Contributor I

Networking (LAN) with Sonos speakers and UniFi

Forum|Forum|24 days ago
September 12, 2026
5 replies
78 views

Hi everyone.

I have made this below document on basis of my own experience. I found a solution for a lot of issues, like speakers for computers, TV speakers, and integration with wireless devices. Kindly have a look at this document and give me your thoughts.

https://www.icloud.com/pages/0bedGi_eXiHO5ZflXrcD6HXJg

All the best Sam.

Sotiris C.

Sonos Staff

Hello @Sam McCloud, welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thank you for sharing this document, I had a quick look and it shows various information regarding Sonos and networking.

With my response your thread moved to the top of the latest activity list, maybe other users would like to chime in and provide some feedback.

Leaving a like and marking Best Answer might make someone's day. Who knows, that someone might be you.

Pools-3015

Prodigy I

Hi @Sam McCloud. Good work with this document. I am sure many will find it useful.

I just have a few things I would like to add (from my experiences), in the “Best Practices” section:

If using a wired network with old and new Sonos devices, There is no need to have them all wired. I have my Arc wired with the Sub and surrounds wireless bonded to the Arc’s 5Ghz radio. There is a Connect S15 in the same room that streams audio from a turntable to the rest of my speakers. The Connect is wirelessly connected using SonosNet. I also have a Play 5 Gen 2 that I move around connected in the same manner.

SonosNet can remain enabled if you have speakers hardwired. You would simply select a channel not in use on your 2.4Ghz radio, just as you stated for the wireless setup. I use channels 1 and 11 for my access points, so I have Sonos on channel 6.

All Sonos devices do not NEED to be connected to the same switch. Many users are not able to accomplish this because of the lack of ethernet runs in their homes. Having STP priority set correctly on downstream switches is important. I have speakers connected to my main switch and the priority is set to 4096. I also have two downstream switches with Sonos speakers are hardwired to them. The priority on theses switches are set to 8192.

With these settings I have not had any issues. Even when the new app was released, I only lost the functionality items that were removed within the app. I still had access to all streaming services and my local library.

Sam McCloudAuthor

Contributor I

Hi @Sam McCloud. Good work with this document. I am sure many will find it useful.

I just have a few things I would like to add (from my experiences), in the “Best Practices” section:

If using a wired network with old and new Sonos devices, There is no need to have them all wired. I have my Arc wired with the Sub and surrounds wireless bonded to the Arc’s 5Ghz radio. There is a Connect S15 in the same room that streams audio from a turntable to the rest of my speakers. The Connect is wirelessly connected using SonosNet. I also have a Play 5 Gen 2 that I move around connected in the same manner.

SonosNet can remain enabled if you have speakers hardwired. You would simply select a channel not in use on your 2.4Ghz radio, just as you stated for the wireless setup. I use channels 1 and 11 for my access points, so I have Sonos on channel 6.

All Sonos devices do not NEED to be connected to the same switch. Many users are not able to accomplish this because of the lack of ethernet runs in their homes. Having STP priority set correctly on downstream switches is important. I have speakers connected to my main switch and the priority is set to 4096. I also have two downstream switches with Sonos speakers are hardwired to them. The priority on theses switches are set to 8192.

With these settings I have not had any issues. Even when the new app was released, I only lost the functionality items that were removed within the app. I still had access to all streaming services and my local library.

This number is priority in switches to prevent STP issues (loops in the LAN network). Let me explain how this works.

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP / RSTP) Priority Numbers

If you are configuring switch priorities to structure your network topology and prevent network loops, you must use multiples of 4096. The default priority number for all UniFi switches is 32768.

To designate your core/master switches, you manually change this number to a lower value:

0: Assign this to your primary/master core switch (Root Bridge).
4096: Assign this to your secondary/backup core switch.
8192: Assign this to your first tier of downstream/distribution switches.
12288: Next layer of downstream switches.
32768: Default value (leave this on your edge or access-layer switches).

I hope this will help you.

Sam McCloudAuthor

Contributor I

Hi @Sam McCloud. Good work with this document. I am sure many will find it useful.

I just have a few things I would like to add (from my experiences), in the “Best Practices” section:

If using a wired network with old and new Sonos devices, There is no need to have them all wired. I have my Arc wired with the Sub and surrounds wireless bonded to the Arc’s 5Ghz radio. There is a Connect S15 in the same room that streams audio from a turntable to the rest of my speakers. The Connect is wirelessly connected using SonosNet. I also have a Play 5 Gen 2 that I move around connected in the same manner.

SonosNet can remain enabled if you have speakers hardwired. You would simply select a channel not in use on your 2.4Ghz radio, just as you stated for the wireless setup. I use channels 1 and 11 for my access points, so I have Sonos on channel 6.

All Sonos devices do not NEED to be connected to the same switch. Many users are not able to accomplish this because of the lack of ethernet runs in their homes. Having STP priority set correctly on downstream switches is important. I have speakers connected to my main switch and the priority is set to 4096. I also have two downstream switches with Sonos speakers are hardwired to them. The priority on theses switches are set to 8192.

With these settings I have not had any issues. Even when the new app was released, I only lost the functionality items that were removed within the app. I still had access to all streaming services and my local library.

Best Practice: If you are connecting multiple external UniFi switches to your network, do NOT plug them parallelly into the router's LAN ports!

Instead, connect your most powerful external switch directly to the router (ideally via the 10Gbps SFP+ LAN port). Manually configure that external switch's STP priority to 0 or 4096 (or higher) so it acts as the master "Root Bridge" for the rest of your network.

C

craigski

Local Superstar

‘Best Practice’, from manufacturers, albeit written before the disable SonosNet feature:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/64d25b2ad1525118c018cbb3/t/67d08e530115140fb1f951be/1741721172373/01_TheGuildFieldGuides_SonosNetworkingBestPractices_Nov2024.pdf

https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/18930473041047-Best-Practices-for-Sonos-Devices

Personal ‘Best Practice’ can work that has deviated from manufacturers ‘Best Practice’ in certain situations, however may limit the support if not installed following their guidelines.

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