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System - 1 Amp connected to a pair of Emotiva ERT 8.3’s, 2 Ports, one connected to a Denon 4311ci (13.2) via Coax and the second connected via coax to a Musical Fidelity V90-DAC, connected via Analog RCA to a HK3490.

I was an early adopter of the Amp and Port when they launched, and despite some issues with my Unifi AP’s, I had them working prior to the update by wiring one to Ethernet and leaving the rest connected via Wifi.

Like everyone else, the big updated forced me to reset all the devices and re-create my network and this is when I noticed that no matter what I did, I can’t get my AMP to play music.  It shows on the app that it’s playing, but no sound...however it will control the rest of the group playing music on the Ports from the touch controls just fine.

Apparently, one of the recent firmware updates killed the wired ethernet ports on the back of BOTH ports, they don’t even light up on the back anymore (neither ethernet port lights NOR the setup button light on the back - but obviously the button works because I was able to reconnect the devices).

How long ago this happened I don’t know, but I swapped the Port that has always been wired with the Port that never has been and neither unit has ethernet or lights on the back and the switch doesn’t see it (no lights on the switch when it’s plugged into either port on either Port).

No surges or lightning strikes or anything crazy and the ports both work wifi only with no issues, the AMP is the issue.  

Yes, I’ve tried multiple cat6a cables and confirmed the ethernet port on the switch works with other devices. It’s 100% a Sonos hardware issue.

So, my Sonos devices are out of warranty (the cost of being an early adopter), but IMO clearly something happened that nuked or deactivated the ethernet ports on the back.

The app doesn’t have a way to activate wired ethernet, it’s greyed out and says “must have a wired connection to turn off wifi”.

Am I stuck just buying new Ports that have ethernet ports that work with current firmware?

Wiring the AMP is a non-starter because of location and WAF, I’m not paying $600 for a new ethernet drop in the wall on the far side of the house for a bandaid to “fix” the problem caused by two faulty Ports.

I’d submit a diagnostic and call Support.

So here’s a new twist…

It’s connected now, ethernet ports are working.  

How? 
 

Not one...not two, but THREE cat7 cables that didn’t function correctly.

Via troubleshooting we connected it to a cat8 cable at the router and suddenly it was working. 

Tested the two cables I had swapped between before and neither worked, grabbed a third and that didn’t work, but the 4th was cat6a and it worked flawlessly.

Now, all 3 of the cat7 cables worked fine between my laptop and the switch, because computers aren’t dumb and have stuff baked in to account for bad wiring or off-kilter twists.

Neither Sonos nor my Nvidia shield would work on those 3 cables, but the cat8 and cat6a both performed as intended.

Two lessons

1) just because a cable works on a pc to a switch or between a switch and router or switch to switch doesn’t mean it will work to iot devices.

2) avoid Monoprice cat7 cables…and maybe all cat7 period as apparently it’s not an official standard accepted by the manufacturers or engineers.  5/5e/6/6a/8 are all “real”.

and now I’m skeptical of their 6a and cat8 cables as well.  Time to find another supplier and replace some of these other cat7 cables I have in my setup.

This particular incident just got very expensive for me 😬😔

 

I’ve always stuck with CAT-5 cables for my Sonos devices. No point in spending extra money on cables when the Ethernet port on the device doesn’t use it, and the ‘speed’ isn’t applicable to the transmission of the data. 

 Bad news about Monoprice, they shipped me a batch of bad Ethernet cables a couple years back. Didn't honor the guarantee so I ended up putting new ends on them  the wire was top quality so it was just connectors and time for me.

Still buy their stuff occasionally, but through Amazon so making returns is not an issue.

I’ve always stuck with CAT-5 cables for my Sonos devices. No point in spending extra money on cables when the Ethernet port on the device doesn’t use it, and the ‘speed’ isn’t applicable to the transmission of the data. 

I try to stay current because I’m in the camp of “go big or go home” and I never know what tech advancements I’ll want to use later, or what devices I’ll move around.

In this case, I jumped the gun and didn’t realize cat7 wasn’t a real thing.

 Bad news about Monoprice, they shipped me a batch of bad Ethernet cables a couple years back. Didn't honor the guarantee so I ended up putting new ends on them  the wire was top quality so it was just connectors and time for me.

Still buy their stuff occasionally, but through Amazon so making returns is not an issue.

Early on I used their stuff exclusively with no issues, but apparently quality has gone by the wayside as they grew.  
I’ve switched to Cable Matters on amazon, but they don’t have 24awg cat8 patch so for my trunks so I went elsewhere.

For a spec that pretty specifically calls out 24, very few offer it currently (I’ve seen 26awg all the way down to 32! Zero chance that carries poe and data more than a few feet!)

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