Setting static IP addresses

I once used a router that bragged it would not assign duplicate IP addresses. Ha! Evidently it had a short memory. Fortunately, it also supported reservations.

I wouldn’t deny the possibility that this is an issue from the ancient Sonos / Linux codebase that has been solved by newer Linux releases but somehow not noticed/backported by the Sonos Linux folks.

All I am sure of is that for some folks, something is going wrong, for others all is fine.

A many hour session of digging in my router’s very complete system logs showed no issues.

I’d think what is going to be needed is for someone that has the IP issue to commit to multiple power-cycles of their Sonos devices while running a network packet monitor and then decoding/examining every packet. I’m not interested in giving my Sonos that power-cycle stress or in dedicating the multiple hours of log reading that would be needed to find or rule out any issues.

Hi @Kumar 

Recently? It was 3 years ago! And, to be fair, I have since updated my Troubleshooting Sonos on WiFi article to include address reservation.

Having said that, I haven’t bothered/needed to do it on my own network, probably because I am not using a ISP-supplied router - it certainly seems to help some users, though.

No it wasn’t, not that it matters, but it was in the last 12 months. The troubleshooting article is three years old. 

I am hesitating to do this because the interface to the ISP supplied router is a lot clunkier than the Apple utility was, but one of these days I think I will get down to this. 

Hi @Kumar

My article was updated almost exactly one year ago. And, for the record, I do not question the need for IP reservation with Sonos - it’s a good idea. In fact, it’s a better idea for Sonos than it is for most other devices.

I’m not saying everyone should rush to it - but, if you see certain issues on a regular basis (and I’m thinking of rooms going missing from the app, in particular) it is a good idea to do so - there certainly aren’t any downsides if it is done correctly (the DHCP pool should be altered so as not to include any reserved IPs in it’s range).

I hope this helps.

What helped is a refresh via your troubleshooting article. My present worry is if I break something in the ISP router while trying to reserve IP addresses, starting with altering the pool to allow reserved addresses to be outside it, getting things back on track will be a headache, given the not so hot customer support from the ISP. 

Hi @Kumar

Yeah, I hear you - just how easy it is to reserve IPs depends heavily on the router’s software. I’ve have had issues doing so in the past, but mostly just due to a bad UI. Good UIs make it easy, whereas bad ones may require you to start copy and pasting MAC addresses.

Say, for example, your DHCP pool is 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.254. You’d want to change that to 192.168.0.20 - 192.168.0.254, assuming you have less than around 20 devices to reserve for. Reboot everything. Go back into IP reservation settings, and start reserving addresses in the 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.19 range. Save changes, and reboot everything again. That should be all you need to do. Again, if you have doubts, don’t try unless you are seeing recurring issues.

Please feel free to post screenshots of your IP reservation setting page, assuming it’s in English - I’ll be happy to look and advise from there.

I hope this helps.

Although I may hold off dabbling taking the first advice in the quoted above, I will still take the opportunity of taking the offered help, referencing screen shots below, from the ISP router UI:

In the first shot, as far as I can see I should just change the last digit of the start of the pool  from 2 to 50 if I want to reserve about 45 addresses. What I don’t see is a save button once I do that, so perhaps that isn't even needed for the change to take effect.

The third shot is of what pops up when Add is clicked in the second shot. There is a save button here, but what I don’t see is a place to name the unit that has the MAC address for which the IP address being reserved has to be entered. Presently, in the DHCP list, the router seems to get names like Sonos ZP, or WDMyCloud on its own. 

There seem to be no way to populate the address box except via cut/paste of the MAC addresses.

Hi @Kumar

Yes - change the 2 to a 50. I would expect to see a save button, however - are you sure it’s not all the way down at the bottom? One way to find out would be to change it, then leave that page, then return to it - if it shows the updated value, all is good.

Yup - this is exactly what I was expecting to see from an ISP router. You will need to find the MAC address for each Sonos device and paste it into the form there. The router is not interested in what each device is called - it just goes by the MAC address and IP address. Better routers give you a list of devices and you just select one and enter the desired address, job done.

It’s strange, but it looks like you have to enter both the current IP and the new, desired IP, as well as the MAC. You’ll probably need to go to the Connected Devices/Clients list to get those. Note that the MAC address is the same as the serial number with the last character removed - this may help you identify devices, but you may also just want to use the data in the About My Sonos System page in the Sonos app instead.

Subnet mask should be left as prompted - 255.255.255.0/24

I recommend testing with one device first - if it goes well, do the rest (or some more and check again).

I hope this helps.

Edit: you may need to experiment with MAC formatting - sometimes hyphens are required between each pair of characters. I would like to think it would show you the expected format in the connected devices list.

Thanks, that was very helpful. However why do you say the quoted? The first IP address in the box is 192.168.1.1 and is greyed out, so nothing to be done there, I presume.

What I see I have to do is enter the Mac address and the IP address I want to reserve for it in the box and then hit save. Before I disconnected the Apple router, I copy/pasted all the MAC addresses reserved there to an XL sheet, so doing a copy/paste again from XL should not be a big chore.