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Moderator note: This article was updated in December 2024.

 

Hi Folks, 

I’ll share some general advice about how Sonos products connect to your network, and the kind of network problems that can result in dropping rooms, to help you understand and solve some challenges with your Sonos system.

Updated 19/4/24

 

2.4 & 5GHz bands (and WiFi 6)

A few older Sonos devices will only connect to the 2.4GHz band, whereas most will connect to the 5GHz band broadcasted from your router. A full list of which devices will connect to 5GHz can be found here on our Supported WiFi modes and security standards for Sonos products page, under “Products that can connect to 5GHz WiFi networks”. Arc Ultra, Era 100, Era 300, Move 2 and Sub 4 will connect to 802.11ax (WiFi 6) or 802.11ac (WiFi 5).

Home Theatre products other than Arc Ultra will not connect to 5GHz, as the 5GHz radio is reserved for talking to the surrounds and Sub(s). Arc Ultra has an extra radio.

Sonos will perform best on 5GHz as it is faster, has lower latency and has less congestion. 2.4GHz still has it’s advantages, however, as physics dictates that it has a better range and a stronger solid-matter penetration ability (it gets through walls, ceilings and furniture easier), so do not be too concerned if your router informs you that your Sonos device is utilising it. Due to the amount of varied use of 2.4GHz, it can be important to ensure that you do not use channels that overlap with other nearby sources (1, 6 & 11 are the only channels that do not overlap - it’s best to stick with these).

Although we used to recommend splitting the bands on your router so that they had different credentials, we now recommend letting the router do it’s work with band steering - this way, one set of credentials can get all your devices connected to the best band for them (this will vary with model and location/reception). If in doubt, please get in touch with our technical support team.

 

Mesh Networks

If you have a mesh WiFi system to extend the range of your WiFi, and your original router is still present, you must either:

  • Configure your router to act as a modem only. Some have a specific option for this (like Virgin Media in the UK), but on most router’s you’d need to disable the DHCP server. If you still need to use the WiFi coming from your router, or if you connect devices via ethernet to it, this is not an option. Doing this will allow you to use the usually more advanced routing features on your mesh (as compared to those on a free, ISP-provided router).

    or
  • Configure your mesh system to be in ‘Bridge/AP mode’ - otherwise it acts as a router and you now have two logical networks running on one hardware layer (this is commonly referred to as Dual DHCP). To find out how to do this, perform an internet search for “tname of your mesh system] mesh bridge mode”. I’ve listed a few common ones here:

 

Netgear Orbi mesh: https://kb.netgear.com/31218/How-do-I-configure-my-Orbi-router-to-act-as-an-access-point

Linksys Velop mesh: https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=243548

Tenda mesh: https://www.tendacn.com/faq/3123.html

Eero mesh: https://support.eero.com/hc/en-us/articles/208276903-How-do-I-bridge-my-eeros-

Google mesh: https://support.google.com/wifi/answer/6240987 - In my experience Google mesh systems can be difficult about going into Bridge mode. Please contact Google if you have trouble with this.

 

Extenders / Boosters / Powerline adapters / Sky Q

Another challenge, with networking and Sonos, is WiFi boosters and extenders. Sonos does not support these as they halve your available bandwidth (due to being half-duplex) and often block multicast transmissions which gets in the way of the Sonos system from operating smoothly. 

Powerline line adaptors can also induce additional issues as they are subject to noise present on your mains power supply (‘noise’ is created by some LED dimmers, for example).

In the UK, Sky Q boxes can be a challenge with Sonos, as they repeat the WiFi from a Sky router (but not from other routers). If a speaker connects to one of these (common with Sonos Home Theatre products) it can result in the speaker being missing from the Sonos app. One option would be to use SonosNet by connecting one or more Sonos devices (not Era - Era does not use or create SonosNet) to the network with an ethernet cable. For other options, I recommend contacting our technical support team.

