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Naveed.Ahmad
Contributor I
January 27, 2021

Asus ZenWiFi AX rotuer QoS feature doesn't work with Sonos

  • January 27, 2021
  • 34 replies
  • 15125 views

If you have one of those Asus routers which support Quality of Service (QoS) feature to prioritize different kind of traffic (Streaming, Work from Home, etc.), this may be helpful to you. When I enabled this feature I had lot of issues with connecting to various Sonos speakers, or playing music on them, or adding a new speaker to the system, etc. Once I disabled QoS feature in the router, everything worked seamlessly.

I have ASUS ZenWiFi AX6600 (XT8) router.

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    Pinned Reply By Naveed.Ahmad

    Problem Solved: I am glad to announce that all my Sonos speakers are now working fine with Asus Zen WiFi XT8 router. Here is what I did.

    Asus released a new firmware 3.0.0.4.386_41793, but against all my hopes that did not fix it either. I then did a Factory Reset on the router. Set my WiFi’s name and password the same as before. And all my devices including all my Sonos speakers are connecting fine and playing music fine with WiFi.

    I no longer need to connect one of the speakers through Ethernet cable to make the rest connect through SononNet network as the workaround.

    Hope this solves the problem for all of you guys.

    PS. I thought about doing a factory reset because my secondary node kept on disconnecting and flashing green light after the firmware version 41793. Factory reset solved that problem too.

    34 replies

    Annazel S
    Annazel S
    Retired Sonos Staff
    January 28, 2021

    Hi there @Naveed.Ahmad.

    Thanks for reaching out, let me check it for you.

    There is a known issue of association failures with  ASUS routers that has Airtime Fairness, and the symptoms are the same as you described. 

    We suggest disabling the said feature as a resolution and here are the steps to follow: 

    • Log into the ASUS router.
    • Under Advanced Settings, click Wireless.
    • Click the Professional tab.
    • Disable Airtime Fairness and click Apply.
    • Change the Frequency to 5GHz.
    • Disable Airtime Fairness and click Apply.

     

    Let us know how it goes and if you have any questions feel free to reach out.

    Help others find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question
    darrylyoung
    Lyricist II
    January 28, 2021

     

    • Log into the ASUS router.
    • Under Advanced Settings, click Wireless.
    • Click the Professional tab.
    • Disable Airtime Fairness and click Apply.
    • Change the Frequency to 5GHz.
    • Disable Airtime Fairness and click Apply.

     

    Let us know how it goes and if you have any questions feel free to reach out.

     

    I have the Asus RT-AX86U router and have noticed that Airtime Fairness is disabled by default. I’m unfortunately having the same problems many others are having.

      maxgro
      Contributor I
      January 29, 2021

      I have the same issue with the Asus ZenWiFi XT8 AiMesh Airtime Fairness is disabled on all channels 2.4GHz, 5-1GHz, and 5-2GHz. The problem persists. 

      Annazel S
      Annazel S
      Retired Sonos Staff
      January 29, 2021

      Hi @darrylyoung, thanks for your response. @maxgro, thanks for reaching out, let me help figure this out.

      Kindly submit a diagnostic report through the Sonos app when the issue occurs, and reply with the confirmation number. I'd start by reviewing your system,  it will help in identifying what's possibly causing the issue.

       

      Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

      Help others find useful content by clicking the like button and selecting the best answer to your question
      Naveed.AhmadAuthor
      Contributor I
      January 29, 2021

      @Annazel S, I already had Airtime Fairness disabled. And I am sadly reporting that disabling QoS also did not fully fix my problems. My speakers keep on disconnecting.

      Here is a workaround that I applied today, which has worked so far throughout the day. I have connected one of my Sonos speakers (Play5 in my case) through ethernet cable to my modem. And the rest of the speakers have stayed connected so far. If this stops working, will report it here again.

      FWIIW, I think the problem started happening when my routers received the firmware update ver 3.0.0.4.386_26044. Not sure if that’s the case for others too.

      controlav
      controlav
      Lead Maestro
      January 30, 2021

      Many other threads indicate ASUS routers need to run older firmware to be fully compatible with Sonos. I would recommend people switch to a reliable router supplier, I personally recommend AmpliFi.

      Author of the leading independent Sonos apps for Android, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Xbox.
      Nick_Str
      Lyricist I
      January 30, 2021

      Hi, 

      Echoing the above post, I was completely dead ( QoS and Airtime Fairness off) until connecting one speaker via Ethernet, then bringing the others back online one at a time and they are now communicating via “SonosNet” wireless and show up as hardwired devices from the routers perspective. 
       

      Not completely ideal but it works for now!

      Naveed.AhmadAuthor
      Contributor I
      January 31, 2021

      It’s a bummer. Asus ZenWiFi XT8 router has received rave reviews and it is pretty awesome router. It provides free parental control and free blocking of adult content, whereas other router manufacturers charge for it. It also provides free ad. blocking from pesky 3rd party ads. For these reasons I am keeping the router. I wish Sonos and Asus work together to find a solution. Until then I am working around the issue by hardwiring one Sonos speaker with the router. Thereby, allowing other speakers to connect via SonosNet.

        maxgro
        Contributor I
        January 31, 2021

        Problem solved, downgrade the latest firmware on the Asis XT8, it’s a mess, not only Sonos stopped working but basically everything on the 2.4GHz band that isn’t a phone or computer. My whole smart home fell apart after the Firmware upgrade. I downgraded the firmware of the router and everything worked again.

        Here is the exact description of the issue

        https://www.snbforums.com/threads/xt8-fw-3-0-0-4-386-26044-breaks-sonos.69574/

         

        darrylyoung
        Lyricist II
        February 3, 2021

        Quick update: I updated to the beta firmware 9.0.0.4.386.41994 on my Asus RT-AX86U router after speaking to somebody at Asus. They told me the following, after I explained the Sonos issue:

        We are sorry to hear, that your Sonos system does not work properly after updating to the Firmware version:3.0.0.4.386_41535 on your RT-AX86U router. 
        According to the information you sent us, it seems to be a Software issue. Therefore you should update the Firmware to the latest Version 9.0.0.4.386.41994 from 2021/01/29. This should fix the problem with Sonos. 
        You will find the Firmware under the following link: https://www.asus.com/Networking-IoT-Servers/WiFi-6/All-series/RT-AX86U/HelpDesk_Download/

        After updating the router firmware, I factory reset all of my Sonos speakers (again) and managed to set them up properly. Previously, I managed to do one but then all others would fail. I’ve only had it up and running for a couple of hours so your mileage may vary but I wanted to share anyway.

        Hopefully they’ll push a proper release of the firmware soon so you don’t need to mess around with betas.

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