Sky Q with Airport Extreme

I now also have this problem. When Sky Q was first installed it worked fine and connected to my home network, an Apple Airport Extreme providing all routing through a TalkTalk box that had been configured to Bridge Mode. The AE was also providing full 2.4 and 5 Ghz WiFi throughout the home.

About 2 weeks ago I started to suffer from Internet drop-outs and put it down to the age of the TalkTalk hardware. Contacted TT who confirmed that there had been a number of recent dropouts on the line and ultimately replaced their hardware. As I didn't have time to fully implement the Apple network when the TT hardware arrived I have been using the TT default settings and have had a stable network. I have just finished setting up and configuring the AE and all was going well. The last device to be added to the network was the Sky Q box and the moment network password was input into the Sky Q system the AE failed and once again will not connect.

Frustrating.

I have exactly the same issue. It seems to have started around the same time as you.

Sky Q has been running perfectly for 1 year+, over Virgin Superhub 3 in modem mode, through an AirPort Extreme and several AirPort Express units on different floors.

A couple of weeks ago we suddenly had the same issue. I firstly thought it was our Virgin Fibre. I then assumed it was the AirPort Extreme, so ended up taking the unit to the local Apple Store.

Finally, we got a new Virgin Superhub 3 router. Everything connects seamlessly once again, right up to the point we connect the Sky Q to the wifi network. At that point it sends the AirPort Extreme into an stern sting cycle whereby it seems to display a solid amber for a couple of minutes (offline), followed by solid green for under a minute (online).

Seems like something to do with the way the Sky Q box attempts to connect to the router. My money is on a recent firmware update Sky have made to the main Sky Q box, given it's worked fine up to this point.

I spent several hours on the phone with a Sky technician and the final outcome is:

Sky Q creates its own 5Ghz local network for Sky Q Miniboxes to connect to. However, it also creates a connection with your own home WiFi network using the 2.4 Ghz frequency range. All DHCP and NAT is dealt with by your equipment and not the Sky Q box.

After lots of experimentation it seems that the if you have an Apple Airport Extreme acting as the Wireless Access Point with the same SSID for both the 2.4 and 5 Ghz frequencies then the Sky Q box tries to establish a connection with the 5 Ghz channel, which it cannot do, sulks for a short period of time an then tries again. This cyclic process causes the Airport Extreme to behave badly by losing connection, then establishing connection again, only to lose connection when the Sky Q box reconnects.

Our temporary solution, which is by no means ideal is:

Leave the TalkTalk box configured as Modem, Router and Wireless Access Point, DHCP Server and NAT however, switch off the 5 Ghz frequency. Connect the Sky Q main box to the 2.4 Ghz SSID as a single connection.

Configure the Airport Extreme as a Bridge (whats the point in having the facilities of the Airport and not being able to use them 😟) using the same SSID for both 2.4 and 5 Ghz but the SSID must be different to the TalkTalk Access Point or conflict will happen. Reconnect all WiFi devices but do not give them the password for the TalkTalk Access Point.

I will be contacting Sky Technical next week as the solution is far from acceptable and it is their software upgrade on 15 June 2017 that has caused the problem.

Apple routers cannot join other brand wireless routers.. only another apple.

The Sky Engineer is correct.. you must plug into the sky router with ethernet or you must use another apple router to create a wireless network that you can connect to.

The AirPort Express was designed to "join" most third party networks for use with AirPlay, so that would be the exception to the general rule about Apple routers not being able to "join" a third party network.

The AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule would not be able to "join" the Sky Q network.

Hi there, a quick follow up to our comms in early July.

Last time you were intending to contact Sky Technical, to follow up for a solution. Just wondered if you got anywhere - any further update?