 

Sonos and Ethernet

To bypass some WiFi configuration issues, you can connect any one (or more) Sonos devices to the network with an ethernet cable (Sonos Move & Roam excluded). Wired Sonos products (other than Era models) will transmit a ‘Sonos only WiFi’ for use by your other Sonos devices (Sonos Move, Roam & Era excluded). This all happens automatically, but sometimes your speakers need a power cycle (unplug them from the wall socket, and plug them back in again after 30 seconds) to help them along. Wiring Sonos will not resolve anything if you have two routers on your network (as described in the Meshes section). Each Sonos player that picks up the ‘Sonos only WiFi’ from the wired Sonos speaker will rebroadcast it, thus extending the range for speakers out of range of the wired one(s). 

When you wire a Sonos product, you go from a configuration like this:

Sonos using your WiFi​​​​

to one like this:

Sonos using Sonosnet

It is worth pointing out, however, that the bandwidth available on 2.4GHz (which SonosNet uses) is limited. If you’re going to group a lot of rooms together, we recommend having one wired unit for every 5 non-wired units, and these wired units would ideally be evenly distributed in your home.

As long as you have good WiFi coverage, your router’s WiFi will often be a better option. As became evident with the release of the Era speakers, we are now moving away from SonosNet which was only really needed back when routers were not the more capable devices that they are today.

 

WiFi Noise / WiFi interference

Sometimes it’s just not a network configuration issue. All WiFi devices (not just Sonos) like to have at least 1 meter / 3 feet of space from all other WiFi devices (and devices that are not on your WiFi but may use similar frequencies). In my experience, one of the most common solutions to a ‘WiFi problem’ has been to physically move a speaker/Boost/Bridge farther away from the router it’s wired to. A common misconception is that the closer the device is to the WiFi broadcasting unit the better - this is not the case. Sometimes speakers are kept very close the router, but this is far from ideal - these devices should not be located less than 1m apart from each other. We have a helpful guide on reducing wireless interference. Close by glass or metal surfaces can reflect WiFi back at a device and also create interference. 

Interference is, I would say, the biggest cause of problems, like dropped rooms, or music interruptions, for Sonos users.

Many non-WiFi devices will use 2.4GHz - mobile/cellular telephones, baby monitors, smart meters, CCTV cameras, DECT phones, microwave ovens - the list goes on. This is another reason why 5GHz can be a better choice for your Sonos system to connect to - less congestion, more channels, more bandwidth, better experience.

 

Home Theatre

As mentioned above, Home Theatre Primary devices (like Ray, Beam or Arc, but not Arc Ultra) will only connect to 2.4GHz WiFi or SonosNet. However, their surround speakers and Sub(s)/Sub Mini will connect directly to the HT Primary over a dedicated, low latency 5GHz channel. So, if you ever experience audio interruptions on your surrounds or Sub, keep in mind that the cause could be interference near the HT Primary just as much as it could be interference near the surrounds/Sub.

Audio interruptions of TV audio heard on the Home Theatre Primary itself have nothing to do with interference or networking - this is most commonly fixed by forcing the TV’s software to restart by unplugging the TV for a couple of minutes.

 

Network Configuration (IP Reservation and IGMP Filtering)

Sonos needs no more from your network than many other devices, but it can often help to reserve IP addresses for the devices that commonly connect to your network, including Sonos.

Normally, connecting devices send out a broadcast asking to be assigned a unique IP address so that they can be found and recognised on the network. If, for whatever reason, the router loses track of which clients have which addresses (if it reboots but the devices keep their IP, for example) it can start distributing out IP addresses that are already in use. This can result in the Sonos app asking a particular speaker (by it’s IP) if it is still online and ready to operate, but because the speaker is in fact a smart refrigerator, it doesn’t reply, resulting in a room dropping from the Sonos app.

To combat this, reserve IP addresses in your router’s settings pages for all the devices that commonly connect. This will greatly reduce the chance of such an occurrence, and has often been the answer to many user’s woes.

