MOVE wifi connection.... have i been miss sold?

  • 14 December 2020
  • 12 replies
  • 231 views
E
  • EVOM
  • Contributor I
  • 6 replies

Hi

 

To start, I have 7 sonos products and have been with sonos for about 4 years…..I love it!!

Back ground…

I live in a house with poor wifi coverage. I get good coverage in one corner of the house from the router and use a couple of wifi extenders to get wifi coverage for the rest of the house. All works well for zoom calls, netfix, etc etc on all phones, pcs, ipads and fire stick. Downside with sonos, is it doesn't like my extenders as i think it cases lag, so i bought a Sonos boost 1 year ago…..Now all sonos works perfectly and i love it!

 

Toaday…

I received my Move over the weekend, set it up next to my router and all is well. Move it to my kitchen and it now says that its connected to a wifi extender and cannot play (not the exact words but you get the idea). i take it back to the router (which is 1 meter from the Sonos Boost) and it still says im on the extender.  after resetting it a few times I called sonos tech support that had me reset every thing again, switch off extenders etc etc and then said at the end…..

 

“The Sonos boost does not connect to the BOOST network, it has to connect to the WIFI and cannot be via an extender” and then told me this is blatently on the website.

Can i ask if this is true and if so is my only option to send it back?

If it cant work from the dedicated Sonos Boost Wifi, it seems a backward step and seems to make the name “move” ironic?

 

PS, how do you make a complaint about the quality of the tech service?? i almost felt she was covering for someone else…. not knowing the basics. 

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12 replies

E

Oooppss

i have a typo….

 

“The Sonos MOVE does not connect to the BOOST network, it has to connect to the WIFI and cannot be via an extender” and then told me this is blatently on the website.

Ken_Griffiths

EVOM,
The Sonos Move does not connect to a SonosNet (STP) connection that is initiated by wiring one of their products to say the main router (as an example), so your Boost has no bearing on the way the Sonos Move connects. It’s connection is limited to either your 2.4ghz or 5ghz WiFi signal (which must be on the same subnet as your controller/devices).

The SonosNet wireless ‘mesh’ connections allows for the communication between all other Sonos products back to the main router, so the last thing that anyone needs is a portable device, like the Move, interfering (perhaps creating/breaking) those device connections as it is being transported about the home. The Move therefore is designed to run on WiFi only and not a SonosNet signal.

To get it to ‘perhaps’ switch between your WiFi access points, I would ensure each of those access points have the same credentials (SSID’s/Password) as your main router and operate on the exact same channels, with the same channel-width, to achieve best results whilst roaming.
 

Notice I use the words ‘perhaps’ in the last paragraph and that’s because not all wireless access points maybe compatible with Sonos devices and some adapters are not supported. What I would say however, is that if you find that is the case with your local network, but the access points in use have ‘device-blacklisting features’ (via MAC address) to exclude a device from connecting to it, then you could consider using those features to force the Move to seek its connection from a different access point, or from the main router, instead… but I would see his it goes when all access points are ‘mirroring’ the routers WiFi setup.

E

Thanks Ken

 

at no point durning reading the marketing bumph did any of your nuggets of wisdom get mentioned.  It makes sense about the nightmare of a moving mesh network, I was hoping the move just leeched if it. 
My TPlink extenders are all set up as is and I don’t want to mess with them ( I don’t want to mess up the network this close to Christmas)

If I can only use it on my primary Wi-Fi I don’t think the move is for me….. it’s gonna have to go back. 
 

many thanks. 
 

PS, Sonos should be up front in their marketing bumph…. it would of saved both parties the headache. 
 

thanks again

 

james

Ken_Griffiths

I’m not posting here to change your mind, but I’ve never seen anything from Sonos to say the Move connects to SonosNet. It really doesn’t need to. I run two of them in my Household (and I have the tp-link-360 - albeit their MAC addresses are blacklisted through the ‘Tether’ app) and not seen a problem with either Move… they each get moved around a fair amount daily and will no doubt be outside in the garden again next year, when Spring returns.

E

Thanks. 
 

looking at my recent purchase sonos one, it’s marketing doesn’t (didn’t) mention SonosNet either but it connects seemlesly.    It’s crazy that to have the Move playing music next to the One, it will need to be connected to Bluetooth whilst the One is is playing happily along on the boost network. 
 

unfortunately it’s goodbye Move…. I’ll brush the dust off my Bose Bluetooth speaker for my garden adventures. 

