Hi

The easiest thing would be to change the SSID and Password to match your old router.  Are you using wi-fi with your Sonos devices or are any wired via ethernet?  If wired, they must be connected to the base puck and not to any secondary units.

I’ll be 100% honest, I had nothing but problems with Google Wi-Fi due to the inability to set a channel and that it was continually changing channels to try and minimise interference. After 6 months I sold it and have had no problems since - but you probably don’t want to be told that at this stage! 

Ha.  Wow about Google Fiber.  Has Eero been better?

Would it work if I reset everything to factory settings and started over?

The Google Fiber is working fine for everything else.

Previously, I had the sound bar hooked to the hardline internet.  I have removed that and nothing now is on hardlines.  I did see something using a hardline to connect the first Sonos speaker, then everything on wifi would set up fine after that.  That seems to be old practice.

So frustrated.

I moved away from mesh networks completely and went back to a standard router and wi-fi. 

No this wouldn't improve things. At best you could remove the wif-fi credentials from the Sonos App and then plug one Sonos device in to your base Google wi-fi unit with an Ethernet cable. This should then enable you to set up your system correctly.

The other thing to consider is duplicate IP addresses as you've changed routers. Please see my article, Here

Thank you, UKMedia.  Would you please tell me more about plugging one Sonos unit into the google router then adding others?
How would that work exactly?  It would be easy for me to plug me Playbar into the Google router.  What would I do from there?  At some point, do I unplug the Playbar and have it run on wifi also?

If I could, I would really like to use the mesh network.  I could go back to a dedicated non-mesh network if I had to, but it seems to totally defeat the purpose and benefits of mesh.

If you remove the wif-fi credentials in the Sonos App, it's easier to reconnect your system with one device connected via an Ethernet cable. Once the system is connected and you've installed any updates, you can disconnect the Ethernet cable once you've added the correct wi-fi credentials.

So, two things…
1. I have removed all wifi networks from my Sonos app.  Then I plugged the Google wifi router directly into the Playbar.  What would I do next?  How do I add other speakers?  The sub?

2. Asking around, the Google wifi mesh is getting heavy criticism from friends of mine.  They swear by other mesh networks that are great and “done by serious hardware companies.”   Do you have a recommendation for mesh network hardware?

 

1. Wait. If the Sonos devices don’t show up within 5 minutes, do a power cycle on them. They  normally take a moment or two to recognize the new ‘SonosNet’ signal. Note that your removal of the network information in the controller has no affect on the speakers, until such time as you can ‘see’ them in the controller. For all practical purposes, the controller is merely a reflection of what is happening on the speakers, there aren’t a lot of ‘smart’ in it, it’s just a display/remote control.
2. No, I don’t, sorry. Not my real area of expertise, other than troubleshooting them. I’ve avoided moving to a ‘mesh’ networking system, as there isn’t any need in my ‘smallish’ home. And I tend to be swayed less that average on the marketing campaigns I make do with a three or so year old NetGear Nighthawk device for now. I’ve eyes on a Wi-Fi 6 device, again not mesh, BUT with Sonos not supporting up it on many of my ‘older’ devices, there’s no real benefit for me making that jump, and plenty of time watching others do it before I make my decision. I don’t think there’s any solution out there currently that would help me utilize my Gigabit connection more effectively…or the cost/benefit ratio isn’t there, from what I perceive. 

If you follow Bruce’s instructions above, you should soon see your system (@Airgetlam)

I can see the benefits of a mesh network but the issue I have is that all (as far as I’m aware) remove the ability to tune them in the name of useability. This means that channel selection etc are removed as an option.  I’m wary to ever try them again, as a result.

Well, I am giving up on making the speakers work with Google wifi mesh routers.  What a total PITA.

Feel free to comment or advise on approach I am about to follow.

1. From the router in the basement, an ethernet cable goes to an unmanaged gigabit switch behind the TV. 
2. An ethernet cable goes from the switch in a “regular” wireless router (Netgear Nighthawk R8000).
3. I initially plugged the Playbar in and installed updates.
4. I have renamed the 2.4 GHZ wifi network and changed its password.  This was the wifi network that previously successfully ran my four-room Sonos system.  The name and password change is to get all other (kids, cough) traffic onto the mesh network.
5. I unplugged the Playbar from the network. (I may have unplugged it from power. I don’t remember.)
6. I added the new wifi network (off the Netgear Nighthawk) into the trusted networks.
7. I am trying to add the Playbar to the new wifi network.  So far, I am not having any luck.

