@ca_martin82 

Morning, hopefully a few answers for you!

have recently moved to Sky ISP from BT and since realised due to the DHCP option 61 setting on Sky I can no longer use my Deco M9s as the main router and have instead had to connect them direct to the sky hub and use in access point mode. I have had conflicting advice on whether I should or need to switch the sky routers wifi off to avoid conflicting wifi networks or leave it on to work with the deco providing the wifi?

In my honest opinion, turn it off and use the Deco only.   The Sky router wont support Roaming / Mesh and therefore will work differently from your Deco network, as you walk around or move near the Sky it will disconnect you from WiFi, then reconnect you. 

If that is not a deal breaker then crack on, however from customers experience advise to disable it. 

second point is despite paying for 500mbps with sky I am only getting 270mbps when stood directly next to the main deco. Yes I appreciate you never tend to get the full 500mbps but with BT and the decos in router mode I would tend to get 430mbps so I have found a big drop with Sky and using the decos in access point mode. 

You would be best testing this via cable directly into the sky router, use a laptop or something to rule out the Deco and Wireless... if its slower on a cable into the sky router, then that may be the case.  

Also worth noting you dont need to switch the deco to AP mode, you can still use this in router mode if that is better for you.  Just plug the Deco Main Node (router mode) into one of the ports on the sky router and this will work ok.   Router mode may be better for you if honest.

any ideas? Do I turn the sky router wifi back on? Would I be better looking for a new router to either to work directly off the BT FTTP Open Reach modem or connected directly off sky router (noting the dhcp option 61 constraint) to provide a stronger faster wifi network?!

Sky is always a bit of a pain in using MER / 61 authentication, in all instances where customers have used Deco the Sky router remains in place with WiFi OFF.   Not saying that is the perfect scenario, but the best I have found. 

There is no such thing as "stronger WiFi", signal is signal and wont change from AP to AP.  However yes WiFi 6 would give you a faster connection over WiFi.   Personally however it was ok for WiFi.. all that has changed is SKY.   I would cable speed check the sky router to make sure you are getting the 500ish there, then reset the Deco.. reconfigure (as router if desired) and retry this.

Basically rule out the SKY bit before going for new Deco..  

  @Philbert many thanks for your suggestions.

I have found the wifi speed has vastly improved since turning off the sky routers wifi, not sure if this could actually impact but it has improved to over 420mbps when near the main deco.

The new problem is the really unstable nature of my network since moving to Sky Broadband. What’s frustrating is Sky blame my problems on the use of third party equipment eg the decos which all worked fine when I was with BT.

Yesterday I had to reboot the entire network twice due to certain devices being unable to connect. I have then tried changing the decos to router mode (dynamic IP) as per the below suggestion but upon doing this a number of devices would no longer connect at all, interestingly the Sky Q box was main device to drop off. I have since changed the decos back to AP mode but still have issues such as today the deco in the loft went offline randomly for half an hour and a few devices such as iPhones loose connection and need to be re-connected.

I am going to phone Sky again about my network issues but last time they weren’t very helpful as they blame the issues on my equipment.

Unfortunately the issue is also intermittent as sometimes everything is working fine and other times devices drop without warning. 

The only change I have had is the Sky router wifi is turned off from their hub and I am relying on just the decos for the wifi in AP mode. I can turn this back on but i seemed to have some issues before. 
 

i am at a loss of what to change that may help this turn off fast roaming or beam forming perhaps? Otherwise will try again with Sky.

  @ca_martin82 

Fast Roaming has in experience fixed some issues, but its not a guarantee and generally a good thing to have enabled.  Give it a try OFF and see, if no difference back ON.

Beam Forming, its how the signal is controlled for better performance.   Cant see that being the issue if honest, it would be a first!  :)

OK so from experience, SkyQ boxes HATE using anything but the sky network.  The only way i have ever got these to work stable via non Sky Router is to cable them into the Deco and therefore not their native WiFi.   This worked perfectly for me (and others) however it not a great solution in some cases.   Basically use the Deco to shift the data around for the Q Boxes, which are all "LAN" connected to the Deco nodes.

From being down this path, you are honestly better with the Deco in Router Mode.  In router mode the only thing the Sky Router is doing is internet traffic.  However if you use Access Point Mode its doing everything still and thats not great.   I have always had far better results just letting the Deco in Router mode work away, let it do the IP Addresses (192.168.68.xyz), WiFi and LAN traffic.   Also means you dont need each node connected via LAN (which you do in AP Mode)

  @Philbert 

thanks for the thoughts. The odd thing is upon resetting the network to router mode my Sky Q and CCTV dropped off the network despite being connected via Ethernet connections to the two satellite decos. This I couldn't understand as they connect fine in AP mode. Would you say I would need to turn sky Q off at power unplug Ethernet and reconnect and same with cctv? I would have thought it would simply reconnect like it did in AP mode. 
 

  @ca_martin82 

Have you got a cable running from deco to deco?  or are these connected completely WiFi?       If you are working in AP mode then it needs a cable, Router mode doesnt and uses WiFi instead.. if it aint working in router mode it simply could be the nodes are not getting a good enough signal to work correctly. 

What does the app say about it in router mode?