Sky Q and Sonos problems

Evidently where Sky is the ISP the other boxes act as hotspots. You might be able to turn it off if it’s causing problems for Sonos. The Sonos app uses multicast/broadcast traffic to locate the players. Some network kit doesn’t cooperate.

Would that be true for other mesh system?

Not usually. SkyQ seems to disagree with Sonos.

So yes, I have checked - when the Sonos App works the iPhone is connected to the main hub, when it doesn’t work it’s connected to either of the Sky boxes.

it is important for the Sky mini to talk to SkyQ to achieve the TV functionality.

So I could Connect Sky mini via Ethernet and switch off WiFi mesh entirely losing flexibility of Sky mini location and WiFi coverage benefit.

Some people have suggested that you could just turn off the 2.4 band on the sky boxes (not the hub) as I believe sky boxes only use the 5 frequency to communicate with each, but I’m not sure you can control what frequency other devices (eg iPhone) connect at, which would leave the app confused!

The iPhone manages to switch between access points, other applications run regardless of which access points iPhone is connected to, including the controlling Apps for other smart home connected devices (eg Hive).  Why is Sonos the only one that has a problem?

From my perspective at the moment Sonos needs to fix this - I feel like I would find it hard to recommend Sonos.

If, as appears to be the case, the SkyQ mesh is not correctly forwarding a certain type of local network traffic it’s not for Sonos to fix. They’re merely following industry standards (to be technical, it’s the Simple Service Discovery Protocol). 

I’m surprised there isn’t an option to disable the hotspots without affecting the backhaul connection for the Sky Mini itself.

I can see that’s one possibility, but why do other application/device interactions work ok.  

I am sure that Sky will blame Sonos, indeed could it be that it is Sonos that’s not interpreting standards correctly.  

This is all the sort of thing that drives consumers mad.

Other app/devices are almost always simply connecting out to the internet. Sonos is a multi-device system which depends heavily on local intercommunication and places additional demands on the network. 

These issues come up from time to time with equipment that doesn’t comply with the relevant standards. It’s not unusual for vendors to try and point the finger at Sonos. 

It seems that for some reason, the access points (Sky Q and Sky mini) are not allowing the phone to speak to the network in the same way it does when the router is the access point. "

I have seen issues on these forums where SSDP issues cause interference and excessive Wifi slow down once SkyQ installed - fortunatly (fingers crossed) this isn't my problem, but I am obviously concerned that there might be an issue like this waiting to bite me if I don't understand the root cause.

The Iphone is on the network, the Sonos system is on the network - I can see both from the sky modem/router/hub.  I can use the App from devices connected to the router/hub (IMac is cabled, Iphone wifi).  So there is a problem with some kind of "handshake".  

As a consumer I don't know enough to understand if this is something Sky is not passing to the App or if it is something the App is not reading correctly from the Sky broadcast - or put another way is it Sky’s fault or Sonos's fault!  

Given that Sky do obviously have some issues with SSDP it is tempting to see it as their fault.  As a consumer I do need one of the suppliers to “own” the problem - rather than pointing the finger at the other supplier and leaving me stuck in the middle.  I guess I need to read up a bit about SSDP.

Thanks for helping me get to this point

A Sonos controller app remembers next to nothing about your system. When it wakes up, or the mobile is reconnected, the controller needs to ‘discover’ the players afresh. It does this by essentially yelling “is there anyone out there?” as a local subnet broadcast. Everything on the network hears this, but only the Sonos devices respond in a form that the controller will understand. 

A problem arises if, for whatever reason, the discovery broadcast from the mobile is not passed on by the network equipment. Sometimes this is because the equipment vendor considers broadcasts to be ‘insecure’, sometimes it’s because a configuration option needs tweaking to allow them, and sometimes it’s simply down to a coding error.

I have spoken via chat to Sonos who confirmed that there is a fundamental incompatibility of Sonos with mesh networks and that it is not limited to Sky. 

They said Sonos uses the main router to communicate between phone and speakers and when a new BSSID is detected on the controller, speakers are trying to follow it to join, but they fail, due to different BSSID.  This a SONOS problem!

They said the - Main solution in these cases is split of band into 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, to have them into 2 different networks, with different SSID's. Setting the Sonos on 2.4 Ghz as a main network and disabling 2.4Ghz band on the Sky Q box, which isolates Sonos on 2.4 Ghz and prevents interferences with BSSID broadcasted by the Sky Q Box.

So Sonos are telling me that I need to downgrade the rest of my system to accommodate deficiencies in the Sonos design. They tried to tell me it wasn’t a down grade. However he then admitted that the difference between the 2 bands is : 2.4Ghz, goes for longer distance while being a little bit slower, 5Ghz works at very high speeds, but on short range. In my view turning one frequency off diminishes my service. 

Fundamentally consumer products should not require you to mess around with such router settings.

I have made a considerable investment in Sonos products in the past and I am disappointed. I am now left wondering if other speakers suffer from the same limitations with mesh networks and whether Sonos have a project to rectify this shortcoming.  (I asked - they wouldn’t tell me)

Consumers need Sonos to take ownership of this issue, and from my perspective at the moment Sonos needs to fix this before I would ever recommend Sonos to another person.