Splitting up SONOS system for testing

  • 27 September 2023
  • 5 replies
  • 46 views
S

I tried several times to have a wireless/wired SONOS network, but always ended up with crashing the network due to STP issues. Currently everything is wireless, but a couple of speakers are a little too distant, so I want to return to a wireless/wired setup.

 

Due to the disruption it made to all network users in the past, I want to have a test setup that can be isolated and adjusted independently of the rest of my SONOS gear and powered off when I am not testing.

 

What do I need to do to move a few SONOS speakers to a test network? 

I think I need to do this: 
separate VLAN 

separate WiFi Access Port

traffic isolation between main / test devices including broadcast packets

move the iPhone from one VLAN to another running the SONOS controller app.

But am also thinking that I need to deregister some SONOS devices to get them completely removed from the existing setup. In the past I had issues with missing speakers and SONOS trying to re-discover speakers that were at a different physical location. 

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

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5 replies

ratty

It’s difficult to be prescriptive without a few queries/observations:

  1. what exactly is the network setup?
  2. won’t creating an isolated Sonos test setup potentially fail to recreate the network conditions which triggered your STP woes? 
  3. as a minimum it sounds like you’d want to reset a few devices and create a new Sonos household
  4. depending on some of the above you may want to put the test household on a separate subnet, either by VLAN or a secondary router
S

Hi @ratty , thanks for the reply. 

 

  1. I have a Ubiquiti UDMPROSE with AP6 WiFi access points. I previously set up a separate SONOS Subnet as well as a SONOS vlan. The vlan was defined with STP. It sort of worked, but performance of the SONOS app was very slow and when I added a backup WAN (2nd ISP) the entire network would hang for 10-15 minutes a few times per week. I only resolved this by putting all the SONOS devices on to my default WiFi.
  2. Creating a separate network means I can turn off the test devices so that any network disruption will be at times of my choosing. 
  3.   This is interesting - I don’t think I have encountered setting up a new household before - that sounds promising - I’ll have to look into that.
  4. Yes - it will be a separate vlan, separate WiFi SSID on the same router - I’ll have to keep the broadcasts separate and test by adding a IoS device to a suitable network.  

Steve

ratty

Might is not be simpler to leave the entire Sonos system on the WiFi and deal with the couple of spots that have patchy WiFi coverage?

If the WiFi is unable to reach those areas then SonosNet from the nearest wired Sonos device may also struggle.

S

I plan to pull some more Cat6 cable for those - the plan is WiFi and Wired and not SonosNet.

ratty

I plan to pull some more Cat6 cable for those - the plan is WiFi and Wired and not SonosNet.

You originally said you wanted to return to a wireless/wired setup.

Wiring any Sonos device (apart from the latest Era100/300) will trigger SonosNet. STP will be enabled on the device’s interfaces. If multiple devices are wired then under certain circumstances this can result in SonosNet bridging across the wired backbone, redirecting all network traffic onto a slow wireless link.

If the wired devices’ radios are all disabled such problems ought to be avoided. Even so, the devices will still be putting out STP BPDUs so switch port policies need to take account.

 

BTW your profile lists Play:5/gen1 and Arc. These can’t coexist in the same household; one requires S1, the other S2.

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