Sky Broadband and Google Nest Wifi

paulisagayboy

Hi.... I have recently moved house and have sky fibre broadband to the address. I am getting very good speeds (350 up and 40 down) but I am looking at using Google Nest WiFi to boost speeds in parts of the house that are far away from the router. I have been researching this and there seems to be some issues with connecting Google Nest Router with Sky Router. I have a SR 200 Router. Are you aware of issues when connecting to Google Nest WiFi?

I am Not a gamer but I do a lot of online meetings in an office which is a good bit away from the router and I only get about 35 download/15 upload. Sometimes it gets a bit glitch.....

I am OK with tech but no expert.... What are my options. I know there are other mesh wifi options but I like that the Google WiFi doubles as a smart speaker.

Hurrache

Can you get the Sky Q booster from Sky, it works pretty well as Sky Q broadband itself can be a mesh system. Do you have Sky Q tv?

paulisagayboy

Hurrache wrote: »

Can you get the Sky Q booster itself from Sky, it works pretty well as Sky Q broadband itself can be a mesh system. Do you have Sky Q tv?

I do actually....do you have this system?

Hurrache

I used to until last year and it worked great. Once I changed provider I had to first go back to an old router I had to try cover blackspots before going with my own mesh. Each additional Sky Q unit also acts as a broadband connection point.

matzen

Sky Q wasn't great for boosting the signal in my house. Got Google WiFi and hooked it up to the Sky router and it worked without issues and boosted the signal immensely. Since changed to VF and have 0 issues with the Google Wifi.

LoGiE

Google Nest Wifi doesn't support VLAN tagging which is required by ISP's (Sky, Eir, Vodafone etc) using FTTH / FTTC. Google doesn't recommend using them in AP mode behind an ISP-provided router as this turns of mesh functionality from what I can remember. If you just plug them into your Sky router, you will get the range extension but may have problems with Double NAT unless you do some port forwarding.

In my opinion, you should look at another mesh system like Netgear Orbi, Linksys Velop or TP-Links Deccos systems. They all support VLAN tagging and would replace the ISP provided Router.

matzen

LoGiE wrote: »

Google Nest Wifi doesn't support VLAN tagging which is required by ISP's (Sky, Eir, Vodafone etc) using FTTH / FTTC. Google doesn't recommend using them in AP mode behind an ISP-provided router as this turns of mesh functionality from what I can remember. If you just plug them into your Sky router, you will get the range extension but may have problems with Double NAT unless you do some port forwarding.

Never had an issue with this on Sky and not now either on VF. According to the Home app the mesh is set up fine.

Hurrache

You can't put the Sky Q router into bridge mode anyway, so I reckon your best bet is to stick with the Sky Q inbuilt mesh.

Those who are using Google Nest, are you doubling up your network or are you not using their Sky Q router?

For other providers, there's no need to be worrying about VLAN, just stick your ISP router into bridge mode if you can and hook up whatever mesh you're using.

LoGiE

matzen wrote: »

Never had an issue with this on Sky and not now either on VF. According to the Home app the mesh is set up fine.

If it works great! It just means you're double NAT'd if you've plugged the puck directly into your ISP provided router. You may have problems, you may not, but it's not an ideal setup as it complicates your network and things like upnp, VPN or remote access to NAS/Plex are likely to have issues.

For other providers, there's no need to be worrying about VLAN, just stick your ISP router into bridge mode if you can and hook up whatever mesh you're using.

If you know enough to put your ISP supplied modem into Bridge mode then it's a bit silly not to just take it out and replace it with something better, you've coughed up for a mesh system after all. The configuration is straight forward and minimal. Save yourself a plug socket while you're at it!

Interesting that Sky don't let you bridge their modems though.

paulisagayboy

Was on to sky today and they are sending out a free WiFi booster. My understanding is that if I am not happy with this, then they will send a further booster out (again free). Be silly not to give that a go in this case.

If that doesn't work, if I replace my Sky Router with a different one, will it affect my Sky Q TV services?

Thanks for all the replies so far ðŸ‘

matzen

LoGiE wrote: »

If it works great! It just means you're double NAT'd if you've plugged the puck directly into your ISP provided router. You may have problems, you may not, but it's not an ideal setup as it complicates your network and things like upnp, VPN or remote access to NAS/Plex are likely to have issues.
.

Maybe, but haven't come across any of the above potential issues. I don't use Plex but Kodi works fine to stream media from the qnap nas.

paulisagayboy

Sky booster came today and I am happy. 150 down and 50 up speeds with medium to strong signal.... Perfect for what i Need!

Rattlehead_ie

Hurrache wrote: »

You can't put the Sky Q router into bridge mode anyway, so I reckon your best bet is to stick with the Sky Q inbuilt mesh.

I asked the question in the Siro thread, but out of interest. Are you forced to use the SkyHub with Siro/Sky. Cant you just replace it with your own router?
Complete replacement rather than bridging it.

Hurrache

To be honest I don't know. When I had my broadband with them I had a main Q box, a Q mini and a booster so the signal around the house was great so I never had the need to even try bridge it with my own router, never mind replace theirs. I didn't have Siro, just a max of 25Mb FTTC.

When you have your TV and broadband with them everything just works and is really stable. The biggest pain I have since I left their broadband though is that the main Sky Q box constantly drops off the network, and it's a really common issue from reading the Sky forum.