How to do this exactly will depend on your router, but the option is typically found in the Network or DHCP section of the settings. If your router has a Basic/Advanced settings division, this will most likely be in Advanced. Please consult your router’s manual. For a typical installation, your router’s own IP address will be, for example, 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1 (though other addresses are possible and common). The “DHCP pool” will be a range of addresses that the router will distribute to client devices using DHCP, which will often range from 2 to 254 on the last number of the address. It’s easiest to reserve for a device the IP address that it already has, but you can set the numbers to be sequential if you like. Reserved IPs should be within the DHCP pool range, but some routers may allow them to be outside.

After making any such changes, it’s a good idea to reboot the router and the devices that connect to it, but from then on things should be pretty stable.

You may have heard of Static IPs. Static IP addresses are different - they require that the client device has it’s DHCP disabled and is manually configured to forcibly take an IP address from outside of the DHCP pool, without asking the router to decide which address it should be. Sonos devices cannot be configured to use Static IPs.

Not all routers have IGMP Snooping/Filtering, but if yours does, it’s a good idea to turn it on. This feature prevents multicast (more than one destination) data packets on the network that are not destined for Sonos devices from clogging up your speakers’ network input buffer with data it doesn’t want. IGMP-capable network switches can also be bought cheaply, but will only help a Sonos system using SonosNet, and should be fitted between the router and any Sonos devices wired to it.

 

Controllers

It may be that you cannot connect to Sonos not because your Sonos system is having trouble connecting to the network, but because the device you’re running the Sonos app on is unable to communicate with the System (or parts of it).

Although this can be caused by a few things, the most likely are the following:

  • Multiple Access Points - WiFi boosters and Extenders tend not to work very well. Often, you can only connect to rooms that also connect to the same extender your phone is on, or can’t connect to them because your phone is on the main router’s WiFi. We don’t support the use of these products for this reason. Mesh systems are not affected by this. In the UK, Sky Q boxes repeat WiFi from Sky routers in this way.
  • Guest WiFi - You cannot run Sonos on a Guest WiFi, nor can the Sonos app connect to a Sonos system if the controller is connected to a Guest WiFi.
  • On iOS devices - make sure you give the Sonos app permission to access devices on the Local Network (more info on our Sonos app permissions help page)
  • On iOS devices - make to to disable Private Address in the iOS connection options for your WiFi network.

 

Help

Sometimes, no matter how much you know, the speakers themselves have to be ‘consulted’ as to what is going wrong before you will find a resolution. In such situations, the only solution is to get in touch with our technical support team who can receive your Sonos system diagnostics which will tell the agent all about what your system has experienced. If you’re going to call/chat with our tech agents, please try to recreate the issue you are experiencing just before getting in touch, if you can, and try not to reboot any players - reboots clear the system logs and as a result the diagnostics contain less information. 

 

I hope this helps you to understand a bit of what’s going on when no steps taken seem to be working for you. As always, we’re more than happy to assist with getting your Sonos system stable, so please either get in touch with our tech support if nothing works, or write here on the community if you need more guidance.

 

 

Edit: Updated to include additional mesh options, Roam and some other details.

Edit: Updated to include iPhone Local Network and Private Addresses options as they can affect connecting to Sonos

21/4/23 Edit: Changed some advice regarding WiFi bands to reflect software improvements, added Network Configuration and Home Theatre advice

19/4/24 Edit: Clarified some IP reservation details, added brief Static IP explanation.

16/12/24 Edit: Added that Arc Ultra will connect to 5GHz

I have no experience with the Linksys mesh. Some mesh systems will run the nodes as separate subnets.  This will thoroughly fluster SONOS because all of the players and controllers must be on the same subnet. This is why moving the phone controller to a different node will break its connection with SONOS.

Thanks for the reply buzz, but the nodes are all on the same subnet. 

My brand new Amp joins the Wifi fine, I can see it on the admin interface of the Access Point 
, both my Android app and the IOS app however cannot find the device after intial setup wizard is done. 
This is a brand new system, using the Sonos App .   I have reset it to factory defaults at least 5 times , I can find the device to “change network settings” but  that is it.

