I have a sub 4 that’s paired with an arc ultra that keep losing connection. The sub will connect and play with the arc ultra for a couple of minutes then drop the connection. Sonos pointed fingers at my router, a Cisco RV340. I engaged Cisco support and they cannot find any reason to sell me a new router, as suggested by Sonos. Everything else in the house works fine on the same network. Is anyone else having an issue with the sub 4 staying connected? If so, what was the fix? Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I’m not sure why they would suggest it was your router. The way I understand it, the Sub is ‘bonded’ to the Arc Ultra, and while getting a proxied IP address from your router, it gets a 5Ghz data signal from the Arc, assuming that both radios are turned on. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d suggest some wifi interference , affecting the 5 GHz range, which could be inside, or outside your home and network. But I am neither familiar with your router, nor do I have access to any hard data you may have provided Sonos in the form of a diagnostic, performed within 10 minutes of your Sub disconnecting.
Its also possible there is a duplicate IP address issue with another, more randomly connecting device in your network.
You may need try to reserve a specific IP for all Sonos products to don’t fight for an IP direction :)
Hi
Sorry to hear about this issue you’re having with your Sub 4 and Arc Ultra not communicating.
I found your existing case and it seems that your router is refusing to perform HDCP Proxy services when your Sub 4 is connecting to the network via the Arc Ultra.
It seems you were also provided with advice to see if Cisco could provide you with a solution to this - if they cannot do so, I don’t see why they are claiming you do not need an alternative router.
As mentioned by the agent you were in touch with, you could bypass this issue by connecting both devices to ethernet. If this is not an option, and Cisco cannot help you with your current router, I think a replacement router - perhaps from other manufacturer - is the only remaining option if you still want to use Arc Ultra and Sub 4 together. Any surrounds speaker you may plan to add to the system will suffer from the same issue.
I hope this helps.
Edit: corrected typo
Good morning
Thank you for the response. I have spoken with Cisco and they’ve ran diagnostics, as I suspected, there isn’t anything wrong with the router. This sub is the only thing on the entire network that has an issue. My router is out of free tech support warranty but I can pay for additional support if needed, I was hoping to avoid.
You may also experience difficulties if you wire both the Arc Ultra and Sub to the router but solution for that here:
https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/cisco-rv-series-compatibility
Hi
The Sub is the only device encountering this issue because it is the only device trying to connect via a wireless backhaul created by the Arc Ultra, though it will not be if you try to add surrounds.
I did not say that there was anything wrong with the router, just that it does not meet our requirements (unless ethernet is used).
I hope this helps.
That adds some clarity. Can you pass along specifics on what exactly the router needs to be able to do or allow so if I do need to engage paid support they know what needs to be done? Thank you!
Hi
The router needs to support DHCP Proxy - though, I don’t think this is something that tends to get advertised. Most routers do support it - I only know of Cisco and Asus not doing so (though I believe with Asus it can be worked-around).
You can see our hardware incompatibility list here: Incompatible network hardware. Cisco is listed there, but only multiple ethernet connections to Sonos is listed as an issue - possibly because the workaround for your issue is to use a single ethernet connection.
Incidentally, the last person I help that had this issue was able to bypass it after disabling QoS (Quality of Service) functionality in their router’s setting, though that was with Asus - perhaps you will have the same luck? I hope so.
I hope this helps.
Thank you
Hi all! Same story here. Sub4 looses connection with Arc Ultra on Cisco-built network. I do have an additionall insight - sub4 looses connection only when added to arc ultra. It looks like the above mentioned bonding (?) with arc disrupts sub4 connection.
Here’s how I found it out:
- factory reset of sub4
- connect it to the Sonos app, but do not connect to arc ultra
- —— at this stage sub4 is visible in WiFi network. It has a stable connection, no issue with dhcp.
- sub4 is shown in the app as unbound to any room.
- initiate connection to arc4. It connects successfully but at this momentvthe apps stops seeing the sub4 :(
- after a few minutes, sub4 also drops from dhcp - sleep mode?
any suggestions are more than welcomed!
thanks!
piotr
Hi all! Same story here. Sub4 looses connection with Arc Ultra on Cisco-built network. I do have an additionall insight - sub4 looses connection only when added to arc ultra. It looks like the above mentioned bonding (?) with arc disrupts sub4 connection.
any suggestions are more than welcomed!
thanks!
piotr
Have you tried what
any suggestions are more than welcomed!
This issue is probably due to the way your Cisco network is handling ARP. As you have seen before the Sub is bonded it gets an IP address using its own MAC address, all OK
When the Sub is bonded to the Arc, it will use the Arc Ultra MAC address. The Cisco will then see this as a potential ‘ARP Spoof’ as the Arc Ultra and Sub will have same MAC address but different IPs, and block, you will need to configure the Cisco to allow these ARP requests from the the Arc Ultra, and not block them.
Your (Enterprise?) Cisco network may not be suitable for a consumer/home environment, unless it is configured appropriately.
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