Bin Your ISP Router (Part 7) : Sky Hub

Sky Hub

Poor wireless performance and a limited feature set, at a high price for existing customers

If there’s one thing that ties ISP-supplied routers together, it’s a lack of high-end features, and the Sky Hub (model SR101) is no exception. It’s a single-band router operating an 802.11n network at 144Mbits/sec speeds; all its network ports are the slower 10/100 type; and there’s no sign of anything as useful as a USB port for sharing a hard disk drive.

If there’s one thing that ties ISP-supplied routers together, it’s a lack of high-end features, and the Sky Hub (model SR101) is no exception

It does have a few useful tricks up its sleeve, however. First, it’s very efficient. It consumes only 3W when idle, which could save you around $20 per year (at standard rates) in electricity costs over this month’s Labs winner. Second, it has no power brick, which cuts down on cable clutter. Third, and its biggest selling point, is its ability to detect interference from non-Wi-Fi sources and actively hop channels.

It’s similar to the BT Home Hub 3 in that respect, and it works just as well. While monitoring the RF spectrum with a Wi-Spy DBx and MetaGeek’s Chanalyzer software, we introduced a video sender signal in the same channel in which the Sky Hub was operating. Around 20 seconds after switching on the video sender, we saw the Sky Hub jump from channel 11 to channel 6.

This should insure against the most perplexing Wi-Fi problems, cutting down on the amount of time spent on tech support lines.

It’s similar to the BT Home Hub 3 in that respect, and it works just as well

Alas, general wireless performance is so poor that we’d advise most users to upgrade to a third-party router. At close range, its 2.4GHz speed was acceptable, hitting 7.7MB/sec, but long-range performance was pitiful. From a distance of 40m, we recorded an average transfer rate of 0.3MB/sec. No other router on test dipped much below the 2MB/sec mark in this test, making the Sky Hub’s result even more insipid.

We think asking existing Sky customers to pay $110 for a router this limited is outrageous

We think asking existing Sky customers to pay $110 for a router this limited is outrageous. Unfortunately, as Sky hides the username and password, the only way to use a third-party router on Sky connections is to extract the information from the router yourself (see p150). We hope Sky either changes its hardware or its policy on third-party devices soon.

Sky Hub specs Pricing ·         Part code: SR101 ·         Price: New customers, free; upgrade, $91 ·         Supplier: www.sky.com ·         Dimensions inc antennae (WDH): 140 x 53 x 141 mm ·         Warranty: 1 yr RTB ·         Core specifications ·         Internet connection type: ADSL2/2+ ·         Dual band (2.4GHz/5GHz): no ·         Concurrent dual band       : no ·         Wireless standards: 802.11 bgn ·         Maximum throughput (2.4GHz/5GHz): 2.4GHz, 144Mbits/sec ·         40MHz channels (2.4GHz/5GHz): 2.4GHz, * ·         Gigabit Ethernet ports: no ·         10/100 Ethernetports: 4 ·         USB ports (device support type): no ·         Security and parental controls ·         Security types       WEP, WPA (personal), WPA2 (personal) ·         Web content filtering: no ·         URL whitelisting: no ·         URL blacklisting: yes ·         Schedule-restricted internet access: yes ·         WPS button/router PIN/device PIN support         yes/no /no Other ·         IPv6 support: no ·         Wireless repeater functions: no ·         Wireless on/off switch       : no ·         Power switch: no ·         User-configurable QoS: no ·         Media server: no ·         Torrent server: N/A ·         Storage format support: N/A ·         Guest network: no ·         Android/iOS app: no ·         Extendability via apps: no ·         Online firmware updating: no Measured average speeds (MB/sec) ·         2.4GHz short range: 7.7 ·         5GHz short range: N/A ·         802.11ac short range: N/A ·         2.4GHz long range: 0.3 ·         5GHz long range: N/A ·         USB speed (wired): N/A ·         ADSL download (wired): UTT