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Sporadic dropouts - Matrix - Wired Devices showing as Tertiary

  • 19 August 2018
  • 8 replies
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User884294
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
Hi all,

Been delving into the 'Matrix' to find a cause for the sporadic dropouts we sometimes have here.

Circa 19 devices in the matrix and each showing as tertiary (everything shows as tertiary) which I believe means wireless when we have 4 devices wired (including a boost)

Devices include a mix of ZP120, ZP100, Play 1, SONOS One, Play 3, Play 5 Gen 2

There's no 'Root' device showing in the matrix, I assume there should be?

I've just tried to change the zone wired into my router/modem to 'Root' via advconfig.htm followed by a reboot. In fact tried several times with no joy.

Is the lack of a root my issue?

House renovations are currently on hold, which is a shame as I was going to run cabling around the house. It would be good to limit the dropouts until then though.

Apols for the quality of pic



Thanks
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Best answer by ratty 19 August 2018, 08:15

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8 replies

ratty
You can't not have a root bridge. It'll be a device in the core of the network somewhere.

In /support/review click to open one of the rooms, then open /usr/sbin/brctl showstp br0. The designated root is listed in the format pppp.mmmmmmmmmmmm where pppp is the bridge priority and the rest is the MAC address. Paste the MAC in here to identify the vendor.

As for 'Tertiary' that simply means the node is not connected directly to the root, else it would be 'Secondary'. The label applies to both wired and wireless nodes.

Your matrix looks pretty good. Any dropouts are due to intermittent packet loss, possibly caused by wireless interference. Also check for a bad cable connection. If you have a Bridge, its power supply could be dying.
Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
At the far right of your matrix I notice that you have three devices connected to "Undefined" in the top column. Not sure what that is indicating.

I'd power everything down, including your router. Power up the router, then power up the wired Boost and then about a minute apart the other wired devices. Then power up the wireless ones, again about a minute apart.

That is going to be an aggravation so you might want to consider another step first, that will likely reduce the odds of having to power-cycle things a second time and appears to reduce oddness during an update cycle. In your router assign a static/reserved IP address too each Sonos device from the DHCP page. You can also assign each device a name in many routers.

Make a note that you can't access the Sonos devices by name, only IP so the names are purely for appearance and ease of identifying them.

You will also want to go into the settings and make sure you do not have any WiFi access credentials (SSID and password) entered into the Sonos system to prevent ending up in mixed mode. If you don't see a reset option in the Settings, Advanced Settings, Wireless Setup, Continue pop-up box they are not saved and you are good.
ratty
At the far right of your matrix I notice that you have three devices connected to "Undefined" in the top column. Not sure what that is indicating.
'Living Room TV' surrounds/Sub, connected to the 5GHz radio.
User884294
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
Thanks for the replies. Found out the MAC address was one of our SKY Q boxes.

After powering off another SKY Q box assumed the root. Powered this off then our 'Office' SONOS became root. Which is what I wanted.

The Office SONOS is wired to our router/modem. This is where our internet connection comes into the house along with where our homeserver with music collection connects. I'm assuming this is a good option rather than a hop away through a switch.

Going to run with this and see how we go. Then when we hit our electrical renovation work will make notes on powering up devices etc to ensure it (hopefully) runs smoothly.

In saying that I love my SONOS and thanks again for the community help 🙂
ratty
If a Sky box is root it doesn't matter. The topology within the Sonos system is unlikely to be affected either way.

If you're obsessed about things you may be able to force the Office Sonos to be root, depending on the bridge priority of the Sky box. With the Sky box online, look at the pppp element noted in the earlier post. If it's greater than "7000" then you can make a Sonos unit root. To do so, go to http://x.x.x.x:1400/advconfig (x.x.x.x being the Office IP), change Priority to 'Enabled' and hit 'Submit'. Then powercycle the Office unit.
User884294
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
Thanks ratty. Just switched the SKY box back on and its become root again.

I did try to put the Office SONOS back as root (like it was whilst SKY was off) but this did not work. In saying that it seems from your post that I needn't be worried (I was originally thinking that this was the cause of the sporadic dropouts)

running /usr/sbin/brctl showstp br0
br0
bridge id 8100.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
designated root 7f00.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
root port 1 path cost 10
max age 20.00 bridge max age 6.00
hello time 1.00 bridge hello time 1.00
forward delay 2.00 bridge forward delay 4.00
ageing time 60.00 gc interval 0.00
hello timer 0.00 tcn timer 0.00
topology change timer 0.00 gc timer 2.00
flags
ratty
As I say, the dropouts are possibly due to interference -- for which you'd need to submit a diagnostic so Sonos can advise. Or a bad Ethernet connection -- run ping tests to check this.
User884294
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
Will do, thanks again.
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