Contributor I

Answered

Bonding Disabled Wireless arc with wireless surrounds

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I have 23 Sonos components and am converting at least half of them from wireless to wired. In one room, I set my Arc and Sub as “Disable Wi-Fi”, but my surround speakers (Play:1s) are wireless. How does the Arc bond with the surrounds in this case?

On one hand, I would hope the Arc’s 5 GHz radio would be used for this. But since I designated it “Disable Wi-Fi”, I’m guessing the Arc would go through my wired network, to the Sonos speaker acting as the SonosNet bridge (different room), back to the wireless surrounds.

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buzzAnswer

Grand Maestro

If ARC’s radio is OFF, it cannot bond to the wireless surrounds or SUB.

buzzAnswer

Grand Maestro

If ARC’s radio is OFF, it cannot bond to the wireless surrounds or SUB.

106rallye

Are the Play:1’s also wired?

J

John B

The setting ‘Disable WiFi” is misleadingly labelled. It actually disables the wireless radio on the speaker. As the communication between Arc and surrounds/Sub is designed to be by wireless direct routing, you have made it impossible for the Arc to communicate.

Select “Enable WiFi”. The Arc will still use the cabled network connection.

ratty

On one hand, I would hope the Arc’s 5 GHz radio would be used for this. But since I designated it “Disable Wi-Fi”, I’m guessing the Arc would go through my wired network, to the Sonos speaker acting as the SonosNet bridge (different room), back to the wireless surrounds.

It probably would, but badly. Latency spikes on the round-about route would periodically cause the surrounds/Sub to drop out.

As already noted, this is not the correct way to configure the setup.

I

Ice PapaAuthor

Contributor I

Thank you, everyone.

106rallye, no, the Play:1’s are currently NOT wired, but I may have a solution to make them wired.

ratty, the latency you mentioned is my concern for the wireless surrounds in this scenario. Again, I may have a solution to make them wired.

buzz and John B, I experimented in another room yesterday with a Playbar and a Sub; Playbar w/ Disable Wi-Fi and Sub wireless. I was able to bond the two. I forgot to check the network map, but I’m guessing the PB was going through my central Ethernet switch, to the upstairs Play:1 (bridge mode), then wirelessly back down to the Sub.

ratty

Just turn the Arc’s radios (“WiFi”) on again.

I

Ice PapaAuthor

Contributor I

ratty, my switch’s STP will disable that wired port or the speaker I want to be the bridge. Moving everything to RSTP brought my [extensive] UniFi network down.

So I guess this leaves me with all wired or all wireless for this Arc/Sub/Play:1s room.

ratty

In that case, go all wireless. The Arc will probably be fine on SonosNet. You can always inspect the signal strength in the network matrix at http://x.x.x.x:1400/support/review. x.x.x.x is the IP of any player, not a Boost.

I

Ice PapaAuthor

Contributor I

Looks like you’re right. Arc is green from my Play:1 bridge. The Arc to Sub and surrounds (Play:1’s) are also green. So I can leave them all wireless.

But the Sub and surrounds OFDM ANI Levels are 6&7 (orange). I wonder if the inverse is true—that is, they are interfering with my Zigbee network (PHILIPS Hue).

ratty

But the Sub and surrounds OFDM ANI Levels are 6&7 (orange). I wonder if the inverse is true—that is, they are interfering with my Zigbee network (PHILIPS Hue).

I’d bet this is when they’re idle, on the 2.4GHz band. In that case there’s next to no traffic to/from them.

Look again a couple of minutes after you begin playback. They will then have moved to the 5GHz band.

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