[SOLVED] Will a new router/powerline adaptor or WiFi extender be best?

[unplanned bacon]

Got Sky Q hub and TV box, but the problem is the WiFi from the hub drops random devices at random or is super slow with high ping. Other times it's fine. However, the range isn't where I'd like it. So, to fix it is better to:

• Get Sky broadband's booster option
• Get a powerline adaptor which will extend the WiFi and give a wired connection to the devices in the problematic area. I'm in favour of this idea.
• Get my own router. I'd go for this one for WiFi 6 802.11ax for use with PS5 and my PC (I'd have to upgrade the adaptor in there). But if I went with this then I'd ned to find a WiFi 6 modem router which are proving hard to find (or go with just a router), but then I have to go through the effort of connecting them to Sky.

Would any of these even solve my issue?

 

[bill001g]

First test is to see how well it work on a ethernet connection. I assume sky is some form of cell network connection ?

If ethernet has issue then maybe the booster will work. As long as you get them from sky they will likely increase your signals. Make sure it is only to increase the signals from the tower to your router. Many times they call wifi repeater/extenders booster and you should avoid any form of wifi extender or mesh.

If you get good connection to the router via ethernet powerline is one of the best options to extend it. You either get a powerline unit with a wifi radio in the remote end or you use a old router as a AP and plug it into the remote powerline. You want the newest version of powerline there is a huge difference between the older av500 and the newer ones that are often called av2-1000 and av2-2000.

It is going to be tricky to replace the router if it uses a cell signal for input. Much simpler for example if there is a fiber ONT or a cable modem.

I would avoid 802.11ax mostly because it is already outdated. It might be slightly faster than 802.11ac but the coverage will be about the same. In some cases the coverage will be worse since it is trying to use a more advanced data encoding and if there is a lot of interference it will not connect at those speeds. This is where it gets confusing, the signal itself goes the same distance how much data you can pack into the signal make this type of question confusing.

The reason I say 802.11ax is outdated is wifi6e is coming out and it has support for the 6g radio bands. It still uses 802.11ax data encoding but the new radio bandwidth means less contention between neighbors.

 

[unplanned bacon]

First test is to see how well it work on a ethernet connection. I assume sky is some form of cell network connection ?

If ethernet has issue then maybe the booster will work. As long as you get them from sky they will likely increase your signals. Make sure it is only to increase the signals from the tower to your router. Many times they call wifi repeater/extenders booster and you should avoid any form of wifi extender or mesh.

If you get good connection to the router via ethernet powerline is one of the best options to extend it. You either get a powerline unit with a wifi radio in the remote end or you use a old router as a AP and plug it into the remote powerline. You want the newest version of powerline there is a huge difference between the older av500 and the newer ones that are often called av2-1000 and av2-2000.

It is going to be tricky to replace the router if it uses a cell signal for input. Much simpler for example if there is a fiber ONT or a cable modem.

I would avoid 802.11ax mostly because it is already outdated. It might be slightly faster than 802.11ac but the coverage will be about the same. In some cases the coverage will be worse since it is trying to use a more advanced data encoding and if there is a lot of interference it will not connect at those speeds. This is where it gets confusing, the signal itself goes the same distance how much data you can pack into the signal make this type of question confusing.

The reason I say 802.11ax is outdated is wifi6e is coming out and it has support for the 6g radio bands. It still uses 802.11ax data encoding but the new radio bandwidth means less contention between neighbors.

Sky is a broadband, phone and TV provider in the UK. In this instance I'm talking about their home broadband. Over ethernet everything's good, but there router (what they call the Sky Q hub) has only one ethernet port currently taken by the Sky Q Set Top Box (TV box). The hub they gave us uses fibre to the cabinet to get its internet. 802.11ax is already outdated? So perhaps I should forget about that

 

[bill001g]

I would still use the powerline to extend the range. If you have tv coax you can consider moca.

When you also get cable tv it makes it even more difficult to replace their router. If it is a router you should be able to place a switch between the hub and the tv box. You need to get more ethernet ports somehow no matter what you do. You could at that point use a different router running as a AP to replace their wifi. This is also where you would plug the powerline unit in.

I have no knowledge of their system and the limitation. The hard thing about actually replacing the router is how do you get the fiber connected to a new device. In many cases they use some proprietary optic, they likely use multple color lasers over the same fiber one color each for internet,phone,and cable tv. If you only had internet maybe you could get some simpler fiber modem from them.

 

[unplanned bacon]

I would still use the powerline to extend the range. If you have tv coax you can consider moca.

When you also get cable tv it makes it even more difficult to replace their router. If it is a router you should be able to place a switch between the hub and the tv box. You need to get more ethernet ports somehow no matter what you do. You could at that point use a different router running as a AP to replace their wifi. This is also where you would plug the powerline unit in.

I have no knowledge of their system and the limitation. The hard thing about actually replacing the router is how do you get the fiber connected to a new device. In many cases they use some proprietary optic, they likely use multple color lasers over the same fiber one color each for internet,phone,and cable tv. If you only had internet maybe you could get some simpler fiber modem from them.

I looked again and saw that there are two ethernet ports on the router which means a powerline solution should work

 

[SamirD]

Powerlines should be the easiest and best solution. Should give you some extra ports too as most of the newest ones have multiple ports on the powerline adapter itself.