Help on improving my home setup - (Omada wifi / another boost?)
I have recently changed our home Wifi to TP Link Omada as our existing Wifi didnt reach around the home, I am planning on adding some managed switches too which I think will help with our sonos setup in the long run.
I currently have a number of devices hard wired (wifi off), a boost and some on wifi (should be sonosnet)
We have had performance issues on and off over the years and hard wiring some of the sonos appears to have fixed it, the office and nursery speakers are hard wired as they are the furthest from the Boost. Would an additional boost help?
Since changed to Omada APs, our devices connected by WiFi arent able to play anything, the wired devices are still functioning, these are currently connected to dumb switches.
Our network matrix is as below:
Any advice, suggestions are appreciated.
I plan to move the location of the boost again as a first port of call. Does anyone use TP Link Omada and know the best settings to use?
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Any suggestions on what to try next?
Figure out what’s making the Boost’s life so difficult. It’s a key component and is clearly being hammered by interference from somewhere. To start with it needs to be at least 0.5m -- ideally 1m -- away from any other wireless component.
Networks are not static. There’s a lot of outside influences that also affect internal to the network things.
From my untrained eye (which anyone feel free to correct), there’s a bunch of interference around your BRIDGE and Office. I’d certainly be double checking the wifi interference FAQ for possible solutions, and likely try changing the SonosNet channel in use. It could be impacted by other sources outside of your control, such as neighbors (this happened to me before!) or even worse, sunspots, electrical devices going out of spec, etc.
As a test is it possible to move BOOST? Something is bugging it. Office is also not very happy.
Another experiment would be to replace BOOST with another unit, possibly the Guest Bedroom unit. Guest Bedroom has low signal strength. While BOOST no longer the center of the universe, experiment with (wirelessly) dropping it at various locations in an attempt to get the signal levels up for the other players. Signal levels in the low 20’s begin to get a bit scary. You probably will not see any levels much below 20 because the players will not likely connect.
I have moved Boost and Office.
Boost now isn’t centrally located as it appears there is too much interference there…. Less reds which is surely good right?
Less red is certainly better, but the real test is not looking at the matrix, but listening to the system. Are you still having dropouts? Can you play all sources as desired?
Boost is in a happier place.
The next pinch point is going to be Lounge, since 5 other nodes are depending upon it. Lounge itself is experiencing some interference, and the connection to Bathroom (on which Guest Bedroom in turn depends) is rather weak.
So far so good with streaming from local sources… no dropouts and 7 speakers playing at the same time. Only listening on 1 but testing the system out!
Lounge is as far away is it physically can be from any other wifi/bluetooth equipment now, shame that everything upstairs connects through this.
The boost is currently in a pretty remote location but this is a test and it could be moved upstairs possibly to the Guest Bedroom as I have a switch in there so that may improve things.
OFDM ANI level: 0 is best, 9 is worst. Noise floor in the -110 range is very good, -90 range is so so, mid -80’s can become problematic, somewhere in the mid to low -70’s the player will disappear from the wireless network.
Problems can be transient, such as the baby monitor or a microwave oven, There is a medical facility next door to me that can be a challenge at times.
BOOST is simply a player with the audio stripped out. You can use another player as a test “Boost”, moving it around to test the effectiveness of adding another BOOST. Note that the players with a MAC Address beginning with “00:0E;58” use older radios that are not as effective as the newer units.
Update: Wire as many players as is practical.
Update: Wire as many players as is practical.
I used to have a number of players wired in but believed this wasn’t the best practice, however I am now considering giving it another go.
When wired, with wireless disabled things were much happier but not perfect, however this was back when we had a baby monitor, so now that has gone, I may revert to some of them wired.
Dropouts are creeping back in, local and cloud audio. The matrix is below:
Nothing has changed physically inside, and I see no new wireless networks from neighbours.
I’ll wire some in over the coming days and see what happens, I will also move my boost again!
A couple of questions:
For ones that I wire, should I disable Wifi?
Should the boost be connected to my router (gateway) or the nearest switch to the router (lowest STP value) - or shouldn’t it matter too much?
no.
it shouldn’t matter if the switch itself is unmanaged. If it isn’t, then the router itself is the appropriate choice.
have you called in to Sonos for guidance at all?
If all of the players are wired, BOOST is redundant.
Nothing has changed physically inside, and I see no new wireless networks from neighbours.
Something has changed, but is not visible in your scanner.
no.
it shouldn’t matter if the switch itself is unmanaged. If it isn’t, then the router itself is the appropriate choice.
have you called in to Sonos for guidance at all?
Wouldn’t having wifi and wired enabled create loops?
I currently have managed switches with STP enabled and configured with the appropriate values depending on where the switches are in the chain
I havent yet called Sonos but think that is worth doing now as I am struggling
Nothing has changed physically inside, and I see no new wireless networks from neighbours.
Something has changed, but is not visible in your scanner.
Yes, it is most likely something external rather than internal so out of my control
Wouldn’t having wifi and wired enabled create loops?
I currently have managed switches with STP enabled and configured with the appropriate values depending on where the switches are in the chain
No. Enabling STP in the switches will take care of that. I have both managed and unmanaged switches and no loops. I’d wire SONOS to the switches and avoid the router -- just in case it does not handle STP well.
I have cabled in one Sonos to the switch nearest my router, lowest STP value, and getting more drop outs than before and notifications of network loops
Next step is to contact Sonos.
Wife is currently preferring to use Alexa devices as we have now got them playing local music using Plex and it can do Spotify and Amazon Music without drop outs