My brand new Amp joins the Wifi fine, I can see it on the admin interface of the Access Point 
, both my Android app and the IOS app however cannot find the device after intial setup wizard is done. 
This is a brand new system, using the Sonos App .   I have reset it to factory defaults at least 5 times , I can find the device to “change network settings” but  that is it.

Note access points/range extenders (not part of a WiFi mesh setup) are not supported by Sonos, as they can mangle MAC addresses of the connected devices, making it difficult to discover devices using SSDP multicasting. See the system requirements here:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/sonos-system-requirements

Try blacklisting the controller device and Sonos products on the extender so that they use the main router WiFi AP instead and see if that fixes your issue.

Thank you, there is no range extender in the picture here , if I gave that impression sorry.

My previous S1 amp and connect were working fine prior, with the S1 app.   I am using the new S2 80.xx app now, and new Amp. 

I have unplugged all my old S1 gear to be sure as well.   Like I mentioned the Application finds the Amp fine after a factory reset, and wifi setup wizard is done.  Then after that it just shows nothing / no devices found 

Ahhhh, thanks y’all for these comments but to be honest most of them are over my head.  I just like music and I like to be able to play it when I want and how I want.  Sonos was recommended to me about 10 years ago by Best Buy and I loved it.  It sounded great, it was easy to operate, and I had so much assessable music; I was in heaven. I even had my son and my brother to purchase a system. Through the years my family members have bought me various speakers and I was overjoyed. I would have people over and Dj all night.  When the new amp and turntable came out, I got my vinyl from the basement, because I was really going to have a jam session.  Whelp now I can’t because I’m having problems with the speakers, they drop off my system and the new app is the pits!  I get frustrated every time I try to play my music.  I’ve contacted my cable company and I’ve done some troubleshooting with the maker of my router and I continue to have problems.  I’m so grateful I haven’t invested in the amp and turntable which would have cost me about $1400. I’m honestly thinking about selling my system.   I’m just a person who wants to play some good music without any problems 

Thank you, there is no range extender in the picture here , if I gave that impression sorry.

My previous S1 amp and connect were working fine prior, with the S1 app.   I am using the new S2 80.xx app now, and new Amp. 

I have unplugged all my old S1 gear to be sure as well.   Like I mentioned the Application finds the Amp fine after a factory reset, and wifi setup wizard is done.  Then after that it just shows nothing / no devices found 

It’s difficult to resolve this over community forum posts as it can be so many things…

The ‘discovery’ of the Sonos products by the Sonos controller App can sometimes be a slightly complex area to explore, but briefly… 

SSDP (the UPnP simple service discovery protocol) is used to initially discover the Sonos players and is done via multicasting via UDP to 239.255.255.250:1900 and, for good measure, broadcasting to 255.255.255.255:1900. 

Both the Sonos players and controllers must share the same network subnet. However if the Sonos devices are connecting to multiple access points, the recommendations (from myself) are that they be set to the same WiFi channel and channel-width. This is for optimum performance particularly in groups and for some reason with some (not all) mesh-based WiFi systems, it appears some will work okay with Sonos, but others may not, particularly if the satellites/AP’s are perhaps auto-selecting their own WiFi channels. I’ve seen some people report issues with Google ‘nest’ mesh WiFi, for example, although others will occasionally say it works for their ‘small’ Sonos setup.

What is certainly not supported though by Sonos, are wireless range extenders, as some can mangle device MAC addresses and EoP (powerline) adapters.. so if you are using those type of wireless access points, to extend the wireless network coverage, then that may cause such intermittent device discovery issues by the Sonos Controller App.

Reserving the IP addresses in the routers DHCP reservation table can often help with device discovery, so consider making your Sonos IP addresses static. The router user-manual will normally assist you to do that in most cases.

