Third party router upgrade recommendations from Sky hub

paddymcg · 1 Apr 2025 at 14:08

I want to replace my Sky Hub as the router is locked down to within an inch of it's life and I'd like to adjust a few things such as DNS servers. It's a 500MB FTTP connection.

I've read a bit online that Sky is a bit of an oddball and you need a router that supports 'Option 61' so you can't just buy any third-party router.

Could anyone recommend some routers that would be compatible with Sky broadband?

It doesn't need to be anything fancy, just something with good customisation and a decent WiFi signal will do me.

Or alternatively, could anyone confirm how you can tell if a router supports 'option 61' so I can have a browse myself.

Also, I don't use sky TV or sky phone so I'm not concerned about losing access to anything else.
Thanks.

ChrisD. · 1 Apr 2025 at 14:20

What's your budget?

paddymcg · 1 Apr 2025 at 14:54

ChrisD. said:
What's your budget?

Probably in the £100 or less range. I don't mind buying secondhand either.

Orcvader · 1 Apr 2025 at 14:58

The whole MER/option 61 thing was only with FTTC I believe, not FTTP.

With the current Sky hub, does the fibre connect directly to the hub or to an Openreach ONT box first, then ethernet from that to the hub?

paddymcg · 1 Apr 2025 at 15:18

Orcvader said:
The whole MER/option 61 thing was only with FTTC I believe, not FTTP.

With the current Sky hub, does the fibre connect directly to the hub or to an Openreach ONT box first, then ethernet from that to the hub?

Yeah, I did see that mentioned but not confirmed, I don't know how you would confirm it either.

Internet comes in though the openreach ONT box as you described.

Orcvader · 1 Apr 2025 at 16:30

A deeper search does seem to show Sky still uses option 61 for FTTP sadly.

In that case you just need to search for a router with a WAN ethernet port. As for the DHCPv4 option 61 support... I don't think TP-Link supported it last time I checked. Asus on the other hand does. Probably best to search the router you're interested in with "option 61" included in the search terms and hopefully it'll lead to answers if it supports it.

ChrisD. · 1 Apr 2025 at 16:33

UniFi support it, but might be a challenge to find suitable within budget.

GregI · 1 Apr 2025 at 16:44

Yeah pretty sure Option 61 is still required.

A vote for OpenWRT device for full option 61 support: https://www.reddit.com/r/openwrt/comments/134mb08/sky_fttp_with_openwrt_router/

If you want best of the best, you just missed the Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) sale at £115 but a more sensible approach for 500 Mbps internet would be something like a Cudy WR3000S for £50.

paddymcg · 1 Apr 2025 at 17:15

GregI said:
Yeah pretty sure Option 61 is still required.

A vote for OpenWRT device for full option 61 support: https://www.reddit.com/r/openwrt/comments/134mb08/sky_fttp_with_openwrt_router/

If you want best of the best, you just missed the Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) sale at £115 but a more sensible approach for 500 Mbps internet would be something like a Cudy WR3000S for £50.

Thanks for the info.

I'll do some research and see which one works better for me. I can see the Flint 2 goes for about £80-90 secondhand so I'll keep a lookout.

BurningHorizons · 2 Apr 2025 at 09:55

I replaced mine with a Unifi Clould Gateway Ultra which is within your budget.

paddymcg · 2 Apr 2025 at 11:50

BurningHorizons said:
I replaced mine with a Unifi Clould Gateway Ultra which is within your budget.

Okay, I'll check it out thanks.

Did you have any issues setting it up or was it just plug and play? I've read that for sky you need to know the option 61 client id to set up a third party router.

ChrisD. · 2 Apr 2025 at 12:59

paddymcg said:
Did you have any issues setting it up or was it just plug and play? I've read that for sky you need to know the option 61 client id to set up a third party router.

You can add it to the WAN options easy enough in UniFi. I might be wrong, but I think Sky accept anything now for the client ID, I don't think you need to do packet sniffing like you used to.

BurningHorizons · 2 Apr 2025 at 13:19

paddymcg said:
Okay, I'll check it out thanks.

Did you have any issues setting it up or was it just plug and play? I've read that for sky you need to know the option 61 client id to set up a third party router.

Plug and play. You can set DHCP Option to: 61 and Value to: 12345678@skydsl|12345678 but I don't think you need to. I don't have anything set in the WAN options and it works simply fine.