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access point mode on router not working on sonos one.

  • 15 December 2022
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J
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I have been battling this issue now for almost a year. I have 2 routers. The primary router is where the internet comes into my house. From there, I have an Ethernet cable that runs approximately 125 feet into my garage and connects to another router (R6900v2). I have problems with my Sonos speakers dropping connection in my garage. In my opinion they are trying to grab the signal from the primary router in the house. I have contacted Sonos, my ISP, and Netgear. No one seems to help. Sonos says put the garage router in Bridge mode. I have tried, but am not tech savvy enough to trouble shoot. When I’m bridge mode, I can not access internet. The last time I asked the Netgear community, I was told to run in access point mode. I have asked a few different techs at NETGEAR.  They confirm to put router in access point.  This does not work either. My speakers play for about 20-30 minutes and then drop. My ISP is no help at all. Can someone please help?!?!?  

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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 20 December 2022, 21:35

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30 replies

Corry P
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Hi @jellikit 

You are most welcome.

The only other thing I can think of trying is to wire the Garage speaker using the cable that currently connects the second router to the first. This will stop you from having internet access in the garage on your phone, but it may make the speaker more reliable. If this proves to be the case, you could then fit a switch to the same cable, so that the speaker and router can both be wired to the main router via the switch, restoring your internet connection there.

This way, only the phone and app would be connecting via the second router. As the actual playback of music would not rely on the second router, perhaps this will turn out to be more reliable.

Of course, if the issue was indeed due to a power interruption, these steps will not help.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
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Corry,

 

I switched speakers months ago and narrowed the problem down to the garage itself.  Not the speaker.  I have gone round and round with Sonos and Netgear…….for literally 2 years.  So, needless to say, I am frustrated.  But, you helped the situation for sure.  I got everything working great for the past couple of months by following your recommendations.  Now I am having issues again.  I can not say if it is the router or the speaker……because it has never been fully resolved.  But your help has been greatly appreciated.  Thanks so much.

B
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  • A completely random, cosmic event (like a supernova going boom thousands of years ago, and thousands of light-years away, delivering a high-energy proton in the exact spot on the CPU needed to cause a bit-flip and a system crash) - as the issue repeated, this seems unlikely, but it could have also caused the previous corruption possibility. Yes, really.

Thanks for the link to this interesting video, I learned something today.

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @jellikit 

Thanks for swapping the speakers - that narrows possibilities down considerably.

Your reply is a little ambiguous, however - you state that you fixed the issue by deleting (I presume you mean factory-resetting) the speaker and adding it again, but you then later state that you swapped the speakers and the issue remained in the Garage. Are you still experiencing the issue? Or was the speaker swap done before the reset?

These are the reasons why a speaker might reboot, and whether or not I feel they apply to your situation:

  • Interruption of power supply - the most likely, in my opinion. This could be the breaker, the mains cabling, the wall socket, the plug, the speaker’s power cable or the cable’s seating in the socket.
  • A hardware fault of some kind - if it was this, the issue would follow the speaker when it’s swapped with another, so it seems this is not the answer.
  • A network change - I had to check with a colleague about this, as I thought the speaker’s reboot looked more like a hard-reboot, but it seems a soft reboot that would happen due to a network change could look like what I see. Therefore, the speaker reboot may have been caused by the router doing...something.
  • Environmental Heat - if it’s particularly hot in the Garage, this could make the speaker reboot in a mistaken attempt to protect itself (it’ll incorrectly presume the heat is coming from itself due to maxed-out CPU usage) - I’ll let you decide if this is likely.
  • Corrupted configuration settings (or something) - the reset would have addressed this, in which case it’s already fixed.
  • A completely random, cosmic event (like a supernova going boom thousands of years ago, and thousands of light-years away, delivering a high-energy proton in the exact spot on the CPU needed to cause a bit-flip and a system crash) - as the issue repeated, this seems unlikely, but it could have also caused the previous corruption possibility. Yes, really.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
Userlevel 1
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Thanks for the advice!

