cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
1

Ask

2

Reply

3

Solution

WiFi Extender

Snowball1000
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

Hi, I have Fibre broadband with the THG3000 hub.  My Sky Q box is right on the edge of the wifi range and frequently loses internet connection.  Can somebody recommend a suitable wifi extender.  I have tried a TP-Link wifi extender and also TP-Link powerline but they don't seem to be compatible with Vodafone THG3000.

Any help would be appreciated.

7 REPLIES 7

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

I'm sure any extender should be compatible with the THG3000, and especially power line adapters as they would be totally transparent to the router.

They are compatible with the router but not Sky Q.  It drops connection occasionally when using them, even when the ethernet cable is connected to the powerline.  I presume there is some interference that is affecting the sky box.  It only happens when wifi extenders or powerline are used.  Very strange.  But I don't know what settings on the router (or Sky for that matter) to change to try and resolve the issue.

That's not the reason why the Vodafone router and Sky Q are not playing ball. The Sky Q box is part of a mesh network for when you add extra boxes and they interfere with the THG3000. This is because they are broadcasting on the same 2.4Ghz frequency.

 

You need to split the SSID's on the Vodafone router and set the 2.4Ghz channel manually to a different channel, so that it isn't using the same frequency as the Sky Q box. But to do this you need an Android device and the apk file of version 4.1.0 for the Vodafone Broadband app, as the settings are removed from higher versions and in the router GUI. 

 

If you go for the Vodafone Pro package you can get up to 3 mesh extenders from Vodafone to improve the signal around your house.

Cheers for the update.  I managed to download the old version as you suggest.  I already have the channels split.  My work computer is on the 5GHz.  Do you know what would be the best channel to change the 2.4Ghz frequency to.  Also, do I need to change the Sky Q settings on the Sky Q box regarding 2.4Hgz frequency or just leave that as it is?  Thanks for your patience.

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

I doubt it is anything to do with WiFi channels. The Sky Q box is only part of a mesh if you have the Q router, which you do not, and If the mesh was working it would be using the 5gh channels not 2.4Ghz.

Also you say it fails when using powerline adapters and they will not be affected by WiFi.

Unfortunately I don't have an answer for you, but think I would look at getting a different set of powerline adapters.

I usually like TP-Link kit, but when I had some of their powerline adapters I wasn't impressed. It was a long time ago so hopefully they have improved.

Jayach, that is incorrect. The Sky Q boxes still broadcast their mesh network without even requiring a Sky Q router, also Sky Q boxes require that the SSID's are combined together.

 

The reason I know that Sky Q boxes interfere with Vodafone routers on the 2.4Ghz frequencies as a friend of mine very recently had exactly the same problem with 2 Sky Q boxes. And when talking to Vodafone they were monitoring the frequencies that the router could pickup and spotted that the Sky Q boxes were interfering with the Vodafone router because they were using the same 2.4Ghz frequency to broadcast on.

 

The problem occurred after a firmware update on the Vodafone router and changed all the frequencies. Because there are only 13 available 2.4Ghz frequencies in use it selected the one the Sky Q boxes were using and made any internet over wifi go to a crawl, even though he had a 70mb/s and 20mb/s connection coming into the router. So basically all I did was split the SSID's on the Vodafone router and changed the 2.4Ghz frequency and hay presto the internet was working fine.

 

Not even Vodafone support could solve the issue, which is down to them taking out of the router GUI and the Vodafone Broadband app the ability to manually change the frequencies the Vodafone router broadcasts on. What you will also find with the THG3000 that after every firmware update it will select very high frequencies that many devices can't even pickup anymore. That is why you have to use the 4.1.0 Android Vodafone Broadband app to manually reset them.

@VFbroadbanduser

I don't think I am wrong, the Sky Q mesh uses the 5Ghz frequency only, so won't affect 2.4Ghz traffic.

See here: How to fix Sky Q connectivity problems | Expert Reviews

Anyway the OP says the problem also occurs over powerline adapters, so the WiFi is irrelevant.

 


@VFbroadbanduser wrote:

What you will also find with the THG3000 that after every firmware update it will select very high frequencies that many devices can't even pickup anymore.


If the users have any devices that can't use channels 12 & 13 they would simply not be able to see the WiFi, they wouldn't be intermittent.