Best setup for ASUS AiMesh + Sonos?

  • 26 December 2021
  • 5 replies
  • 1016 views
I
  • i.b.
  • Contributor I
  • 2 replies

My home is set up with a 2-node ASUS ZenWiFi AC AiMESH wifi set-up.  I’ve got a few SONOS speakers throughout the house.  My Beam is hard-wired to the main router.  However, I still get the “Wireless range extender” error message when trying to play the same thing on multiple speakers.  (“Some Sonos products are using the WiFi from a range extender device.  If you include one of these in a room group, you won’t be able to play music in that group.  To ensure playback in all grouped rooms, you’ll need to permanently wire a Sonos product to your router.)  

 

I’ve unplugged all the speakers, re-booted the router, then plugged them back in one-by-one, but the error still happens.  

 

In my “About My System” page, all speakers are showing WM = 0.  

 

Despite the error message, my speakers do seem to be able to connect in a group, but not consistently, and sometimes they are very slightly out-of-sync.  

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5 replies

Airgetlam

That’s odd. Is there any chance that your WiFi information is still in the Sonos controller? If so, you should certainly remove it, as your Beam is wired, and everything is WM:0. 

Given that you’ve already rebooted the router as well, I’d be tempted to submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it.

There may be information included in the diagnostic that will help Sonos pinpoint the issue and help you find a solution.

When you speak directly to the phone folks, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your Sonos system and network.

Bruce
AjTrek1
Userlevel 7

Hi

Make sure that one of the nodes is set to “extender” mode and the other as “main”. The latter is where your Beam should be wired to create the SonosNet. If not convenient to wire the Beam then purchase the Sonos Boost module to create the SonosNet.

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
I

Thanks for your responses.  

 

@ AjTrek1, yes, I’ve got the router that is connected to the modem set as main and the other router set as extender, and yes, the Beam is hard-wired to the main router.  

 

@ Airgetlam, I deleted my WiFi SSID from Sonos entirely (Settings > System > Network > Manage Networks).  I *still* get the error message!  

 

Also, in my router interface, I can see all the Sonos speakers as connected devices.  If I’m running a WM:0 wired set-up with the speakers connecting over SonosNet, I’m not sure why they would still connect to the router.  

I was totally unaware that Sonos had phone support.  I will definitely try that out—thanks for the pointer!  

I

Problem solved.  

 

I called into Sonos support and the tech I spoke to identified the problem:  my Beam speaker was hard-wired into the router, but its connection was configured as “Disable Wi-Fi”.  In order for this speaker to be the central node of the SonosNet system it needs to be set as “Enable Wi-Fi”.  We made this switch and now my system is running on the SonosNet through the wired connection to my Beam speaker.  All good.

 

Sonos, if you’re listening, some comments.  The text on the Connection dialogue is: “An Ethernet cable, wired to your router, is required to allow Wi-Fi to be disabled.”  It was 100% not clear to me that SonosNet is considered Wi-Fi.  It would be helpful add to this:  “Keep Wi-Fi enabled if you are using this device as a wired base node for SonosNet.”

 

Secondly, it’s not clear to me why my system was showing each speaker at WM:0 (wired mode) when they were in fact (per the Sonos tech) still on wireless Wi-Fi mode (i.e., should be showing WM:1 (wireless mode)).  

I am very glad to learn that Sonos has actual human tech support, easily reached and able to do remote diagnosis of one’s Sonos system.  

ratty

Sonos, if you’re listening, some comments.  The text on the Connection dialogue is: “An Ethernet cable, wired to your router, is required to allow Wi-Fi to be disabled.”  It was 100% not clear to me that SonosNet is considered Wi-Fi.  It would be helpful add to this:  “Keep Wi-Fi enabled if you are using this device as a wired base node for SonosNet.”

A number of us have been banging on about this for years. 

Not only does the ‘Disable WiFi’ option kill SonosNet, but it also turns off the private 5GHz connection for home theatre satellites. Yes, I know that Sonos uses standard WiFi wireless chipsets throughout but to users the term ‘WiFi’ means, well, WiFi as they traditionally know it. The irony is that one obviously cannot ‘disable WiFi’ on a node which does use WiFi.

In clarifying the labelling Sonos wouldn’t even need to mention the term ‘SonosNet’ (which strangely seems rather taboo these days). If they’d simply say ‘Disable all wireless connections’ it would at least go some way towards avoiding the inevitable and repeated misunderstandings.

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