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Sonosnet Comms question

  • 24 November 2023
  • 6 replies
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K

Just one of my five zones needs Sonos wireless comms, the rest are all ethernet wired back to the router, This one zone is an Echo Show wired to the line in of a Connect. The Connect line in is set up to autoplay to a Play 1 pair + Sub. All zones are set up to use Sonos net.

When all zones but the referred one are powered off, the play 1 pair+ Sub will still play music that the Echo sends to the Connect. This must be via an independent WiFi comms set up from the Connect to Play 1 pair + Sub. The question I have is if running an easily run ethernet wire from the Connect to one or both play 1 units will enhance music play stability or hinder it.

To eliminate some occasional stutter I have set the delay to the max of 2000 ms, but I cannot be sure if that is in the wireless stream to the Show, or downstream of it in the Sonos components.

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Best answer by ratty 24 November 2023, 12:18

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6 replies

ratty

Audio kept going because the wireless nodes already had DHCP-assigned IP addresses and were all sitting on a common wireless channel. It would probably have given up at some point as IP lease renewal attempts began and nodes fell off that subnet. Eventually it might have been possible to restart playback, as by that stage the units should all have coalesced into an Auto-IP island.

As for direct cabling try wiring it up and see. Usually if you strap together two unwired SonosNet nodes they’ll use the cable to intercommunicate. The exception is if the two ends have STP root path costs which differ by less than 10. The network matrix will show whether the interconnect cable is in use.

The 2000ms buffer will be in the receiving node of the stream, so in the P:1s.

K

I didn’t write correctly - what I meant was with every Sonos unit turned off at the mains, if power is then applied to just the unwired to anything zone, and the Echo starts playing, the stereo paired play 1 units as well as the bonded Sub that are in this zone also start playing right away, after 2000 milliseconds, and I guess this is the Auto IP island working the way it is designed to work. With all units in a few feet of vicinity of the rest. 

For such play, started in this manner, would the ethernet wiring of the Connect to the Play 1, enhance stability? Note that in this configuration, the matrix cannot be invoked to see what is being used for the comms.

Thinking over what I have written, I suspect that the wire won’t help, because the stuttering is very likely  in the wireless stream to the Echo; and since the Echo is getting an excellent strength 5 GHz signal from the base station across the room, this is happening in the broadband pipe to the home.

But will the easily added wire hinder anything in the Auto island mode music stability, assuming that the problem is not in the pipe to the home?

ratty

For interconnections within the Auto-IP island the wire should be favoured. Try it and see if it makes any difference.

But if the dropouts are external to the SonosNet mesh then indeed adding a wire won’t help.

K

Thank you. From the days of the Sonos Dock, I have felt that the Auto Island scheme is genius. One could take the dock and a Sonos speaker and get music going in places with no WiFi. All that was needed was mains power. I still have the dock with me for good memories of it.

K

A follow up question on network architecture for my first 2024 project - to ethernet wire my fifth and last remaining zone in the interest of stable music play for that zone:

I have a Connect wired back to the main router, via a 8 port switch next to the router for more ports than what the router has, and this set up allows 4 Sonos zones to run just fine with WiFi disabled and also allow the use of wired access points into bedrooms on either side of the central open space where the router sits. I now plan to interpose an unmanaged switch upstream of that Connect, near to it, and wire the Connect to a port on this switch. I will then run new wire from another port on this switch to a Connect Amp on the other side of the open space, and also run a ethernet wire from the Connect Amp to the Sub that is bonded to the Connect Amp.

Once I do this, all my Sonos units will be ethernet wired.

My question is if this is ok and will not cause any loop anywhere that shuts down network traffic. Research says this should work fine, I am just seeking a confirmation from experts here.

 

K

A follow up - if I decide to keep the present 1 pair + Sub that is the fifth unwired zone and terminate the end of the new wire laid to cross the open space at a switch near those three units, and wire them each back to ports on this switch, will that also work fine?

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