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Is having to power down/up system a normal occurrence?

  • 20 November 2022
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Just got system up and running last week (Arc, subwoofer, two SL rear speakers).   I had to reroute power cord on Arc last week and lost all connectivity.  30 minutes later, after a call with support, had to power off/on everything.   All is fine for 3 days.  Today, my Sonos app on my phone can’t communicate with anything.   Worked fine two days ago.   Having to power cycle everything again.   This is not good engineering.   If I have to power down all components on a weekly basis, I need to return this and buy something else.  Suggestions?

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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 21 November 2022, 21:01

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Have you reserved IP addresses for all of your regular network clients?

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Is it possible to wire the Arc directly to your router with an ethernet cable?

@GLG,

No it’s most certainly not a normal occurrence, but you would have to describe your setup in a little more detail before any suggestions could be made. 

What did Support Staff do to get your setup back up and running last time? What has changed since?

It’s not clear if you have an SSDP multicast discovery issue, between your controller device and speakers, or if your devices are actually losing their network connection - the ‘bonded’ surrounds and sub usually do not actually use your network when operating, they instead share a direct ad-hoc wireless connection with the Arc. Their IP addresses are proxied from the DHCP server by the Arc which will connect to your network either wired, or by using the 2.4Ghz WiFi band.

I recommend that WiFi band (if used) is set to a fixed non-overlapping channel, 1, 6 or 11 and if the router allows, set its channel-width to 20Mhz only.

It’s also not clear either, if you are experiencing a CEC communication issue with your TV and losing connection there, or if you have chosen to use an optical connection and getting audio interruption?

Is the HT setup wired, wireless or linked to other products over a wireless SonosNet connection? Do you have any other Sonos products?

Is the network setup a central wireless router, or a mesh based system? Any WiFi extenders, repeaters, EOP adapters? Are the device IP addresses on the network reserved (static), or dynamically assigned?

Are there any network switches, managed or unmanaged?

Controller type? Any VPN or security software, WiFi calling, MAC spoofing features on the device etc?

Make/Model of TV?

Sorry to mention so much, but I personally think more information is really needed here.

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Sonos Arc, subwoofer, and two One SL surround speakers.   I have century link DSL and then an eero mesh network (three wireless access points) that provide excellent coverage to my entire house, especially the living room, where all Sonos home theater components.  I got everything hooked up just fine via wireless last week.   Today, my Sonos app on my Android said the system is down.   I have power cycled everything and at this point everything is working except one of the two “One SL” surround speakers.  I have tried power cycling it multiple times, tried scanning for it via the Sonos app, pushed the discover button, even ran an ethernet cable directly to it.   As a last recourse, I even powered cycled my Century Link router.   After that, the Arc, subwoofer, and one good “One SL” all came up.   But I still can’t get the bad “One SL” to play music.  

 

Right now on my Sonos App it says “Living Room not configured”.   But I did configure my living room last week.

 

The Sonos Arc is about twenty feet away, direct line of sight to the malfunctioning “One SL”.    

 

Sorry if I didn’t answer all your questions Ken.    But thanks for the very informative explanation.  Basically, it comes down to why doesn’t the “bad One SL” pick up a DHCP address from the Arc, while the subwoofer and good “One SL” do pick up a DHCP address?

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Question for anyone or @Ken_Griffiths 

I’m reading about something called SonosNet.   One of my speakers - the “One SL” that is not working, is near an eero access point.   Although the Arc serves up DHCP requests, would it help if I plugged in the “One SL” to the eero access point via ethernet cable, and then enabled SonosNet?    I’ve only had this system less than a week, and would really like to dive it and learn the technical details about how to get this private network system working to peak efficiency.   Thanks.

 

P.S.   Now I’m reading that doing that is going to take away bandwidth from other devices.  Can’t afford that Monday-Friday when both the wife and I work from home and utilize bandwidth for conference/video calls.     Hmmmm…..

Heres my initial suggestion.

With mesh hubs in AP mode, they tend to auto-select their WiFi channels - so I’m suspecting that might be a part of your issue here - if the eero hubs allow you to fix their channels and channel-width as mentioned in my initial post, then I would do that. Switch off the WiFi adapters on the century link router too if you haven’t done that already and rely totally on the eero AP’s

I would leave the Arc wired direct to your router (or if you have another separate standalone Sonos Speaker/Boost, that would work for you aswell) just don’t use a surround speaker, or sub, wired …and do not wire the Arc to any of the eero mesh satellite hubs as that will cause issues.

When it’s wired, reboot the Arc and surrounds and let them settle and see if that resolves the issue.

