Subs and surrounds are connected via an ad-hoc, one way, private 5 GHZ direct connection to the soundbar.  This is to achieve the low latency needed for synching with the video signal.  Depending on your router, this may or may not show up in the devices table. 

This connection has nothing to do with Sonosnet. 

Oh, I thought that WAS SonosNet. How does SonosNet differ? If I were to hardwire the Arc to ethernet, how is it different?

I see I can change the “SonosNet” channel in the app, can I change this channel? Does it even use a Wifi frequency?

My goal is to reduce the number of wireless networks in my house that may interfere with each other. 

No, you can't change the channel for the Home Theater connection. It'll use a 5GHz channel. To check which one it's using:

1. Start playing music or video on your Arc
2. On the app, go to “About Your System” and take note of one of your speakers's IP address;
3. Go to a web browser and go to an address like http://192.168.1.40:1400/support/review, replacing 192.168.1.40 by the IP address of the previous step
4. Select one of the Ones or the Sub
5. Select /proc/ath_rincon/status
6. The “Operating on channel” is the frequency being used and IEEE is the channel# for this frequency. This frequency can change at any time.
7. The “Home channel” is the frequency for the SonosNet channel you selected on the app. Again, the IEEE is the channel for this frequency.
8. If you stop playing on the ARC, wait some minutes and refresh the page, the “Operating on” should change for your WiFi channel frequency.

Hi.  Do you have any other Sonos speakers apart from the HT setup? My impression is that you don’t.  If I am correct then SonosNet is irrelevant to you.  SonosNet, where it is triggered, is a separate segment of your home network.  It is triggered by wiring a Sonos device to the network, and when operating it is used by Sonos devices to communicate with each other.

But as @jgatie described, it is NOT used for the connections between a HT device and its Sub and surrounds.  That is true whether or not the Arc is wired, and whether or not SonosNet is operating.

So if you wire the Arc and don’t have any Sonos devices other than the HT then SonosNet is technicaly operating but not being used for anything.

I have a Roam floating around. It’s on 5GHz wifi and I see it in my router’s client list. It’s not grouped with anything.

So the purpose of SonosNet is simply to provide a network to other Sonos devices like if incase you don’t have wifi at home or something, right? You hardwire one in and they can all talk. But it has nothing to do with home theater grouping? is SonosNet 5Ghz?

So despite whether or not SonosNet is in play, Home Theater devices connect via a 5Ghz wireless network anyway? That’s how the speakers are accurately sync’ed?

Are the Sonosnet and home theater grouping networks different/separate networks?

Thanks!

You need WiFi to run Sonos.  That is the only option for controller devices.  When Sonos launched most domestic networks were incapable of meeting the requirements of Sonos.  Mesh networks in domestic settings were unheard of.  That is why SonosNet exists.

SonosNet is not strictly a separate network.  It can be thought of as a segment of your LAN.  WiFi is another segment and there may also be Ethernet connections.

SonosNet operates on 2.4GHz.  

The Roam, like other recent Sonos products, cannot connect to SonosNet.  I think Sonos are allowing it to eventually become irrelevant.

 My surround speakers ( Sub - 300s ) do show on the router connected devices list.  They all have reserved IP Addresses.  If you have multiple WiFi networks you need to make sure all your speakers are on the same network.  Whether the Arc is hard wired or not the Arc WiFi needs to be ON.

 Sounds like the reason you did not see the Ones & Sub on the router list was because they were on SonosNet.  The Arc would show on the router list because it was hard wired and when you disconnect it the Arc connected to the same network it was on with Ethernet.

 I’m not sure on this so maybe others can chime in.  Sounds like you may have to try to remove the sub & surrounds from the HT.  If that fails because the speakers can’t be seen by the app you may have to activate SonosNet again then see if you can then break up the HT.  Once all the individual speakers are on the WiFi network you want them on you can create the HT again.

Sorry, I disagree.  Everything in the setup is normal, it is working fine.  No action is needed.

