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Mixed mode question

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I have a 6 zone system; 5 are in an open plan large space with an attached patio, in line of sight of the router and the boost that is wired to it. Of these, 3 are wired to the core network and therefore the boost, with Wifi disabled.

The 6th zone is in the bedroom, a play 1 stereo pair. It is separated from the open space by a brick wall, and is usually yellow and sometimes orange box in the Matrix. In this room, I have a Airport express unit that is ethernet wired back to the router, and it therefore provides a very strong WiFi signal in the bedroom. However, it is not convenient to run more wire to get the play 1 pair wire connected to the core network.

I do not want to disturb the set up in the open plan space for 5 zones; that is working flawlessly. The question is, can I make use of the strong WiFi signal in the bedroom for the 1 pair located there? Note that any additional bridge to give the 1 pair a better signal does not work; the bridge is ignored because the cost of the resultant two hops is more than that of the direct connection to the boost that is wired to the router.

If yes, what do I have to do to get the play 1 pair off Sonos net and on to the Bedroom AEX network that has its own SSID? Note also that the need to play this pair grouped with any of the other zones never arises.

Also, will this allow music to play on the 1 pair via things like Spotify Connect with boost powered off?

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rattyAnswer

@ratty : The bridge wired to the AEX is with the expectation that the bedroom system then connects to it in place of the boost?

Yes.

On a related matter I recall I advised you a while back on how to change the Boost’s STP priority. Correct? This could be important, to ensure the Boost remains the root bridge.

for this to work, the boost in the main area would still have to remain powered on?

No.

(And before you worry about the root bridge when the Boost is powered off, the wired Bridge in the bedroom would simply take over under such circumstances.)

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J

John B

Out of curiosity, were the yellow / orange cells in the matrix caused by weak signal or interference? Were you actually having drops or other issues?

I think I might have tried to keep it as a single system (although noted your desire to be able to turn off ‘main’ system). I don’t really understand why you want to force the main wireless speakers to go back to the Boost when STP might want to go via another speaker. Or indeed Sonos might want to use direct routing in preference to STP. Turning wireless back on on the wired units might improve the signal to the main wireless speakers. Might this in turn improve the SonosNet signal to the bedroom? It obviously depends on relative positions. Could you also put a Boost or a speaker in between the main system and bedroom to improve SonosNet signal?

Just thoughts...as I say I understand there are other reasons for seeking greater separation.

J

John B

I was still typing and thinking while @ratty posted. I think his suggestion of wiring a Bridge/Boost to the AE is definitely better than my suggestion in at least a couple of ways. In particular, I think it would allow you to turn off the main system, which my suggestion wouldn’t.

K

KumarAuthor

@ratty : The bridge wired to the AEX is with the expectation that the bedroom system then connects to it in place of the boost? Worth a try to see if that does happen, but for this to work, the boost in the main area would still have to remain powered on?

@John B : The yellow orange cells were caused by the distance from the boost, with the intervening brick wall to be crossed. At the same time, any place that is available for an intermediate bridge doesn't work because the two hops still cost more than the direct connection so the bridge is ignored. And the reason for turning off the radios was to reduce interference as well, with other devices like Firesticks in place. In any case, the wireless speakers in the open space still get a green coloured box to the boost, and before the radios were turned off when one ended up joined to the TV Connect, there still were drop outs in the open space for TV audio. While the bedroom still remained directly connected to the boost. So I turned the radios off, and haven't felt their absence.

rattyAnswer

@ratty : The bridge wired to the AEX is with the expectation that the bedroom system then connects to it in place of the boost?

Yes.

On a related matter I recall I advised you a while back on how to change the Boost’s STP priority. Correct? This could be important, to ensure the Boost remains the root bridge.

for this to work, the boost in the main area would still have to remain powered on?

No.

(And before you worry about the root bridge when the Boost is powered off, the wired Bridge in the bedroom would simply take over under such circumstances.)

K

KumarAuthor

Oops; once again I hit best answer instead of like! But it may as well remain there this time.

@ratty : Yes, I have the thing about the Boost remaining root archived, and will pull it out if needed.

This looks like a cool solution, and I have two bridges in a drawer. Will try and report. One question - the speed of the internet via the AEX won’t be affected? It is about 40 mbps.

K

KumarAuthor

@ratty : The bridge wired to the AEX is with the expectation that the bedroom system then connects to it in place of the boost?

Yes.

On a related matter I recall I advised you a while back on how to change the Boost’s STP priority. Correct? This could be important, to ensure the Boost remains the root bridge.

No.

(And before you worry about the root bridge when the Boost is powered off, the wired Bridge in the bedroom would simply take over under such circumstances.)

To the last bit - the Boost and Bridge would trade duties without any interventions as and when the boost is powered on/off?

ratty

To the last bit - the Boost and Bridge would trade duties without any interventions as and when the boost is powered on/off?

Correct. If the Boost is present -- and has STP priority set as discussed -- it will be root. It it isn’t then the system looks for the next best candidate, which would be the wired Bridge. When the Boost reappears it takes over again.

K

KumarAuthor

@ratty : there is some glitch. All worked well after another factory reset with the boost on, except the bridge that is the same room while shown as secondary node, is still isn't getting picked up by the bedroom zone which remained yellow box connected to the Boost. So I though I will now see what happens if I power down the Boost. Music from the net played for some time and then stopped. And now, the Sonos system in the bedroom is not reachable; the remaining 5 zones+Boost are powered off, of course.

The bridge is daisy chained to AEX; this bit works with no effect on the internet speeds via AEX.

What could be the problem?

ratty

Something’s not connecting right. Power the whole system up. Wait 5 mins, screenshot the network matrix and post it.

Are the Boost and Bridge both wired back to a switch?

K

KumarAuthor

Something’s not connecting right. Power the whole system up. Wait 5 mins, screenshot the network matrix and post it.

Are the Boost and Bridge both wired back to a switch?

I will do the power cycle. Both units are wired back to the router ports. The unmanaged switch is for port expansion for the other wired Sonos units.

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