Playbar connection to wifi

What is the model number of your mobile wireless router? 

RAVPOWER RP-WD009

This can actually be quite a number of things, not least a firewall setting, policy setting, restricted ports on the community WiFi etc.. or it can be an issue with your connected WiFi router not having been setup to use WiFi that is 802.11b/g/n compatible, or has isolated WiFi bands, or your controller device may not be in keeping with the Sonos system requirements.

i would therefore suggest you start here with the Sonos System Requirements and the Mobile Controller App requirements shown in the links below.. then if they are met, to go onto describe your setup in more detail - make/model of router, make model of controller device and it’s operating system version.

Then describe the steps you are undertaking to do the device setup and describe in detail any error messages your are seeing and perhaps also describe what the status LED is showing on your speaker during the steps of the setup process.

Sonos System Requirements:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/126

S1/S2 Controller App Requirements:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4875

You may also want to speak to other users of the community WiFi system to see if they have setup a Sonos product in their own accommodation, or perhaps speak with the WiFi network system administrator (or representative) to see if there is anything under their control that maybe preventing a Sonos device setup.

I see where buzz is going with this. Knowing exactly what sort of mobile wireless router will help to build a mental image of your system, so that we can help you.

One thing that might be an issue is that your controller device (phone? Tablet? PC?) needs to connect to the same connection, technically, the same subnet, that you have the PLAYBAR on, and not the public wifi that the apartment building provides. 

I think we’re all assuming that “punched” is autocorrect for “purchased”?

Rather than a mobile/wireless router, you may have been able to get by with just a travel router, which can log on to a “public” signal such as your apartment’s, and create its own network for you and your Sonos system to use. 

This is a good point from Bruce, as from a quick look online it appears the RAVPOWER RP-WD009 can be setup in various modes… Router/Bridged/Access Point/File Server mode and there is a user hardware button to switch on/off the 2.4Ghz/5Ghz WiFi adapters.  So it would be quite helpful to know which mode is being used and that the device is actually working over its 2.4Ghz WiFi connection and is providing access to the internet via that band, which can be tested with the phone/tablet to begin with, perhaps?

Too many of us trying to help (two posts while I typed my last response), so I’m going to lay back and let these fine folks do the heavy lifting :)

Here is the user manual. I think that there is a language problem somewhere along the chain. I’m having trouble interpreting exactly what this unit does. My interpretation is that “Bridge Mode” on page 27 is their suggestion for this use case, but I’m suspicious that this is not appropriate for a SONOS system because there is no mention of a DHCP server.

All of the SONOS units must be on the same subnet along with the controllers. In any case the phone/pad controller would need to be signed on to this access point, not the apartment’s WiFi.

Bridge mode makes it into pretty much a dumb AP with all essential network functions passed along from the ISP or main router side. Not what you need.

As was said above you need it set to router mode where it provides NAT from the community router as well as required local services like DHCP.

Once it is set that way you need to connect your Sonos, controllers and if present Music Library all to the travel router’s network.

That is usually the default configuration for a travel router so maybe a factory reset of it would get you back to the right mode. From there connect to the router’s network and make any needed configuration changes. Router’s password, SSID, passphrase, WiFi channel and if the default address matches your community network changing it to a different one will avoid conflicts.