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I’m confused about the benefit of a wired connection. Past products created their own private wireless (mesh) networks should any Sonos supporting product be hardwired. Great, but new products don’t use or have that feature. So, what are they doing now talking wired/wireless? 

They still reference ‘first-wired product’ as the point where the system will utilize wired. Okay, so let’s say the soundbar gets cabled with two 100 surrounds and a sub remaining wireless. The HDMI/TosLink input may be decoded at that device (soundbar) where respective Dolby channels are sent  back to the WiFi router then to wireless devices - all in sync. The ‘first’ product must have considerable traffic receiving packets and sending packets while others basically receive only.

However, they say you can wire  ‘any’ product in the system which makes no sense why a down-line sub or rear would lighten LAN traffic. Sure, 100’s can play music or a line input in stand-alone but can they decode and distribute a Dolby input back to the system? Now wondering if Dolby processing is in the cloud not at the soundbar or device processor. Then any device could act as a slave. 

I’m experimenting wiring the soundbar and leaving the rest wireless. They have a way to tell what connection the device is using. In ‘About’ on the app. -

WM: 0

This product is in a wired setup.

WM: 1

This product is in a wireless setup.

I’ll check for link activity (packet flicker) at the router and the ‘About’ status. But I’m wondering if there is any benefit here? Thought why not as I have the TV wired so a 4-port switch at the TV is easy-peasy. 

Moving away from Sonosnet is good, but for us long time users who have a good collection of older, Sonosnet compatible devices, and intend to keep them many more years, a way to move past the 2.4 gHz Sonosnet creation would be good now.

 

This tread reveals there is a ‘SonosNet 3’ of sorts with the 5G ‘hidden’ network. Did they get rid of it or just stealth the hidden connection to uncomplicate things?  

 

SonosNet 1.0 was the Bridge, SonosNet 2.0 was / is the Boost. Put simply, these network bridges can be compared to a Hue Bridge, which creates a dedicated ZigBee network, while Bridge and Boost provide a proprietary Sonos wireless mesh network that operates independently of your home WiFi.

 

Communication between Sonos products

Multiple Sonos devices in a single household are connected to each other wirelessly, through a wired Ethernet network, or a mixture of the two.[95] The Sonos system creates a proprietary AES-encrypted peer-to-peer mesh network,[96] known as SonosNet. This allows for each unit to play any chosen input and if desired share it as synchronized audio with one or more other chosen zones. The first versions of SonosNet required a single ZonePlayer or ZoneBridge to be wired to a network for access to LAN and Internet audio sources[95] or when creating a 3.1/5.1 surround setup.[97] SonosNet 2.0 integrated MIMO on 802.11n hardware, providing a more robust connection. Later, the company added support for connecting to an existing Wi-Fi network for internet connectivity, removing the wired network requirement.[98]

Sonos - Wikiwand

 

The dedicated 5 GHz network that the soundbar generates (while in SonosNet or WiFi mode) was introduced together with the Playbar in 2013.

If all access points and mesh nodes are set to the same radio channel, an aspect of the SonosNet known as “Direct Routing” transitions into WiFi mode; presumably, the dedicated home theater network works this way (mind you, just a guess).

Please let’s not talk about a SonosNet 3 as it doesn’t exist. Just keep calling yours Bob 😂😂

Later, the company added support for connecting to an existing Wi-Fi network for internet connectivity, removing the wired network requirement.[98]

Sonos - Wikiwand

 

The dedicated 5 GHz network that the soundbar generates (while in SonosNet or WiFi mode) was introduced together with the Playbar in 2013.

If all access points and mesh nodes are set to the same radio channel, an aspect of the SonosNet known as “Direct Routing” transitions into WiFi mode; presumably, the dedicated home theater network works this way (mind you, just a guess).

 

 

That’s interesting and a nice Wiki dive on their legacy radios. The Wikiwand site pointed to the ‘Sonos Web Interface’ which is a window into the system. Below link is the how-to. (Secret menu for a Hidden network)

https://doitforme.solutions/blog/sonos-diagnostics-secret-web-menu/ 

Basically, find your Soundbar IP looking in your router’s DHCP list. 

My bar is assigned to the SonosZP IP. The address to put into the Browser would be - http://192.168.0.96:1400/support/review (Sorry I can’t unlink it). Your IP will be different but all else is the same. The IP also changes so you have to recheck it every time. There’s info in the ‘Matrix’ table and other products connected. My setup:

 

Very cool, we have a Secret menu for a Hidden network with data displayed on the Matrix. It’s view only so you can’t change anything but may identify an issue if troubleshooting. Pretty much an amazing product is what I’ve learned here. Thanks contributors!!  

Oh, and the Bob-Net works flawlessly. :) 

 

 

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