Speakers constantly dropping out

I would certainly set all your access points to use the same WiFi channel 11 (and a channel-width of 20Mhz for the 2.4Ghz band, if supported by your router and AP’s) and set the SonosNet channel to channel 1 as that will greatly improve things for you.

Having your access points on different channels is ‘probably’ the reason for the SSDP discovery issues that you are experiencing. So I would start with those couple of quick changes to see if that improves things.

Hi @DustyB13 

Because you’re suffering from interference. To be fair, all the channels are fairly busy, but the one(s) that your WiFi uses should be avoided as they’ll be the strongest transmissions your speakers have to contend with.

A white light means that the speaker is on. It does not indicate a connection, or the type of connection (SonosNet or WiFi). 

It wasn’t grouped at the time of the diagnostic. I can only go by what the diagnostic says, and that is a snapshot. If you change things before submitting, I may not be as relevant as I’d like to be. As far as I can see, the Office had no reason to play.

That is a networking problem, but I don’t think it’s a interference problem. I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to go through some real-time troubleshooting steps with you. Some router settings may need to be changed.

Kitchen doesn’t have a wired connection - Kitchen itself is connecting to Beam, so there wouldn’t be much point. Wireless links are seen as “costlier” than wired links, and all rooms will aim to keep the “cost” down. Only if the signal strength goes well below what your speakers are reporting will they choose more “expense”.

As I mentioned, removing all ethernet connections will significantly change the way Sonos operates behind the scenes. Your WiFi is currently a source of interference for Sonos. Removing the ethernet connections will make your WiFi helpful to Sonos instead. Every case differs.

I hope this helps.

Previously, Sonos support had me connect the Port and Beam to the router.  Now I’m supposed to go full wireless.  Put it on channel 1.  Put it on channel 11.  The fact that there is so much conflicting information is as frustrating as the devices not working.  I’m just going to sell all 7 rooms of Sonos and switch to Bluesound as I never have issues with it.  If I’m having these issues, are my clients as well?  I’m sure I’m not the only Sonos user with an office or smart home and lots of internet connected devices.

Hi @DustyB13 

It isn’t that the information is conflicting, it’s just that we’re trying different configurations to try and find the best results. As I mentioned, there is a lot of WiFi being picked up by the system - every channel is busy with multiple sources - and while we can try multiple options to attempt to improve things, we cannot break the laws of physics for you. Not being in a live conversation with you, I’m sure I’m missing out on salient information regarding the environment and layout the system finds itself in, which is why at a certain point in troubleshooting I have to ask customers to contact technical support.

It is entirely your choice to sell your Sonos system, but it is the laws of physics that are working against you so please don’t expect any other WiFi speaker brands to perform differently - they won’t. However, given that you clearly stated that only the Office has any problems, perhaps it would be a cheaper option to simply ethernet-wire one Office speaker and be done with it?

However, given that the Roam performed well in the office, I think trying the whole Sonos system on WiFi is worth a try - all you need to do is disconnect a cable.

In the past I had a dedicated support person.  We would make appointments for him to call and we would go over what had been done and how it affected the system.  Now when I call support I get a different offshore person every time and we start from square one, never getting past about 3 steps that have always been done.  If rebooting the device didn’t work last time, let’s try it again.

And yes, the information is conflicting.  Plug it in, unplug it, plug it back in, unplug it.  Channel 1.  Channel 11.  Channel 1.  Channel 11.  Frustrating.  I’ll try unplugging again.

As far as other systems doing the same thing, the Bluesound Node which is farther from the AP than the Office never has an issue and I exclusively stream higher res Qobuz with it.

Simple solution to wire one of the Office Ones would be to run a 40’ cable through the house.  Not gonna happen.

Perhaps the difficulty here is that you’re submitting diagnostic reports and speaking to Sonos Support and also posting issues here to a user-community, who (like me) are not Sonos employees, cannot see your diagnostic submissions and haven’t the faintest idea what your network hardware, or software settings are.

I would perhaps consider heading back to Sonos Support via the phone, who are clearly able to see far more detail than any community-user can see, or otherwise you would really need to go onto describe the local network-environment/Sonos-setup in much more depth.

Hi @DustyB13 

So the Bluesound is not where the Office speaker is, which reinforces the idea that the heavier interference is near the Office speaker. This would imply that disconnecting the Beam from ethernet might not help - and that only isolating the source of interference from the Office speakers would help. As you can see no source near the speaker, is the speaker on/near a glass or metal surface? It may be it’s own source of interference in that case. Or, the source might not be a WiFi device, but something else that uses 2.4GHz radio, like a baby monitor.

Take an Office speaker to where the Bluesound is and I’m sure it will play.

Salient information, like I said. Perhaps you could post a picture of the Office speakers and what’s near them - something might jump out.

Office Ones are sitting on wooden shelves.  Sub is on the floor.  Left One is at least 5’ from my laptop, 12’ from printer.  Only other internet connected device in the room is my phone, sitting next to laptop.  Right One is 6’ from laptop, 4’ from printer.  Sub is 9’ from laptop.

No  baby monitor or 2.4 Ghz radio.  Closest device to left One is a non smart document shredder but this has been happening long before that was even in the house.

Hi @DustyB13 

Something is transmitting “Luxul1750” WiFi and the Office (Left) speaker is picking it up with an RSSI of 68, which means it’s close-by. Can you relocate this speaker so it’s in the same room but a significantly different location? Or, can you relocate the access point?

Luxul 1750 is the AP.  It’s in a completely different room 30’ away with a wall between.