Replacing Sky Broadband router

[Canetoad]

Hi,

I have a Sky Broadband router that is a few years old. It's rated at 50Kps wireless and 100Kbps using ethernet. Can I buy a more up to date router with more bandwidth and install it?

Does anybody know if contacting Sky would yield an updated router?

Any background would be greatly appreciated.

[WAD62]

Hi,

I have a Sky Broadband router that is a few years old. It's rated at 50Kps wireless and 100Kbps using ethernet. Can I buy a more up to date router with more bandwidth and install it?

Does anybody know if contacting Sky would yield an updated router?

Any background would be greatly appreciated.

Edit; Just spotted you stated Kbps...are you sure?

I have the Sagem, which is 54Mbps on wi-fi

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-router/26616-54g-sagem-router.html

Looks like there's a faster netgear one available, I got a replacement Sagem from sky for £26, so you might as well get an upgrade through them :)

[Canetoad]

What sort of improvement does it give Will? :)

[WAD62]

What sort of improvement does it give Will? :)

First of all I'm assuming that you are on Kbps as your post states, that must be an old router...is that correct?

Given that your broadband connection should be Mbps (I'm assuming you have broadband), the router will no longer be the limiting factor (at 54Mbps), so internet speed over wi-fi or lan will now be limited by your connection...anywhere between 3 & 16 Mbps.

You can use it reliably for music streaming (SqueezeBox etc.) at the same time as surfing the net, without any bottlenecks.

Allegedly it's speced for video streaming, although I haven't tried yet.

Check out the Netgear option too (if that's now an option), it looks like it may be twice the speed, so may as well go straight there, streaming Blu-Ray movies from a NAS for example might benefit from this. :)

[Canetoad]

Hi Will, Yes I meant Mbps. Sorry. :doh: I was wondering if I can up the wireless from 50 to 100 as per the ethernet connection. That's all.

[WAD62]

Hi Will, Yes I meant Mbps. Sorry. :doh: I was wondering if I can up the wireless from 50 to 100 as per the ethernet connection. That's all.

You had me going then Bernie :)

Have a look on that earlier link, apparently there's a netgear one at 100 via wi-fi, or give sky a call

[UV101]

Sky dont give you the username and password you use to connect to the network. So long as you can get this, you can swap it with any ADSL router you like. I used my own router with sky for about 4 years. Is your sky router a Netgear?

[WAD62]

Sky dont give you the username and password you use to connect to the network. So long as you can get this, you can swap it with any ADSL router you like. I used my own router with sky for about 4 years. Is your sky router a Netgear?

The only reason I mentioned going through sky is that they seem to provide a customer discount, or did to me anyway...:)

[UV101]

There are pretty comprehensive instructions here

http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/sky_connection.htm

You need to run the generator for the ADSL account details (I used a local script when I did mine).

I've no idea why Sky wont just give you this info like every other ISP and officially let you use your own equipment. :scratch:

[UV101]

The only reason I mentioned going through sky is that they seem to provide a customer discount, or did to me anyway...:)

Yes, but they will be running their own version of the firmware too meaning any improvements for later firmware on the hardware they supply will not be available to you. My original DG834 had problems running my VPN to work. Netgear released a patch but you couldn't put it on to a Sky branded router even though it was exactly the same hardware.

Personally, i'd buy another router (they are cheap enough from PC world or anywhere on the internet) and get off the Sky branded router. The only reason I can think to stay with the Sky one is for support. You can always keep the original and just plug it in if there are issues and you need to ring sky. Given that my job is a network security architect, I can't believe for one second that anyone in the support department at Sky would be able to help me any more than I can help myself..... ;)

[WAD62]

Yes, but they will be running their own version of the firmware too meaning any improvements for later firmware on the hardware they supply will not be available to you. My original DG834 had problems running my VPN to work. Netgear released a patch but you couldn't put it on to a Sky branded router even though it was exactly the same hardware.

Personally, i'd buy another router (they are cheap enough from PC world or anywhere on the internet) and get off the Sky branded router. The only reason I can think to stay with the Sky one is for support. You can always keep the original and just plug it in if there are issues and you need to ring sky. Given that my job is a network security architect, I can't believe for one second that anyone in the support department at Sky would be able to help me any more than I can help myself..... ;)

Good points well made...:)

[Jac Hawk]

The SKY "netgear" routers are pants, but to be honnest all a faster router is going to give you is a faster intranet i.e. the network within your house, the reason being is that the bottleneck is ALWAYS the internet connection on standard ADSL it's a maximum of 8mbps and on ADSL2 it's 20mbps at the moment i don't think SKY do ADSL2+ which can get you up to 24mbps, at the end of the day if you want a quicker router for wireless streaming within your home of either audio or video you would need an N rated router, the router you have at the moment is G rated and so the maximium wireless speed from it is 56mbps and it can't be altered.

[webby]

I think I'd like to change my Sky router too and move up to an N rated router. Are there any specific ones you could recommend? Also, would an N rated router have a better range than the Sky router?

[Stratmangler]

Now I thought Sky sent routers out pre-configured, and administrator password protected, in order to stop customers from killing their service by changing things in the settings.

I don't use their broadband service, so this information is only heresay.

[webby]

That's true, but apparently, you can get that information off the router and enter it into the new one. It does breach their T's and C's though.

[Canetoad]

There are pretty comprehensive instructions here

http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/sky_connection.htm

You need to run the generator for the ADSL account details (I used a local script when I did mine).

I've no idea why Sky wont just give you this info like every other ISP and officially let you use your own equipment. :scratch:

Just went to this site and put in the MAC and serial off my router and got back my id/password details. I got the details off the side of the router body.:)

[Stratmangler]

I just did a very quick surf and found this http://www.avforums.com/forums/sky-broadband/463306-sky-broadband-router-questions.html

So much for security, eh ? :lolsign:

[Jac Hawk]

If i was going to replace my router i would look at the offerings from Linksys, in my opinion they're the boys, not cheap though, all you need to do then is configure it, a call to the ISP technical help line would be a wise move.

[UV101]

Seriously, once you have the username and password (from the tools in my previous posts) it's very easy to set up. Most routers will have a set up wizard out the box. Go with the defaults and the username and password and it will work in 99% of cases.

I got over 1mb increase in speed changing the router! I've got a linksys I use for testing wifi man in the middle attacks. They are now owned by cisco although they are not running cisco software.

As a side note most of the netgear routers can be made to run homebrew Linux code ;-)