So Amplifi Instant Wifi or TP-Link Deco M4 to mesh my Sky Router (as trouble free as possible)?

[NeilF]

I'm mainly concerned with simply improving the wifi around my house, so ideally do not want to have to faff about or risk double nat or the like issues.

My existing setup has some fixed IP addresses and port forwarding rules (on the Sky Router, for games servers etc).

From research it seems the two good candidates for trouble free installation with Sky are:-

• TP-Link Deco (eg: M4 or P9 for example)
• Amplifi Instant Wifi

Have any folks got either of these two systems working with Sky? Thoughts?


My Sky
Currently all I have is:-

• Sky Q Router
• Sky Q Booster
• Sky HD+ box

Ideal installation
Ideally:-

• Plug in the new mesh router in the lounge which is hard wired to the Sky Q Router in the study (via X meters of gigabit cable and a pair of switches), because it's more central in the house.
  
• In the case of the Deco, put it in Access Point mode. Or set the Amplifi likewise to "Bridge Mode".
  
• So devices would still be ethernet wired into my Sky Q Router, and only wireless traffic would go through the new Mesh Router.
  
• Turn off my Sky wireless
• Rename the mesh wifi name to my Sky wireless name.
• Put additional mesh units around the house. eg: Upstairs.

The existing SKy Q Router is in my study, at an extreme end/side of the house. My lounge is more central.

The one feature I'd really like is to be able to see realtime data usage for wireless devices. Ideally a historic graph would be nice, but only Google Wifi seems to offer that, and I hear that's a pain to get working nicely with Sky. But at least both the Decos and Amplifi show realtime usage of devices (eg: an Ipad).

Sky Q
In the future if I want to use Sky Q mini boxes I will hard wire them via homeplugs. Or worse case turn on the Sky Q network again , under it's own new network name.

Worse Case
I'm happy to set up a DMZ on the Sky Q Router to the Mesh Router, and let the Mesh Router take on all wireless and wired traffic if necessary. But ideally I'd prefer just to pluggin in the Mesh Router to do wireless traffic, as leaving everything else untouched (wired stuff going directly to my Sky Q Router) seems ideal.


Any thoughts?

 

[jaf2212]

As you have cables run considered Unifi access points which will work with your current router?

 

[NeilF]

As you have cables run considered Unifi access points which will work with your current router?

I only have a cable to my lounge (from my study), not to elsewhere in the house where I'd probably want to put mesh units to improve wifi coverage. eg: Upstairs.

Of course the Deco P9 could also offer Powerline functionality (backhaul) too, to more remote places in the house, which is appealing. If I went with the P9, I'd replace my (3) existing powerline plugs with P9 units at the locations.

 

[WJA96]

Of the two in the original post, TP-Link because Amplifi isn’t a core Ubiquiti product range.

But the folks posting about running wires are correct. Anything wireless is just a sticking plaster over a huge wound. A lot of us have been down this path. WiFi bridges, power lines. Faster power lines etc. And eventually you just realise you should have just spent the money and cabled everything in the first place.