Will I be able to get away with changing the name of the network and password, or are these Sonos systems so temperamental that I won’t be able to do that?   Any advice on these steps?

Perhaps it’s just me, but I’m a bit confused by your post - are you using double NAT here, with more than one router and a mesh setup too?

• Is the router in point-1, the same as the NightHawk mentioned in point-2?
• In point-3 what device did you plug the Playbar into, the router, or the switch?
• What mesh network are you referring to in point-4 and what mode is it using - is it in router mode, or bridged to an existing router? (Is there still a ‘guest network’ in use here too? - as mentioned in your opening post?)
• In point-6, you mention adding the new Nighthawk network into ‘trusted networks’ I assume that’s in the Sonos App network settings, but earlier, you state you separated out the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands on that router, so did you add one, or both, bands as a trusted network?
• I assume you have various WiFi networks, not sure why? … and I think you perhaps need to give a bit clearer detail. It’s important to include what bands and channels you are using on each device and maybe include the channel-widths too, which may help.. maybe posting a quick sketch will help to clear up a few things aswell.

Really sorry to ask so many questions, but your post seemed a little confusing to me and I did read it several times to try to get an understanding of your chosen network setup. 

I know right.  It’s confusing and I’m not explaining it well.  Sorry for the confusion and thanks so much for trying to help.  Let me try it like this.

Problem summary….

• Previously, my Sonos equipment worked great over a standard non-mesh wireless router. Google Fiber is my service provider.
• For various reasons, I moved to a Google wifi mesh network- still with Google Fiber.
• I had no luck running my Sonos system off the Google wifi mesh network, including a 2.4 GHZ guest wifi channel.
• So I reinstalled my non-mesh wireless router.  Like before, it runs off a hardline from the main router, fed directly from the Fiber Jack.
  • Fiber jack —> ethernet cable—> Google router —> ethernet cable —> unmanaged switch (behind TV/ acts as a splitter) —> ethernet cable —> previous non-mesh router that broadcasts a 2.4 GHZ wifi signal for the Sonos products.
    • I have renamed and re-passworded the wifi network from what Sonos previously used.
  • So there are two wifi networks in the house
    • Special 2.4 GHZ wifi network for Sonos equipment
    • Google Fiber mesh wifi network (nothing to do with Sonos)

On the good side, I now have my Playbar playing wirelessly from my Sonos app!  That’s great and a step forward.  My current endeavor is to get the sub, surrounds, and three other rooms to light up again. Current challenges…

• My sub goes through the setup process, then I don’t see it anywhere in the app.  It hooks to the network and says all is well.  Then never shows up in the app.  I unplug/ replug with no luck.
• I have one of the surround Speakers showing up, but not yet the second one.
• When one of my eight Sonos Play 1s show up in my Sonos app’s System list, I can’t tell which one is actually present.  (I solved this by looking in System/ About My System)
• When I go into Network/ Manage Networks/ Update Networks, I see all the Sonos equipment.  Getting it to show up on my Systems list in their rooms, etc. has been challenging.

I hope that makes sense and I appreciate any guidance/ advice you all have.

So just to clarify, you now have an ISP provided router (make/model?) then a switch and then a Nighthawk router, is that correct …and you’ve set aside the Google Nest Hubs completely? At least I would suggest setting them aside for now (temporarily).

If so, you are best to change the network setup here first…

My suggestion is to put the ISP provided ‘main’ router into bridge mode, or even ‘modem’ mode, if the latter is supported. Definitely switch off its WiFi adapters.

Next, wire the Nighthawk router WAN port to a LAN port on your ISP router …and then wire the switch to a LAN port on the Nighthawk router.

The Nighthawk will then provide both your wired and wireless network to your Home

Just broadcast the main 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands from this router and disable any guest networks for now.

Set the 2.4Ghz band to WiFi channel 6 and set the channel-width to 20Mhz only and use WPA2 AES security mode for compatibility.

Ensure that router also does not have ‘Airtime Fairness’ or ‘QoS’ enabled. Disable those features if they are enabled.

Assuming no devices have been factory reset, simply wire one Sonos device to the Nighthawk router and then power off/on all your other non-wired Sonos products and let them settle.

Ensure your mobile controller device is connected wirelessly to the Nighthawk WiFi - I recommend you connect using its 2.4Ghz band SSID/credentials and open the Sonos App.

