Boost is officially dead (RIP)

I (still) do wonder why there is not going to be 802.11ac, or 802.11ax, version of SonosNet that caters for a faster MiMo 2.4Ghz/5Ghz combined signal. I appreciate that’s what mesh wireless networks are nowadays, but it would still be nice to have an all ‘exclusive’ in-built Sonos network, rather than a setup being intermingled with other network traffic. 

Although…

Whenever I tested the speed of SonosNet v2 over a remote wired/wireless connection I only ever seemed to get a miserly 12 MB/s download speed (give or take), but these days with my WiFi mesh Hubs I’m getting 500+ MB/s over a wireless link to the nearby Hub and that’s I guess why I’ve now got all devices running on the WiFi mesh network, instead of SonosNet.

Had Sonos though produced a new Boost that was perhaps in line with that kind of network capability (notwithstanding that the hardware Ethernet ports are only 10/100), I might have been tempted to go that route to keep the connections exclusive to the Home audio setup.

Anyhow, I’m not complaining here, as everything network-wise does work well on our current mesh setup. 

Also we are now seeing WiFi 6E stepping into the light  ….and undoubtedly WiFi-7 is really just around that corner.

It’s just never ending and long may these things continue to advance.

One advantage of Sonosnet is that it can be used to invoke the matrix that is still useful for troubleshooting - I know that Boost is not essential for that, but if any S1/S2 update is going to make the Boost/Bridge a brick, one expects prominent warnings somewhere so one can decide to skip the latest greatest if Boost is more valuable. 

Does Bridge even work on the latest S2?

No, the Bridge doesn’t work on S2 …and obviously the Roam/SL, Move/Move 2, Era 100, Era 300 and I think one, or two, other products (not sure🤔?) will work with the matrix either.. it’s all changes that are creeping into S2. 

The matrix -- or more accurately the RF and STP related data that underpins it -- is a corollary of needing to invent a wheel -- a dedicated extensible mesh -- at the time. That wheel no longer needs to be reinvented: it can outsourced to a WiFi mesh, at much higher bandwidths.

Sonos devices can simply be client stations, with app-based reporting of BSSID and RSSI substituting for the SonosNet matrix.

I’d love an option to be able to wire one or more Sonos to Ethernet but not create the SonosNet, allowing all other, unwired, Sonos to connect to the WiFi instead.

Second choice would be an option on each Sonos to decline a SonosNet connection and prefer WiFi.

Give us the best of both worlds.

Why not just turn off the radio on the devices you wire? The one place that would be problematic is on a soundbar with subs/surrounds and any bonded subs, I guess. But I think it would get you 90% of the way there. 

Is that all that is needed to force the unwired units into WiFi mode? Would the unwired units be visible to the wired units with their radios off?

If all ‘wired’ units have their radios turned off, wouldn’t that kill any potential SonosNet, and force any non-wired speakers into WiFi mode? 

Oh, sorry, missed the second half/question.

Wouldn’t they all be still part of the Sonos system, and reporting back to the router, either by WiFi or by cable? 

Please correct me if I’m not thinking this through properly. 

I have a similar set up - 4 zones wired, radios off. One zone unwired. The one unwired zone cannot be seen on the Sonos Controller. Only the wired zones can be seen in the Matrix. That is why I use the wired Boost as a way to link up all 5 zones if needed.

If I could change things by doing something else in my configuration that allows the unwired zone to be seen by the controller, I would love to know! Other than turning radios on in the wired zones, that is.