Just to add aswell, it can sometimes be Apps/software running on the mobile ‘controller’ device that interfere with ‘device discovery’ Examples to perhaps consider are…

  • VPN Client 
  • Firewall software
  • Antivirus software
  • WiFi Calling/Dial assist
  • Private network address (MAC address spoofing)
  • Mobile data enabled for the Sonos App  

So consider disabling these features, even temporarily, just to see if that may fix your device ‘discovery’ issue.

thanks for the tips, but none of those items are a factor here.  I am using an ipad, wifi only model, so no cell / mobile issues. 
I can get through the entire setup of the device / wifi settings / pin entry etc.
I can find the device to “update the network” , it just will not add / create a new “system” this has to be a bug in the S2 application

My old S1 gear all worked fine on the same network / wifi equipment. (the s1 app also finds the product as well, but is not able to downgrade it.). I am fine with having to move to S2 , but if tech support cant get the new product in an app today its getting returned 

thanks for the tips, but none of those items are a factor here.  I am using an ipad, wifi only model, so no cell / mobile issues. 
I can get through the entire setup of the device / wifi settings / pin entry etc.
I can find the device to “update the network” , it just will not add / create a new “system” this has to be a bug in the S2 application

My old S1 gear all worked fine on the same network / wifi equipment. (the s1 app also finds the product as well, but is not able to downgrade it.). I am fine with having to move to S2 , but if tech support cant get the new product in an app today its getting returned 

S1 used 2.4GHz only, but S2 can also use 5GHz on some devices, so its possible your router is confused by the mixture. You could try disabling 5GHz temporarily on your router and see if that helps.

I am suspecting the hardware / firmware that was purchased from Best Buy is some old stock, and that perhaps the base version of this amp is too old to be properly added to the system with the new S2 App

My S1 PC app was able to recognize it, and show some details about unit. 
I assume there is no way to update the firmware on the unit , as it needs to be in the S2 app system registration in order to update 

What is the current Amp firmware?
 

Moderator edit: removed image with serial number

I am suspecting the hardware / firmware that was purchased from Best Buy is some old stock, and that perhaps the base version of this amp is too old to be properly added to the system with the new S2 App

My S1 PC app was able to recognize it, and show some details about unit. 
I assume there is no way to update the firmware on the unit , as it needs to be in the S2 app system registration in order to update 

What is the current Amp firmware?
 

Moderator edit: removed image with serial number

I was able to resolve it on my own.  Reset to factory default. (which I had done many times). Used IOS app vs Android app. 

IOS app found device and prompted me to upgrade it *I had done this many times with both devices, but it did the upgrade this time, went from 12.2 to 79.1 on the device and now its visible in a new “system” on the same network.
 

About My System

------------------------------------

Amp: Poolside

Status: Connected

Serial Number: **************

Sonos OS: S2

Version: 79.1-53290

Hardware Version: 1.24.1.14-1.2 

 

Moderator edit: removed serial number

Providing a bit of guidance for anyone using Google Fiber with a Google mesh Wi-Fi network here, which caused me hours and hours of frustration.   I have two 300 speakers, Gen 3 sub, Arc, and an Amp.  

 

Sonos products were never able stay linked to my app via Google Wi-Fi, and the problems worsened with the new app update a few weeks back.  No matter how I configured my network or how many times I factory reset my equipment, nothing stuck.  I researched other mesh network equipment, settled on TP-Link PX50, set it up last night, and viola...everything works perfectly now.  I wasnt super happy about having to purchase more equipment on top of the free Google Fiber mesh gear, but it seems to have been the issue.

 

Hopefully this helps another person in the future.  

I have a Sub2 that's not working and making a low beeping noise. Does anyone know what is wrong with this ? Can't figure it out 

Hi @dbones84 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Sorry to hear of the issue you are having with your Sonos Sub. I recommend you get in touch with our technical support team who have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and what it reports.

I hope this helps.

Another thing to keep in mind when troubleshooting performance issues with Sonos devices/Sonos app...

 

Lately I got fed up with all the publicity online so I installed Pi-hole at home as a Network-wide Ad Blocking and reverse DNS server. I love it but it also blocks msmetrics.ws.sonos.com out of the box. That played havoc with the mobile app. Slow app, slow control, speakers starting song seconds after I pressed “play”, stopping songs seconds after I press “pause”. Bottom line? If some of you are using Internet filtering software, have a second look at it. Once I whitelisted everything in regards to Sonos, everything started responding quickly again. Sonos needs fast and responsible DNS to work good. I learned the hard way.

