Access points and static IP addresses

This is making something of a mountain out of a molehill.

Basic access points do not contain an active DHCP server, once they’re in use. They’re essentially layer 2 devices, apart from needing an internal IP for configuration purposes.

You get an AP (or an extender switched to AP mode), configure its SSID/password(s), and then just plug in a LAN connection. Simples!

BTW why do you need a dual-band AP? As far as I can make out the HomePod Mini supports both 2.4 and 5GHz. 

It becomes a mountain when he comes back from the sea for the first time in 2023 and his new HomePods don’t work!

It is also possible that the ethernet wire laid down to his room is flaky…

Suppose I was to bypass that wire, get the latest/greatest wireless extender for his room where there is no Sonos - all of my kit is wired - and if that gets his stuff to work, it will do so without messing with my wired Sonos on Sonosnet in the rest of the house?

And dual band because like Mt Everest, it is there. No other reason.

What makes you suspect that?

Sure, just use a regular extender assuming the Apple thingies don’t care. Sonos won’t be bothered either way, so long as you don’t connect any Sonos unit onto the extender’s WiFi.

Because he is getting both slower speeds inside his room that I get in my bedroom with the same model wired access point serving both rooms from inside the rooms. And because the internet occasionally drops there. Swapping out the AP device for an identical spare made no difference. I have ordered a continuity tester to check the wire, before ordering an extender that will be wireless. 

He also gets noticeably slower speeds that I get on my hand me down iPhone in his room with the two phones kept by side; but I can only solve one mystery at a time.

All my Sonos kit is on Sonosnet, with all but one zone wired back to the core network, and that will remain so. It is rock solid, and I do not want that to change.

All this is leading to mulling over retiring my Apple TC base station that has been working since 2011 for a mesh set up that seems to be the latest/greatest thing in home WiFi, but I have read so many posts about people suffering two steps back for one step forward with these, so bear with me while I first describe my full set up that was working fine till a couple of days ago; issue just now is just in my son’s bedroom.

Large open plan core for living/kitchen/dining/balcony. Two bedrooms on either side of the core, with a third TV room to one side as well. Brick/mortar walls, where present. Apple TC doing base station duty placed along one wall in the core, wired to incoming broadband feed and to an unmanaged switch to distribute lan wired signals to Sonos and to access points. All 5 Sonos zones are in open plan core and all but one are wired back to the switch; the unwired zone is on Sonosnet. All Sonos units supplied by Echo units and grouped play done via Echo groups, so the Sonos units could even work unwired, with disabled radios - except that once in a while I use the local NAS for owned music for which Sonos controller app/Sonosnet is a must to access the music. All Sonos kit has reserved addresses. All this described is still working fine.

Neither of the two bedrooms have or will have Sonos in future. Both are served by wired access points with DHCP set to off, and allow wireless access in those bedrooms to the net for computers and Echo/Fire TV sticks. The point in my son’s bedroom also serves the TV Firestick in the third room, the TV room, via line of sight signals. All of this also works fine, except for the recent issue in one bedroom where the Homepod addition has thrown up some issues there.

The questions now in connection with a move to a mesh WiFI:

1. Do the main units of these mesh systems commonly have a LAN port to which an unmanaged switch can be wired, to continue to send wired signals to all the Sonos units as the Apple TC does today, and to my bedroom’s wired access point, and will these then behave as if there has been no change upstream of them?
2. If yes, is it still necessary that IP reservation is needed for Sonos units? I ask because I suspect this may be as hard to do in the new systems as it is easy to do in Apple.
3. Will all Sonos units - wired and the one wireless one that works via Sonos net - automatically connect to the mesh primary unit if I assign the same SSID/password to it that the Apple TC has just now?

The thinking is to have just one prime and one secondary mesh unit - the later to be placed to serve my son’s bedroom and the TV room that is across the corridor from that bedroom. The wire that is run to that bedroom will then be left unused.

And finally, for all of the above, is there any mesh system that is a “don’t buy because it won’t be compatible with these needs”?

And I suppose I should ask the same question of Amazon for its Echo/Firesticks as well? And similarly, of Apple?

I think this link may answer some of your questions, by chance I was reading it yesterday:

Here in the UK, many of the larger broadband providers can bundle a WiFi mesh network with their broadband service, not sure if that type of offering is available to you?

We do not have bundling which leaves us free to choose our hardware.

There is a lot on the thread you linked, and I will read it fully, but the most important question is - are there any makes of mesh WiFi that I should stay away from?

As long as I get that part right when buying, I think reading and then asking questions here if needed should solve any issues that may arise.

Since you will be using SonosNet, most of the common SONOS issues introduced with a mesh will not concern you. Eero can be a challenge for WiFi SONOS units.

Don’t hesitate even a fraction of a second to replace your Apple network. Modern WiFi has evolved considerably from those Neandertal days of 2011.

Any modern mesh system will be an improvement on your 2011 TC & $20 TP-Link extenders (APs).

Maybe there is something in Ratty’s cupboard you can use? 😀

I’m afraid my cupboard is stacked with boring old APs and extenders, after I switched to an ASUS mesh.