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Speakers disappear when disabling WiFi

  • February 22, 2021
  • 8 replies
  • 192 views
H

Hi,

i use 5 Sonos speakers in SonosNET mode with a boost wired to the Ethernet. Additionally, i wired one of the Play:1 Speakers as well. If i do now chose to disable the radio (in the App) for the wired Play:1, all of my other speakers disappear, and only the boost and the wired play:1 is visible.

In the Network Configuration, the Boost is setup as root bridge. I understand that this device should manage the sonosnet. So disabling the radio of the wired Play:1 should not interfere. Where’s my mistake?

Maybe as a side note: The Play:1 and Boost which are wired are located right next to each other. I my idea was to disable the Play:1 radio to minimize network interferences.

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8 replies

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  • nik9669a
  • Senior Virtuoso
  • February 22, 2021

Whilst SonosNet is not using your wifi network, it is a wireless communication system. Set your wifi to channel 1,6 or 11 and SonosNet to a different one of the three. 

J
  • John B
  • February 22, 2021

Hi. Two things puzzle me:

1 Why do you have a Boost when you could just wire the Play1?

2 I don't understand why your speakers aren't connecting direct to the Boost, as presumably they did before? 

If you power cycle them do they reconnect?

H
  • h1ghrise
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • February 22, 2021

Hi let me clear some things up.

1.) I bought the additional Play:1 after I bought the Boost. I tried to substitute the boost with the Play:1, but wasn’t successful. I followed the regular procedure:

  1. Wiring both devices (Boost and the Play:1)
  2. Disconnecting the Boost

As far as I have read in the documentation, when disconnecting the Boost, the remaining (wired) Play:1 should take over the Sonosnet capability and act as a root bridge. When disconnecting, again, all other speakers were disappearing. After some tries I managed to get Sonosnet up and running with the Play:1 acting as a root bridge. With noticably worse performance than with the Boost (Network Matrix showed as best ANI Level 5). Therefore I decided to put the Boost back in. Performance is “okish” now. (No Dropouts, but not all speakers have a certainly stable connection. Some of them are pending between ANI Level 1-3 (Green) and 4-5 (Yellow). Sometimes, even 6 (Orange).

 

2.) Yeah, this puzzles me too. I powercylced the whole system, but it did not make any difference. If the only Solution is to reset all speakers, and setup from scratch I guess I have to go down that road, but like to avoid it ;)

 

€dit:
Worth mentioning the network setup:

  • UI Dream Machine as only AP
  • Radio transmission strenght set to medium (2,4+5Ghz)
  • Sonosnet Channel 6
  • 2.4Ghz Wifi Channel 10
  • Scan of nearby networks showed mostly saturation of channel 1. Channel 6 (Sonosnet) is not saturated at all (1 competing network @-90dbm), the regular Wifi (on channel 10) as well. 

As well as my Sonos Devices:

Upper Floor

  • Office : Sonos Boost, Play:1, UDM Wifi Router
  • Bedroom: Play:1
  • Bathroom: Play:1

Lower Floor:

  • Livingroom: 2x Ikea Symfonisk
H
  • h1ghrise
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • February 22, 2021

Whilst SonosNet is not using your wifi network, it is a wireless communication system. Set your wifi to channel 1,6 or 11 and SonosNet to a different one of the three. 

Isnt the Play:1 which is wired using the radio for a meshnet for sonosnet? As the Boost is standing right next to it, I would guess that they might interfere each other. Thats why i tought the radio of the wired Play:1 can be disabled.

Stanley_4
  • Stanley_4
  • Lead Maestro
  • February 22, 2021

Channels 6 and 10 conflict, 6 and 11 or 6 and 1 would be better choices.

I have no issues with multiple wired and wireless Sonos speakers and a Boost, I did until I moved them a meter apart.

You might submit a diagnostic and post the number soon after seeing a problem so the Sonos staff can look into it.

H
J
  • John B
  • February 23, 2021

Please don’t reset anything - it never provides a lasting solution and can be counter-productive.

I would try swapping the cables and ports for the Boost and Play:1 just to make sure there isn’t a fault in the Boost’s connection.

And you should re-enable the radio on the Play:1.

ratty
  • ratty
  • February 23, 2021

The elevated ANI levels are quite probably due to the overlap between WiFi and SonosNet. That should definitely be resolved. 

That said, an ANI level of 6 or less is perfectly liveable with. It indicates the WiFi card is doing its job.

H
  • h1ghrise
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • June 26, 2021

Hi,

after some more troubleshooting i found the culprit.

Dropouts and errors with playback were caused by an improperly configured router. I was using a Unify Dream machine with some (more or less completely setup) VLAN/subnets. 

I teared down the complete setup. First i removed all speakers from the sonos application and resetted them. As the Dream Machine’s 2.4Ghz WIFI Radio died conveniently on the the same day, i replaced the router as well.

With the new router (TP Link Archer v2 with Openwrt 21) I setup complete new subnets and firewall zones. Then mDNS and bonjour / apple Discovery was setup.

After limiting the transmit power of the 2.4Ghz Wifi (to minimize distortions on Sonosnet) and selecting a proper channel the speakers were added to the new configuration.

Result have drastically improved. No cutouts, no issues within playback, no disappearing speakers. Even now with speakers located on 2 different floors, the network Matrix shows the worst ANI level with 4.

Lesson learned - read and understand network documentation and configure appropriately.

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