Moving from Sky Q

cunnas

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Hi all, I was wondering if someone could help as I am really struggling to find the info I want on the VM website.

I currently have VM BB 200MB - have had this in my home for years and years and it works great.

I also have Sky Q with 2 mini boxes, one in my bedroom, the other in my oldest daughter's - this generally works well but has some issues with net connection which I have read about online. Sky have installed a booster which works ok but I am still finding I am having issues every week or so and it is becoming a bit of a pain in the rear.

I am considering moving to VM for TV and getting rid of Sky Q - but have a few questions.

I am after replicating what I have currently with one main box in the lounge and 2 mini boxes in bedrooms - is there a VM equivalent of this?

If there is, do the VM mini boxes work like Sky Q where it all works (most the time!) without a hard installation or would the bedroom VM boxes have to be hard wired in?

For anyone with a multiroom setup, how much does this cost? At the moment I pay roughly £45 for Sky Q per month which includes the 2 minis, the sub and a fairly basic TV package - the price also includes my Netflix sub. I wouldn't be after any sport/movie channels so just after a rough idea how much people are paying for a similar package?

Would there be an installation cost for the above?

thanks!
 
Anyone?
 
VM hardwire all their devices and I am sure I will be shot down but the general opinion that I have from reading the forums over the years is that Sky still off a better TV service (price discussion aside) than VM. Afaik they don't have an equivalent of Sky Q. I managed to get the Sky Q, UHD and Netflix (don't have sports or movies) and Sky Q Mini for £37 a month when I last rang up.

I am like you I have VM for my BB as Openreach doesn't give me a particularly fast speed and Sky Q. I do have my Sky Q wireless network switched off and the boxes are hardwired. I generally don't have any problems save for the occasional reboot once in a blue moon.
 
Hi mate thanks for this....can you describe your full VM broadband and Sky Q setup? I just want to see what differs as I'm getting daily dropouts from the Sky Q boxes....all other devices are fine
 
Sure,

VM I have the GigOne package plus phone + weekend calls. Have the Super Hub 4 connected to another router which in turn is connected to a managed switch. It did to be fair work before this change with the SH3 and a regular switch.

Then I have everything hardwired in my house except mobiles etc which connect to a UniFI AC-HD access point.

The Sky Q boxes have WiFi disabled in the engineer secret menu as they are hardwired.

The only issue I have is that my previous switch did not like the Sky Q boxes and would cause the Internet connection to freeze. The fix in this case was to enable Jumbo frames on my switch and all was good again.
 
How do you turn wifi off on Sky Q? I've always been puzzled how the mini boxes work....how do they talk to the main box? My main box is ethernet connected, not Wifi but the 2 mini boxes upstairs aren't plugged in to ethernet
 
Ignore the above....found it myself...might have a mess with it tonight
 
Ignore the above....found it myself...might have a mess with it tonight

No worries can't remember if you disable WiFi on the main one whether it forms the mesh either. I guess suck it and see what happens :)
 
I am wary this is perhaps the wrong forum to be discuss this on but this is my setup.

I have VM SH3 which has wifi disabled. I have Sky Q, Xbox and nV Shield ethernetted (if thats a thing!) from the SH3 - the 4th ethernet goes to a Tenda Mesh which gives me fantastic Wifi all over the house. I have set the main Sky Q box up as ethernet and this connects fine.

I have 2 Sky Q minis upstairs, one in my bedroom, the other in my daughters. I am not entirely sure how they connect to the main Sky Q box but I have just checked on the network settings on each box and they say they are connected to my Mesh system - not entirely sure how this works as the main box is hard wired to my SH3? This is the bit that is confusing me!

I have a mesh box right next to the mini in my bedroom and my mesh boxes have ethernet capability so in theory I could plug one of my minis in to the mesh - but is this then confusing things as my main box is plugged in to the SH3?

My daughters room has wifi from mesh but no way of ethernetting.

Right now things are working fine but no doubt the main box will lose its internet connection (despite being hard wired) tonight - it always does.

Needing help!

Was considering just getting rid and going for VM TV hence the post in this forum but unsure as with the "equivalent" system it will be way way more expensive
 
I've got a similar setup.

  • VM SH3 in my computer room running in modem mode and an Asus router for better WiFi coverage.
  • I have a switch in the living room which I've hardwired to my router upstairs. This took ages to do with all the nice trunking and while it doesn't look perfect, it was necessary to save a LOT of issues due to the amount of connected devices i have in the main room.
  • Sky Q in the living is NOT hardwired but it connects to the mini in the kitchen and the other mini that i swap between 2 rooms upstairs. It's extremely rare i ever have an issue with either mini box but they don't get heavy use.
  • Both my Minis are connected via WiFi directly to the main box.
I've never had the need for a mesh system but if i were you i'd try unplugging the ethernet from your main box, reset your minis and let them connect to the Q directly, see how they get on running over WiFi. If that doesn't work connected to the mesh system will have to do.

I wouldn't touch VM TV again to be honest, I've had it a few times over the years and it just doesn't compare. Sky is superior in pretty much every way, they've always got some sort of offer on too, even retention deals can be excellent, you just need to be prepared to call a few times and even put your notice in.
 
Thanks mate, just as an update, I have now gone a week with no dropouts.

I hard factory reset all Q boxes, including the main one. I connect the main box via Wifi (using my mesh system). The Q minis then connect using the WPS button on the main box - but this is still something I find a mystery - are the Q boxes connecting directly to the main Sky Q box (in some way the main box is beaming its own wifi to the minis), or does the Sky Q box simply share the network setup it has when I press the WPS button? The reason I ask is AFAIK there is no network settings on the Q minis in the same was as the main box has - it just seems to get its network settings from the main box using WPS. When I look at the network settings on the minis it shows "Tim Mesh" which is my SSID on the mesh - I have never, ever used the minis to connect to the mesh so assume the main box must have shared this with the minis?

Either way, it seems to be working and the hard reset on all boxes seems to have worked....for now!
 
Thanks mate, just as an update, I have now gone a week with no dropouts.

I hard factory reset all Q boxes, including the main one. I connect the main box via Wifi (using my mesh system). The Q minis then connect using the WPS button on the main box - but this is still something I find a mystery - are the Q boxes connecting directly to the main Sky Q box (in some way the main box is beaming its own wifi to the minis), or does the Sky Q box simply share the network setup it has when I press the WPS button? The reason I ask is AFAIK there is no network settings on the Q minis in the same was as the main box has - it just seems to get its network settings from the main box using WPS. When I look at the network settings on the minis it shows "Tim Mesh" which is my SSID on the mesh - I have never, ever used the minis to connect to the mesh so assume the main box must have shared this with the minis?

Either way, it seems to be working and the hard reset on all boxes seems to have worked....for now!

That's a good point on the mini's, they will get the WiFi settings from the main box. My box is hardwired not WiFi as i thought but the boxes can definitely connect straight to the main box.

The mini's can also act as WiFi hotspots if you use sky as your internet provider too so they're quite nifty little devices.
 

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