Replacing Sky Q hub/router with something better

[ChimpMaster]

I'm desperate to fix ongoing WiFi issues in our house. The main problem is concurrent connections far exceeding the limit of 64 on Sky routers. We have problems connecting devices, even the Sky Q TV boxes!

I'm thinking of replacing the Sky Q router but not sure which one to go for. The last thing I need is more problems with connectivity!

Does anyone here have experience of replacing a Sky router with something that allows more than 64 concurrent connections?

[eek]

Do you have network cables running between places - if you do go for the ASUs aimesh otherwise can’t really give you any ideas as the more than 64 devices makes thing difficult

[WTFH]

Devolo mesh supports 128 devices (although they say it’s better to stay under 100), that can then be plugged in to your router on a wired connection (I’m assuming that the 64 limit is just for wireless, not for wired). That’s all done with Powerline adapters and works well.

Alternatively, could you set up hubs in different parts of the house and then connect certain items to each one. TV/fridge/games/desktop/sound system probably don’t get moved round the house much so balance things around each hub to make sure that the phones/tablets can roam the different hubs without falling over.

[ChimpMaster]

A while back I had work done on the house and had ethernet cables run from my Sky router to a POE switch. I had ethernet cables run from that switch to 3 locations around my house. At each of these locations I have installed a TP Link EAP225, which means I have 3 WiFi Access Points (AP) to provide strong connections throughout the house.

Each of these has it's own SSID, so I know which devices are connected to each.

Devices connect wirelessly to the TP link AP, which is then hard-wired to the POE switch, which in turn is hard-wired to the Sky router. I initially thought that each AP would allow its own concurrent connections limit, so I would get far in excess of the 64 device limit on the Sky router. But this isn't the case: I can see which devices are connected to each AP and all the i.p. addresses show on the router itself. So each connection on an AP is mapped directly back to the router!

I'm not a networking guy by any means so I hope I've explained this well enough.

Can I get > 64 concurrent connections using this setup?

[d000hg]

Eero might be worth a look, supports 100+ devices as far as I can see and some models have Zigbee built-in. It seems like they may even be adding WiFi connectivity to Echo dots so if you use Alexa even more reason to look.

[eek]

A quick read tells me it's max 32 devices per channel so the more channels supported the more devices are possible.

So you want to look for devices that support as many channels as possible which means wifi 6 / 6e rather than the AC wifi you currently have.

I'm impressed by Asus's AiMesh it's way better than the Netgear stuff I had before. Eero may be great but it does have Amazon's baggage attached which may or may not be a problem.

However the

[northernladuk]

Do you have network cables running between places - if you do go for the ASUs aimesh otherwise can’t really give you any ideas as the more than 64 devices makes thing difficult

The AiMesh needs Asus nodes? It can't be used with outher routers/nodes? Is an Asus thing not a standard right?

[eek]

The AiMesh needs Asus nodes? It can't be used with outher routers/nodes? Is an Asus thing not a standard right?

Yep all the manufacturers insist on you using others of the same manufacturer. The diffrence with Asus is that it's not particularly fussy and will work with any Asus routers with Aimesh. eero and others prefer everything to be the identical model. Asus you can upgrade over time if you need / want to.

[northernladuk]

Yep all the manufacturers insist on you using others of the same manufacturer. The diffrence with Asus is that it's not particularly fussy and will work with any Asus routers with Aimesh. eero and others prefer everything to be the identical model. Asus you can upgrade over time if you need / want to.

Thought so. I've just replaced all my hubs with the round BT ones which seem to be doing OK so far. Would prefer to try a proper mesh but not forking out for it at this point.

[eek]

Thought so. I've just replaced all my hubs with the round BT ones which seem to be doing OK so far. Would prefer to try a proper mesh but not forking out for it at this point.

Had those they aren't great. Then moved to Netgear (somewhat better) and finally asus - although I do have an advantage in that there is a cable between the two points so I get downloads of 120mbps everywhere (joy of a 1gb line in both directions).