Mesh system that works reliably with Sonos

Q
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I have two Nest Wifi Pro mesh networks in different houses.

In one, Sonos works fine.

In the other, most Sonos work, but one Sub and two Ones haven’t been able to connect to the network for months, even after many factory resets and other debugging steps with technical support.  (They used to, not sure what changed.)

On this mesh network, some of the points sometimes drop off the mesh as well, which can be resolved by factory resetting them and adding them back to the network.  So I’m pretty sure Nest Wifi Pro sucks, unlike the old Google Wifi which had been rock solid for me.

I’m thinking of replacing the Nest Wifi Pro mesh with a different brand to see if that resolves the issues.  Any recommendations?  I’ve read reviews, but they usually don’t cover what percentage of homes with that mesh system work with Sonos.  And forums are full of complaints about essentially every mesh system when combined with Sonos.

12 replies

P

After many calls to sonos and nobody could figure out what was the problem 

I finally got someone who knew what they were talking about and he recommended to call EERO ( mesh system ) and as the rep from Sonos explained I have to connect ONLY  ONE  of the 30 Sonos speakers i have to one of the mesh bases via an ethernet cable and thus the whole Sonos system is getting the signal from that particular speaker and all the other Sonos speakers are now in Sync and come on at the same time .

The issue here is that a mesh system has many bases ( mine has 4 bases ) so the sonos speakers that are close to one of the bases gets the signal before or after another group that is using another wifi base 

by connecting via a hard wire ( ethernet ) cable to one of your Sonos speakers then the problem is solved .

 

good luck !!

Q
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Thanks for the tip but that didn't work for me. Maybe the issue is that some of my Sonos are too spread out for SonosNet to reach. The Nest Wifi Pro in that area is hardwired to the primary. 

buzz

The portables and ERA’s will not use SonosNet. 

P

I have a house that is over 5000 SqF and i have one main Eero router and three sub and one extender and when i connected the Sonos five to one of my subs via ethernet , it all worked perfectly !

Q
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Ok so maybe I'll buy eero and wire one of my fives to one of my subs. 

Airgetlam

You shouldn’t wire a Five to a Sub. Make sure the WiFi/radio is turned on for both the Sub and the Five. If you need to wire them, run the wire to the router, not to each other. 

Bruce
P

What I meant by “ sub “ is the EERO sub station router 

The EERO comes with a main router and three sub routers 

That is what I meant not a sonos sub , that is what I understand was the misunderstanding !

Q
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Ok, thanks for clarifying.  I will report back.

My problem might be that my Sonos devices are too far apart to connect over SonosNet.  I have to hardwire one of my non-main routers to the main router to have wifi there.

And if I don’t use SonosNet, I run into the issue that Sonos and mesh routers often don’t play nice together.  There doesn’t seem to be any combination of mesh brand and what you do or don’t wire together that works for everyone.  It's just “factory reset, turn it all off and back on again, futz around with a bunch of settings, maybe it’ll work eventually”.

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

Hi

Since you asked…

“I’m thinking of replacing the Nest Wifi Pro mesh with a different brand to see if that resolves the issues.  Any recommendations?”

Here is my choice. First I’ll let you know that I’ve posted this information before and probably much to the chagrin of my fellow community members 😊.  My home consists of 32 Sonos units and a plethora of other devices all running on my WiFi mesh. 

Drum roll please….🥁

it’s an Asus AiMesh consisting of three (3) ZenWifi Pro ET12’s (see them here). The units are on three levels with the main unit (node) located next to my Comcast/Xfinity modem on the first level. The units (satellite/nodes) form the mesh either wirelessly using the 6Ghz band or wired via Ethernet. The connections are called “backhauls” which is the default for mesh networks. I chose to pay Bestbuy Geek Squad to run Ethernet cable to create a wired mesh backhaul. The advantage is that all three (3) bands (2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, 6Ghz) are available for WiFi. 

The Asus AiMesh is very intelligent and actually configures the mesh once the main unit is up and running. All the user need do is the place the other units strategiclly in their home. The process ensures that only the main unit has DHCP capability to assign IP addresses to the equipment regardless of which unit the equipment decides to latch on to.

Improper configuration of the satellite nodes (not to allow them DHCP capability) IMO is the biggest flaw in 99% of households with a mesh network. Any device receiving an IP Adresss from a satellite/node will most likely fall off the grid for visibility. The reason being is that your device that sees your network is most likely connected to the main node and therefore doesn't know where to look for the device connected to a satellite/node.  The reverse happens if your device connects to a satellite/node and was assigned an IP Address by it...all other devices become invisible. BTW...Donn’t ask where I got the 99% number….it just sounded good. So yeah...I pulled it out of my gluteus maximus 😂. However, I think you see my point regarding mesh network failures...right🤔.

I hope this helps in your search for a reliable mesh network product. There are others out there; however, I’ve used Asus products for over 15 years with satisfaction. Granted some issues arose but they were addressed by firmware updates.

BTW...make sure your current mesh is up-to-date with the latest firmware. That may be part of or the entire issue….out-dated firmware.

Note:

Regarding you comment...”And if I don’t use SonosNet, I run into the issue that Sonos and mesh routers often don’t play nice together.”  Take a look at my post below 😉

 

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
Q
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My Nest Wifi Pro are up to date. I don't know if only the primary assigns IPs but there is no option to configure that. 

AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

My Nest Wifi Pro are up to date. I don't know if only the primary assigns IPs but there is no option to configure that. 

If your Nest WiFi Pro is properly configured only the main node should be able to assign IP addresses. I have no experience with Nest WiFi Pro so I can’t tell you how to verify that all is correct 🤔

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
P

It seems to be quite an issue .

Just from my experience the EERO sub station  that is in my living room three floors up from the main EERO router is the one connected to the 5 via an ethernet cable and since I did that is working perfectly !

When I called EERO first they told me that whichever speaker i choose has to be connected via an ethernet cable to the main router , I explained that would be impossible because on how I have set up my speakers and the different rooms , the representative checked again with her other tech people and they told me that it doesn’t have to be connected to the main router , it can be any of the “ sub routers “ 

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