Does SonosNet reach the back of the house? If so you could experiment with a small access point wired to a Sonos device there. The access point could service the Move. SonosNet would provide the AP’s backhaul to the router.

(If you don’t have a spare access point lying around, an old router, re-purposed as an access point, would do fine.)

Hi Ratty 

Thanks for replying -- Actually I don’t have a bridge or anything now, so I don’t think sonos.net is active. I can only see my home wireless in the settings.

The reason for this is that I was actively advised about three months ago by sonos tech that the older bridges create more issues with the newer speakers than they solve (so syncing sound between the move over Wifi and the Play 5/3 over Sonos net creates issues). Although I’m not sure what to believe right now as I feel like it’s just still not working properly either.

So if you can help or advice- Tte issue for me is that if I create a wireless Access point at the end of the house and connect the “back of the house or garden” move to that, doesn’t that also have to be the WAP / SSID that services that other move and speakers  as well ?

Sorry if I sound like a novice - about 7 years ago I had just a few speakers and very few issues,  I’ve spend £600 on speakers since then, and the wifes not over the moon !

It sounds like your system’s in WiFi (‘wireless’) mode then. If so, in Settings/System/About My System you’d see WM:1 (WM:2 for home theatre satellites if you have any). 

My suggestion assumed you had a wired Sonos component and were in SonosNet (‘wired’) mode. You’re right that the Bridge is ancient tech, with a tendency of its power supply to fail, so it’s best removed. You could always invest in a Boost instead. 

I assume there’s no chance of running an Ethernet cable from the router to somewhere in back of the house, so as to connect an access point there? 

Hi Ratty,

Thanks for this - that helps with the explanation and I’m getting some good suggestions and help from you which I didn’t really get from the Sonos Tech team.

Just for my reference again, if I was to plug a Play1 directly into the router, could I use that to broadcasts the Sonos net - then put an access point on one of the fixed speakers near the back of the house and use that for the move (I’m assuming as I have two moves and one of them is upstairs,  we’d need the same SSID on both).  Sonos isn’t going to whinge about the 2nd one being an extender is it ?

My understanding is that the boost won’t actually help with the standard wifi (move at the back of the house) issue as it only boosts Sonos net, not Wifi ? Is that correct ?

At the moment it’s not practical to have an long ethernet cable through the house as we have an open plan kitchen, then the back of the house is an extension built into the solid walls.

Sorry for all the questions, I’ve had so many issues with it, just want to try the best solution 1st.

Best regards,

Steve

Yes, that should work. You’d configure the access point’s SSID/password into Sonos. It should replicate to both Moves.

There is a chance that SonosNet may get a little confused about which speaker is wired directly to the router, since more than one will have an Ethernet connection, but that’s readily fixable. We’ll deal with that as necessary if there are any problems.

Yes, Boost is SonosNet only. Think of Boost as a speaker with all the audio bits removed, leaving just the network elements. Alternatively, you can imagine that every speaker contains the gubbins found inside a Boost.

I know the problem. 

Hi @franandsteve 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Although @ratty’s suggestion sounds like it would work (though is unsupported), it may be tempting for you to then use that WiFi signal for other, non-Sonos, purposes. This may degrade Sonos’ performance.

Rather than upgrade your current router with one with better range, I recommend you instead invest in a WiFi mesh system which will provide you with multiple WiFi nodes - that way, as well as getting your Move to work in the garden, you can also have your other WiFi devices work there too, like an iPad. You can also cover other spots in your home that currently have weaker WiFi coverage. Should you choose to add a mesh system to the router you already have, you’ll need to make sure you put your mesh into Bridge mode to avoid IP address conflicts, but this is simple to do (a search for the name of the mesh and “mesh bridge mode” is enough). It can be tricky on Google Mesh, however, so I recommend avoiding those.

Mesh systems work in a different, more robust way compared to range extenders/boosters and are fully supported by Sonos. Your current router (unless provided by your ISP) may even be mesh-capable, and if so you just need to add some nodes to it.

Indeed. The intent, from my side at least, was only to feed the Moves.

(That said, my experience is that it’s the non-stream traffic which can suffer, presumably due to QoS.)

I did get that impression, but it would be very tempting to use it, no? Especially with guests (if lockdown ever ends) over for a BBQ. 

@franandsteve - Relocation of the existing router may be enough too, if that’s an option, but you’d presumably lose coverage at the opposite end of the house.

Point taken. I’d probably have hidden the SSID to avoid such temptations. 

Hi, so does anyone have experience of the low cost solutions for mesh like TP-Link Deco M5 or the Netgear Obi and how these behave with Sonos.  I 

Deco and Orbi meshes are fine with Sonos, especially with your older units utilising Sonosnet. The Moves would be happy on either mesh.