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Beam - falls off network all the time

A
  • A Sk
  • Contributor I
  • 4 replies

I had the Sonos system for years with two sonos 3 and it worked great until I bought a Sonos Beam. Since then my original Sonos 3 speakers are redundant and cannot be used in the system.

The sonos Beam works for one to two weeks then falls off the network for no reason. Eventually it connects again after a few days for no logical reason.

The sonos support never respond and over the last 18 months have failed to provide any suitable response as to why the Sonos 3 will no longer work or why the Beam (which is wired directly to the router) drops off for no reason.

Can anybody help?

 

 

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Best answer by Corry P 3 August 2021, 11:47

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11 replies

Airgetlam

Unfortunately, there’s not really enough information there to hazard anything beyond a wild guess, and it’s entirely possible that there’s multiple things going on, since there’s no reason that your PLAY:3s shouldn’t be able to coexist with your Beam.

Can you provide more detail, please?

What version of the Sonos software, and which build do you have?

How is your system connected, is it all wireless, connected to your wifi signal, or do you have one device wired in to your router, so that all devices would be on SonosNet?

What router are you using? Have you updated that router recently?

How is your Beam connected to your TV set? Are you using the optical to HDMI-ARC connector?

When is the last time you’ve refreshed your Sonos’ connection to the LAN by unplugging all devices from power, then while they’re unplugged, rebooting your router?

Bruce
Ken_Griffiths

A few questions first of all, as more information is needed before making any constructive suggestions for you to perhaps try ..

  • What router (make/model) are you using?
  • What wireless channels (and channel width) are you using for its 2.4Ghz/5Ghz bands?
  • What channel are you using for SonosNet?
  • Has the WiFi card been switched off on the Beam?
  • Are the Play:3’s ‘standalone’, ‘paired’ (or ‘bonded’ to the Beam)?
  • Any other WiFi access points (extenders, repeaters, power-line adapters)?

Edit: Ah Bruce beat me to it - but I agree, more info. is needed here. 👍

A

Hi there

The Sonos 3 are no longer on the system, it is purely the beam. It is wired direct to the main router which is the most recent Sky Q router on the 5ghz band I believe.

I don’t know what channel because at the moment it has disconnected and I cannot reconnect it.

I don’t know about the WiFi card being  switched off. Should that be the case and can you share how I would do that?

Thank you for trying to help. 

Airgetlam

I really should let Ken carry forward, I think he’s in the UK, and likely much more cognizant of the Sky Q router than I could be, being a Yank in California.

So, the Beam really wants to be on a 2.4Ghz b/g/n channel, since it tends to reserve the 5Ghz antenna for communication with any potential surrounds or Sub you might have. 

I’d be awfully tempted to look in the controller for the room that is the Beam, and ensure, as Ken suggests, that the “radio” or “Wifi” has not been turned off. I’m not at home to look at my controller, so I’m not sure I remember what it’s called, but it’s likely either of those two names. Essentially, that turns off all wireless communication, not only wifi, but also SonosNet. And it’s something that, unless you’re directed to, you really should not have off. It’s often a setting that installers use in larger systems, but probably shouldn’t be invoked on any of the sound bar products.

If you can, try wiring the Beam directly to your router, at least temporarily, with an ethernet cable. You should, after 5 minutes of a “settle down” period, then be able to plug back in the PLAY:3s, and make sure everything is running on the same software, and it would all work. 

But I suspect that if you have your Sky Q router allow the use of a 2.4Ghz signal in addition to the 5Ghz one, your Beam would be more happy and stay connected, barring any wifi interference while it’s unplugged from your router. 

Ken, it’s all you from this point :)

Bruce
A

Thank you very much for your ideas.

I’ll take a look and give that a to. 

Ken_Griffiths

Thank you very much for your ideas.

I’ll take a look and give that a to. 

So are you no longer using the Play:3’s and it’s just the Beam?

I seem to recall the SkyQ router has a combined 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz band (with the same SSID for both bands) - I think the issue here is a ‘device discovery’ issue. I will try to explain…

The controller App discovers your speaker on the network using SSDP multicasting - for some reason I think your mobile device (controller) is not finding the speaker (even though it’s actually still connected to the SkyQ network). It’s perhaps a case it’s wireless band (operating on auto-selected channels) is not allowing the discovery messages to get through. 

I do have a suggested ‘potential’ fix that other SkyQ users have claimed worked for them, but it comes with some slight risks. I will send you a PM for you to consider the steps (any changes are entirely at your own risk of course).

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @A Sk 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

The issue is that your Beam and your Play:3s are set up as different systems, and the app will only ever connect to one at a time.

I assume you set up the Beam as a new system at a time when the Play:3s weren’t connecting, for whatever reason (maybe they were off?).

As your Beam is currently online, I recommend you factory reset your Play:3s. Once done, the app will offer to add them to the existing system.

Sky Q boxes can be a bit of an issue, as they repeat a WiFi signal from your Sky router (if you don’t have a Sky router, you can ignore this bit) but in a way that doesn’t permit full communication on the network between devices. To bypass this, the easiest thing to do is to permanently wire any one Sonos product to your router with ethernet (once they are all part of the same system). It will create a private WiFi just for Sonos and the other units will avoid your Sky Q box broadcast. If you have any trouble setting up the Play:3s after resetting them, wiring the Beam to the router will help them to add.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
A

Thank you all for taking the time to respond. It is very helpful.
 

I am still puzzled about the problems we have been having with the beam. A lot of the solutions described above point to wiring the Beam to the router. This is what we have always done. It is wired directly to the router but still falls off the network. This seems to happen once every couple of weeks despite the fact that nothing has changed in the set up. 


What could be causing a wired product where there are no other Sonia products in the network, to fall off?

 

Ken_Griffiths

@A Sk,

Each Sonos setup is given a HouseholdID - it seems you have created two systems (two separate Households) - one for your Beam running on a (wired) SonosNet signal and one for your two Play:3’s. It’s something users mistakenly do occasionally - they opt to create a new Sonos system instead of joining the existing system following a reset of a device.

If you see @Corry P’s  post above, you just need to factory reset both your Play:3’s - open the Sonos App, where you will see your wired Beam and goto "Settings/System/Add Product’ and add the two Play:3’s to that system. All will then be on the same HouseholdID and all being well, it will resolve the issues you have been seeing.

A

Thanks Ken

i have not had the Sonos3’s in the system for over 6 months and have factory reset the beam since that time.

Would your solution still apply in that case?

Ken_Griffiths

Thanks Ken

i have not had the Sonos3’s in the system for over 6 months and have factory reset the beam since that time.

Would your solution still apply in that case?

It will apply if you wish to have the Play:3’s working in your setup alongside the Beam. If not, then perhaps look at the message I sent you last week and see if that suggestion ‘perhaps’ works for you with the Beam wired. I believe there is some kind of issue that some users see with the Sky Router as the multicast (device discovery) packets seem to sometimes not get through and the controller can’t find/discover the speaker(s) (even though the speakers are actually still present on the network). HTH

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