I ended up deleting the speaker, and then re-installing it.  As to why I had to do this, who knows?  It seemed to work though.  This is beyond frustrating though, as I spend a lot of time in my garage.  Having a dependable sound system would be great!

 

The power supply is fine.  It’s a new building that had to be inspected by the county.  I have swapped speakers around.  It seems to be only the  connection in the garage.

 

thanks again

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @jellikit 

I’m sorry to hear that you’re still having issues with this speaker!

The diagnostic indicates that the speaker was only on for 1 minute prior to the diagnostic being submitted - this means that the reason the Garage speaker cut out is because it was rebooting. As to why it was rebooting, that’s harder to discern. Certainly worth checking is that the power to the speaker is reliable - all plugs fully in sockets, no damaged cables, etc. Perhaps there’s another power socket you can try?

The next time it happens, please immediately check the speaker’s light - if it is flashing white, then it is rebooting.

You could try swapping the Master Bathroom and Garage speakers around - if there is an issue with the speaker itself, then the issue will follow the speaker. If it is related to the location, the issue will stay in the Garage.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
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Corry…….or any other Tech Wizards (See thread please)

You gave me some help a month or two ago. What you did seemed to help until today.

my garage speaker is acting up again.

I checked all settings on both routers, and all credentials are the same.

I made sure all software on all devices were updated.

I reset both routers, all Sonos Speakers, and phone.

 

My Garage speaker plays anywhere from 5 seconds to 10 minutes.

 

Here is the diagnostics from when the speaker just quit:

2137363955
 

Here is the diagnostic while system is playing:

2093436052

 

Please help.  Please.  I just want my system to work properly before I go buy a different brand of speakers……

 

thanks!

J
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Thanks!

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @jellikit 

When you group rooms to play together, the first room selected (before grouping is performed) is designated the Group Co-ordinator (GC) and is responsible for fetching the music stream from the source, whatever it may be. Once it has the stream, the speaker buffers it and prepares it for synchronised playback. The stream, along with sync info, is then distributed to the other rooms in the group - this results in the GC utilising a lot more bandwidth than a speaker playing on it’s own, and the entire group’s playback performance relies on the GC’s connection. Therefore, the choice of which device is put in charge of a group can be an important one.

I would avoid putting Garage in charge of groups due to the fact that all the other rooms are relatively close together so direct communication from speaker to speaker (avoiding the router) will be more reliable, and I would also avoid putting TV Playbar in charge of a group due to it always using slower 2.4GHz WiFi, as opposed to the 5GHz WiFi that all the other devices are using. Having said this, your system now looks in fairly good health, so unless you are grouping every room in, it probably won’t make much difference which speaker is doing the leg-work.

Going back to AirPlay, a garage is typically a place with a lot of metal in it - the iPad may be struggling in a particular spot, or only when someone walks past it, for example. And, contrary to dismayingly common thought, right next to a router is not a good place to get a strong signal for a device. I recommend more testing of online sources so you can gain confidence that any subsequent interruptions are due to the iPad’s connection. Finally, it may not actually be the iPad’s connection, but it’s CPU usage or background services that could be the source of interruptions - try rebooting the iPad, or test with another Apple device.

Again, you are most welcome, and I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
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Actually,  could you please explain further your suggestion:

“If, when grouping, you experience issues, try putting different rooms in change of the group (selected first) - this can make a huge difference to how things perform.”

 

The Master Bathroom, and garage speaker are the only two that are in separate areas from the other speakers.

 

Thanks!

J
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Thank you so much for the help and advice.  I truly appreciate it.  

Corry P
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Hi @jellikit 

Yes……I was trying to airplay from my iPad to the garage speaker while in the garage.  Does this mean my iPad wasn’t actually connected to the garage Wi-Fi?  It had full reception while trying to do this.

