SONOS and STARLINK Mesh Challenges - Anyone figure it out?

Hi @Tmsmith 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Ultimately, Starlink is unsupported by Sonos as it relies upon a wireless source of internet connection.

However, that doesn’t describe the issue you and people in other threads seem to have with the system - it seems to be more about compatibility with the router functionality. Therefore, in principle, you could connect a second router (or a Mesh system) to the Starlink router and run the entire network off that second router. This solution would still rely on a wireless internet connection, and as such, is still unsupported by Sonos, but in theory at least, it should work. Hopefully, the internet connection will be reliable enough for operation.

In this case, it would be important not to put the secondary router/mesh into Bridge mode, though you’d probably want to disable the DHCP server on the Starlink router and manually set an IP for the secondary router in the secondary router’s “Internet” settings.

I hope this helps.

The challenge there, unfortunately, is that the StarLink ‘router’ doesn’t offer an Ethernet cable connection. 

I have limited knowledge here, though. The system I deal with is all connected to a single ‘node’, and not their mesh / extender system, which is why I’ve not replied. This system does work reliably while connected via Wi-Fi to the main ‘node’, however.

One of the things I’ve not yet gotten is access to the ‘network’ to see if there is any way to assign reserved IP addresses, but all my googling suggests not. Fortunately, around the same time as I was asked to investigate, the entire island where this system is lost power, so everything got a new IP address automatically.

The only thing I can think of, to connect a secondary router to their system, is to run a travel router, which would connect to the StarLink’s signal, and provide a connection that could be fed to a secondary network on which the Sonos resides. 

Not a terribly satisfactory solution. I am somewhat constantly frustrated by Elon Musk’s continual control issues, and not providing an Ethernet port on the StarLink system, and also not allowing CarPlay on my car. The assumption that ‘they know better’ is irritating. May be great for some percentage of users, but just doesn’t work well for my needs. 

Ouch!

Many years ago I built a cobbled together setup for some folks that used a WiFi router as a wireless client onto a restricted WiFi LAN device. That connected to a normal WiFi router over Ethernet that serviced his local computers both wired and WiFi connections..

I’d sure try a travel router as my first option but with a bit of creativity and third party firmware you can accomplish stuff the manufacturer of the restricted device is hoping to prevent.

I’ve had the same problem as Tmsmith.  Always had issues with Sonos but the more speakers you have the harder it is to get away from the system. 
The biggest issue is when you add Starlink mesh nodes. Everything shuts down, constant restarts and speakers no longer recognizing the network. So frustrating. 
I am thinking of trying the Ethernet adapter for Starlink and plug it into my old Sonos bridge. 

Has anybody tried something like this?

I haven’t, but would think that putting all Sonos units on the same SonosNet sub-mesh should work. Assuming that adapter they sell is connecting to the base sub mesh of the StarLink. 

Exactly. 

Clearly there is an issue with the mesh nodes talking back and forth.  

It’s not entirely ‘clear’ to me, I’ve not looked or had access to a system with repeaters to see if they do indeed use differing subnets, but it seems a very likely explanation. I’ll be interested to hear how it works for you. 

One more question.  
If trying my bridge doesn’t work I would try using my own router with Ethernet adapter. If that’s the case then would I have to switch to the new router wifi every time I wanted to use sonos?

Attempting to use BRIDGE at this point is risky because the are essentially past end of life. Their wireless performance is at best fair, compared to modern units, and the power supply has a bad history. Wiring a player or BOOST is a better idea. If you can wire a player, it will be as effective as a BOOST at that location.

Yes, SONOS players must be on the same subnet as the controller.