as you want it. About the only other things you could do / should do are:

1) Reserve an IP address for the MAC of your C8's WAN port on the Sky router.

2) Put the address that you've reserved for the C8 in the Sky router's DMZ.

What this does is tell the Sky router - as much as you're able - to get out the way and leave everything to the C8. These additional two steps aren't strictly required, but they help in keeping everything clean and in troubleshooting.

Once you've done the above you can then plug your computer by wire into one of the other Sky router ports and check to see if you get the slow down then - if you do then it's the connection or Sky router and not the C8, if you don't then it's configuration or firmware on the C8.

 

[mpj88]

You have described my exact setup. The only thing I haven't done is enter the C8 into the DMZ. I will try this now.

EDIT - I assume that's the "Default DMZ server" setting?

I have my PC currently connected directly to the sky hub and havent had any slow downs.

Should I enable all traffic through the sky firewall?

 

[MrBukey]

You have described my exact setup. The only thing I haven't done is enter the C8 into the DMZ. I will try this now.

EDIT - I assume that's the "Default DMZ server" setting?

I have my PC currently connected directly to the sky hub and havent had any slow downs.

Should I enable all traffic through the sky firewall?

Put the C8 in the DMZ, this will allow all traffic to it. Using a reservation for the MAC address of the WAN port of the C8 means that it will always get that IP address and therefore remain in the DMZ (rather than the Sky router's DHCP server deciding to give it a different IP address, say after a power cycle).

Don't turn off the firewall on the Sky router for anything else - the DMZ does this for you C8 which has its own firewall; leaving it on for everything else gives you a degree of protection when you do plug directly into the Sky router.

If you're not seeing a slowdown through the Sky router then the only other thing I'd check is if the Sky router and C8's LANS are on the same subnet and IP address.

eg if both are using 192.168.0.x for LAN and WAN and both are using 192.168.0.1 for their IP address, and both are using DHCP servers with a gateway given of 192.168.0.1 there could be some confusion occurring.

If this is the case, change the C8 to have an IP address of 192.168.1.1 and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. Then change the C8's DHCP server to give out addresses from 192.168.1.10 onwards with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a gateway of 192.168.1.1.

You will then also be able to reach the Sky router at 192.168.0.1 through the C8.

If that's what was happening, make those changes and see if you have an improvement.