Renowned Enthusiast I

Answered

Why does one speaker show WM: 0 and another WM:1 when both are wireless?

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I’ve been troubleshooting some issues with my Sonos set-up after the introduction of a new router from my ISP provider.

I have a Sonos SL One in a detached garage and one in an attached garage. Both run wireless. I do not have them set up as stereo pair. One shows WM: 0 and the other has WM: 1.

I have many other devices connected by Ethernet (amps, Sonos One, etc.) but not these two speakers.

I’m confused why one of these would show WM 1 and the other WM 0. Shouldn’t they be the same?

Both have Wifi enabled if that matters.

Thank you.

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AirgetlamAnswer

I’d counter that with a recommendation that you should never turn off Wi-Fi on any Sonos device, unless you can prove that it’s receiving Wi-Fi interference. Reinforcing the SonosNet mesh network is why, something you definitely want to do.

Bruce

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buzz

Grand Maestro

TheRamblinMan,

I suggest that you turn OFF all but one radio (for a unit on the top) of that pile of AMP’s. This will reduce wireless clutter. With respect to STP, the default for the Ubiquiti switches is either OFF or RSTP. You should make sure that these switches are set to STP.

T

TheRamblinManAuthor

Renowned Enthusiast I

TheRamblinMan,

I suggest that you turn OFF all but one radio (for a unit on the top) of that pile of AMP’s. This will reduce wireless clutter. With respect to STP, the default for the Ubiquiti switches is either OFF or RSTP. You should make sure that these switches are set to STP.

Thanks for the info, Buzz. My Ubiquiti switch was set to RSTP. I changed it STP just now. Also, I just changed the AMPs to have only one wifi on, per your suggestion.

After I changed to STP, but before I changed the wifi, my entire system went down a few minutes ago. It was working fine all day and I was using it. When it showed everything disconnected, music was still playing through one of the speakers. Stayed down for about 12 minutes showing disconnected, then came back. No idea why as I feel like I’ve tweaked all as I should.

I’ve submitted a diagnostic code at this point to see if they can help.

buzz

Grand Maestro

Have you reserved IP addresses?

T

TheRamblinManAuthor

Renowned Enthusiast I

Have you reserved IP addresses?

Yes, long ago, and double-checked them again to make sure all correct.

buzz

Grand Maestro

Which model router?

T

TheRamblinManAuthor

Renowned Enthusiast I

Which model router?

Apologies, I think we’re trading messages on two threads I created at different times with issues. Now, coming together as one topic.

The router came to us straight from the internet provider. Sp-N66 is what it says.

Multiple products wired to the network. Others are wireless. Ubiquity network switch. US-24-250W

This thread discussed which units are on SonosNet (you asked in the other thread about it), and I have no Sonos speakers directly connected to the router. Everything through the switch.

buzz

Grand Maestro

My brain is too small to link multiple threads.

I’ll mention that I’m using a US-16-125W. My network is somewhat more complicated because I have two additional dumb switches, a wireless mesh network, and the ISP’s WiFi on a total of three different SSID’s, a mixture of SonosNet and WiFi (ROAM and MOVE are WiFi), Android, iOS, and Windows desktop controllers. They all get along fine. I don’t attempt to split the SONOS units between SSID’s, but the controllers can be flipped on a whim.

Yesterday, while picking through the Ubiquiti switch configuration, I noticed that I had not enabled IGMP. Enabling IGMP has not changed system stability. I also updated the Ubiquiti firmware. This took forever.

holden caulfield

Lyricist I

I’d counter that with a recommendation that you should never turn off Wi-Fi on any Sonos device, unless you can prove that it’s receiving Wi-Fi interference. Reinforcing the SonosNet mesh network is why, something you definitely want to do.

This is a good general recommendation for SonosNet users.

Bear in mind disabling wifi on all ethernet connected sonos devices (= disabling SonosNet) is also a viable option.

Why not use your wireless Sonos speakers with your WLAN (WM:1) and disable wifi on remaining wired Sonos devices?

In fact I dare say any decent home wireless network system (Orbi, Amplifi...) can work much better now. According to @Sean M sonos can use up to Wi-Fi 6, which uses 5Ghz and can work with way less interference than 2.4GHz, which SonosNet always uses.

If you are having problems with your network or wifi, I would try the other option mentioned in whatever case, which is probably why the support recommended this to @TheRamblinMan

(mind: home theater devices need wifi enabled or you have to wire the entire home theater room.)

Really appreciate all the detail.

One follow-up...I do have a Unify set-up in the house with a managed switch that my IT guru suggested I use. I “wish” on some days he had not set up a managed switch as I’ve had to learn more about this than I wanted. Ha.

I read up a little on the STP stuff before and I don’t think my Unifi switch was set up the best/right way on STP versus the other options, but I held off on touching anything and making changes.

I just read through the link you added. Thank you for that! My system has a lot of wired devices but not all wired. Still trying to digest if that means I should change the STP. I’ll review it more.

Thank you for such a thorough response.

I think you should ask the IT guru who suggested it should set up STP correctly on the switch?

Unifi can work well for sure, but this system is in no means plug and play... It’s for semi-pros (and wannabe pros?) If stp is not set up correctly on the switch, SonosNet in particular can disturb the network. This is another reason why people suggest disabling WiFi on sonos speakers in some cases.

Or get an unmanaged switch with IGMP Snooping/multicast optimization like this.

buzz

Grand Maestro

The SONOS WiFi option is a misnomer. Disabling “WiFi” actually turns OFF the radio and the unit will not work wirelessly — nor will it support other units that might be attempting to use wireless SonosNet.

T

TheRamblinManAuthor

Renowned Enthusiast I

I think you should ask the IT guru who suggested it should set up STP correctly on the switch?

Unifi can work well for sure, but this system is in no means plug and play... It’s for semi-pros (and wannabe pros?) If stp is not set up correctly on the switch, SonosNet in particular can disturb the network. This is another reason why people suggest disabling WiFi on sonos speakers in some cases.

Or get an unmanaged switch with IGMP Snooping/multicast optimization like this.

Appreciate all the details. It will take me some time to digest. I’ve made a few tweaks and I’m trying to see how long it goes. This new router seems to have upset the apple cart so I’m just trying to get back to normal.

To answer one question, the IT guru as I called him appears to be long gone after the house was built. Email bouncing back. When I built this new home a few years ago, he put in this managed switch and frankly I think it’s over the top for my needs. Aside from finding it cool to see all the stuff online, I’m not sure what benefit I’m getting from the managed vs un-managed.

I do have 3 APIs and 6 POE security cameras, but I’m not sure that couldn’t be handled with an unmanaged switch. I’ve been considering going in that direction but it seems like I have things set for 12 months or more, then something happens to wreck it. Well, the only thing that gets wrecked is Sonos. Everything else IT related at my house works like a charm.

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