Sky Router VS 3rd Party Router

Dunny774 · 1 Dec 2015 at 16:01

Hello All,
Looking into seeing if it is worth while replacing the router Sky provide with a third party one.

In this house hold we have always used the ISP provided router but I am wondering for me who likes gaming and my brother who tends to do a fair bit of downloading and uploading (youtube) would we benefit from a new router.

Just a thought for an upgrade.

Thanks
Martin

Avalon · 1 Dec 2015 at 16:50

Based on those specific points, nothing you've said needs a 3rd party router. Also connecting any 3rd party router to Sky's system is a violation of the TOS. If you still want to you need to extract your password and make sure you either use an ex BT fibre modem or a router with the appropriate modem that supports MER. The normal reasons people choose to get a non Sky router are the wifi is awful (can easily be fixed with a booster or a dedicated AP) and the prospect of running a 3rd party firmware that's more secure/allows greater control/specific VPN usage. In all honesty routers lack hardware PFU's and as such make really bad candidates for running the commonly used VPN set-up's like PIA etc at full line speed on a fast connection, they'll just about cope with standard fibre though but you'll pay over the odds and have other issues eg. payment providers/gaming.

rhysduck · 1 Dec 2015 at 16:55

How do you find the Wifi on the current Hub?

I've been thinking about doing the same because the wifi on our Hub 2 (fibre) is shocking!!

Dunny774 · 1 Dec 2015 at 19:20

I currently use the dlan plug but my brother is on Wifi, do find the range of the wifi to be very poor and sometimes will just drop out and usually takes all the other connections with it so it can be a massive pain restarting and reconnecting all the time.

Not sure if it has anything to do with the amount of devices all connected at once (3 pcs, 3 consoles, phones etc)

Just researching into it that's all see if its a possible solution to try and improve speeds throughout the house.

MissChief · 1 Dec 2015 at 21:45

It's no longer specifically against the T's and C's of DSL broadband to use a non-Sky router, it only says that s third party router may not work and we won't help you. For Sky Fibre though it specifically says that you can't use a non-Sky router.

If you have DSL Pro though we will supply the U/N and P/W but that's it.

rhysduck · 1 Dec 2015 at 22:59

So MissChief, can you comment on the poor performance of the Fibre Hub and what can be done about it?
Sky are overdue a phone call from me complaining just how rubbish the damn thing is... Not that I'm expecting much from them. Hence me contemplating going to a 3rd Party Router which I have no doubt would significantly improve wifi range / speed.

MissChief · 2 Dec 2015 at 02:35

rhysduck said:
So MissChief, can you comment on the poor performance of the Fibre Hub and what can be done about it?
Sky are overdue a phone call from me complaining just how rubbish the damn thing is... Not that I'm expecting much from them. Hence me contemplating going to a 3rd Party Router which I have no doubt would significantly improve wifi range / speed.

Officially I can only say 'it's the best Router we've ever done'.

Unofficially I agree it's well, well behind where it should be and we've been asking (and asking) for something better for a couple of years now. The new SkyQ hub will eventually be the Router everyone gets though. I'm going to be pushing for thee new QHub to be the default Fibre Hub and the Hub 2 to have it's stocks run down on DSL only though. Not sure how far I'm going to get though!

Avalon · 2 Dec 2015 at 11:35

They did send out free wifi boosters at one point that work reasonably well.

Dunny774 · 2 Dec 2015 at 12:47

So going by the overall vibe here I am probably best off not going for a third party router?

MissChief just on the standard Sky broadband not on fibre.

Avalon · 2 Dec 2015 at 14:01

Dunny774 said:
So going by the overall vibe here I am probably best off not going for a third party router?

MissChief just on the standard Sky broadband not on fibre.

From what you describe you won't gain anything from buying a different router, if you've money to burn then go for it, if not and the router's been trouble free for you and you don't have any technical need to change it then it will give you near zero improvement in performance for the money.

Dunny774 · 2 Dec 2015 at 14:23

Thanks for all the advice.
Clarified a few points for me when it comes to the sky router and a Third Party router.

I'll waste my money elsewhere.