Avid Contributor I

Answered

Setting up Sonos acress an access point

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Hello,

I am trying to understand if something is possible before buying the equipment. I am trying to set my parents house up with Sonos across the house and an outbuilding.

House is working great, obviously very easy and pleased how it’s all working.

Now for the outbuilding I was thinking of running an Ethernet from the house Virgin router to an access point (AP) in the garden building. Something like an Archer C6 AC1200, for context this is about 35m away. Reading online this should ‘extend’ my wifi to the garden building. I had previously considered a PowerLine Adapter, but I suspect this will have issues because the outbuilding is on its own Consumer Unit...

I am assuming that if the AP has the same ssid and password, setting up a new Sonos or two would be simple enough, and I’ll be able to see and control them all together?

(Bit of an amateur when it comes to home networks)

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Corry PAnswer

Sonos Staff

Hi @samuelward

The Archer C6 would be fine - you’d just need to put it into Bridge/AP mode. For ease of use, configure the WiFi credentials to be the same as your VM router. You will need to run an ethernet cable over to it though.

Powerline isn’t supported.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

A

Antifon

Prodigy III

Sonos do not support wireless access points in “network extender” mode, and you are likely to find that as soon as you try to add any device that’s on an extender, you will get an error message on your controller that tells you that you can’t. That’s certainly what happened when I tried it!

However, if you can run a wired Ethernet connection to the building, you should be able to set up a separate AP there (with different SSID from your main wireless network), connect your outbuilding devices to that and it should work OK.

samuelwardAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Okay, thanks. But then the Sonos devices on the separate SSID are within their own Sonos ecosystem and not connected to the rest of the house?

A

Antifon

Prodigy III

They can integrate fully with the rest of the system provided the network is configured correctly.

I simply added the second SSID to the permitted networks in the System setting (in the app). With a 35m distance away, you should not (in theory at least) have problems with the remote device connecting on the “wrong” SSID - the signal level should be a lot stronger and they should select it correctly.

samuelwardAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Thanks again, Antifon.

To keep it simple; if all of the house units are connected to a WiFI SSID called VM12345, then the outbuilding would be connected to OB67890… but you’re saying you can somehow add the OB67890 SSID to the app so both sets of devices show up?

I can’t seem to find a setting to let me do that?

A

Antifon

Prodigy III

Perhaps your version of the app doesn’t let you. On mine (under Android) I just go to System, Network, Manage Networks, Update Networks and it asks me if I want to add a trusted network.

samuelwardAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Yes, perhaps. I have iOS and all I can do is remove the current one or change the wireless channel.

could also be because my home setup is on SonosNet… will try my parents tomorrow.

A

Antifon

Prodigy III

My network is on Sonosnet too, and I still get the option to add additional trusted networks.

samuelwardAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Go it, found the setting.

it does a scan, finds my devices, then I click one and it begins to ask me to connect to ‘temporary wifi’, I did that then it asks for password to wifi again?

If I click change network, will it be lost from my current system? Or can I have more than one?

A

Antifon

Prodigy III

I’m sorry - it’s been weeks since I did it so I can’t recall the exact procedure, but as I recall, I had no problem adding more than one network. All of the devices on both networks became visible within the app.

I should add that the reason I had to do this is because, although I use Sonosnet, I bought a Sonos Move which cannot use Sonosnet - crazy but true. So I had to set up another AP at the other end of my house.

106rallye

@samuelward Some Sonos devices are set up using low energy bluetooth thart help you contact a speaker that has no connection to your wif network, but let's you put in the right credentials. Maybe that is what you triggered?

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