Does Sonos take advantage of the full mesh-wifi capabilities?

its setup as wireless - nothing is wired into any speakers and the boost is powered down.

its setup as wireless - nothing is wired into any speakers and the boost is powered down.Then you have set up your system not to use the Sonos mesh at all. Was that your intention?

its not using the sonos mesh - attached is what I see. the interesting part is that the "garage" sonos is sitting right next to an Eero unit, which is part of the mesh. Literally 50cm away with only air between them.

note the values of the OFDM network. Only the "Lounge" ones are green.

its also obvious the system is not using the mesh since the mesh matrix is grey. Normally it has the cross connection strengths.

What you have is not a signal strength issue but a HUGE wireless interference problem. What other wireless systems do you have?

I still don't know what you mean about Sonos using the mesh network. As you have chosen not to use the Sonos mesh, Sonos devices will connect to Eero access points in the way any other device would.

There is only one wifi network in the house. No other wireless systems are around the house. however the neighbours do have some wireless security systems.

Try changing the wireless channel and rerun the matrix.

eero does not allow that, it adapts the channels to maximize network performance. I have 5 stations all using different channels.

Ive asked my neighbor to switch off their security system and it seems to have done the trick with the majority of my sonos now showing green.

so i guess that was the source of issues. thanks for the pointer.

I had a six camera HD security camera system set up here for a few days and the cameras were using about 65% of a pretty empty channel. Lots of re-transmissions and other problems too. Had to go wired to get decent performance.

eero does not allow that, it adapts the channels to maximize network performance. I have 5 stations all using different channels. Although it seems this isn't the main cause, this is also a reason for wiring a Sonos device and bringing SonosNet into action. I really think you should try this - it may or may not help. Presumably your neighbour is not going to leave his security system disabled?

thanks for the pointers but I'll work with the neighbor to see if I can find a more wifi friendly way to set up their radio power. It must be affecting their wifi as much as mine. Wiring the sonos system is not an option its in places where power is the only thing available and rewiring the house just fills me with horror.

Once we get the source of interference under control, I'll try the different options and see what works best,.

Thanks everyone.

You only need to wire one bit of Sonos kit - if you have a Boost, that will do the job. With just one bit of Sonos kit wired, Sonos creates its own mesh network. Would that not be a better way of going about it?

As @Legnum Nick says, you only have to wire one Sonos device, and can do that experimentally with virtually zero effort. Why would you not try? I was not suggesting wiring the whole system.

Since you already own a Boost, I'd presume you had Sonosnet (also called 'wired' these days) going at one point. Was there a reason you abandoned that setup?

I was testing if the performance of Eero network is better than the Sonos one. until the interference is gone, the results will not be clear.

My limited testing so far, is that Eero is better mesh with zero drop outs vs sonos net.

One issue does remain is that the sonos systems don't seem to connect or steer to the strongest beacon of the mesh. Results are still preliminary though.

One issue does remain is that the sonos systems don't seem to connect or steer to the strongest beacon of the mesh. Results are still preliminary though.That is not necessarily an issue. Sonos uses STP to determine the 'best', i.e. 'lowest path cost' configuration for the data flows for the whole Sonos mesh, and will tend to prefer one 'hop' to two 'hops', all other things being equal. A nearby 'beacon' may be giving off a powerful radio signal, but if it is receiving data that is badly affected by interference (for example) it may not be the 'best' option.

Having said that, Eero may do something similar, or something that works better in your environment - I am agnostic on that.

Your sonos' are probably not connecting to "the strongest" beacon because Eero like systems are not ideal/supported. See the "" at https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3235?language=en_US:

* Networks with wireless range extenders I was testing if the performance of Eero network is better than the Sonos one

However Eero and Sonos have competing goals. The upmost importance to sonos is _latency_ or how fast data can make it from one point to the other. Eero's goal is to provide distance / speed. You are not going to notice a 500ms delay when doing a speed test on your new eero network, or when streaming that Netflix movie. You _will_ notice it on speakers that are attempting to keep the audio in sync. Delays greater than 20-50ms between sonos can cause serious issues.

"Performance" in this context is misleading. The Sonos' do not need raw speed like you want from your eeros/laptops/phones.

Sonos has tuned their mesh network for exactly their purpose. I am still amazed at how they are able to do correct clocking and syncing in a whole house setup.

I am a "professional geek" and have installed a home network that is better than most small businesses. I still use wired/sonosnet and haven't had a single issue with my system. Sonos knows what they are doing and it works great. Even with sonos net it will avoid multi hops and prefer a direct connection to a wired speaker when it can.

That being said.... Using Eero AND sonosnet you might still run into interference issues. Eero extends by using additional channels. That being said I would recommend you try with your boost again.... I would bet $20 that you will have a better experience. If you can disable 2.5Ghz on your eero and go only 5Ghz it will be even better (I doubt you can though).

I assume you chose sonos partly because of the attention they pay to user experience? By forcing your sonos to use your eeros you are throwing away part of the product you paid for. Trust me... forcing your sonos onto your existing network shouldn't be done (in my opinion) unless 1) everything is wired, or 2) you have a _really_ good reason AND a deep understanding of wifi/networking.