That would be my best guess. If internet music plays without issue and AirPlay does not, I would look to the iPad’s connection. Perhaps toggle the iPad’s WiFi off and on again when going into the garage to ensure it’s connecting to the close-by router. I can’t confirm in 453937846 which AP the iPad was connected to, but in 743893169 it was connected to the main router. I’m assuming you don’t carry your iPad around when it’s AirPlay-ing, but just in case you do, AirPlay would probably be “happier” if the iPad were to stay relatively still (though there doesn’t seem to be much interference in the Garage, unsurprisingly, so perhaps not). Technically, it should not matter which router your iPad is connected to - other than with the quality of the signal, that is.

It may also help just to reboot the router in the garage by switching it off for at least 30 seconds.

 

Incidentally, the other speakers are not reporting any more disconnects - I think what I saw before must have been to one of the router’s rebooting. There was some kind of event I am seeing residues of that happened 14-15 hours before you submitted 453937846, but it looks like it was a one-off.

I am in the house giving you this info.  Do I need to be doing something different?

If, when grouping, you experience issues, try putting different rooms in change of the group (selected first) - this can make a huge difference to how things perform.

Incidentally, but importantly, you really don’t want to have any WiFi-enabled devices within 1m of either router - including anything that has “hub” in it’s description. WiFi devices closer than 1m to each other will interfere and I’ll see little sign of it in the diagnostics. This could go some way to explaining the AirPlay issue.

I hope this helps.

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
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Yes……I was trying to airplay from my iPad to the garage speaker while in the garage.  Does this mean my iPad wasn’t actually connected to the garage Wi-Fi?  It had full reception while trying to do this.  Right now I am playing an internet station to only the garage speaker.  It seems to be working fine.  Here is the diagnostic number. 453937846
 

Here is the diagnostic with all speakers running on same internet station. 743893169 

 

I am in the house giving you this info.  Do I need to be doing something different?

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @jellikit 

Well, that’s disappointing!

The Garage speaker is reporting that it has not lost it’s connection to the garage router once in 5 days. The other speakers are reporting lost AP (Access Point) connections, however. 

What exactly is happening when the Garage speaker stops playing? Is it part of a group? If so, please test the speaker on it’s own to evaluate it properly - grouping brings other rooms (and another router) into the equation, and I’d prefer to know if the garage speaker performs okay on it’s own. Are you using AirPlay? If so, please test with another source - as AirPlay is also dependant on the source’s connection, it’s not the best way to test the Garage speaker, specifically. An online source would be ideal.

Please also submit a diagnostic when everything seems to be going well - I’d like to see one without speakers missing! Thanks.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
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Well.  My system worked for a couple of days.  Now the garage speaker only plays for about 5 seconds.  🙄
 

here is the latest diagnostic. 352807248

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @jellikit 

Glad to hear you’ve got it fixed - thanks for updating the thread!

And you are very welcome!

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
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Corry P and Ken_Griffiths, you solved my problem.  Seems to be working great.  Thank you so much for the help!  It has been quite the process.  I have literally struggled with this for quite some time…..back and forth between the router manufacturer to the speaker manufacturer, to the ISP.  I just needed to talk to the right people.

 

thank you again…….

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @jellikit 

The Garage is missing from that diagnostic, unfortunately, so I can’t see what happened to it.

It does sound like it lost connection momentarily - I can see it is online right now. So, @Ken_Griffiths’ advice fits very well!

If it happens again, please wait until the Garage has stopped flashing it’s light and the speaker responds in the app (try changing the volume or playing again) before submitting a diagnostic. Thanks.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
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Airtime fairness is not turned enabled on either router.  The channels were set to 4.  I changed both to 11.  The garage router was set to run on 20 ghz and 40 ghz.  I changed that to 20 ghz only.  
 

will try again and let you know if this works. 
 

thank you so much for your help.  This has been a year in the making!

 

Ken_Griffiths

I did everything you suggested.  Music plays in garage from anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours, then stops.  Speaker then flashes a slow, bright white flash.

