After some help ..... SKY Q hard wire

[sythai]

Hi All

Hopefully a simple answer I can relay back to Client.

My TV engineer is away on hols at mo, so after bit of advice from others please

Have wired a new build property for SKY Q, fair size place so have hard wired as precaution and Client wants to go with hard wired set up throughout.

This is what we've done :

- Twin ct100 sky box to dish.
- Cat6 socket in each bedroom x4/ linked back to cat6 x4 socket behind SKY box .
- Also have Cat6 socket from behind SKY box which links to router in other room.

They've had Sky engineer out who didn't seem to have a clue ! Spoke to him and said only has x1 data outlet on sky box so can't wire up.

Am I correct in thinking they need something called a switch? The data cable coming out from SKY box goes into this which then splits and feeds the x4 cat6 sockets?

If so, is it just case plugging it all in and will work as hard wired or will it need setting from scratch?

Hope all that makes sense

Thanks very much

Sy

 

[SparkyChick]

Yes, you need a network switch and yes it should just be a case of plugging it in... however, I would be inclined to manually set the IP network settings on the SkyQ boxes.

The Sky guy who fitted our system didn't know it could be done until I forced the issue and made him try it out and hey presto it worked a treat

 

[sythai]

Phew panic over then.... not so sure about the IP settings though ;-)

 

[SparkyChick]

Basically, if it's getting plugged into a router, the router will usually have a facility called DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol) which can provide IP addresses to devices that connect to the network.

This is fine for most devices which periodically connect (like the WiFi on your mobile phone) but for fixed devices it can be a pain as the addresses handed out by DHCP can expire requiring devices to re-lease them. So to avoid this kind of thing, I usually setup the DHCP server to supply a specific IP address to a particular MAC address (MAC addresses are fixed by the network hardware and should be unique to a particular device) or I allocate manually addresses.

So for example, lets say the router is 192.168.1.254 (which seems to be quite common these days).

I might allocated 192.168.1.240 to the master SkyQ box and then 192.168.1.241...242...243 etc. to the mini boxes. You will have to specify whats called the subnet mask which is used to determine whether a packet can be just sent to the network or whether it needs to be sent to the default gateway. In most home usage scenarios the subnet mask will be 255.255.255.0 (which allows 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255 to be considered as 'on the same network' - with anything else being sent to the default gateway).

The default gateway will usually be the router in the case of a typical home setup so the address will be the same as the router. You may also need to specify a DNS server... in most cases the router will provide this service so you can just use the router address (if that doesn't work, use a global DNS provider like Google - 8.8.8.8).

So there three (potentially four) key items are:-

Fixed IP address - Unique to device
Subnet mask - Set for the network you are connecting to
Default gateway - Typically the address of the router
(May not be required) DNS server address - Typically the address of the router

Hope that helps

 

[telectrix]

should make that a sticky, SC , for future reference. my brain melted half way through. .

 

[Midwest]

So basically your punting the Sky Q signals around the house without using their mini boxes and no multi room package?

 

[sythai]

Basically, if it's getting plugged into a router, the router will usually have a facility called DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol) which can provide IP addresses to devices that connect to the network.

This is fine for most devices which periodically connect (like the WiFi on your mobile phone) but for fixed devices it can be a pain as the addresses handed out by DHCP can expire requiring devices to re-lease them. So to avoid this kind of thing, I usually setup the DHCP server to supply a specific IP address to a particular MAC address (MAC addresses are fixed by the network hardware and should be unique to a particular device) or I allocate manually addresses.

So for example, lets say the router is 192.168.1.254 (which seems to be quite common these days).

I might allocated 192.168.1.240 to the master SkyQ box and then 192.168.1.241...242...243 etc. to the mini boxes. You will have to specify whats called the subnet mask which is used to determine whether a packet can be just sent to the network or whether it needs to be sent to the default gateway. In most home usage scenarios the subnet mask will be 255.255.255.0 (which allows 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255 to be considered as 'on the same network' - with anything else being sent to the default gateway).

The default gateway will usually be the router in the case of a typical home setup so the address will be the same as the router. You may also need to specify a DNS server... in most cases the router will provide this service so you can just use the router address (if that doesn't work, use a global DNS provider like Google - 8.8.8.8).

