Question

Is there any downside at all to hardwiring multiple Sonos devices?

  • 15 December 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 511 views

As part of a recent reno I ran Ethernet cable to many rooms in the house, and hence I have the opportunity to hardwire some of my Sonos units. Is there any downside to this? Or is it always a plus?

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3 replies

Always a plus with one caveat; your networking devices must be STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) capable, either via dumb switches that ignore it, or via a setting that enables it. Otherwise, wiring more than one Sonos can result in loops causing network storms.
Hmm mine is a LinkSys LGS116P unmanaged 16-port switch. According to the spec there's no explicit support for STP (802.1d I gather), but if "unmanaged" = "dumb" could I assume it ignores it? What does a "network storm" look like in practice - severe slowdown/stoppage of home network/internet access?

Thanks!
Yes, an unmanaged switch is dumb and should be fine. A network/broadcast storm is indeed a slowdown/stoppage due to packets looping back and forth between the Ethernet and WiFi connections.