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I’ve been browsing the forums for a bit trying to resolve to drop out issues that seem to afflict one room in our house. Here is our setup:

  • Network - Ubiquiti Unifi.

    The diagram isn’t completely accurate. The wired Sonos devices (boost in the living room, one of the satellites in the basement) are actually wired to the in-wall access points in their respective rooms (each in-wall AP has a 4 port switch built-in). 

  • Living Room - Playbar + Sub + 2x Play:1 satellites. There is a boost connected to ethernet in this room
  • Basement - Playbar + Sub + 2x Sonos One satellites. One of the satellites is connected to ethernet in this room.
  • Bathroom - Single Play:1
  • Everywhere - Move

The Play:1 in the bathroom is reasonably far away from the living room but probably not too far for 2.4GHz so it should be talking to the living room boost.

In a perfect world, I’d get rid of the boost and connect each Playbar to ethernet, but I’d have to run new ethernet drops which is possible but not easy given the room configurations. Basically, everything I’ve read suggests that a wired surround is bad but with little explanation as to why. Dropouts don’t seem better when nothing in the basement is wired. I’ve also run an ethernet cable across the room for testing purposes, so the Playbar is the connected device, but that doesn’t seem to make much of a difference either.

Can someone a) explain why the surround connected to ethernet is a problem and b) let me know if there’s anything obvious about this configuration that I should be looking at? Would add a boost as the wired basement device help? Are there obvious STP issues I should be looking for? I haven’t made any STP path cost adjustments, and I haven’t put all of the Sonos devices on their own VLAN so that might help?

 

*Moderator Note: Please censor personal information when posting pictures.*

Hi @rosscooperman, welcome to the Sonos Community! I understand you want to check your system and I’d be happy to help. First, I’ll request you to submit a diagnostic report so we can check your setup on our end. Reply to us with the confirmation number. 

We and the community are always here to help.

Sorry for the delay @Krishma M, was out of town for a few weeks. Confirmation number is 368739802. Thanks!

Hi @rosscooperman, thanks for your response and for submitting a diagnostic. Satellites like surrounds and Sub are always dependent on its master like your Playbar so if you can’t hardwire all the Sonos home theatre devices to the router using an ethernet cable, just hardwire the Playbar so it can better provide a connection to its surrounds and Sub. Also, having a Sonos Boost is great to possibly help to operate in a room where Sonos is beyond the reach of your WiFi because it will establish a SonosNet, and Sonos products will be able to pass the wireless signal to other Sonos products and their distance between each other shouldn’t be more than 30ft. If you have access points to provide WiFi to each room where Sonos was set up and you do not want the Sonos Boost, you can switch from a wired setup to a wireless configuration by connecting your Sonos products to your WiFi network.

  1. Open the Sonos app for iOS or Android.
  2. From the Settings tab, tap System > Network > Wireless Setup and follow the prompts to enter your WiFi password.
  3. Once the wireless setup is complete, disconnect the Ethernet cable from any Sonos products wired to your router.

Let us know if this helps. We and the community are always here to help.

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