Network Advice

[Maverickbiff]

Good morning this is my first post. My name is Andy from Chester UK and want to thank you in advance for taking the time to read my post. I am a novice where it comes to it, know a reasonable amount and dabble but not an expert by any means. I’m after some advice on a home network setup, I have spent a few days dougn some research and can’t find the answers I’m looking foR and if I’m honest have probably confused myself in the process.

Here goes.

I am moving ISP from BT to SKY i Have fibre to the property. FTTP The sky hub they Hub the provided is a SR203. I have also read that this hub isn’t the best and i need to get Wi-Fi coverage in the house for work and my connected devices. I am going from 300 Mbps to 500 Mbps connection.

List of connections to current hub

Synology nas
Hive hub and thermostat and smart plugs
Arlo Cameras via home plug to hub x 2
Ring doorbell and floodlight camera
sky glass and other smart tvs
4 laptops at least 2 Wi-Fi 6 enabled 2 of which are gaming laptops.
3 Ipads
Echo show and dots
apple smart speakers / hub x 2
Kasa smart plugs ( about to be changed to TASO so there al the same )
LIFX lights
nintendo switch
various other smaller appliances such as watches cycle computers and a canon printer using wireless.

should also say that I’m not bothered if digital phone can’t be connected as I haven’t used a landline for 15 years would rather use the mobile.

My question is one of advice, should i replace the sky hub with something else plugging it into the fibre box inside the house? And is so what ?
or put the hub on wireless mode after connecting a router? Something like the ASUS RT AX 58U
Or is a mesh system a better idea in which case should i do either of the above replacing the sky hub and maybe something like the
Asus ZenWiFi XD5 and then use a switch ( not sure what type ) to hard wire the cabled devices for a stable connection.

From my reading i believe to remove the sky hub i need a modem and router that supports DCHP option 61 for authentication and have no idea what that means but believe ASUS do support this and not many to links do hence the suggestions above.

I’m rather confused by reading many other posts and would appreciate some guidance and recommendations if anyone is willing.

I’m loking for a Wi-Fi 6 or 6e option within a budget of around £250 to £300.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I really appreciate any advice.

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[5punk3monk3y]

I had an skyq hub + the mesh box on fttc with about 30 devices connected very similar to your list. It was useless, hard set QoS among other things. Swapped it out with an asus ax88u it was like night and day.

I would suggest the ax86u (exactly the same software and soc wise as the ax88u) in that budget with merlin firmware.

Regarding the modem yes you will need one fttp you will already have the box on the wall just plug the ethernet cable in to it then straight in to the wan port on the router.
On my fttc with sky i needed a capable modem then on the router I had to use the option 61 box under wan settings and enter

Without this after an hour or two the connection would die, not sure if sky still require this for fttp.

Hope this helps.