Feature Request - urgent

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Dear all

I ask you to urgently REPAIR the SONOS app to the following topic:

I move daily between three places. Everywhere SONOS is in place.

The sites are connected with VPN.

The SONOS app is always showing the last connected system.

So I have three times a day “Ignore actual system”, closing the app and connecting to existing system.

Very annoying.

I had the same installation before when using the old app (S1). And it worked.

Why not showing the system in the actual network instead of one far away?

Please!

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16 replies

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @Brendianer 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

We don’t support the use of VPNs - if you weren’t linking the 3 locations, I’m sure you wouldn’t have this issue as the app is capable of switching between systems without problems

It seems, however, that your VPN is allowing the app in one location to communicate with Sonos in an other location. This is the point of VPNs, so I’m not sure why you are surprised, nor why it worked differently before.

Perhaps you can configure your router to not include Sonos devices in the VPNs?

It could also conceivably help to reboot your phone, if it hasn’t been done in a while.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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Thanks Corry!
But I do not agree. The VPN connection already existed under S1. At that time the local installation was always displayed.
Why can't you just view the local installation instead of the more distant one?

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Brendianer 

Given that the point of a VPN is to combine 2 (or more) networks such that they are now the same network, how are we to tell which system is local and which is not?

There is no reason why things would be different on S1. I think you might be confusing correlation with causation. Perhaps something was changed in your network around a similar time as you went to S2?

It does, however, come down to this - we do not support the use of VPNs.

Hopefully, someone in the community may have some ideas.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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Believe me: I am now running 6 installations, some of them quite large, which worked without any problems with the same network installation under S1.Why can't the app find the local installation based on the local IP address?

Is there maybe a port to be blocked that SONOS does not recognize the farer system?

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

If you’re on a VPN, there is no “local” distinction.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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I'm not a software engineer: but can't you take the IP of the device (e.g. mobile phone) as a basis and then display the SONOS installation that has the same IP range?I would do it like that...
Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Brendianer 

Yes - that’s exactly what we already do. Sonos does not work across different subnets, so yes, this should work (though it wouldn’t suddenly make it a setup that we support).

However, all the Sonos units on all three of your systems are configured to be on the same subnet. You’ll need to reconfigure your VPN to put the devices on different subnets, which may interfere with the actual reasons you have the VPN set up in the first place.

I recommend you remove Sonos equipment and your controller device from the VPN - this would keep things separate, and there’s no reason for them to be on the VPN anyway - they certainly don’t benefit from being on it.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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Can you maybe help/assist?

As an sample I have one net with

10.100.5.x
255.255.255.0

and one with

10.100.6.x
255.255.255.0

Connected via VPN.

How do I modify that?

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Brendianer 

My mistake - all your units are 10.100.x.x, but the larger Sonos system has different subnets just on that one system (I assume if you could connect to it, you’d have missing rooms). I would certainly look to fix this first - if your phone, in location A, gets an IP with a subnet matching the system in location B, then all you’ll see in the app is system B. If you configure your networks so that all clients in one location get the same subnet and if that subnet is unique to that location, that should help.

As Sonos don’t support VPNs, we (the technical support staff) don’t get training in their use, or in how Sonos would operate on them, so I cannot help. I recommend getting professional network configuration assistance.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
ratty

The mobile’s subnet mask is possibly set to 255.255.0.0, hence the remote Sonos system would be visible.

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Maybe someone in the forum can help me what to do?

I have five SONOS installations which have actually the follwing IP ranges:

A

10.100.5.x
255.255.255.0

B

10.100.6.x
255.255.255.0

C

10.100.8.x
255.255.255.0

D

10.100.9.x
255.255.255.0

E

10.100.12.x
255.255.255.0

All these networks are connected via VPN.

How do I have to change the network (IP range and/or Subnet mask) that SONOS does not see /show the installations that are not local.

I would very much appreciate help.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @Brendianer 

You have 5 locations? You said 3 at first.

Well, the first thing you need to do is split the large household that’s bridging more than one location - presumably, that’s why that system has 2 subnets. You’ll need to factory reset units in two locations and set them up as new systems, in isolation from the others (don’t set up if you can connect to another system).

You won’t need to do anything to the systems on subnets 8 and 9 (assuming they don’t bridge multiple locations, but 9 looks much bigger than 8, so maybe it does), but 5 and 12 are on the same household so either 5 or 12 needs to be reset and set up again. I don’t see any units currently on subnet 6 - they might have a mix of 5 and 12 or be half of 9? I don’t see any variation of public IPs across any one subnet, so it’s hard to say.

As @ratty mentioned, if the subnet mask on your phone is 255.255.0.0 instead of 255.255.255.0, the app could communicate with any of the systems, but will only do so with the first one it finds. You need to make sure that the controller device always has the same subnet as the speakers you expect it to be able to control while in that location, and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.

With all this set, I don’t think it will matter to your Sonos system that you’re on a VPN.

I hope this is of help.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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...but 5 and 12 are not in the same household.

5 is in Switzerland and 12 in South Africa.

I am still confused but on a higher level.

 

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

@Brendianer 

Did you start one system by taking a speaker from the other? If you did that without first resetting it, that would explain why the two systems see themselves as one (the moved speaker “carried” the household ID to the new location, and it was then expanded to include new units). Either that or the VPN connected them during setup and they’ve since had their subnets changed to be different.

To tell the truth, it’s not (currently) vital that you separate these, though it would certainly make it easier for our technical support team to help you in the future (with non-VPN related issues). It would affect smart-home integration however, as a voice assistant wouldn’t know whether to send instructions to Switzerland or to South Africa (or the other locations). I do, however, recommend that you make the split due to changes coming that I can’t discuss.

A VPN is for joining networks, and what you’re asking is for Sonos, now that it’s on a VPN, to behave as if it’s not. I think the most important factor for the results you’re after would be to ensure the subnet mask on your phone only allows communication with the current subnet, and that it has the correct subnet for it’s current location. If you can’t do this due to desired, non-Sonos-related functionality, it may be better to control Sonos from another device that doesn’t need to communicate with the other VPN locations.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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Thanks Corry!

To sort this out: is it sufficient to reset one system?

Do you at SONOS my systems with IDs so that you can tell me in detail what I have to do?

Then I would prefer to do it on PM.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

@Brendianer 

To sort this out: is it sufficient to reset one system?

That depends on what’s going on with subnet 6 - I see no evidence of it being used by any of your systems/units.

Do you at SONOS my systems with IDs so that you can tell me in detail what I have to do?

Then I would prefer to do it on PM.

I can send you lists of serials, separated by how they’re organised by households, by PM.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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