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Hello,

I have a network setup, where I have a Zyxel modem connected to the ISP, with 2 WiFi APs connected in LAN ports, and an ethernet switch connected to a LAN port directly in the modem as well. The ethernet switch connects the rest of the wired devices in the house.

 

When I wire my Sonos Beam, it creates the SonosNet mesh and the rest of the speakers connects to this, everything looks fine. After the Sonos has been connected and everything is set up, random disconnects starts happening on my network. Every device connected through the switch loses connectivity to the modem. The devices connected through the switch still has connectivity between them, but the modem seems to have dropped off the network. The WiFi APs are still online with connection to the internet though, so I know the modem is still online. And the switch is working since the devices connected can still ping other devices on the IP they had before the modem dropped.

 

When I remove the ethernet cable from the Sonos Beam, the network drops stops happening.

 

Without the SonosNet, I’m having problems pairing devices when they are not connected to the same AP. If I’m in one end of the house, I will see the Sonos devices nearest me. When I walk the the other end they drop out and the others appear. Pairing between them is almost impossible. This problem disappears when using SonosNet, but then the network disconnects happens.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Is the switch a managed switch? Does it have STP enabled?

It’s an unmanaged switch. I don’t know about STP. I’ll try and see if I can figure it out from the model.

Is the Beam the only wired device? 

More details of the switch and APs would be useful.

The switch is a TP-LINK TLSG108 (https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/8-port-switch/tl-sg108/). I can’t find anything about STP in specification or datasheet, so I’m guessing it doesn’t have it.

 

The APs are an old Apple Time Capsule and an (also old) AirPort Express. They are both wired directly to the modem. Which is a Zyxel VMG8825-T50. The modem is running DHCP and the Time Capsule is in bridge mode.

The Airport Express will obviously also need to be in bridge/AP mode.

Is the Beam the only wired Sonos device?

Yes, it’s also in bridge mode. Forgot that it’s a router in it’s own right and not just an extender.

 

Yes, the Beam is the only wired Sonos device.

It sounds like it’s the Zyxel router that’s intermittently disabling the LAN port connected to the switch. Maybe its objecting to the STP traffic it’s seeing from the Beam. 

Okay. I’m new to STP, so I don’t really know what it is. Would I be able to see something like what you describe in the Zyxel logs? Is there anything I can do to make object?

If the Zyxel is blocking the port it ought to leave a trace in the logs. 

Alright. I’ll try and enable the logs and see if anything pops out. I’ve looked before but didn’t know what to look for.

STP stands for Spanning Tree Protocol.  It is the process by which a router determines the routes that data takes around a mesh network.  When there are wired and wireless alternatives, data loops can develop and quickly crash the the network. If STP is operating correctly then such loops are prevented.

Normally with Sonos this only occurs if:

(a) STP isn’t handled properly on the local network, AND

(b) More than one Sonos device is wired (hence one of @ratty’s questions)

You describe the Zyxel as a modem, but it looks like it has router capabilities as well.  You refer to it handling DHCP so it must be a modem/router.  It is interesting that only the devices wired to the switch crash.  Can you confirm that is the case?  I assume that is what lies behind @ratty’s hypothesis that “It sounds like it’s the Zyxel router that’s intermittently disabling the LAN port connected to the switch”.

What happens if you connect the Beam directly to the Zyxel?  (I suspect no difference, but might as well try)

What happens if you power off the APs? (ditto)

From the OP it appears that when things go wrong the connection from the switch to the router fails. Devices can still connect across the switch, and APs on different router ports continue to work.

There are devices which can react adversely to STP BPDUs (e.g. Cisco’s PortFast option). I’ve no idea whether or why a Zyxel router would do something similar but it seemed faintly plausible.

What is the model of the Zyxel router (modem)? If its a wireless model, maybe supports mesh network, and therefore STP?

It’s evidently a Zyxel VMG8825-T50.

Sorry, missed that, its here:

https://service-provider.zyxel.com/emea/en/products/dsl-cpe/vdsl/residential-iads/vmg8825-t50k

Says ‘Easy Mesh Standards’, so I’m pretty sure STP will be enabled.

 

 

Even with STP enabled a single connection to a Sonos system shouldn’t cause problems. Unless that is the router is unhappy seeing unexpected non-Zyxel STP traffic on a LAN port.

@John B, correct it is a router/modem. And yes, it’s only the devices connected to the switch that looses connectivity to the modem/router. The APs are still working correctly and WiFi devices are still connected to the internet. The devices connected to the switch are typically offline for about 3-5 minutes before coming coming back online.

 

I have yet to try connecting the Beam directly to the Zyxel, as that experiment is difficult to do in my house layout. I will try and do some experiments this weekend. Both to see if I can spot anything in the logs and try and connect the Beam directly to the Zyxel. I will also try and power off the APs and instead use the built-in WiFi of the Zyxel. Maybe that’ll do something.

 

I have not found any settings in the Zyxel that looks like it will fix this, so I’m not sure how to fix it in a setup where the Beam is not placed in a random room close to the Zyxel (as it’s placement requires it to be connected through the switch).

The answer may be to put the Zyxel into modem only mode and get another router, but I'm not suggesting that you have reached that point yet.

Hi @miklen 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Please submit a support diagnostic and reply here with the number given and I’ll see what I can see. Thanks.

@Corry P so I actually thought that the issue had been resolved by some update I hadn’t noticed, because I haven’t experienced the issue since I plugged the ethernet cable into the Beam again.

But then out of the blue, it just happened again - so I hit the diagnostics like you asked and the ticket number is: 666999790

 

Thanks.

Hi @miklen 

I can see a little of what I was expecting to see - multicast flooding on the Beam’s ethernet connection - but not as much as I was expecting to see, given your report of the issue. The flooding is spaced exactly 10 minutes apart, but I cannot tell where they are coming from - only that the packets are arriving at the Beam and are not intended for Sonos.

I also see a somewhat high transmission failure from the Beam to Badeværelse, so if limited bandwidth was taken up by re-transmission of these packets, that could explain the issue, but only if the switch were 100Mbit max instead of 1Gbit. If this issue reoccurs, you could try switching off Badeværelse - if that immediately clears the issue, then the answer will be to reduce interference near that unit (which you should try to do anyway, but switching it off is a handy test to confirm the issue before resolving it).

I hope this helps.

@Corry P thanks for the info. I haven’t had any fallouts since the one I reported. I later found out that my ISP had issues that night as well, so that may somehow be a factor as well (though the WiFi was still working as usual). I haven’t had any other fallouts since. If it happens again I’ll try disconnecting the speaker you mentioned and see if that helps.

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