Ken_Griffiths

Thanks. 
 

looking at my recent purchase sonos one, it’s marketing doesn’t (didn’t) mention SonosNet either but it connects seemlesly.    It’s crazy that to have the Move playing music next to the One, it will need to be connected to Bluetooth whilst the One is is playing happily along on the boost network. 

I regularly group my Move with Sonos Ones, Fives and my HT setup and everything plays happily together  - just the same as every other networked device - they can be ‘wired’, running on the  ‘2.4ghz band’, ‘5ghz band’ or running on ‘SonosNet’ or any combination of all those available LAN connections...  and they will all play together perfectly and in sync - so I really don’t understand what you are referring to in your statement above… all are just a means of networking the device back to the router - the only real stipulation is they operate on the same network subnet.

Just as a practical example:

You could wire a Sonos One, and switch off its WiFi card so it is just a wired connection back to the router. You could also add a Sonos One and have it connect back wirelessly to a Sonos Boost via SonosNet and then add a Sonos Move to the mix, running on the local routers 2.4ghz or 5ghz band.
 

Then either have Alexa auto-group, (or use the Sonos App to group) the speakers and play music to all three, even placed right next to each other. All will play the requested audio together and in perfect sync.
 

Why else would Sonos use the 75ms audio buffer if it was not to cope with such network connections and conditions. WiFi/SonosNet/Wired links to the router do not make a shred of difference.

E

I mean…..

If the one is on SonosNet playing happily. The move would be out of Wi-Fi range and sitting there like a brick unless until being connected it to Bluetooth

When purchased, I wasn’t aware of the Moves limitations, it didn’t mention that it is is/ is not compatible with sonosnet, similarly the Sonos one never mentioned SonosNet either.

 

 

 

Ken_Griffiths

I mean…..

If the one is on SonosNet playing happily. The move would be out of Wi-Fi range and sitting there like a brick unless until being connected it to Bluetooth

When purchased, I wasn’t aware of the Moves limitations, it didn’t mention that it is is/ is not compatible with sonosnet, similarly the Sonos one never mentioned SonosNet either.

I don’t know if you are aware, but you can add upto 16 WiFi networks to your Sonos Move and that can even include mobile WiFi hotspots too - so you are not limited to the WiFi or SonosNet at home and if SonosNet can reach an area, then so can a WiFi access point. Bluetooth is there too as you mention.

I can take my Sonos Move to my Son’s home/garden and both it and my iPhone controller connect to his WiFi network automatically, because the connection was added to those devices last year. The music will play with no problem and he lives 20+ miles away ...and when we return home, the Move auto-switches back to the Wifi signal here and can play back here too.

...and it works well on WiFi when travelling around on holiday in our camper van too using a 4G LTE MiFi device.

E

I’m not sure if 16 Wi-Fi networks help me when I’m at home.  I just want it to work and not  be a pretty ornament 

 

 

ratty

To deal with a WiFi dark spot where there is SonosNet coverage, wire an additional access point to a nearby Sonos device. 

E

Hi Ratty,

Thats the exact problem. Like you, I thought SonosNet would solve my problem as i already have a boost. Only after buying and waiting for a Sonos Move did I find out that the Move only works on my primary wifi signal (not even an extender ) as it cannot and will not utilize SonosNet that  cover the same area.

Strange thing is, even the sonos tech suport had me jumping through hoops disconnecting, resetting etc etc for an hour for her then to say “ Ohh the sonos Move does not work on SonosNet”

ratty

Like you, I thought SonosNet would solve my problem as i already have a boost.

I’m afraid you’re mistaken. I was never under any illusions.

Perhaps you missed the point of my post. Any node on SonosNet can also extend the network to a third party device cabled to its Ethernet port. In that respect it functions as a ‘wireless bridge’, with SonosNet providing the ‘backhaul’.

If you wire a third party WiFi access point to a nearby Sonos node it will work. The Move can connect to it, and the Sonos system shouldn’t object. The available bandwidth across SonosNet won’t be huge, but should be quite sufficient for music.

Take care if connecting any general purpose device (phone, computer, etc) to the access point, as heavy downloads could choke the music stream.

 

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