Virgin Hub 3 wifi to Sky mini box?

[Tegs]

Hi,

I'm getting virgin broadband to go with my sky q , I can get a wired connection to my tv and Q box but ill need to use WiFi got the upstairs boys rooms and I've read its not the best so will I need some sort of WiFi booster or can I use my current sky router? Thanks for any help 

[brianholt]

@Tegs your sky q main  box will create a 5ghz mesh network wireless, which the mini boxes connect to. If the signal is not sufficient then you can request a booster box from sky which will improve signal. No you cant use your sky router, which may have to be returned.

[digglerthelegend]

I have virgin broadband and used the virgin app to test the signal in all rooms of the house.  I found 1 with a deadspot so they sent me a booster kit which uses the electrical wiring in the house.  All fine and dandy now.

Not sure why Sky would provide you a booster when your broadband isn't with them.

[Chrisee]

@digglerthelegend Sky will provide wifi boosters for customers whose Q minis are not connecting as those boxes use the Sky mesh signal from the main Q box not the home's wifi unless the customer has bought Sky broadband.

One of the issues with this set up is the two 5GHz wifi signals can interfere as by default Sky's signal uses ch36 to 52. Hard wiring the Q boxes and turning off their wifi can therefore both improve the  TV performance and help the improve the third party wifi performance. 

[digglerthelegend]

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@Chrisee wrote:

@digglerthelegend Sky will provide wifi boosters for customers whose Q minis are not connecting as those boxes use the Sky mesh signal from the main Q box not the home's wifi unless the customer has bought Sky broadband.

One of the issues with this set up is the two 5GHz wifi signals can interfere as by default Sky's signal uses ch36 to 52. Hard wiring the Q boxes and turning off their wifi can therefore both improve the  TV performance and help the improve the third party wifi performance. 

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I understand that but there's no mention of mini boxes from the OP.

*edited* just re-read the title 🙂

[Tegs]

Hi and it is the mini boxes I'm referring to , I can hard wire the main q box and tv but will only be able to use WiFi for upstairs to the mini  boxes and I've read the hub 3 is very poor for that ?

[bemak187]

The virgin hub 3 is not that great for WiFi but its easy to use a better rotuer by putting it into modem mode.  However the Mini boxes dont connect to it.  They connect to the main Q box.  The main Q box is what is connected to your WiFi.

[Tegs]

Ok so does that mean as long as I'm wired from the hub 3 into my Q box the mini's upstairs should be ok ? Thanks again for all the help/info.

[digglerthelegend]

I have never had any issues with my Virgin Hub and the Q box connecting to the mini.

[bemak187]

No as your Mini's need a good signal between themselves and the main box.  Think about the main box sort of like another WiFi router and the mini boxes as an iPad connecting to them.  There has to be a good connection between them.  If the main box has a good link between itself and your main wifi thats great but if it cant get that connection to the minis you will have an issue.

[Tegs]

Ok and thanks for clearing it up for me , its only the upstairs im worried about as one of my lads is still at home and he uses the multiroom,  PlayStation and things like Netflix, prime , Disney etc and I want to make sure he can still use that from upstairs just with my connections downstairs and with the hub 3 , if I'm going to need a booster of some kind id rather get it now so its ready to set up as from all the reviews and forum reading it looks like thats whats needed so if anyone can point me to a good alternative that they know works I'd be grateful. 

[Gordo1973]

@Tegs I've been running this setup with the Hub 3, Sky Q and a mini box upstairs because of an Openreach issue which prevented the installation of the Sky broadband.  I also have an old house which has thick walls so the Sky technician installed a Sky booster to help the signal from the main Sky Q box reach the mini box upstairs.  The booster acts as an extension of the main Sky Q box and allows a good connection between the boxes.  Very simple to connect the devices using the wps buttons.

[Andrew+Westley]

This is a very interesting thread - thanks all. The reason being, I'm considering a switch to Virgin Broadband. I have Sky Q with 2 mini boxes, and also will connect the virgin router to the Sky Q main box by LAN cable. Currently I have Sky broadband which creates hotspots using the mini boxes which means there are no wifi dead spots in the house. If I change to Virgin Broadband, will I still be able to use the Sky Q mini boxes as hotspots? Thanks!

[Laing1]

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@Andrew+Westley wrote:

This is a very interesting thread - thanks all. The reason being, I'm considering a switch to Virgin Broadband. I have Sky Q with 2 mini boxes, and also will connect the virgin router to the Sky Q main box by LAN cable. Currently I have Sky broadband which creates hotspots using the mini boxes which means there are no wifi dead spots in the house. If I change to Virgin Broadband, will I still be able to use the Sky Q mini boxes as hotspots? Thanks!

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@Andrew+Westley yes a previous firmware upgrade allows non-Sky broadband users to have hotspots now as well but only on the 2.4Ghz channels there is a setting in settings to turn this function on and off

[Andrew+Westley]

Thanks so much 😀