The good news is that Sky Broadband is now up and running, having installed the new router yesterday. As always I'm nervous about setting routers and wireless networks, because frankly I don't really understand them! However, there were only a few glitches along the way this time.
It seemed to take a while for the router to show a constant green light, meaning that it was connected properly to the broadband line, but got there in the end. I can't claim any meaningful input on that, other than turning the box off and on a few times.
Having got that far I had some trouble with getting the laptop to connect wirelessly, and got to the point of calling the support number. Whilst on hold I was looking at the access code, and thought "I wonder if that's an O rather than a 0, and sure enough connected up no problems with the change. I then had to explain to the person who'd come on the line whilst I was doing this that I'd solved my own problem!
The final challenge came with the desktop, as it transpires that my Vaio desktop, being 5 years old now, can't cope with the latest encryption methods which the router had as their default setting, so I had to lower the network security, reconnect the laptop, and then I could get the desktop to connect as well.
Still, all done now!
(Seems faster downloading, but per the status screen, the uploading speed looks slower than the one I previously had with Orange - will have to see how I get one next time I'm uploading photos.)