Curious..have you had the system a while and worked fine and now have issues? Or is it a new set up?

Typically, how many speakers do you Group? If you restrict Group play to only wired speakers do you have dropouts?

Describe your network for us. Which model Gateway/Router? Network switches? WiFi extenders or mesh points? Other network clients?

Are you reserving IP addresses for all regular network clients? Using 20MHz channels on the 2.4GHz WiFi segment?

Would have been happy to respond without the threats. 

If you don’t think you’re experiencing wifi interference, then it’s most likely a duplicate IP address issue, something that is sometimes common when routers are in a bad state, and due to the fact that every time Sonos does a software update, they reboot to load the new software, and request a new IP address from the router. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with either a connection is via Wi-Fi or wired, it has to do with the network itself acting up.

The short term test (and temporary fix) for this is relatively simple. Unplug all your Sonos devices from power. While they’re all powered down, reboot your router, which causes it to refresh everything, including its IP addresses stored in its DHCP table. Give the router a couple of minutes to reboot, then plug back in your Sonos devices, which will then request new IP addresses from the refreshed router.

However, this is potentially a temporary fix, until such time as the router gets into a bad state again, and Sonos updates their software. So, if this does fix your issue, I would encourage you to set up reserved IP addresses for your Sonos, and honestly everything in your network, on your router. Check the riuter’s manual on how this is done, it varies from router to router, and from manufacturer to manufacturer, there is no ‘easy instructions’ to point to. However, it usually isn’t difficult to do, after one or two, you get the hang of it. 

Sonos doesn’t act like any ‘other wireless devices in my home’, due to the way that they constantly are inter communicating in order to be able to group and play properly. So comparing them to the other devices is somewhat not useful

For what it’s worth, this recommendation is splattered all over this forum, in thread after thread, in various ways. If routers weren’t as sensitive and so prone to failing on their IP address handouts, this would be less of an issue. But any electrical device will ultimately be sensitive to all sorts of potential issues, from simple power surges on the mains, to outside RF interference, to cosmic rays (seriously!)

Sorry for the delay in responding… And thank you for the replies. I’ll try to answer each of your questions…

@Dogdad, I’ve had the system for 1+ year. It started with 2 wireless 1 SL’s and grew from there. The 1’s were always wireless and I don’t think I had problems with those. If I had, I may have aborted the system at that point until I got it figured out, anyway. The remainder of the system was set up over the next 6 months or so and then the problems started (to my recollection).

@buzz, Usually when playing music, I group the entire system (12 SONOS devices, 3 wired). Wired speakers usually work fine without dropouts, but I have had one of the Beam’s drop out (it’s wired).

As for describing the network, I have drawn a crude drawing of my home, roughly to scale. The home is a bungalow approximately 30’x90’ (those numbers are a guess, I didn’t measure). Many of the walls are clapboard and plaster (I think this interferes with the wireless somewhat). Internet coming into the house is Gigabit fiberoptic. From the router to the other wired network points it utilizes MoCA 1.0’s which have tested at speeds of 850Mb+ both ways (the coax is not used for anything else). The router is a Synology RT2600ac and the mesh point is a Synology MR2200ac. The MoCA at the router plugs directly into the router. The Mesh router plugs into the MoCA and has a 4 port Gb switch plugged into the mesh router that connects the Beam (and TV & NVIDIA Shield. However, when the cutouts happen none of the TV’s/Shields are on). At the remaining Beam & Arc there are 4-port Gb switches plugged directly into the MoCA’s and the Beam & Arc are plugged into those (Along with TV’s, NVIDIA Shields). I’d like to reiterate, when the cutouts happen, NONE OF THE TV’s/SHIELDS ARE ON.

IP Addresses are static. I’m not sure what you’re asking about 20MHz channels on the 2.4GHz WiFi segment. But the SonosNet is on Ch11 and the 2.4GHz WiFi is also set to Ch11 (both recommendations of SONOS support).

@Airgetlam, First, sorry if you found something I said offensive or threatening. I’m assuming when you referenced my “threats” you were referring to using these speakers as targets. While probably an exaggeration, I am about to that point as I’ve spent ~$6,500 on a wireless speaker system that really does not work, only to have support basically tell me to wire my wireless speakers. So, yes, I am EXTREMELY frustrated.

I am not convinced it is not interference. But for that matter I only go off what support tells me which is “there is interference.” As for the router IP addresses, I do not see any duplicate addresses. Occasionally I’ll see that IP addresses within the SONOSNet change and the software update explains that. The funny thing is they don’t all change, just a couple of them.

The short-term test is one that support has had me do several times which has yielded no improvement. There may be immediate improvement in that if one speaker was cut-out, it will work after the reboot. But I don’t know if that is necessarily as a result of the reboot as this is a very intermittent problem.

I am inclined to believe it is interference as that is what support tells me and, if this is an indicator of the amount wireless traffic in the area that can interfere, when I view the available wireless networks available on a mobile device such as iPhone, iPad, laptop computer, it is not uncommon to see 8-10 or 12 wireless networks visible. Some are the same networks in separate 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands, and some appear to be completely separate networks.

