Cisco wireless LAN controller with Sonos

This may help: http://forums.sonos.com/showthread.php?p=144399#post144399

I'll double-check the global multicast. Thanks

Last one I was on like this, the Controll was set for Multi-cast, and the AP's were not. Only lost a couple hours....

Back from trip, will ask my network support to check this too . . . appreciate this. By the way, if anyone has other problems along this line, Sonos sent me a document on this topic.

Back from trip, will ask my network support to check this too . . . appreciate this. By the way, if anyone has other problems along this line, Sonos sent me a document on this topic.

Hey Bongo, can you forward me that document?

Welcome to the forum.

Bongo2000 hasn't visited the forum in 18 months or so. If Sonos sent that document to him, they'd certainly send it to you as well. Contact Sonos Support.

Thanks NoBob

i was able to get it working just fine by doing the following steps. i now have 4 sonos devices running on the new cisco 1700 series waps with the 2500 series controller firmware v8.0.100

enabled broadcast forwarding on controller page in general

changed multicast mode to multicast and used address 239.255.255.250 as the multicast group address field on the same controller page in general

enabled global multicast mode checkbox on multicast page under controller

i also enabled mDns snoop on the controller page and then in the general sub menu

i also then went to wireless page and clicked on each wireless radio and went to advanced tab and clicked on enable mDns snoop check box for each, saved config

sonos was able to be found with the iOS app on the iphone through the cisco waps controlled by the 2500 series, no problems after that since!

Thanks Bradone1. I have had the same problems with Cisco Aironet 2602i configuration, because my apps were not connecting to the Sonos components. I have used steps that you described and enabled broadcast on broadcast on controller page in general, changed multicast mode, enabled mDns snoop on the controller page and saved configuration. I'm not an expert in such kind things, but that was enough to run everything normally. Thank you!

Hi,

Even with all the great hints, I don't get our SONOS PLAY:1 work on our CISCO WLAN environment.
I try to connect a SONOS Play:1 by using the iPhone APP. It works until it should switch over to the WLAN. All steps before are ok. I have also tried to configure SONOS Play:1 through the Ethernet Cable. Unfortunately with the same result.
On a “Home User WLAN” (not CISCO) it works smooth, so basically my SONOS Play:1 and my iPhone APP is working fine.

Our environment:
WLC Controller: CISCO WLC 2500 Series (Software 8.2.100.0)
Access Points: AIR-CAP2702I-E-K9

Any ideas? Does anyone know the Magic trick to get it work?

Best regards,
siga200

Ensure that controller and player are on the same IP subnet, and that multicast/broadcast traffic is permitted. This may have to be explicitly enabled in your WLAN controller.

Hi rarry,
Thats already the case. It still doen't work.
Any other hints?
siga200

Is there a way to allow Sonus to work as Unicast? I have multiple VLANs at this company for wired and wireless. There is also multiple subnets on wired and wireless. Need this to work on a traditional enterprise network.

i.e:

Wireless LAN Controller APs = 192.168.10.0/24
Wired = 192.168.12.0/24, 172.26.1.0/24

End user's could be on a PC, Mobile Device, or Wireless PC.

buster, you may need to enable an IGMP Proxy between your subnets to allow the devices on the different subnets to communicate with each other still. I've never had to do this myself as my network is all in one subnet, but others have successfully set up IGMP Proxy services to allow controllers in one subnet to communicate with players in another subnet.

This post might help... it specifically has examples for FortiGate and pfSense. Not sure if Cisco offers some kind of IGMP Proxy capability or not...

https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/sonos-across-multiple-ip-subnets-4996373

Thanks MikeV. The problem is I handle this professionally and building Cisco networks (or any vendor for that matter) that support 50,000 end points (or more) and design them with security in mind and best practices. Options like bridging two networks with pfSense 100% defeats the purpose of building separate networks and inserts very large security risk. The real answer is for Sonus to support Unicast discovery and open up their product to a more "enterprise" network architecture approach. I get it, they want it to be PnP for homes, but small, medium, and enterprise business is a market that is evaluating product that can handle this. Think of a hospital, department stores, etc. I agree Multi-cast and IGMP is included in the enterprise suite, however bridging a device into two seperate networks (called dual homing) network is a HUGE "no no" in the network security world. The simple answer is for Sonus to support Layer-3 network that supports Unicast option with published port and protocol specs for firewall rules. What is super disappointing is that over 4 years of threads on this topic we cannot seem to get a Sonus engineer to comment.

