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AndrewRC
Contributor I
April 12, 2020

Rooms missing with AI Mesh

Quick description. 5 x Play-1 speakers and a connect. 3 Asus RT-AC68U routers in AI Mesh router configuration. 

AI mesh is connected to a Virgin Stupid hub in modem mode and the mesh is through the 5Ghz wifi. 

The mesh’s 2.4ghz is fixed on channel 11 and the SonosNet set to channel 6. (the quietest according to my Inssider app) 

Hallway - connected to main router. 

All others on SonosNet apart from Shed which is at the extreme range and sometimes flips to the closest AI router or I can plug it in to the router. 

It has always been a bit flaky, and I’ve tried a load of different things like plugging one into each node, moving speakers, channel setting, static IP addresses for the speakers, etc. Submitted a diagnostic a couple of months ago and was walked through a few things and everything settled down for about 6 weeks, then became a bit flaky again. 

However, a couple of weeks ago ASUS and Sonos both had updates around the same time. After updating I have a new problem. 

When the phone or Windows laptop is connected to the main router all 6 rooms are visible and work fine. (apart from “Shed” sometimes refuses to group)

When the phone or laptop is connecting via one of the AI mesh nodes, only the Hallway is visible in the app and sometimes Shed. (happens when the phone is connected to either 2.4 or 5ghz) 

UpnP is active. Airtime fairness is off, streaming is top of the hit parade in QoS order. It is as if the app gets to a speaker that is on the same network but can’t see SonosNet devices unless it is connected to the same router as the “master” speaker) 

Any ideas, suggestions, or possible cause/solution would be greatly received. 

 

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      SixSonos
      Lyricist I
      September 7, 2020

      So the two things that I did on my Asus router to get my mobile devices to connect correctly and see all speakers (note this was the hammer method, I am sure this thread has some better tweaks). My issue was, depending on where I was in the house I would see some of the speakers but not all, or I could see the system but controls did not work (change volume, no change occurs) or I would just get a cannot connect to wi-fi. I did the following:

      • Turned off Airtime Fairness for both 2.4 and 5 AND
      • Turned off Smart Connect

      I have been running this setup for 4 days now and have not seen an issue. Note that I run my Asus in Access Point mode, with another vendor supplier router as the primary. I had an RT-AC86U but recently upgraded to an RT-AX88U. I seldom saw these issue with the 86 (I did have issues though) but the new 88 I would get it almost everyday.

      According to the ASUS website the smart connect feature is kind of a gimmick, because it cannot do true load balancing, it can only switch a user based on signal strength alone. I have seen no degradation of service with this mode off.  

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