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ethernet wired

  • 22 February 2020
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I have a Linksys mesh wirless system.  If I connect one of my Sonos speakers to one of the mesh pods, will this create a more reliable Sonos system? 

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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 28 February 2020, 16:42

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Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Remote pod, probably not, if you connect to the base hub yes, almost always.

In addition with Sonos wired (one or more units) you are able to use all the features of your new WiFi gear and not have to dial things back to what Sonos can work with.

Full disclosure: I’m not a Velop user.

I think that this should work. It is simple to try -- just wire one or more SONOS units to a Velop mesh point or the main unit. To verify that SONOS has switched to SonosNet mode go to Settings → System → About My System. Each system element will be listed here. Look for a “WM: 0” at the bottom of each unit’s details. “WM: 0” indicates that a unit is using SonosNet. “WM: 1” indicates that it is using WiFi. Note that MOVE will always be “WM: 1”.  Other than MOVE if, some units are “WM: 0” and others are “WM: 1”, the system is operating in “Mixed Mode”.  Mixed Mode can be trouble prone. Get back to us if you are in Mixed Mode.

@jwcbella Welcome to the Sonos Community and thank you for bringing your question to us here. I would not recommend using a mesh network beacon/pod/access point as the device to Ethernet wire your Sonos product to for Sonosnet as it is not the router. It may work in your specific situation, but it would be an unsupported Sonosnet setup. We do not know how reliable that wireless hop from that beacon to the router would affect communication for Sonosnet.

I would recommend that your bridge your ISP router and run all of your devices on your Velop/Linksys mesh network. Feel free to follow up with any other questions or submit us a diagnostic report and report number here. We can confirm that you are properly setup wirelessly on your Velop/Linksys router.

Lastly, with a good network, a station mode setup for Sonos, using your 2.4 G wifi should be fine. I typically do not recommend a Sonos product of yours or a Boost stay wired to a router for Sonosnet unless you have more than 8-10 products or a lot of local interference from neighbors or you use more than one router at your location that are not bridged.

Userlevel 4
Badge +14

To give you a slightly different view on this (I’m running a Deco mesh system):

 

If wiring a Sonos unit to a wireless Velop station would give you a more central location, thus better links to your wireless speakers, I would say it might work better. The only thing that might work worse, is the actual online streaming but given that the Velop has a 5 GHz link between nodes it should not be a problem. Unsupported or not, it might still work better, and is easy to test. 

 

However, under no circumstances can you wire more than 1 Sonos to the Velop. Mesh systems relies on STP (same as Sonos) to figure out which way the traffic flows, and they most certainly uses RSTP which isn’t compatible with Sonos classic STP. Worst case the Velop will think it has a wired connection between stations, but the traffic is actually flowing over the Sonos wireless links. 

 

Personally, I had a pretty awful experience trying to run my Sonos off of Wifi, even with as few as 5 players, using SonosNet mode is far superior for me. Still not perfect, but way better than Wifi. 

Jishi,

I agree with you, wiring one Sonos device to the main velop hub is usually the best option here and have the ISP-provided router set either in 'bridge' or 'modem' mode.

I would ensure the SonosNet channel is set at least 5 channels away from the velop wifi channel and personally I would remove the WiFi credentials from the Sonos App in “Settings/System/Network/Wireless Setup” ..if there are any 'Move' speakers in the setup,  I would place them on the 5ghz band to prevent the chance of the system falling back to 'mixed mode’, which does happen when those Sonos devices are placed on the 2.4ghz band.

Here is a ‘perhaps’ a useful thing with Linksys velop systems, which I found in the Sonos community pages here...

  1. Log into your main velop hub (router) from a browser web page. (It will try and suggest that you log into the router via the app), but at the bottom you can click the 'use browser' option.
  2. Main admin page will load. In bottom right hand corner all the way at bottom there is a link that says "CA" - click it.
  3. The page will re-load and appear, but it will look slightly different than before. 
  4. Now click Wireless settings from menu on left. Change WiFi channels and fix them etc; and hit Apply. Router will reset and you will need to reconnect. You can set WiFi  Channels and Channel widths etc. 
  5. The suggestion is to set a fixed 2.4ghz velop WiFi channel and then run one Sonos device connected to the main hub on a different channel as mentioned above.

Anyhow these things are just a suggestion, but perhaps something to maybe consider by those using the velop WiFi mesh system.

 

Userlevel 2
Badge +4

I was having a hard time accessing any of my speakers through the Sonos app today to play music, so I attached one of the speakers to one of my Orbi satellites.  This seemed to fix the issue, and I am noticing the system is showing all of my Sonos speakers are WM: 0, except the Move.  Even though I am connected to the satellite, does it appear that I have what I should expect with a “wired” environment? 

Diagnostic Report: 1590132769

I was having a hard time accessing any of my speakers through the Sonos app today to play music, so I attached one of the speakers to one of my Orbi satellites.  This seemed to fix the issue, and I am noticing the system is showing all of my Sonos speakers are WM: 0, except the Move.  Even though I am connected to the satellite, does it appear that I have what I should expect with a “wired” environment? 

Diagnostic Report: 1590132769

Yes that’s fine…

WM = wireless mode

0 = off, SonosNet

1 = on, wifi mode

The 'Move' only communicates via WIFI (not SonosNet), so it will always show as WM:1