If you do go onto add a Boost, or another standalone speaker wired direct to the router to become the ‘root bridge’, then you can select the SonosNet channel in the Sonos App too - just set that to a channel that is not in use by your erro hubs. This only applies though if you wire a separate device and not just the Arc as suggested in my earlier post. 

Oh and definitely don’t wire the surround to the eero hub .. I think you have noted not to do that already.👍

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@Ken_Griffiths - thanks for the tips.  I’m going to take a few steps back here.   I’d prefer not to touch the eero system as it’s been running perfectly for all my other devices in my home for four months.  I’m impressed with eero mess network.

And, even though the Arc is running as a little mini DHCP network server to a private network for the three Sonos speakers, do you still think I need to do eero network adjustments to accommodate the Arc connecting to my home wifi network?   

I’m unable to permanently hardwire the Arc to the eero system.  It’s not near an AP (access point).   If it’s it a temporary thing, yes, I could run an ethernet cable temporarily across the living room room floor to the Arc.  Is that what you are suggesting? 

I greatly appreciate your time, energy, and expertise.   I’ve had the system less than a week, and still trying to configure it to optimal parameters.   Thanks.

 

 

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I just signed on my century link router.  I have the wifi turned off.  I rely exclusively on my eero network.   I signed on the eero app on my android phone.  I see the sub is now offline again, but it was online an hour ago.   Why did it go offline?   I can see one of the rear SL’s is online, and one is offline.

If there are knowledgebase articles somewhere that tell me what/how I need to change on my eero, l would appreciate it.    I’ll call support late tomorrow when I’m off work.   

 

 

 

 

I just signed on my century link router.  I have the wifi turned off.  I rely exclusively on my eero network.   I signed on the eero app on my android phone.  I see the sub is now offline again, but it was online an hour ago.   Why did it go offline?   I can see one of the rear SL’s is online, and one is offline.

If there are knowledgebase articles somewhere that tell me what/how I need to change on my eero, l would appreciate it.    I’ll call support late tomorrow when I’m off work.   

Perhaps have a read of this thread from Sonos Staff…

Sonos on WiFi Mesh

I would maybe consider getting the Boost, or another Sonos speaker, to wire direct to the router to have all run on SonosNet, but it’s a matter for you. I would try to wire a device to the main router, rather than the eero satellites, and do not wire the surrounds, or sub. So if you can’t wire the Arc, then maybe consider adding the Boost, or another speaker. Anyhow see what you think when you’ve read the above linked thread.

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@Ken_Griffiths - thanks for the link.    Good viewing. Watched it twice.  Here’s an update - 

 

Last night just before I went to bed at 10:00, I did two things:

  1.  Moved the non-working 1SL away from the eero pod.   I unplugged and moved the eero AP so it is no longer a foot away from the speaker, it’s six feet away.
  2.   I went into eero and saw there was a software update.   Kicked that off as I went to bed.

 

This morning, all four speakers show up on my Sonos App.   And playing music/tv, all four speakers are giving off sound.   Yeah!

 

When I go into my eero app on my phone, I show a SonosZP connected to eero network.   But I show two other SonosZP as offline, as well as Sonos-xxx-sub as offline as well.   So they are playing music fine, but they are not using my public eero network.   They are using the “ad-hoc private wifi” network from the arc as you originally educated me in your first post:

the ‘bonded’ surrounds and sub usually do not actually use your network when operating, they instead share a direct ad-hoc wireless connection with the Arc. Their IP addresses are proxied from the DHCP server by the Arc

One thing I see in the eero app is of the three speakers not connected to wifi, it does say the “sub” was last active at 10:04 pm last night, one SonosZP was active at 10:09 pm last night, and the other SonosZP was last active four days ago at 8:49 pm.    I find it odd that the eero app found two of the three last night, but for whatever reason, it didn’t see the third (the one that has been moved away from eero AP).

 

Does it make sense to give a static IP (reservation) to the SonosZP (the arc) showing up in eero as connected?  

 

Thank you so much.

 

@GLG,

Yes, my surrounds and Sub show offline in my mesh setup too (they only every show online as they initially power-up/reboot) - so that’s probably fine… their IP addresses are proxied via the Arc and yes it’s a good thing to reserve their IP addresses in the century-link routers DHCP reservation table.

Always a good thing too to set the devices one metre away (at least) from other WiFi devices/access points to avoid any interference. 

It sounds like you are beginning to sort things, but maybe consider my suggestion of wiring the Arc, or a separate Sonos Boost/Speaker to the router, but just see how things go first of all as the system should hopefully settle.🤞

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@Ken_Griffiths - yes, I’m figuring it out.   Thanks Ken!   I consider this topic closed.    I will look into getting that Arc hooked up directly to my router and using the private SonosNet system eventually.