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David_UK
Contributor I
April 2, 2019

Sonos time update every second ?!

  • April 2, 2019
  • 12 replies
  • 782 views
Why do my Sonos products constantly try to update their time EVERY single second.
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    12 replies

    pwt
    pwt
    Virtuoso
    April 2, 2019
    What are you observing that indicates this behaviour?
    4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300
    John B
    April 2, 2019
    Why do my Sonos products constantly try to update their time EVERY single second.Because time itself updates every second?
    David_UKAuthor
    Contributor I
    April 2, 2019
    Why do my Sonos products constantly try to update their time EVERY single second.Because time itself updates every second? I'm not sure you understand what NTP does. However it's a funny answer 😃
    John B
    April 2, 2019
    You are correct on both counts. 🙂
      David_UKAuthor
      Contributor I
      April 2, 2019
      NTP (Network time protocol) is used to sync systems time from an accurate source. Typically done every hour or so to check for the millisecond time slips. Sonos does this every second if not less on every device on your network. It's stupidly noisy.
      pwt
      pwt
      Virtuoso
      April 2, 2019
      I've just run a quick Wireshark capture for NTP traffic on my network, which has 10+ Sonos devices. I'm not seeing any unusual or excessive NTP traffic. Is it possible that your Sonos devices are unable to reach their specified NTP server?
      4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300
      ratty
      ratty
      April 2, 2019
      How do you know? Are you sniffing traffic through your internet gateway? There is other traffic, internal to the LAN, every second. For example STP BPDUs are sent once per second. And (I believe) sync timestamps are exchanged every second in a playing group.
      Kumar
      April 2, 2019
      Why does this matter?
      David_UKAuthor
      Contributor I
      April 2, 2019
      I've just run a quick Wireshark capture for NTP traffic on my network, which has 10+ Sonos devices. I'm not seeing any unusual or excessive NTP traffic. Is it possible that your Sonos devices are unable to reach their specified NTP server? They can access the local LAN NTP server perfectly and do so every second. I can understand a sync between speakers in a group. To me it seems very strange they need to speak out to the world every second. Looks more like data being sent out my network to me. I'll have a look at the packets and see what's being sent and confirm it's actually an NTP request packet.

      Does your wireshark see the whole LAN then ? You'd need a mirror port or a HUB to see anything other than on your leg of the swtichport otherwise.
      pwt
      pwt
      Virtuoso
      April 2, 2019
      Does your wireshark see the whole LAN then? You'd need a mirror port or a HUB to see anything other than on your leg of the swtichport otherwise.
      No, you're right ... I'm not seeing the relevant NTP traffic.
      4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300
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