How do you flash a router to work with sky?

Soldato
Joined
7 Feb 2004
Posts
9,511
Hi,

Moved over to Sky from o2 and although the speeds are fine, the wireless part of it sucks. So I wanted to use my old o2 box as that reached out into the garden(Sky barely reaches my livingroom without drops).

Googled a few but nothing new or suggesting it cant be done.

Appreciate your wisdom guys ;)
 
What Sky router do you have? If it's the new Sky Hub then you're best off turning off the Sky Hub's wireless function and connecting a better router to it in access-point mode to provide the wireless function :).
 
What Sky router do you have? If it's the new Sky Hub then you're best off turning off the Sky Hub's wireless function and connecting a better router to it in access-point mode to provide the wireless function :).

Its the new sky hub

How do I do that, never setup another router as an access point. I thought I would have to plug it in and go into settings and configure it as a router but it doesnt connect when I plug in, just flashes on the ethernet light...

Do i configure it by connecting it to the sky hub?
 
Sky uses an authenication method called MER, which unfortuantly not all routers support. Best bet will be to google the model of your o2 router and see if it can support MER.

Alternativly as Meatball said you could just use the o2 router you have in access point mode if wireless reception is better than the Sky box.
 
In a nutshell, to turn a router into an Access Point
1) Start it up connected only to your PC with an Ethernet cable. Go into the admin webpage
2) Turn off DHCP
3) Turn off the Firewall
4) Change the router IP Address if it's the same as the Sky one (eg to 192.168.0.254)
4) Save changes and power it off
5) Connect it to the Sky router using an Ethernet cable, and power back on

I did this with a Linksys router to add 5GHz support and it works just fine.
 
Check your Sky router status page and look for the Network type as Sky appear to be swapping lines from MER to PPPoA which might make it easier to swap for a better router. Mine changed over a couple of weeks ago and my sync speed went up by 2mb/s.
 
Check your Sky router status page and look for the Network type as Sky appear to be swapping lines from MER to PPPoA which might make it easier to swap for a better router. Mine changed over a couple of weeks ago and my sync speed went up by 2mb/s.

Yeah same here, I was on MER and all of a sudden switched back to PPOAE - so the Netgear has come straight back out of the cupboard.

This is good news, going to make a lot of people happy! I presume you both are existing o2/be subscribers?
 
This is good news, going to make a lot of people happy! I presume you both are existing o2/be subscribers?

I moved from O2 to Sky about 18 months ago. The connection was on MER from day 1 and was slower but more stable plus it was cheaper.
 
In a nutshell, to turn a router into an Access Point
1) Start it up connected only to your PC with an Ethernet cable. Go into the admin webpage
2) Turn off DHCP
3) Turn off the Firewall
4) Change the router IP Address if it's the same as the Sky one (eg to 192.168.0.254)
4) Save changes and power it off
5) Connect it to the Sky router using an Ethernet cable, and power back on

I did this with a Linksys router to add 5GHz support and it works just fine.

Just a few questions. The extra router does not show up as a device on the main router, is that ok?

And what do I set the channel to on the second router? The same as the first or a different one so it doesnt conflict?

Sky and ps3 work ok through it. Not sure if wireless is better or not as ive only just done it.
 
If your line is PPPoA,you can use practically any router once you have extracted your username and password from the sky router
Surprised no-one has suggested this yet
 
If your line is PPPoA,you can use practically any router once you have extracted your username and password from the sky router
Surprised no-one has suggested this yet

Yes it is. Does it have any effect on sky on demand? Someone that I don't trust about networking suggested that you have to keep your sky box because it was linked in some way with the mac address?

I am off work next week so I will have a proper play.
 
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Just a few questions. The extra router does not show up as a device on the main router, is that ok?

That's normal (it'll show in the hub logs when you connect it, but any device connected via wireless on the router will be listed as being connected by wire).
 
Yes it is. Does it have any effect on sky on demand? Someone that I don't trust about networking suggested that you have to keep your sky box because it was linked in some way with the mac address?

I am off work next week so I will have a proper play.

No effect with on-demand. Anytime+ was initially only available via Sky Broadband (most likely via the IP Address), that restriction was removed a while back.
 
Got Sky today using my Asus N55U. Followed THIS Guide to get the username and password. Went through the settings filled it in and its all working fine. Only used the SKY router for the 60 seconds it took to get the Username and password ( The username Which is the routers MAC address on the back of the router in this format MAC@skydsl )
 
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