All being well, you should hopefully now see all devices/speakers appear in the App

If all are present, check and set the SonosNet channel to either channel 1 or 11. I would also check for Sonos updates at this point, as a new update was released today for S2 if you are using that App.

After the update-check, goto ‘Settings/System/Network/Manage Networks’ and choose the option to ‘Update Networks’ and follow the instructions to add your Nighthawk 2.4Ghz band only ‘trusted’ wireless network to all your Sonos devices.

When that’s completed, remove any other networks that are showing in the App apart from that one trusted network.

You should now be able to uncable the wired speaker from the nighthawk router and all will switch and run on its WiFi signal.

Hope those steps/suggestions assist you to sort your system and get all back up and running.

@BuckeyeTheDog,
If you want your Google WiFi to use around the Home too, then you could set that up afterwards using double NAT, so just wire the primary nest hub/router to your nighthawk router (LAN port) (or the connected switch, I suppose) and run both the Google hub/router and the Nest ‘satellite’ hubs as another ‘entirely separate’ WiFi network, but please note this will need to have a completely different WiFi SSID and that separate network setup will auto-select its own WiFi channels, which may interfere with Sonos and/or your Nighthawk wireless network - but this is a matter for yourself.

Just do not wire any Sonos devices to any of the Google Nest devices and don’t let the Sonos mobile controller device connect to the Google WiFi signal either, as you will lose sight of your Sonos system if you allow that to happen, which might be what has been causing you the problems here in the first instance, perhaps ?

Anyhow, you can then use the Google mesh setup for anything else, I guess, but it’s not a setup I would choose personally, as I can envisage it may cause you problems (perhaps) further down the line as Google Nest hubs may/will switch their channels automatically and bring about some interference that may hinder, rather than help, things on your nighthawk network.

Ken and others, thanks so much for your help.

I am now up and running.  The thing that hooked up all the remaining equipment was going to Support/ Find Missing Products and following their flow.  Essentially, the devices that were not seen were re-set to factory settings.  They got on my new Nighthawk non-mesh wifi network and did fine.

I seemed to experience a problem that may have been one of my root cause problems.  It seems that occasionally, I would seem somehow my Google wifi would drop the signal for a moment.  I could see at times my wifi network would just change inexplicably on my phone.  Perhaps one of my problems is that my wifi would drop mid speaker set-up.

I know this.  I am taking out the Google wifi equipment.  All of it.  I will keep Google Fiber as a service provider.  Numerous people tell me that the experience zero problems with Sonos and more with Eero.  I think I will try that- even attempting to make Sonos work over Eero mesh, with this old Nighthawk wifi router as a “if all else fails, go back to it” solution.

I have this Youtube video that I watched about standard troubleshooting with Eero and Sonos.. 

@BuckeyeTheDog,

At least your Sonos setup is now working, that’s the main thing. I’m not a fan of Google Nest WiFi either, as many seem to complain about it and it seems their Hubs cannot be used in bridge/AP mode (except when using one hub only) and that by itself would put me off buying the mesh system. It’s not very configurable, but all such things seem to be heading that way, where the user has no option, but to accept things at their default/auto-optimised settings and those things don’t always work for some situations.

Theres just no perfect answer to these things, at least not that I’ve come across so far. A central based configurable router is as good as any, as long as that can reach to the far corners of the Home and provide a decent connection to all.

FYI, I have a similar set up, Google Wifi and Sonos equipment and I am getting the same issue. Just really tired after spending money to upgrade only to have to rebuild/rework my network to get any type of utility out of 1000 bucks of new product.  Poor

“Nightmare.  I have gone through a dozen or so different attempts to get the system working again.

• Over and over, I will get the message “Unable to find your Sonos system.”  And “Let’s fix it.” 
• I will go through the on-screen process, which includes going to every device and connecting it to the new network.  Then I see nothing in the Sonos app.  It will say “Unable to find your Sonos system” again.  Or the Account, System, and Services & Voice will just be grayed out.
• At other times, it says “unplug them all and replug them.”  Tried that several times.  Didn’t work.
• Other times, I used the Settings function to reconnect the speakers.
• Other times, according to the Sonos app, I even restarted the router.  I have even restarted the fiber jack.”

Perhaps follow the suggestions mentioned in this link:

Sonos on WiFi Mesh

Just removed Google Wifi from the equation and it all works as promised.