SonosNet future?

SonosNet is not quite dead yet because older speakers can still use it. But SonosNet is NOT needed these days. All your speakers will connect wirelessly to your WI-FI and work just fine. BUT, if you feel you need to use SonosNet to have a stable system, simply connect a main speaker like a soundbar or a single speaker like a Play 1, One or Five to your network with Ethernet. It will provide SonosNet to the other speakers just like the Boost.

Sonosnet is Wi-Fi, just a couple tweaks to make it invisible to most folks. It is OLD Wi-Fi though and any current Wi-Fi system will offer better/faster/more-stable connections with the newer standards and channels.

I made the switch from wired to Wi-Fi and have never looked back, things are more stable, particularly for the devices relying on Sonosnet. 

I absolutely and utterly beg to differ. I was using the wi-fi for a few months and the experience was appalling. Worse than Apple AirPlay 1 (which is the reason I moved to Sonos in the first place). As I said above, every time I loaded the app different speakers were missing and those that were there didn’t work correctly. I have wi-fi 6 tech for the home network, just over a year old and blistering fast for everything else on it. 
 

Sonosnet may be older tech but it’s always been rock solid and I’ve only had a few minor issues in well over a decade of happy Sonos use. Even with the launch of the awful new app, my physical system continued to work fine. 

Most disappointing of all was the Sonos support. I’ve never had cause to call them before and they were friendly, patient and helpful. However - I don’t understand why they didn’t identify the issue as the dead Boost. And the fact they disconnected from me twice and didn’t bother to call back (despite taking my number as the first thing they did on both occasions) was highly annoying.

In the end I gave up and managed to identify the problem myself. Took hours because the Boost looked fine and was showing up as WM:0 - it just wasn’t forming the sonosnet.

Dreading a future within sonosnet

The default WiFi settings of some routers frustrates SONOS. If BOOST solves your issues, you can stay with it. Note that the latest SONOS hardware does not support SonosNet.

This is exactly my fear. Next time Sonos decide to sunset a load of older products I may be forced to move to their WiFi option. Not acceptable if past performance is the benchmark. 

So far, the only devices Sonos has sunset are non audio devices, the BRIDGE/BOOST pair, the 30 pin iOS connector, and the pair of remotes known as CRx00. They’ve not stopped supporting any speakers, at all. 

Oh, the BRIGE/BOOST pair are still supported on software, so technically, they are not fully ‘sunset’. 

Just to be clear here, your problem device was a Boost, not a Bridge?

Reports on the Boost are almost all good, the Bridge however is a real problem causer, prone to hard to identify issues.

Your Wi-Fi issues sound like the ones many other folks see, usually fairly easy to fix and get the system stable.

Me, too! Still hoping for a SonosNet 3.0! 🤗

What would a Sonosnet v3 device bring us that you couldn't get from any quality Wi-Fi Access Point?

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/choose-between-a-wireless-and-wired-sonos-setup
 

• A router WiFi is a shared medium. If many people access it at the same time, it may quickly reach its capacity
• The SonosNet is a full-fledged (“true”) mesh network

What Makes a True Mesh Network?

What WiFi system are you using? If you are seeing issues, there maybe a small configuration change required to get Sonos working with your specific WiFi configuration as per ​@Stanley_4.

I’m on a SysLink and over the past 24 hours have read about all the many issues this has. Should I need to move my system to WiFi then I will definitely have to upgrade this first. Though I will probably opt for a completely separate network (inc hardware) just for the Sonos. 

Its a bit of a shame that I will be required to do this. I would consider myself pretty technical and I’d be more than likely able to get it up and running properly. But I’m sure there are many casual Sonos users out there who will always and forever experience the issues I had with an “incompatible” WiFi network. Never even realising what the issues are and possibly not able to fix them if they did. It shouldn’t require in-depth knowledge of IT and specialist WiFi hardware.

This is Sonos’s problem to solve. 

‘SysLink’ or Linksys?

​@Chunter, there is so much to say about your reply.

But, I will keep it short… if you really want to continue using Sonosnet, which seems to work with your network equipment, hardwire a speaker that is not a Sub or surround.. It does the same thing as a Boost or Bridge.

I don't know SysLink but there is a simple and not overly expensive option for folks with iffy Wi-Fi routers, put them in bridge/transparent mode, that disables all internal functions except the Ethernet pass-through. Add a router that is more compatible with Sonos, and likely has many other nice features and use it.

My old ISP had iffy modem/router/AP hardware and after a very brief fight with it that is what I did. My new ISP looks to have better gear but it offers less nice stuff than my router/AP setup so it went to transparent mode on day one.

It not paying attention to current offerings but see several very nice sounding mesh router/Wi-Fi devices mentioned.

Sorry - Linksys

Have you tried disabling ‘Express Forwarding’ feature:

https://support.linksys.com/kb/article/89-en/

The cost of a wifi router against a Boost is similar, if you are reconfiguring your hardware.  

It would take some effort to find a current router that offered a poorer connection than the Boost, it is many generations behind current hardware and 2.4 gHz only. 

Using a second router brings in many problems, at a minimum your Sonos, NAS and controller devices would all have to be on it. Many ISPs do not support a second router, only one is allowed to connect, using a double-NAT to work around that often brings other problems and is not recommended.

Using a separate wifi on the same router is possible, if it is configured as part of your current LAN. Given the low data rates Sonos requires and the limited number of available channels it is hard to see a benefit.