Question

Connecting all speakers via Ethernet cable cat5e

  • 1 November 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 5531 views

I am planning to plug all speakers Play1 6pieces with cable. Recently finished new building and did arrangements for putting in all the speakers on a cable. All cables directed to my garage where all the internet and tv is connected in a media consumer unit. From my garage the plan was to have all connections into a switch and out from the switch to the living room on one cat5 string to the Router position.The playbase is on same spot as Router. Is here anyone that can give me good directions on what is best to do. Reason for not using wireless is to not loosing any signals due to thick walls etc. Also if available some kind of mapping of how the best way is to connect things

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2 replies

Userlevel 5
Badge +3
With network connections each device has its own Ethernet cable that goes from the device directly back to switch or to a spare connection on the router. It sounds like you've already put that in place, and so there's no reason or need for any kind of mapping as far as the cables are concerned. Just make sure your Ethernet switch is connected to the router too.

It doesn't matter if your Playbase connects to the router or to the switch. Either device will handle the flow of traffic and the switch and router will act together. So, if a direct connection to the router is more convenient then feel free to do that.

The Sonos system will still run its own isolated wireless mesh network in the background simply as a backup. There won't be much in the way of traffic over that wireless network; it's really a case of the devices keeping in touch so that if any device is disconnected from Ethernet then it can connect to the nearest accessible Sonos unit.
Userlevel 4
Badge +14
If you connect all your devices to the same switch, you have zero chance of hitting the rare STP issue that can arise with some switches (however, a "broken" switch can cause issues).

With that said, just make sure that the switch you are buying is not on the Sonos black list https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/42/~/sonos-and-incompatible-hardware and if you buy a managed switch, make sure it's reconfigured for classic STP instead of RSTP. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you will probably be fine either way.

bottom line, don't worry about it. If you run into problem, reach out again (or to Sonos support), and it will be resolved.