They are not separate networks.  The speakers are synch’ed with each other by Sonos’ software.  Using a 5GHz connection within a HT setup allows this to be done with minimal latency, so as to avoid noticeable audio-visual synch issues.

@txbdan 

Maybe this explanation will help.

Anytime you wire a Sonos speaker/component (there are exceptions) to your router the SonosNet is created. In the early days Sonos sold a device called a Bridge and later the Boost to create the SonosNet when wiring a Sonos speaker/component was not practical. 

As has been mentioned the SonosNet today given the improved Wi-Fi gear (routers and Mesh networks)  is rarely necessary.

The SonosNet is a hidden network that only a Sonos product can see. No other Wi-Fi enabled product can join. Think of the SonosNet as a supercharged 2.4Ghz band dedicated to Sonos.

The SonosNet (for this conversation) only comes into play for autonomous Sonos products. Speakers used as surrounds and subs are tethered to a Sonos soundbar or speaker (you might call the Host) by a process called Bonding. They (surrounds/subs) are not autonomous as all information received comes from the Host Sonos speaker sent over a Sonos proprietary 5Ghz band.

All said if you have removed the Ethernet connection between your Arc and router and everything is working properly (i.e. sub and surrounds) your HT is working over your Home Wi_Fi. The SonosNet is no longer active.

As has also been said you may not see your sub and surrounds in your routers client list. However, that is router specific. 

Below are Sonos speakers that cannot create the SonosNet:

• Speakers used as surrounds
• Subs
• Era 100 *
• Era 300 *
• Move (Gen 1/2) *
• Roam (Gen 1/2) *

 * Additionally these speakers will not create nor join the SonosNet 

Thanks. So what frequency or wifi band does the Sonos proprietary network run on? My aim here is to reduce the number of wifi networks I have going or at least to understand where they are so I can pick wifi channels to avoid them.

For example

5Ghz has my wifi, and Sonos proprietary network

2.4ghz has my wifi, zigbee, Hue Hub

SonosNet uses a 2.4Ghz wireless band with a channel-width of 20Mhz only and the channel in use is shown in the Sonos App network settings. It uses non-overlapping channels only, so either channel 1, 6, or 11. So if your App shows it is using channel 6, as an example, the set your own router to use channel 1, or 11, whichever is the least-used around your Home by neighbours.

right, but what about the 5ghz network for the home theater group?

 That 5GHz network for the home theater group is not a network you can see.  It is there when you create the home theater group.  The soundbar communicates with the other speakers in the group using its own 5GHz network. 
 
 The soundbar itself needs to be connected to your 2.4GHz WiFi network.  The soundbar will not connect to your 5GHz WiFi network.  Even if you have a soundbar not bonded with any other speakers it still will only connect to WiFi 2.4GHz.

No offense intended but you are really overthinking this concept of proprietary bands used by Sonos. You’re not using the SonosNet 2.4Ghz band unless you have a Sonos product plugged into your router. From what I can gather that’s a non-issue as your Arc is no longer connected to your router which means you’re running Sonos on your home Wi-Fi.

The Sonos 5Ghz band can only be seen by other Sonos products such as a sub or surround speaker. No other non-Sonos product can latch on to it.

I fail to see what you're so concerned about. Unless you live in the backwoods with no neighbors your concern should be the surrounding networks generated by the homes in the surrounding area. . I can see just about every network SSID in my neighborhood. However, I’m not getting interference with any of my Wi-Fi capable products. 

Just to be pedantic, the 5GHz traffic between the devices in a HT setup is not using any network. It is just peer-to-peer direct routing.

If you have a Mac, I’d suggest downloading a tool called WiFi Explorer. It will show what WiFi networks are around and will show ‘hidden’ networks like Sonosnet. 

