Arc Ultra Surrounds Disconnect Daily After Extended TV Off Period

Or how ASUS handles the rare proxy IP connection. 

​@ScottDDev 

As you can see Asus AiProtection is fully enabled on my network. However UPnP is not turned off which Sonos uses. Again the screen shot is a remote view via the Asus app.

FYI, the only time I’ve had problems with surrounds and Subs is when the Guest Network is enabled. Asus is aware of the issue and has supposedly fixed the problem in an update. I haven’t bothered to test again as a Guest Network is really not needed by me. I just enabled it once for kicks.

​@AjTrek1 Out of curiosity, do you have multicast routing enabled on your ASUS router?

​@ScottDDev 

Here are screen shots of my settings for multicast preceded by a brief AI synopsis. I don’t recommend setting up IPTV (Internet Protocol Television); unless you have a specific need regarding your ISP.

In the ASUS Wireless Professional settings, select the 5 GHz or 6 GHz band for high-speed, low-latency performance (streaming/gaming), and the 2.4 GHz band for maximum range or older smart home devices.

​@AjTrek1 

Thanks for sharing the screenshots. That’s interesting that AiProtection is working for you with multicast disabled.

My system has been stable since resetting to default settings (with separate SSIDs for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) and leaving AiProtection disabled. UPnP is also disabled by default.

There may be some differences in router model or firmware version that could explain the different behavior. I may reach out to ASUS to see if they’re aware of anything related.

I would suggest disabling UPnP on the router (a potential security risk), this will not affect UPnP on the LAN.

Agree. Different models will have different chipsets with different firmware. I would report to Asus, if you can consistently reproduce. The AiProtection does have different features that can be individually enabled/disabled and possibly configured? Ideally you want to be able to exclude/whitelist your Sonos devices. 

I spoke too soon. The issue reappeared after about 12 hours. I’m again seeing repeated deauth/auth/assoc log messages after the Sonos Arc Ultra goes idle.

This is occurring even with default router settings and AiProtection disabled.

I’ve contacted ASUS support and they said they will follow up in a couple of days.

I’m still waiting to hear back from ASUS, but I’ve done some additional testing and think I have a better understanding of what’s happening.

To clarify, my network works fine with Sonos speakers individually. The issue only occurs with the surrounds (Ones) and their connection to the Sonos Arc Ultra (private 5 GHz link).

When the Arc Ultra goes idle, there appears to be a brief window where the surrounds show up on the network again (visible in the client list), which may be by design. They will sometimes reconnect back to the Arc Ultra without issue, but other times they fully associate with the router.

When that happens, the surrounds get stuck in a loop:

• Deauth when attempting to connect to the Arc Ultra
• Auth/Assoc when reconnecting to the network

These events repeat until the Arc Ultra is power cycled.

This also explains the inconsistent behavior. If the surrounds reconnect to the Arc Ultra quickly, everything works normally. If they fully associate with the router first, the loop begins.

My current theory is that this is a timing issue during the transition between the Arc Ultra’s private 5 GHz link and the router WiFi connection.

The odd thing is that this doesn’t seem to be happening to anyone else. I’d think if it was, there would be at least dozens of people clambering about a similar issue. But it only seems to be occurring to you. 

Most odd.

​@Airgetlam I’m not sure that’s entirely the case. There do seem to be a number of reports of surrounds disconnecting or not reconnecting, although they may not all be describing it the same way. It’s possible this is specific to my router model or firmware.