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Ken, I would like to understand a bit more before I contact Sonos.  Despite being fairly IT literate, I fear that many of your strategies to make Sonos work well may be way beyond my capabilities and/or inclination in terms of effort just to listen to a music library (in common with most others who buy Sonos I suspect). I can just hear my friends saying ‘get a life’.

But can you please explain?

1. ‘steered’ onto the faster 5Ghz WiFi bands (6AX mesh)”” - I understand the first bit and could probably do that.  But what is 6AX Mesh? 
2. ensure their SNR readings (in every case) are set at 45dB, or higher” - ?  how would this be achieved?
3. “nothing wired but  do have a core wired network backhaul”” - backhaul? what does this mean?
4. reserved IP Addresses high up in the subnet to keep them out the way of other DHCP assigned addresses” - I think I did once try assigning IP addresses and as far as I recall on it’s own it didn’t seem to make the slightest bit of difference and that was with the old app/firmware BUT remind me, where is this done? Via router.
5. “2.4Ghz band uses non-overlapping channels with a channel-width of 20MHz only to help keep interference to a minimum” - I sort of understand the gist; again how is this achieved in a big city environment where there are many devices connected all around which compete for the available bandwidth on various frequencies? (this is location of one of my systems - the other being in a rural area with only one or two competing neighbours and even then much farther away than in the city location).  Both systems show all the lagginess issues.
6. Do I need a particular router/network standard to implement some of your sugggestions?  I have a FritzBox 7530 with a repeater, which I think is configured correctly but am unable to ascertain if devices are using the repeater or not.

Try as I might I suspect I will not find any of these sorts of configuration steps mentioned in the Sonos sales pitch in their website or elsewhere, the configuration guides etc, and for very good reason.  Because if they did mention these sorts of requirements, it would affect their sales.

​@kevinboardley,

I can already see a ‘potential’ issue with your network and that’s with your WiFi range extender as those are often mentioned on the Sonos system requirements as being part of an incompatible network setup and that’s before I begin answering your questions, Not least such extenders in some cases can interrupt the mDNS/SSDP device discovery packets I mentioned earlier. I would personally blacklist your mobile controller and Sonos products from using that network AP just as a first step - better still switch to a WiFi mesh system instead - WiFi 6AX is a standard of WiFi by the way similar to WiFi 5 or WiFi 6E etc.

Sonos is most compatible these days with WiFi 5AC

Anyhow back to your other questions…

See this link for Sonos device SNR levels when running Sonos devices on a WiFi network:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/understanding-the-network-details-section-in-the-sonos-app

It shows where to find the SNR level of your Sonos products and their connection to the 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz band - ideally if it’s possible you want to get all, or the majority, of your devices onto the faster 5Ghz band with an SNR reading of 45dB or higher. Device discovery is only as fast as your slowest Sonos player that responds to the controller,  so ensure you have strong connections. A WiFi repeater in this regard might be an obstacle to discovery here.

Note not all Sonos products can connect using 5Ghz band, but most can - I’ll post a list here later.

Steering devices onto the 5Ghz band can be done in most routers, simply by blacklisting their MAC addresses for the 2.4Ghz band in the router settings. YMMV - I don’t know your router brand, but have seen them mentioned before here in this community often with problems associated to them.

Reserving IP addresses so that they are fixed on the network is done on the router DHCP reservation table and whilst not essential, it can assist with device discovery and is particularly helpful when Sonos products are updated in one fell swoop. It stops IP addresses getting duplicated with some routers.

Backhaul - Mesh Hub access points are wired back to the same switch - it can be the router switch or (as in my case) a large switch adjacent to the router. Although devices are wireless to the nearest AP, the communication is mostly wired back to the router.

In a big city, scan and find the least used 2.4Ghz band from channels 1, 6 or 11 and use the least used for your 2.4Ghz band. Set the channel-width to 20Mhz only to help keep interference to a minimum. Again these changes are all done in the router configuration pages and in some cases your ISP support or possibly Sonos Support maybe able to assist you make these changes, if necessary.

My own thoughts are that your WiFi extender may possibly be a part of your current issues, but that’s just a guess on my part.

​@kevinboardley,
As mentioned in my last post…

These Sonos products support a 5Ghz WiFi connection:

• Play:1
• Play:3
• Play:5 (Gen 2)
• Sub (Gen 1)
• Sub (Gen 2)
• Era 100
• Era 300
• Move 2
• Roam
• Roam 2
• Roam SL
• Five
• Move
• One (Gen 1)
• One (Gen 2)
• One SL
• Port
• Arc Ultra
• Sub (Gen 3 & 4)
• Sub Mini
• SYMFONISK Bookshelf (Gen 2)
• SYMFONISK Floor lamp
• SYMFONISK Picture frame
• SYMFONISK Table lamp (Gen 2)
• SYMFONISK Bookshelf (Gen 1)

Thanks for that Ken.  But wow.  One really can need a lot of time, energy and expertise to get Sonos to work! Possibly needing to contact my ISP, Sonos as well as configuring through my router!!!  Just to play some music!  Hmmmm.

I don’t understand a lot of what you said.  Feel like I am embarking on a long learning curve. Where to start….

My second system (in the rural area) uses same router model but has no repeater in the setup; that system has the same issues.    Might this be one of the things you mention in your answer above?  Don;t want to go throwing good money after bad.

In terms of “blacklisting my mobile controller and Sonos products from using that network AP just as a first step, that is presumably done in my router somewhere...but I cannot see anything in my router set up pages that obviously tells me that a device is using either main router or extender. They just seem to be one, if I am interpreting correctly.

“better still switch to a WiFi mesh system instead - WiFi 6AX is a standard of WiFi” does that mean changing my router?

Don’t think I’m revealing anythgng I shouldn’t here:

Image deleted

Well I’m only trying to assist you here Kevin to get your Sonos setup working from the info you provide, you would likely find that speaking to Sonos Support might be your best bet, as they apparently have tools at their disposal that can often assist.

I appreciate some things may sound a little over the top, but that’s just the fact of things when trying to troubleshoot a system that isn’t working, from a distance and communicating via a forum.

By the way it’s not the case for everyone, in the case of many of our family and friends, their Sonos setup works fine with little, or no, network configuration changes, but I guess everyone’s setup is different.

Whilst I’ve expressed a few of the changes I would make to your setup, (oh and I can think of some other things too besides the ones I’ve covered so far) you may go onto find that when you speak to Sonos Support that only one or two changes are necessary, or Sonos may need to perhaps change things their end with an App/Firmware update etc. 

Anyhow I was just trying to assist but it’s really a matter for you if you want to try to get the issues resolved. I think a call to Sonos Support would be the best step to take and see what they may advise.

Thanks

That’s okay, no worries - just to quickly mention the image of your router you posted (briefly) before you removed it struck me that you were in fact using SonosNet - as I say I’m not familiar with that brand of router, but thats what appeared to be the case, in which instance you might want to consider changing that and use your own WiFi signal instead of the internal connection. Anyhow see what Sonos Support advise. Mention the WiFi extender to them aswell.👍

Will do