So there three (potentially four) key items are:-

Fixed IP address - Unique to device
Subnet mask - Set for the network you are connecting to
Default gateway - Typically the address of the router
(May not be required) DNS server address - Typically the address of the router

Hope that helps

Sorry I'm lost with that... my younger sparky is the tech one and would understand this ;-)

Going to try "plug in and hope for the best" method 1st time round

 

[Shoei]

Going to try "plug in and hope for the best" method 1st time round

Which will work fine most of the time but SC's recommendations make good sense and are worth doing to make the setup more bullet-proof.

It's not a bad idea to get up to speed on fixed IP addresses, security cameras/DVRs, network drives and 'smart home' devices can benefit from fixed IP. The learning curve is mainly about setting up the router, they all have their quirks and different ways to set up the same thing.

 

[telectrix]

what IP address would this router be?

 

[Midwest]

All sounds highly illegal, in the Sky sense of the word. But what the eye don't the magic eye don't know PS, magic eye doesn't work on Sky, unless you do what SC is suggesting, I suppose.

 

[SparkyChick]

You can't shuffle Sky around the house using networking without using their Sky Q boxes. You can do crazy stuff like punt HDMI down Cat 5 using special baluns I believe but I'm talking about the proper Sky Q Master Box -> Mini Box setup. All the decoding etc. is done in the master box (which has I think about 12 tuners in it - I think it's 6 for recording, 4 for the mini boxes and 1 for live viewing) and the video is streamed over IP using what is effectively a bespoke media server based on either BSD or Linux I believe.

As @Shoei says, this stuff is becoming more common. For most home setup's it's fairly straightforward as they very rarely need a network bigger than the 255.255.255.0 subnet mask allows.

I might try and dig out some info and possibly write up a document for the resource section.

 

[Leesparkykent]

You can't shuffle Sky around the house using networking without using their Sky Q boxes. You can do crazy stuff like punt HDMI down Cat 5 using special baluns I believe but I'm talking about the proper Sky Q Master Box -> Mini Box setup. All the decoding etc. is done in the master box (which has I think about 12 tuners in it - I think it's 6 for recording, 4 for the mini boxes and 1 for live viewing) and the video is streamed over IP using what is effectively a bespoke media server based on either BSD or Linux I believe.

As @Shoei says, this stuff is becoming more common. For most home setup's it's fairly straightforward as they very rarely need a network bigger than the 255.255.255.0 subnet mask allows.

I might try and dig out some info and possibly write up a document for the resource section.

Please do sparkychick and try and put it in layman terms....Would be well handy as I’ve struggled with it a few times.

 

[Midwest]

You can't shuffle Sky around the house using networking without using their Sky Q boxes. You can do crazy stuff like punt HDMI down Cat 5 using special baluns I believe but I'm talking about the proper Sky Q Master Box -> Mini Box setup. All the decoding etc. is done in the master box (which has I think about 12 tuners in it - I think it's 6 for recording, 4 for the mini boxes and 1 for live viewing) and the video is streamed over IP using what is effectively a bespoke media server based on either BSD or Linux I believe.

I'm confused, easy done. Why do you need all these CAT cables etc, just keep adding mini boxes; unless the wifi won't reach each mini box?

 

[SparkyChick]

I'm confused, easy done. Why do you need all these CAT cables etc, just keep adding mini boxes; unless the wifi won't reach each mini box?

WiFi is limited speed compared to cabled connections when you consider the bandwidth available gets shared between all connected devices.

The only devices I use WiFi for are my phone and mobile devices like iPads. Everything else is hard wired.

 

[Midwest]

WiFi is limited speed compared to cabled connections when you consider the bandwidth available gets shared between all connected devices.

The only devices I use WiFi for are my phone and mobile devices like iPads. Everything else is hard wired.

Ok, not that savy. I have Sky Q. Never had any issues with 'speed' watching stuff. The main box downloads stuff, and I can watch it on my mini with no issues (apart form lip sync with Ultra HD, even watching on the main box ).

The Sky bod, said some properties he'd been to, had suffered with
wi-fi connection probs, old buildings with thick walls or mansions. He'd mentioned, I think, something what you've suggested, as their fix.

In a typical domestic property, I don't see the need. Just over complicates things IMO.