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DustyB13
Avid Contributor I
June 25, 2022
Answered

Speakers constantly dropping out

  • June 25, 2022
  • 26 replies
  • 1163 views

2 rooms playing.  Living Room Port and Office with 2 Ones and a Sub.  Office will consistently drop.  Not always all speakers but a lot of the time it is.  I’m always told it’s interference in my network.  Decided to do some testing.  I brought my Roam into the Office.  It’s sitting about 3 feet from a One.  Ones and Sub still dropping.  Roam hasn't dropped yet.  Very frustrating.  2133647112

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Best answer by Corry P

Hi @DustyB13 

Thanks for your post!

The Office is suffering from interference - perhaps from a WiFi-enabled printer or from one of your WiFi access points. Please isolate the speakers from other WiFi devices by at least 1m. There is also a reported IP address conflict with the Port and another device on your network - please reboot your router by turning it off for at least 30 seconds, and reboot the wired units Port and Beam afterwards. You may also want to set static IP addresses for your devices in your router’s settings.

If issues persist beyond doing these steps, I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team, who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to assist you with networking problems.

Your Roam does not connect via SonosNet, which is why it behaved differently from Office when it was in the office.

I hope this helps.

PS. I don’t know what that number is, but it isn’t a diagnostic number - I had to go by your email. 😄

26 replies

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Grand Maestro
July 5, 2022

DustyB13,

The wireless environment can be rather fierce. I’m in an urban area and my WiFi scanner just identified more than 70 nearby access points. This does not include “drive by” users attempting to sign on to any network that they can touch.

38 of these access points belong to a healthcare facility next door. In the past I’ve had lots of trouble with these access points because they often used 2.4GHz channels other than 1-6-11, severely polluting the area and causing problems for me. Mercifully, I think they hired a competent pro and the channel assignments are now rational. There are two home users on channel 8, one is an ORBI mesh, and there is another user on channel 7.

Apparently, there is a lot of WiFi competition in your Office. Since interference varies in three dimensions, varying from minute to minute, it’s possible that  ROAM lucked out.

Given the information that I’ve seen here, I think that your best approach would be to wire the Office. If this is inconvenient, you could try EoP (Ethernet over Powerline) for the Office. While EoP  is my last  networking choice because it is subject to a different kind of, sometimes intermittent interference, occasionally it is the miracle cure.

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Grand Maestro
July 5, 2022

Are there any nearby ZIGBEE devices?

DustyB13Author
Avid Contributor I
July 5, 2022

No Zigbee devices.  From my office I see 6 signals being broadcast, 1 is mine.  All other than mine are more than -60db, 4 are more than -70db.  So Sonos is the best wireless music system you can hardwire.  Sort of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

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Grand Maestro
July 5, 2022

The “WiFi scanner” that I’m using is simply an Android phone. It will only see WiFi devices, it would not see a neighbor’s ZIGBEE network, 2.4GHz cordless phone systems, or microwave ovens and such. In my home the level of interference varies from room to room. First story rooms are quieter than the upper floor.

Be alert for unexpected situations. Way back in 2005 I had a miserable experience with my SONOS system. It was obvious that there was a problem in the kitchen, Some evenings and Sunday afternoon operation was unreliable. I slipped a copy of my log  under my neighbor’s door and a couple days later it slipped back under my door.  She sometimes traveled overnight for business, but called Mom on Sunday afternoon using a 2.4GHz cordless phone. Her 2.4GHz phone was near the wall behind my kitchen player. Wiring the kitchen player solved my issue.

As an experiment have you tried physically swapping the ONE’s? Another experiment would be to separate the ONE’s pairing, then rebuild the pair with the opposite L/R assignment. The Left speaker carries more network traffic.

    DustyB13Author
    Avid Contributor I
    July 5, 2022

    Are  you using WiFi Analyzer?  That’s my go to.  There isn’t a house close enough for 2.4 Ghz or Zigbee to hit me.  I don’t have a microwave, either. 

    I’ve been playing Office as a stand alone, not grouped.  No issue.  Guess I’ll be setting up separate alarms for Office now.

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    Grand Maestro
    July 6, 2022

    I just opened WiFiAnalyzer for the first time in a couple years and it has improved somewhat since then. ‘analiti’ is much more comprehensive, but WiFiAnalyzer is OK for a quick survey.

    A couple weeks ago I was out in the sticks and there was only one access point visible and it did not cover the building very well.

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