Question

Sonos affected by Wireless Access Point hardware change

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I recently swapped out my 2011 access point in my bedroom used for WiFi there, and I am seeing some Sonos anomalies.

In the bedroom I have a Boost that is also root bridge, wired back to the main router in the common area, that has a Connect Amp also wired back to the same main router. I was using Airport Express in the bedroom, ethernet wire connected to the other ethernet jack on the Boost using the switch feature on Boost, to successfully obtain high speed WiFi in the bedroom - with the single band AEX set to work in access point mode, creating a 5 GHz network there. No issues with Sonos then, using either the phone or the Mac in the bedroom for control.

I replaced said AEX using a dual band TP Link access point as a drop in replacement. Now, at times, the Connect Amp disappears from the Controller as well as from the Matrix. Getting it to reappear needs a Connect Amp reboot, that works for some time.

I can’t see any logical reason for this - and when I brought the AEX back for a test, the problem disappeared.

Any reason why Sonos/TP Link are not playing nice all the time? The bedroom Sonos is supplied wirelessly from Boost, and there is no issue with that unit. Nor are other bedroom units like Firestick/Echo Show affected by the change.

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ratty

In more than one place, I am seeing that the ethernet port on the 850 works to wire an end device like a computer to a 850 wirelessly connected back to a router. Perhaps there has been a version change that has brought this about. The available user guides online no longer have the section you have quoted in them.

They do. https://static.tp-link.com/2020/202004/20200422/1910012794_TL-WA850RE_UG_REV7.0.1.pdf

In extender mode the port on that unit functions as a wireless Ethernet bridge, as does just about every such device.

K

KumarAuthor

@ratty:

So if I bought the attached, it can be set up wired back to the router as a 2.4 GHz WiFi access point and it would not disturb Sonos performance?

ratty

I already said that I’ve used up to three of such APs with Sonos without issue.

Some wired to a router, some wired to wireless Sonos units.

K

KumarAuthor

Fair enough, just double checking on the one I will add to my cart. It isn't that expensive either, so there is that.

I suppose I should also do the IP address reservation in the router and set the IP selection in the TP Link menu to static IP as I did for the RE 205?

ratty

I suppose I should also do the IP address reservation in the router and set the IP selection in the TP Link menu to static IP as I did for the RE 205?

Better practice would be to assign a static IP outside the DHCP pool. There’d then be no need to reserve it.

K

KumarAuthor

Reverting back to topic: since one 2011 AEX is getting glitchy, the basic reason to look for alternatives - we switched back to RE205 for my son’s room with no overt connection to Sonos except wiring back to the core network. And within 5 minutes, my balcony wired to core network Sonos stopped playing.

So there is something definitely not suited to Sonos with RE205.

Hopefully, the WA850 due to come on Saturday, will do better with Sonos.

K

KumarAuthor

WA850 turned up a day earlier, and it is a case of so far so good.

Perhaps one reasons why it behaves differently is that there is an option for DHCP between Auto, On, and Off. So Off can be user selected once IP address reservation is done in the Time Capsule.

Early behaviour also suggests that from within his smallish room, it is coping with the delivery of HD streams to my son’s Firestick, so there is that box also hopefully ticked.

What the RE205 gains by having different internals with respect to the DHCP aspects if that is indeed the cause for it to disturb Sonos, is a mystery to me. I can't see its dual band feature to be a reason.

K

KumarAuthor

@ratty almost two days down the line, Sonos and WA850 are coexisting fine and my mostly wired Sonos system as as stable as a wired one ought to be.

Thanks for the guidance...again:-).

ratty

Yes, in my experience they’re useful little units. Stable, quick to boot, and they run cool too.

K

KumarAuthor

Yes. I have ordered another to keep as a spare before they disappear.

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