In terms of minimising networks, a good idea IMO, you are correct to unplug the Arc as that will create a Sonosnet network whether you want it or not. It is a downside of the Sonos sound bars if you want an ethernet connection. On a non-sound bar Sonos speaker, turning off WiFi with ethernet plugged in will stop Sonosnet. However, the soundbar needs WiFi on for the surrounds and/or sub, else they stop working. There is no way in the app to disable just Sonosnet. I think someone has raised a feature request for this. 

The downside of the soundbar using the 5GHz band to communicate directly with surrounds and subs is that it can then only use your 2.4GHz band to talk to the outside world, which may not be your best network, so removing as much interference as you can is a good idea. 

So, for you, the minimum set of WiFi networks you can get to under your control is the 2.4/5GHz bands from your router (you can set the channels here etc.) and one hidden 5Ghz network between the Arc and your surrounds/sub. You can’t control the channel of that network AFAIK. However a WiFi scanner may let you ‘find’ it and configure your router 5GHz channels to avoid interfering with it. 

Just to be pedantic, part 2.

WiFi is a proprietary wireless networking protocol.

SonosNet is also a proprietary wireless networking protocol

SonosNet is therefore not WiFi.

This makes it all the more infuriating (if you are a sad geek) that the Sonos Setting is labelled “Enable / Disable WiFi”, when what it actually does is turn off the speaker’s wireless radio, making wireless communication by that speaker impossible, whether by WiFi, SonosNet or direct routing.

I’d challenge that on the Sonosnet front. I doubt Sonos are running proprietary protocols on radio frequencies reserved for WiFi use, and then writing complex conversion protocols to translate traffic between the outside world and Sonosnet. Haven’t we also seen scenarios where WiFi traffic ends up being wrongly routed over Sonosnet thanks to STP issues? Implying that Sonosnet is more a hidden WiFi network IMO.  

The 5GHz bonded network for surrounds/subs appears to behave differently, but is also less problematic.  

IMHO you’re stoking the fire regarding the OP’s query unnecessarily. The Sonos net IMO has always been a plus for Sonos users.

The creation of it only had a detrimental effect upon Sonos gear when the Bridge and Boost tech became problematic. Those devices has been discontinued in favor of direct Ethernet wiring.

I’m not saying there have never been issues involving the SonosNet and STP however I can’t recall any. Although you’ve been a member in this community since 2009 which pre-dates me by a number of years so your experience exceeds mine.

As has been stated (pedantically ) the 5Ghz is a peer to peer connection for all practical purposes. IMO it’s no more invasive (to create unwanted wireless traffic) than connecting two computers wirelessly.

All said once again IMHO the OP’s concern with reducing wireless network traffic in relation to Sonos is minutiae when compared to other possible problematic inside and outside wireless traffic/interference.

No, you can't change the HT channel. To check which one is being used, go to <your Arc IP address>/support/review.

Then click on your Arc's room name and /proc/ath_rincon/status:

• Operating on is you WiFi channel
• Home channel is your SonosNet channel
• HT channel is the Home Theater channel your Arc is using with the Ones e Sub.

You can't set the HT channel and it may change at any time

I was simply challenging John B’s assertion that Sonosnet was not WiFi, even though it can route IP traffic and uses the main 2.4GHz channels, 1,6 and 11. It was not stoking the fire.

My apologies. However I think your intent (challenge) would have been clearer if you had inserted @John B post in your response.

FWIW - This is just my own (personal) take on these things…

I like to distinguish between the different connections by referring to anything directly connected to the local (router) network as using "WiFi" …and whenever there’s an ad-hoc connection between player & surrounds etc. I refer to that as a “wireless” link. It’s just a minor play on words, but that’s how I choose to refer to these ‘different’ connections.

So for me, a Sonos HT has 2.4Ghz ‘WiFi’ link to the local network and a 5Ghz ‘wireless’ (ad-hoc) link to the bonded surrounds & sub (just as an example).

Although surrounds and SUB’s will receive an IP address from the router, in wireless mode all music traffic is sent directly to the surrounds and SUB’s using a private link. Some WiFi systems will drop reporting the existence of these units because there is no regular WiFi traffic.