Best 3rd party hub 4 replacement

[millz24k]

What are the best routers people are running instead of the hub 4 router.

I have gigabit so needs to be compatible with them sort of speeds 

[adhsmith]

That close can you not wire it, that would solve everything, leaving wifi for devices that need it?

The Sky box is a tricky beast that wants to own the network, plus makes its own mesh all of which probably conflicts with VM wifi.

Maybe you need to map out what channels are being used and manually fix VM to an open range, disabling dynamic optimisation on the hub, from recollection the Skybox only works on a couple of 5GHz channels, VM might be seeing the Sky mesh and optimising itself away?

[Andrew-G]

Just to chuck in my thoughts - based on what @millz24k is describing.  I don't think at the moment that there's a good case for spending money on more wifi gear - the answer seems to be @adhsmith 's suggestion of cabling the Q box or boxes.  If you spend a load of money on top end wifi gear there's a clear risk that you end up with exactly the same issue.

If we put aside the Sky Q issues (that seem to be that company's technology problem), and you're still determined to improve the wifi for smart home use, and you want to future proof beyond 1 Gbps, then as @jbrennand says, top of the range-ish Netgear Orbi Wifi 6 mesh (say the RBK752), or Asus ZenWifi AX XT8, with the hub in modem mode.  You're looking at around £300 for a two unit mesh setup for either of those.

You can spend a fair bit less or a lot more on either Wifi 6 routers or mesh systems but in your place I'd be going for the Asus XT8.  Bear in mind that I'm saying what I would do, as I'm happily on a 200 Mbps connection that is over-capacity for my needs, and using a near entry level one hundred quid TP-Link mesh system that again does more than I ever expect to need.

[millz24k]

So just a follow up on this.

I bought a long enough lan cable so i could hide it  (to the dismay of the other half!) not going to lie but it has solved the issue completely.

Going onto the sky community it seems to be a common problem with the wifi dropping out constantly 

[adhsmith]

Good stuff, I have a silly long 20m flat cable that goes around the periphery between rooms (distance between wired points is only about 3-4m if I drilled walls) it sits under the carpet in the gap between the wall and carpet gripper, you can only see it in a very small portion of it in a door shut, not clever but you'd have to know it was there to see it and it works, wired is the best way, particularly if you do a lot of UHD on the Sky box as it will saturate wifi bandwidth as it downloads rather than streams, so if you haven't got anything with QoS/bandwidth limiter it would basically leave your wifi dead in the water whenever you download some films, I used to cap it at 100Mb.

[Tudor]

With a little thought you can nearly always hide Ethernet cable. I managed to hide a large amount at my sons house,  which has wooden floors, by putting it under the cork expansion below the skirting boards. These days you can get flat Ethernet cables, but I would advice against placing them anywhere that they could get walked on, not good for any cable.

[angelastinson]

i was just looking through could you recommend me one please? i just want a hub 4 alternate that can easily run 1gb wired as my r7000 only seems to give me around 600mbps, not to bothered on the wifi as long as Ethernet is the full speeds, any help id appreciate.