SonOs! And the real answer is Sonos was never designed for a 50,000 endpoint enterprise network, it's not a market they're interested in, so it's unrealistic to expect them to do much to support this suggestion.

The 50,000 end point was a broad example, however what you are now seeing, especially with IoT, is network design principals of Large Enterprise becoming common among home and small business. To say that Wired and Wireless must be on the same Layer-2 broadcast domain for a product to work is limiting in today's network architecture. These are not new trends either, when I passed my CCIE a decade ago this was the norm for good architecture. Are you saying the Sonos CEO wouldn't want to sell a unit to the 1000's of law firms, patient care facilities, or retail in this country to stream music overhead in the office, store, or spa?

The 50,000 end point was a broad example, however what you are now seeing, especially with IoT, is network design principals of Large Enterprise becoming common among home and small business. To say that Wired and Wireless must be on the same Layer-2 broadcast domain for a product to work is limiting in today's network architecture. These are not new trends either, when I passed my CCIE a decade ago this was the norm for good architecture. Are you saying the Sonos CEO wouldn't want to sell a unit to the 1000's of law firms, patient care facilities, or retail in this country to stream music overhead in the office, store, or spa?

as a fellow it professional i understand your technical points. but for an office environment sonos would be a poor choice as they dont have the licensing for comercial use or work with services that do out side of siriusxm and im not even sure that works right on the corporate/business account side.

What im saying is sonos is prob not the right solution for those kinds of installs.

The 50,000 end point was a broad example, however what you are now seeing, especially with IoT, is network design principals of Large Enterprise becoming common among home and small business. To say that Wired and Wireless must be on the same Layer-2 broadcast domain for a product to work is limiting in today's network architecture. These are not new trends either, when I passed my CCIE a decade ago this was the norm for good architecture. Are you saying the Sonos CEO wouldn't want to sell a unit to the 1000's of law firms, patient care facilities, or retail in this country to stream music overhead in the office, store, or spa?

as a fellow it professional i understand your technical points. but for an office environment sonos would be a poor choice as they dont have the licensing for comercial use or work with services that do out side of siriusxm and im not even sure that works right on the corporate/business account side.

What im saying is sonos is prob not the right solution for those kinds of installs.

I do not think it is Sonos job to police the ethical and legal use of their product. I think it is their job to make software that is compatible with modern network technology and is secure. Just like Home Depot can't guarantee a crow bar will be used lawfully. That being said, back to my original point, all of these technologies are now best practices and can be found in Enterprise, SMB, and now even the homes. Think about how many teleworkers may have a corporate networks at home. I can think of dozens of examples of why directed unicast should be supported. I still just can't fathom how it can only easily be supported with a flat layer-2, open broadcast domain.

Not to get too far in to the middle of the skirmish, but tonight with the help of a friend and this thread, I resolved a similar issue.

I have a Cisco wireless controller (AIR-CTVM-K9) on version 8.1.131.0 and 2702 APs.

To get mine working I had to verify 3 things in the web admin page -

Controller -> mDNS -> General -> Global snooping checked.
Controller -> General -> Broadcast Forwarding enabled.
Controller -> General -> AP multicast mode set to multicast with the ip 239.255.255.250.

Just a couple $0.02 on the whole using it in a corporate environment, I work for a retailer that sells Sonos products and in order to get them to work with our APs out on the sales floor while also not create security concerns, was a bit of an adventure from what I heard. I am not on that team so I don't know all the specifics first hand. That said, it is up and running so potential Sonos customers can take the product for a spin. In any case if you needed a commercial use example, that's one of them.

DosEquis4 - Your comment provided the setting that worked for our Sonos / Cisco issue. Thank You.