 

I personnaly have a UDM Pro and they started implementing ad blocking options. I did not mingle with it yet but I would not be surprised if more and more manufacturers offer services like that in the near future. I would not rule out a DNS problem in troubleshooting performance issues.



 

 

Hi @VinceBoi 

You may find my other article of use:

It includes some other addresses that Sonos speakers will contact from time to time.

I hope this helps.

Hi, @Corry P 

Call me lazy, but I just white listed all the Sonos subdomains.

I did not want to take a chance of white listing site by site, then something changes on Sonos’s side, start having problems again, forget that I have that filtering software (blame the ADHD), curse at Sonos, to remember a week later to look if something is being blocked to find out that’s the case.

But thanks all the same for the reference! 😊

@Corry P I was intrigued to run across this thread with its detailed information on SONOS network requirements. What I find most interesting is that apparently there’s been zero change in your specifications since the May 7 roll-out of the new system architecture. Are you familiar with Andy Pennell’s LinkedIn article of July 6? If his analysis is even marginally accurate, the network demands of the new architecture are significantly different -- both qualitatively and quantitatively -- from those of the old architecture. Is it SONOS’ position that any network that provided adequate performance for a SONOS S1 system should also be adequate for an S2 system? If not, is there a clear description somewhere from SONOS as to what the new minimum requirements are?

Hi @slworona 

Frankly, this thread is fairly old, and I have been far too busy since the new app came out to update it.

I am familiar with Andy’s article, yes.

Is it SONOS’ position that any network that provided adequate performance for a SONOS S1 system should also be adequate for an S2 system? If not, is there a clear description somewhere from SONOS as to what the new minimum requirements are?

I don’t think anyone has claimed this - given that S2 supports spatial audio streaming (and in the case of Apple Music, lossless) when S1 does not, S2 can have higher bandwidth requirements - this is one of the reasons why our speakers now support 5GHz, and soon, beyond. Moreover, the recent app change has nothing to do with S1, so I am not sure why you are comparing them. Andy’s article is about how the old S2 app and the new S2 app handle device discovery - S1 doesn’t come into it.

As for protocols used, mDNS (the one we now use) is also used by AirPlay, so isn’t exactly new and cutting edge stuff - all modern routers should be able to handle it. But, I’m not going to make any sweeping statement about all networks - there are many, many routers out there, and a lot of them should have been out of use a long time ago (especially those provided for free by an ISP - they tend to lack in many ways).

As ever, our requirements can be found on our Sonos system requirements help page.

I hope this helps.

Hi @slworona 

Frankly, this thread is fairly old, and I have been far too busy since the new app came out to update it.

I am familiar with Andy’s article, yes.

Is it SONOS’ position that any network that provided adequate performance for a SONOS S1 system should also be adequate for an S2 system? If not, is there a clear description somewhere from SONOS as to what the new minimum requirements are?

I don’t think anyone has claimed this - given that S2 supports spatial audio streaming (and in the case of Apple Music, lossless) when S1 does not, S2 can have higher bandwidth requirements - this is one of the reasons why our speakers now support 5GHz, and soon, beyond. Moreover, the recent app change has nothing to do with S1, so I am not sure why you are comparing them. Andy’s article is about how the old S2 app and the new S2 app handle device discovery - S1 doesn’t come into it.

As for protocols used, mDNS (the one we now use) is also used by AirPlay, so isn’t exactly new and cutting edge stuff - all modern routers should be able to handle it. But, I’m not going to make any sweeping statement about all networks - there are many, many routers out there, and a lot of them should have been out of use a long time ago (especially those provided for free by an ISP - they tend to lack in many ways).

As ever, our requirements can be found on our Sonos system requirements help page.

I hope this helps.

Thanks, @Corry P, for the response.

