2.4Ghz or 5Ghz

If you are talking about the traditional Bridge wired to router Sonosnet setup, it doesn't matter. If you are talking about the newly released standard WiFi setup, you cannot connect to 5GHz:

Sonos communicates over a 2.4GHz home network supporting 802.11b/g wireless technology. 5GHz and 802.11n-only networks are not supported in a completely wireless Sonos setup (both 802.11b / 802.11g networks are supported).

https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2638

ok.., I guess I will connect it to my 2.4 GHz network, and disconnect it from my 5 GHz network, if it is not recommended. Thanks

ok.., I guess I will connect it to my 2.4 GHz network, and disconnect it from my 5 GHz network, if it is not recommended. Thanks

I didn't say it was not recommended. If you have a wired component like a Bridge, then you can use the 5GHz network all you want. It is only the brand new "completely wireless" setup that is incompatible with 5GHz. Note that Sonos recommends that if you are currently using a wired Bridge (or any other component), you should not change to completely wireless, because the wired Bridge setup is more reliable.

To be clear, the controller devices -- such as iPhone -- can connect via anything: 2.4GHz, 5GHz, 802.11ac, wire, etc. It's only the Sonos Players configured to use WiFi Setup which must attach to an access point supporting 802.11g. at 2.4GHz

This of course assumes that an iPhone on 5GHz shares the same IP subnet as the 2.4GHz network that hosts the Sonos units. This would generally be the case.

OK.. Thanks for the help.

Just another question to ratty.

I have a dual band router with a 2.4 GHz radio and 5 GHz radio. If I have my sonos play 5 connected to the 2.4 GHz band (which I must) and my controller (my phone) connected to the 5 GHz band, will I be able to control the sonos player with no problems?

I think you did answer this above, but I wasn't too sure what you mean by 'the same IP subnet' since I don't know much about networks. Thanks 🙂

The 2.4GHz and 5GHz would generally share the same network. Often Sonos will work without problem in your kind of scenario however some routers have proved to be awkward by not permitting broadcast traffic to pass freely between the two wireless segments. Sonos controllers depend on such traffic to discover the players.

If you encounter problems the options are:
- to put your phone on the 2.4GHz segment, or
- to wire a BRIDGE or BOOST to the router and run the PLAY:5 in SonosNet ('BOOST Setup') mode.

Cheap brand new BRIDGEs can be found on eBay.

That's excellent thanks!

What I might do is set it up how I described, and if I'm getting problems then I'll wire a BRIDGE or BOOST to the router, like you suggested.

Adding my two cent to the discussion for the purpose of anyone searching for a resolution to issues with the 2.4GHz and 5 GHz : I was on a wireless network that had the 2.4 GHz segment and 5 GHz segments with the same named network id. I got my Sonos connect amp and Play 1 speakers set up and working no problem. But the Sonos controller would only intermittently work on my iPhone app, often not finding the Sonos network. What I think was happening was the iPhone was connecting to the 5GHz band. When I renamed the 5GHz to its own network id/name and then only connected to the 2.4 GHz named network, I stopped having these issues.

Again, posting in case there are others visiting the boards who have experienced similiar problems.

Was WiFi Assist disabled? If not the 5GHz signal might have weakened to the point that the mobile connection was favoured.

Yes, the wifi assist was disabled. I saw this suggestion in another thread and checked to confirm that it was. Since making the change and only connecting my phone to the 2.4GHz, I've had no issues. I don't know enough about networking to understand if that's truly the root cause but it has fixed my problem.

Yes, the wifi assist was disabled. I saw this suggestion in another thread and checked to confirm that it was. Since making the change and only connecting my phone to the 2.4GHz, I've had no issues. I don't know enough about networking to understand if that's truly the root cause but it has fixed my problem.

7.3 addresses the below. Wonder if that fixes the problem you encountered if you wanted to leave the networks named the same.

"There were also some other minor tweaks to help improve how things run in the background, including better handling of the iOS Wi-Fi Assist feature."