Hi @IanDeitch, thanks for sharing this with the Sonos Community!

Sounds like the Orbi mesh was seeing that there was a “shorter" path to the main router by utilising the single wireless hop between your two Boosts, rather than the two wireless hops from Sat 2 → Sat 1 → Orbi.

While this is technically a shorter route, as you’ve noticed it places a bottleneck on your speed, as all communication would be going through the 2.4GHz SonosNet rather than what is probably a 5GHz backhaul between the Orbi satellites.

We generally recommend against wiring Sonos devices to mesh satellites (especially wireless satellites), as it can sometimes lead to issues such as this. In any case, glad to hear you go to the bottom of it, and once again thank you for sharing :)

Thanks Xander.

Well, the only Sonos device still wired to Sat 2 is the second Boost. But without that second Boost I was getting constant dropout on my left Sonos One in the office. The second Boost alone doesn’t seem to be “confusing” the Orbi. But to work the Boost has to be wired in, correct?

Also, may I politely suggest that you guys tell consumers outright that you don’t recommend wiring speakers (or is it all devices?) into mesh systems. The amount of Internet digging I had to do to figure this all out on my own was kind of insane, especially since I raised this as an issue with more than one Sonos tech and they didn’t mention it to me or even think to ask if I had a mesh system. As more and more families work and take classes from home (there’s four in our house) mesh systems are becoming more necessary and ubiquitous. 

Thanks for responding.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/126

In WiFi mesh networks, Sonos products must be wired to the primary mesh node if using a wired setup.

Meshed WiFis typically use a variant of the Spanning Tree Protocol to resolve their topology and prevent loops. SonosNet has done the same since 2005. Wiring multiple Sonos devices to different WiFi mesh nodes can therefore lead to conflicts.

Thanks for pointing me to this. Good to see that this info is at least footnoted and explained somewhere. But part of my confusion came from a conversation I had with a Sonos tech support person when I asked about adding a second Boost to my system since the stereo-paired One speakers in my rear office kept cutting out. I asked about wiring the speakers into the Orbi satellite, as well as the Boost, (thinking that would give me the best data stream) and was told that was no problem. There was no mention made of the recommendations you cited. So I think Sonos techs should be advised to actually ask (if they’re not already) what type of router system a customer is using and make this info more prominent for laymen like myself.

Okay, well, perhaps the Sonos tech support person you spoke to wasn’t entirely up to speed.

Since you already have a wired Boost in the living room and the rear office has a SonosNet coverage problem what you could do is find a location roughly half way between the living room and the office and plug the second Boost in there. It would only require power, not a network connection. If the office players are struggling the second Boost should act as a SonosNet wireless relay.

Given that you have a ‘wired’ (SonosNet) setup I’d recommend that you keep the Orbi mesh and the SonosNet mesh separate.

Alas Ratty, it was a magical two days of wired data and no audio dropouts in my office. And then, my second Sonos Boost (which was wired into the satellite) caused the Orbi satellites to go back into star configuration. I removed the 2nd Boost, rebooted Sat 2 and SNAP, back to a daisy chain config for the satellites and full data speed. I’ve taken your advice and set up the second Boost wirelessly between the rear office and the living room. Thanks so much for the advice!

‘If you need to extend your home WiFi to use Sonos in a wireless setup, we recommend using a WiFi mesh router to do so.”   Per the footnote of the article you quote

What is the wireless recommendation then when it comes to wireless satellites?   My Sonos system connectivity is as flaky as it can possibly be, with the satellite now in the same room as the 4 Sonos speakers (Den).    I can’t be expected to reboot my devices, reboot my router,  then after a failed connection factory reset my devices,  add them back in the system,  pair them back to stereo pairs, add back in paid subscriptions every time I want to use these $1500 speakers.   
 

Sonos have a network connectivity issue and are passing it off as everyone else’s network issue.   None of my other wireless devices have anywhere close to these issues and I never have to reboot my router to connect them, let alone factory reset them. 