Yes, old thread, and I didn’t go hunting for it, but recent activity popped it to the top of the list and it caught my eye. I’m certainly not surprised that current events haven’t allowed time for an update. Just my thought here, but perhaps either take it down or add a note making clear that it doesn’t apply to the post-May release.

I referenced S1 because the original article is from 3 years ago, and since the article doesn’t differentiate between S1 and S2, I figured that there was no need to do so when it was written. Perhaps in context it was clearly S2-specific.

I also reference S1 because I’m still using S1 and trying to decide whether to upgrade to S2 or to switch to another product line. I was a click away from buying a cartful of S2 gear when I discovered the controversy surrounding the May release. To my non-expert eye (but 15+ years with SONOS and 50+ years in IT), a large number of the problems arise from networks that were adequate (perhaps barely, but adequate) for the previous release (whether S1 or S2), but just won’t do the job post-May. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to determine whether my network is adequate for the new SONOS architecture.

I have looked at the page you reference (the first place I looked, in fact, when the question arose for me), but that clearly can’t give me my answer. For one thing, the page says it covers both S1 and S2 and doesn’t even mention 5GHz. (Yes, I’ve also looked here, but there’s no suggestion that 5GHz support is required or even recommended.) There’s no hint that ISP-provided routers are suspect (a refrain I’ve seen elsewhere on this forum) and no indication whatsoever of specific bandwidth requirements, neither from the ISP nor within the local net. There’s a helpful list of unsupported setups, but not relevant to my dilemma of whether my network would support the upgrade. What I need are specs I can actually check for, using existing network test tools or (ideally) something provided by SONOS.

Thanks again for your time and attention.

Imo, stay on S1, many here stuck on S2 envy you since S2 is broken in so many ways. I have decided to sell all S2 only capable gear and will never buy any new Sonos product ever again. This company has unfortunately proven again and again that it can not be trusted.

Imo, stay on S1, many here stuck on S2 envy you since S2 is broken in so many ways. I have decided to sell all S2 only capable gear and will never buy any new Sonos product ever again. This company has unfortunately proven again and again that it can not be trusted.

Unfortunately, there’s no basis to disagree with what you say. I’d love to stick with SONOS, but they don’t make it easy. The good news, I guess, is that they’re doing the best they can. That’s also the bad news.

Hi @slworona 

The documentation (the referenced requirements page) and this thread have not been changed because the network requirements have not changed - not from the old S2 app to the new S2 app, and not from S1 to S2. 

mDNS is a protocol, not a hardware feature - as I understand it, it’s use does not alter our network requirements in any way. There are plenty of support pages that have been updated since the release of the new app, so I do not think this one has been left out of the process - more likely, it is intentional that it has not been changed. No router has the mDNS “feature” - it just doesn’t operate on that level. The router provides the hardware needed for devices to communicate, but the “language” they speak is irrelevant - it’s like saying you need an old-school, hard-line telephone that supports the Italian language - it just doesn’t make sense.

5GHz is not a requirement - it is an option. I presume that is why it is not mentioned in the requirements page.

So, although the new app uses a different protocol when discovering devices, this does not translate to needing a network that supports it, though some routers may well see unexpected results, for unknown reasons, when compared to previous behaviour on the older app. I confess I personally don’t not fully understand why, but we are working hard on improving matters.

Personally, I recommend that you wait at least until we restore the Downgrading back to S1 option in the new app before upgrading to S2 - that way, you will at least have the option to revert back to S1. If you subscribe to the following thread, you will be informed when the ability to downgrade has returned:

I hope this helps.

Hi @slworona 

p…]

Personally, I recommend that you wait at least until we restore the Downgrading back to S1 option in the new app before upgrading to S2 - that way, you will at least have the option to revert back to S1. If you subscribe to the following thread, you will be informed when the ability to downgrade has returned:

I hope this helps.

Thanks, @Corry P, seems like good advice.

Best wishes.

Removing the wired ethernet connection to the Play 5 solved all the mysterious problems of various speakers that randomly could not be found. Thank you.

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