 

I ran another diagnostic.  Here is the number. 460693807

Do you perhaps have QoS, or ‘Airtime fairness’ enabled on your router? If so, try disabling those features. If not done already, set the 2.4 GHz band to use either channel 1, 6 or 11 and set a channel-width of 20Mhz only. The settings should be the same for both AP’s as they are presumably using the same subnet.

J
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I did everything you suggested.  Music plays in garage from anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours, then stops.  Speaker then flashes a slow, bright white flash.

 

I ran another diagnostic.  Here is the number. 460693807

J
Userlevel 1
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I will try it for a day or two and let you know.  Thanks again!

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @jellikit 

So, I need to get the garage speaker to connect to the second router, which is in the garage, correct?

Yes - from your response, it sounds like it.

 

In order to do this, I need to give both routers the same credentials.  Does this mean the same SSID and password for the garage router?  What other credentials do I need to duplicate?

These are what I refer to as credentials - hopefully, you won’t need to adjust other settings. So, yes - keep the SSID and password the same across the two routers.

Then, disconnect Ethernet cable from the play bar, and finally follow the directions you gave for updating the network?

You’ll want to keep the ethernet cable connected until the Sonos system has been told the WiFi credentials - the app will in fact tell you when to remove the ethernet cable. Please follow the instructions at Connect Sonos to a new router or Wi-Fi network.

Lastly, if both routers have the same credentials, and garage is an access point, after updating the network the Sonos app should work seamlessly for the house and garage systems?

Yes, though they are not, nor will they be, separate systems. Expect to see all your speakers in the app at one time as you do now (when Garage isn’t misbehaving), regardless of which router your phone is connected to.

I hope this helps.

 

 

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
J
Userlevel 1
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I appreciate all of the information.

so…….just to make sure I fully understand:

 

I can not move my kitchen speaker any closer to the garage, nor can I move either speaker to improve the angle of transmission.  So, I need to get the garage speaker to connect to the second router, which is in the garage, correct?

In order to do this, I need to give both routers the same credentials.  Does this mean the same SSID and password for the garage router?  What other credentials do I need to duplicate?

 

Then, disconnect Ethernet cable from the play bar, and finally follow the directions you gave for updating the network?

 

Lastly, if both routers have the same credentials, and garage is an access point, after updating the network the Sonos app should work seamlessly for the house and garage systems?

Corry P
Userlevel 7
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Hi @jellikit 

Thanks for the diagnostic. Your Garage speaker is connecting to SonosNet via the Kitchen speaker, and therefore ignoring available WiFi alternatives. As far as the speaker is concerned, the settings of the second router (and the fact that it exists at all) is irrelevant. The Sonos app may see things differently when you are in that area, however - to it, the second router may well be important. If the Sonos app can connect to your Sonos system while your phone is on the second router’s WiFi, all is working well.

As for the Garage speaker, I can only really recommend trying to shorten an imagined straight line between the Garage and Kitchen speakers. If you can try to also shorten the amount of that line that is going through a wall, that would also help (a signal going at right-angles to a wall has less matter to penetrate than one approaching at a shallow angle).

I would also recommend checking the Kitchen speaker’s location for any sources of interference or signal blocking (thick materials, especially metal).

Moreover, your Sonos system does not know any WiFi passwords, so even if the Garage speaker could not connect to SonosNet, it wouldn’t know how to connect to either router. An option you have, therefore, is to give the Sonos system the credentials to get on to your WiFi (both, if the routers have different credentials - the first router first, then the second. I recommend having the same credentials for each), then disconnect the ethernet cable going to the Playbar. This will put all your Sonos devices on WiFi, and the Garage speaker should connect to the second router’s WiFi with a better signal strength that is currently found on SonosNet.

  1. Open the Sonos S2 app for iOS or Android.
  2. From the Settings tab, press System > Network > Manage Networks.
  3. Press Update Networks and follow the prompts to connect Sonos to your Wi-Fi network.
  4. Once the wireless setup is complete, disconnect the Ethernet cable from any Sonos products wired to your router.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
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