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I thought I would share this solution in case others have this same problem.   I’ll admit I’m not an IT expert, but from my searching it seems like a lot of people are having problems with Sonos speakers dropping, not being found or not being able to mate as a stereo pair when connecting to networks that support both 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz connections.

The issue with using my five Sonos One speakers with my Nokia BGW320-505 router from my AT&T provider seems to have been that some of the speakers connect to the 2.4Ghz channel while other speakers connect to the 5Ghz channel.   When that happens SOME of the speakers are invisible to the Sonos app and can’t play music, even though they are connected to the wifi.   I would reboot them and maybe get them connected and then they’d disappear a few minutes later or overnight.   Or I’d get them connected but be unable to form a stereo pair. Other times repeated rebooting wouldn’t help.  Very frustrating.

What fixed it was to set up explicit filtering rules in the router configuration to deny the Sonos speakers from being able to access the 5Ghz connection.

In the router settings I set up the Mac Filtering in the menus under "Home Network" -> "MAC Filtering".  There I configured the 5Ghz Frequency to accept a Deny list, and then entering each of the five MAC addresses for the individual speakers into the MAC Filter List, in each case unchecking the box for the 2.4Ghz network and leaving the box for the 5Ghz network checked.    I’ve put a screenshot of the configuration below with the specific addresses covered up with squiggly red boxes (out of an abundance of security caution).

The individual MAC addresses for each speaker can be found in the router settings under "Device" -> "Device List".   I used Control-F in the browser to find the word Sonos in the text on the screen.

AT&T doesn’t make it super easy to figure out how to log into the router settings, but using the instructions on the outside of the router I was able to go into the AT&T app, where under advanced settings I found the IP address for the router shown at the bottom of the screen.   By typing that IP address for the router into my browser as a URL (i.e. http://192…. ) , I was able to bring up the router settings in my browser.


 

It is beyond stupid for a router to block communication between devices on the same subnet, just because they are on a different wifi frequency. This Nokia is not alone in its stupidity, but thank you for the details that may help other who suffer from the same router.


I agree with @controlav and I’m definitely not an IT guru. However, with the little I do know is:

  1. Never use ISP provided equipment if possible..buy your own router and modem 
  2. If forced…only use the modem.
  3. If a combo router/modem place the router side in bridge mode

I have Comcast/Xfinity (much to my chagrin I must say) …but anyway I have their modem combo with the router side in bridge mode. I use my 3 three Asus routers in an AiMesh configuration to handle my wi-fi. I have complete control of my router settings with no need to search for the Admin IP covertly :relaxed:  Sonos uses the SonosNet created by a Boost module. 

 


CORRECTION folks:  The above solution worked fine until a power outage rebooted everything. Now my controllers can’t find my Sonos speakers at all.     It’s OK for a moderator to delete this thread or something as it’s not really a correct solution.


@RockDr  

Sorry to hear about the unfortunate mishap. Try wiring a speaker to your router or a Sonos Boost module to create the SonosNet. If you do the above…unplug all Sonos, reboot your router and reboot your device and then setup the SonosNet.