One thing that I’m going to change is I just received a cable to wire the 5 that is in the same room as the router to the network. It will have to plug into a 1Gb switch, however. But I do not anticipate this being a problem.

Thanks again for all your replies.

You do not want your router and SonosNet to be on the same channel.

Amend your router to either channel 1 or 6.

Ok, that’s done WiFi is now on Ch6. Thanks for the feedback.

I’ve also wired the SONOS 5 in the same room as the router to the router. It is one that would cut out A LOT.

Unless there’s something special about your router’s DHCP table, you won’t “see” duplicate IP addresses, the router only shows what is currently connected, when you run the report. They don’t reflect “this IP address is used by 2 things”, in my experience. 

Assigning your Sonos reserved IP addresses will resolve that occasional “one is missing” intermittent issue, and allow you to focus on other potential concerns, as what you’re experiencing may be several issues which seem similar in action, but are very disparate. Reducing possible reasons for issues is a good part of the process. 

pilotbum,

Usually, on the same router screen where you can set the WiFi channel, there is an opportunity to set channel width. Yes, we know that 40MHz channels are faster, but they interfere with adjacent 2.4Ghz 20MHz channels. For example a 40MHz channel 1 will interfere with channel 6. A 40MHz channel 6 will interfere with channels 1 and 11. While the interference is not usually at the level of blocking the adjacent channels, it slows them by increasing the error rate.

It’s possible that a neighbor’s WiFi is interfering with your WiFi. Maybe a neighbor is using 40MHz channels. Microwave ovens can cause interference when operating. Interference leaves very clear tracks in the SONOS diagnostics. Did support indicate that any particular player was incurring more interference than other players?

You could explore the possibility of intermittent hardware failure by selectively powering down one player at a time. Keep good notes. In addition to hardware failure, interference could vary by time of day.

I once had an interference issue that was very perplexing. After only a few days of logging a clear pattern emerged. Evenings could be bad, but Sunday afternoon was nearly impossible. I slipped a copy of my log under my neighbor’s door. A few days later the note returned with annotations. She sometimes traveled for work and those evenings would be fine. Sunday afternoon she called her mom. The issue was her portable phone system that operated in the 2.4GHZ band. Her main phone was on the other side of the wall from one of my players. As long as I didn’t use that player as the only wired player, I was OK.

@Airgetlam , what other issues are you thinking it could be that are similar in action?

@buzz , thanks for the clarification. I found the setting you are referring to in my router settings and changed the 2.4GHz band to 20MHz.

Support never indicated if any players were getting more interference than others.

I hope it isn’t a hardware issue. And I cannot honestly say I have noted the times of day when I get the interference and if any times are worse than others. I’ll start keeping track of that.

Well, beyond the IP issue, there certainly can also be wifi interference , either from within or outside your home, and physical hardware issues, or even a power surge type event corrupting the software. We’re talking about a networked computer, there are all sorts of things that individually, or in concert, could be contributing to the single issue you’re seeing. This is why reducing potential options helps hone in on a solution. There are probably things I haven’t even thought of. 
 

When the community responds, we’re usually 98% correct in our assumptions, as we’ve seen the exact type of posts, over and over, in the years that we’ve been helping out here, but there are always the random small number of cases that show up in one way, but turn out to be something more unusual. As I’ve tried to suggest, multiple times, reducing the number of variables eliminates some possibilities, and ultimately crosses off some of the potential causes for the reason a particular expression of an issue shows up. But there’s almost never a ‘silver bullet’ that fixes everything, it’s always a case of elimination, due to the nature of a networked computer that uses both electricity and radio frequencies to function. 

Well, so far I’ve followed all the advice offered. I’ve also added one of the 5’s to the LAN via network cable. I have my fingers crossed.

Is there any way for a user to see the error logs or are these only available to tech support?

Thanks again for all your help.

Not error logs, but you can get a picture of some aspects as follows.

Obtain the ip address of any Sonos speaker. 

In your internet browser, type

http://ip address:1400/support/review 

Click on Network Matrix 

Obviously you substitute in the ip address of your speaker

If you post a screenshot of the matrix folk here can comment…

That first one was when the system was idle. I pushed play and this is what it looks like… (and it’s playing everywhere)

Unfortunately, all of your units are relatively recent designs. The recent designs do not report data here. Note the “undefined” and zero “Noise Floor”. Older units would have very useful data displayed in these fields. In my opinion, SONOS could reduce the need for support calls if this missing data could be displayed by common folk.

You can go into individual players and check the (undocumented, marginally useful) /proc/auth_rincon/status and /sbin/ifconfig data for error counts. If one player has a much higher count that the others, this warrants some attention.

So far, I haven’t had any problems since I’ve made the changes all of your recommendations and adding a network cable to the one SONOS 5. Hopefully this solves things. Stay tuned… I’ll report back…