So glad to see this as I am having a similar problem with my new Orbi RBR850 system (and no luck with Netgear support). Strangely, I don’t have the issue with my old RBR40 system, which is why I’m now running the two systems in tandem. When I run other LAN connected devices (TV, laptop) through the 850 system, there is no problem. But when I run my Sonos wired devices connected to the 850 satellites, the system will periodically revert to an Ethernet backhaul, which greatly slows the speeds as it is pushing the mesh traffic through the Sonos system (I presume). I know that connecting Sonos speakers to Orbi Satellites is not recommended, but I have a large system and need more than the one wired connection to maintain system stability (and have no actual wires running in the house). Strangely, this problem does not impact my Sonos performance as near as I can tell, but it definitely makes other devices connected to Orbi run MUCH slower until I unplug Sonos from satellite LAN ports and reconnect to the Orbi router. I believe this is a firmware issue because the problem just doesn’t happen with the RBR40 set up the same way. Any tips? Thanks all.

You could disable the radio on the Sonos unit wired to the Orbi satellite, but that would of course mean it couldn’t itself support wireless nodes.

As noted in an earlier post of mine the STP variant used by the WiFi mesh can be incompatible with the STP used by SonosNet. ‘Firmware issue’ implies it’s a bug; it’s because of the way the two meshes have been designed. 

Thanks. I could also reset the 4 speakers I have wired to the satellites to wireless only as I should have plenty of wireless throughput with the 850 system. Other things my 850 doesn’t “mesh” with include my outdoor Orbi and my Fios media server. I’ve seen some talk on the Orbi forums that they are planning to address those, was hoping that they could do the same for Sonos.

Not sure what you mean by this. If you’re suggesting unwiring them all then, assuming there’s a wired Sonos component somewhere, the system should run on SonosNet independent of the Orbis. If you mean you’d unwire every Sonos node then it would have to run in WiFi (‘wireless’) mode. 

I’m not entirely sure how the system is set up as it has evolved over time as I added speakers. I have a single boost wired directly to the cable modem. But I also have my primary WiFi network (new Orbi) connected to the system. I have an amp, a sound bar, a connect and another speaker attached to the Orbi LAN (old Orbi for the moment) in the rooms where the three satellites are. 

Wired to the cable modem? I trust not. The Boost would be exposed to the internet. Hopefully it’s a modem/router.

As far as I can make out you have two Orbi meshes? You’d better describe how everything is configured: whether either/both Orbi meshes are in bridge mode, where the Sonos devices are wired, etc.

Fios modem/router - wireless off - connected to: Sonos Boost, Orbi RBR40, Orbi RBR850

Orbi RBR40 (AP Mode) - 4 satellites, LAN connected Sonos devices (4) mentioned previously

Orbi RBR850 (AP Mode) - 3 satellites, LAN connected other devices NO Sonos.

I haven’t taken down the RBR40 yet because of Sonos issue and non-compatibility with RBS50Y.

I presume given that this system has evolved over time you have both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz variant speakers.   Personally I would switch them all to wireless and utilize the boost fully.   Ensure that you are running your wireless network on channels 1,6 or 11 so as to not interfere with SonosNet.   
 

I should add that Sonos support have been quite helpful to my issue.   Ill be receiving a boost shortly that should fix my issue,  otherwise ill be back on the phone.

Does the Sonos system not work if the Ethernet-connected devices are unwired from their neighbouring Orbi satellites, leaving just the Boost wired? I’m unsure which band the Orbis would use for wireless backhaul, but if it’s 5GHz the SonosNet range to the same location could be better.

If SonosNet struggles, check for clashes in the 2.4GHz band with the channels used by the various Orbis. Separate them from SonosNet by at least 5 channels, and use only 20MHz width.

You can if you wish screenshot the network matrix at http://x.x.x.x:1400/support/review and post it. x.x.x.x is the IP of a player, not the Boost.

As suggested, I unplugged all the Sonos devices from the Orbi satellites but left the Boost plugged in to the Fios router. It took a few extra seconds for the Sonos network to reorganize itself when I put it in Everywhere mode, but thereafter all speakers were available and seemed responsive. Think I’ll avoid the Orbi/wired hassle and just leave it this way (). Thanks all.