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Question

Sonos on Meraki wireless

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I’m an IT engineer and have an enterprise class wireless network in my home. I have 3 Meraki access points all broadcasting the same SSID with 2.4 and 5Ghz enabled. Each access point is on a separate channel following WiFi best practice of 1, 6 and 11. I would prefer to run Sonos in wireless mode but that doesn’t work, I get all kinds of sporadic behavior. So I have been forced to run in SonosNet mode and using channel 11 for SonosNet. Which still of course conflicts with my AP on channel 11 but at least it is the farthest away from any Sonos speaker. Has anyone successfully got Sonos working on a Meraki wireless setup with 3 or more AP’s?

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ratty

You should only ever have one Sonos device wired to network, either the Boost or one of the speakers or other devices (Amp, Connect, etc.) That single device will provide internet to the entire system over the SonosNet mesh. Having multiple Sonos devices wired to network WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS!

Kindly don’t confuse the situation with such unfounded generalisations. The OP appears to be well aware of the need for infrastructure equipment to support STP (actively or passively) when wiring multiple Sonos devices.

The general advice is in fact to wire as many Sonos units as is convenient.

G

Glenns_and_Roses

Collaborator II

You should only ever have one Sonos device wired to network, either the Boost or one of the speakers or other devices (Amp, Connect, etc.) That single device will provide internet to the entire system over the SonosNet mesh. Having multiple Sonos devices wired to network WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS!

Kindly don’t confuse the situation with such unfounded generalisations. The OP appears to be well aware of the need for infrastructure equipment to support STP (actively or passively) when wiring multiple Sonos devices.

The general advice is in fact to wire as many Sonos units as is convenient.

There are well documented cases of broadcast storms being caused by having multiple Sonos devices wired simultaneously. Just offering a possible alternative.

jgatie

There are well documented cases of broadcast storms being caused by having multiple Sonos devices wired simultaneously. Just offering a possible alternative.

And a network with correctly configured STP eliminates these storms, no matter how many wired Sonos devices you have.

Ken_Griffiths

If the three Meraki Access points are each operating on the non-overlapping 2.4ghz channels 1, 6 and 11 then it’s apparent SonosNet running on one of those channels 'may' conflict with one of the Access points on the same channel. I would therefore maybe consider wiring those sonos devices that are in close proximity to the one Access point operating on the same channel, assuming it is practicable to do that.

ratty

You should only ever have one Sonos device wired to network, either the Boost or one of the speakers or other devices (Amp, Connect, etc.) That single device will provide internet to the entire system over the SonosNet mesh. Having multiple Sonos devices wired to network WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS!

Kindly don’t confuse the situation with such unfounded generalisations. The OP appears to be well aware of the need for infrastructure equipment to support STP (actively or passively) when wiring multiple Sonos devices.

The general advice is in fact to wire as many Sonos units as is convenient.

There are well documented cases of broadcast storms being caused by having multiple Sonos devices wired simultaneously. Just offering a possible alternative.

Alternative options are fine. Bald, un-nuanced statements of the type bolded above could confuse.

W

willettjAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

So this is what I have found so far. Disabling RSTP on the Meraki switch port apparently disables ALL STP and caused a storm with the two Sonos being wired. This means the only support Meraki has for 802.1D is with how it is inherently compatible with 802.1W (RSTP), I am waiting for Meraki support to confirm this. In the meantime, I turned RSTP back on globally, and for now things are acting as desired. The speakers closest to the wired device #1 are communicating with it, and the others closest to wired device #2 are communicating with it. I have also lowered the power setting on my Meraki AP that is on the same channel as SonosNet and it is already the farthest away from all Sonos devices. I have a new Sonos Beam arriving this week and may decide to wire it also, but will see how things work after it gets here.

C

craigski

Local Superstar

Just a thought, you have 3 APs, do you need 2.4GHz on all 3? Keep the 5GHz radio enabled on all 3, but maybe your home would get coverage with just 2 running 2.4. Use SonosNet on the spare 2.4 channel.

W

willettjAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Just a thought, you have 3 APs, do you need 2.4GHz on all 3? Keep the 5GHz radio enabled on all 3, but maybe your home would get coverage with just 2 running 2.4. Use SonosNet on the spare 2.4 channel.

I can test that but I do have a couple of smart home devices on 2.4 that are closest to the AP with the competing channel, but it’s possible they could work fine on another one.

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

If all the Sonos connect to Ethernet in the same area could you add a switch that works with Sonos and wire them all to it and then the new switch to your Meraki switch?

Just what the Sonos mesh will look like is beyond my skills, in general the mesh tries to configure to provide the best connections between nodes. Some good discussions on this in the past here if you can dig them up.

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