Sonos boost mesh network

  • 11 September 2018
  • 8 replies
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I am a bit confused, i have a boost and all my sonos devices are wireless connected to it via sonosnet.
In some mesh systems like velop you can wire some extra components and the cable is used as a “backup”
I always thought that with sonosnet you can only have 1 (boost) wired to the router, but now i hear you can also have some speakerswired to it.

Was there a change in the sonos mesh system that i now can use a “wired backbone” ?

Thanks Rob

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8 replies

Hi. It has always been possible to wire more than one Sonos component. There has been no change. In relatively rare instances this may lead to STP issues and a network storm, but you could cross that bridge (haha) if you come to it.

I would not describe the wires as 'backup'. Sonos will attribute a lower 'path cost' to wired connections and figure out the best routings.
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John is correct... the wired connections aren't so much a backup in the case of Sonos, but it all depends on the wireless signal strength between your speakers as to how the wired connections will be used in the course of normal use.

For example, I have two devices wired to my network, a Beam in my living room and a Sonos One in my bedroom. A wireless speaker that is in my kitchen will connect through the living room, as it has a stronger signal than its connection to the bedroom, while a speaker in the master bath will connect through the bedroom speaker rather than the living room. But if something were to happen to the Living Room wired connection, everything would then change to connect through the Bedroom speaker.
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I have all my Sonos devices that were easy to connect wired to Ethernet, I also have a wired Boost that I apparently didn't really need. Watching my Network Matrix it is interesting to see which Sonos connects to what other Sonos and to pull an Ethernet connection and watch things rearrange. Yes, I'm easily amused.

Having multiple Boosts is an option, they can be wired and serve as the Sonos version of an Access Point or wireless and serve as a range extender between two or more Sonos devices that are out of each others Sonos WiFi range.

What makes getting an additional/new Boost a difficult question is that you can get almost the same range and connectivity gain from a Sonos speaker. That leaves me looking at a Play 1 as a very interesting alternative as I get another speaker and almost as good a SonosNet WiFi connection. A bigger speaker or Connect would do as well, just not as cheap.
Quick Q: We have 9 Sonos devices and a couple of Sonos Boost (extenders?) in a large house w/ a poor signal environment. Now we want to add a generic mesh network, e.g. Linksys, for our TV and other devices. Any cautions we should observe in order to avoid conflict w/ existing Sonos equipment? Thanks in advance. GR
Quick Q: We have 9 Sonos devices and a couple of Sonos Boost (extenders?) in a large house w/ a poor signal environment. Now we want to add a generic mesh network, e.g. Linksys, for our TV and other devices. Any cautions we should observe in order to avoid conflict w/ existing Sonos equipment? Thanks in advance. GR
No, other than the usual cautions about 2.4GHz channel allocations, i.e. use only 1, 6 or 11, with a 20MHz width, and ideally put WiFi and SonosNet on different channels. Some mesh WiFis evidently don't permit direct control of which channels they use.
Thanks for the quick response Ratty... Since Spectrum bought out Brighhouse, our "whole House" WIFI access has been wonky to say the least, so we thought we'd just go down to Best Buy and get an off the shelf mesh network. Will bone up on this topic here and not be a newbie nuisance.

Apologies to original poster for hijacking thread. Don't know how initiate a post so I jumped into this one.
Thx again.
Don't know how initiate a post so I jumped into this one.The 'Create Topic' button near the top of the page.
Thx.