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pwt
pwt
Virtuoso
June 7, 2017
Answered

What happens if I string an Ethernet cable between my stereo-paired PLAY:1s?

I have a pair of PLAY:1s in a stereo pair. Both connect to SonosNet via a BOOST. What happens if I directly connect the two speakers with an Ethernet cable? Will one of the speakers receive its communication over the wire, while the other talks to the BOOST wirelessly?

Just curious, not trying to solve any problem I'm experiencing.
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    ratty
    rattyAnswer
    June 9, 2017
    In many circumstances the wire between the pair will be used, with the player nearer to the BOOST making the wireless connection on behalf of both of them. For a simple pair (no grouping) this actually reduces wireless bandwidth demand by a factor of 3. Without the wire the stream would have to go BOOST->Left then Left->BOOST->Right.

    I say 'in many circumstances' because there is a situation where the wire is ignored. This is where the STP root path costs for the two units in the pair differ by less than 10. The simplest way to check whether the wire is in use is to look at the Network Matrix at http://x.x.x.x:1400/support/review.

    (The wire can be forced into use, in all cases, by disabling the radio on one of the pair. However this is an unsupported configuration.)

    Note that in 'Standard Setup' the wire is useless as the Ethernet ports are disabled.
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    28 replies

    Skelton
    Prodigy I
    June 9, 2017
    I don't know the answer. If I had to guess, I wouldn't expect it to work that way.

    I have a question for you though. Does this thought experiment have a practical application? It seems like pretty well every situation in which one can reach wireless and the second via a wired cable; the second is still going to be in range.

    Your curiosity made me curious. 😃
    pwt
    pwtAuthor
    Virtuoso
    June 9, 2017
    This is pretty much 100% curiosity, but a half-baked motivation is that if one of the speakers was communicating with the other over wired, that would be one fewer speaker soaking up WiFi bandwidth. I'll try it at some point. It will be interesting to see what the SonosNet mesh protocol makes of this configuration.
    4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300
    ratty
    rattyAnswer
    June 9, 2017
    In many circumstances the wire between the pair will be used, with the player nearer to the BOOST making the wireless connection on behalf of both of them. For a simple pair (no grouping) this actually reduces wireless bandwidth demand by a factor of 3. Without the wire the stream would have to go BOOST->Left then Left->BOOST->Right.

    I say 'in many circumstances' because there is a situation where the wire is ignored. This is where the STP root path costs for the two units in the pair differ by less than 10. The simplest way to check whether the wire is in use is to look at the Network Matrix at http://x.x.x.x:1400/support/review.

    (The wire can be forced into use, in all cases, by disabling the radio on one of the pair. However this is an unsupported configuration.)

    Note that in 'Standard Setup' the wire is useless as the Ethernet ports are disabled.
    pwt
    pwtAuthor
    Virtuoso
    June 9, 2017
    That's very informative, @ratty -- thanks. I'll try it and see if the matrix adjusts.
    Sonos is such fun.
    4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300
    ratty
    ratty
    June 9, 2017
    The advice to run an Ethernet cable between a stereo pair has been offered over the years to users having trouble with dropouts from one channel, often from the right one. It can be a useful remedy, particularly where one or other speaker is used for a Line-In connection.
    Kumar
    June 10, 2017
    I ran one between my pair for some time and one speaker always used it; but things work just as well without it, and one wire less aids the aesthetic, so it's gone.
    pwt
    pwtAuthor
    Virtuoso
    June 17, 2017
    I've now tried this, and can report that one of the PLAY:1s switches to being a tertiary node, indicating it's now communicating with the other over the wired connection. Nice.

    I'm going to leave it this way, because the short cable run is easy and discreet. Thanks again for the responses!
    4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300
    ratty
    ratty
    June 17, 2017
    Tertiary doesn't signify a wired connection per se. It merely means that the node isn't talking directly to the root bridge.
    pwt
    pwtAuthor
    Virtuoso
    June 17, 2017
    Understood, but given it changed from Secondary to Tertiary after the introduction of the wire, that's the only plausible explanation, isn't it?

    (I have one other Tertiary speaker, but that's connected over wireless, so I do understand that it doesn't just equate to 'wired'.)
    4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300
    ratty
    ratty
    June 17, 2017
    Indeed. It's the most likely reason.

    Go to http://x.x.x.x:1400/status/showstp on the device and look at the root port number. Then check which port has that number in brackets. It'll probably be the ethernet port, e.g.
    code:
    root port		   1	
    ...
    eth0 (1) ...
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