There are a couple of things here. One, Sonos on your laptop is merely a remote control app, and has no IP address reserved. You can, if you desire, remove it from your laptop by deleting it, and merely use your iPhone.

However, each Sonos speaker itself is a network device, with its own computer in it, running a version of Linux, on which the Sonos firmware runs. As a network device, it does require an IP address. 

For a Sonos speaker to have used an IP in use by a server, it would need to be handed that IP address by the router. Sonos doesn’t generate its own IP addresses. 

If you’re attempting to remove Sonos from getting IP addresses from your work environment (and I’m really not sure what you’re doing here), you’d need to not use Sonos (networked) speakers in that environment.  However, if you’re using a VPN at home to communicate with work, that makes things more problematic, too, since Sonos isn’t designed to work with VPNs, normally.

As a general thing, you may just need to refresh your network, by unplugging all Sonos devices from power, then reboot your router. Give it a couple of minutes to recover, then plug in your Sonos devices. This should get the router back to a state where it isn’t handing out duplicate IP addresses to a ‘server’ at work, and a Sonos device at home. Whether or not the Sonos application is on your PC or not shouldn’t make any difference. 

Thanks for the reply, Bruce.

I did as you suggested - unplugged Sonos speakers, reset router, and plugged in again. I can sign onto my server.

I use Remote Desktop Connection to connect. 

If Sonos on my laptop is a remote control app, how can I, as you mentioned, remove it from my laptop by deleting it, and merely use my iPhone?  

Thank you so much. I feel reassured that I can work and use these new speakers!

Lori

The same way you would delete any other application. Find the location of the app, and delete it. That’s it. 

The Sonos app was not listed under all installed programs.  I think I am good now. I checked with our tech support and as long as I am able to connect to our server, I’m good.  

Thank you for your help and for guiding me!

Turns out the issue was not resolved. I called Sonos customer service and it is ok now. Posting here in case anyone has the same issue of the Sonos speaker using an IP address that is needed for something else.

My Verizon router assigned IP addresses to the two Sonos speakers. One IP address was the same as a server I need to sign in to remotely for work. I had to change the IP address that the Verizon router assigned.

Here’s how I did it:

Sign onto Verizon Router as administrator.

On top tab, click Advanced (not Basic) tab.

Go to Network settings -→ IPV4 Address Distribution -->Connection List  (shows the IP addresses being used). Choose an IP address that is not used.

Select the Sonos ZP speaker IP address that needs to be changed.  Select EDIT.  Change the IP address, hit APPLY.