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Give up on Sonos ?

D

I’ve had Sonos since the early days, currently at about 29 devices.  About since changing satellite internet providers (Hughes to Starlink), my system has become useless.  The hone app is very slow, and doesn’t find all my rooms.  When I try to play music from my NAS drive or TV audio going into a Connnect or Play:5,  It is “unable to play music”.  I called Sonos CS and they blamed it on satellite internet, telling me how internet dependent Sonos was.  Why is it “internet dependent” for local sources?  I understand that for sources like Tune-In, but why for local sources?  The interaction appears to be wifi-related since logging into my router, it sees all the Sonos devices along with printers, PCs, etc.  If it really is my internet connection, is there a way/device to spoof it into working with my local sources? 

TIA

Don, Central VA

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Best answer by buzz 20 July 2022, 16:50

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21 replies

ratty

So the only thing that’s changed is the internet provider -- and presumably the router as well -- and it’s somehow Sonos’ fault that things aren’t right? That doesn’t sound terribly logical does it.

First off, after a router change everything on the network will need to re-request fresh IP info. This should happen on its own eventually but can be hurried along by powering kit off and on again. In the meantime local communications could well be flaky. 

Next, the new router -- assuming it’s wireless -- could well have changed WiFi channels from those used by the old one. This could be interfering with SonosNet.

By the way, do you have split S1 & S2 systems? Your profile lists Play:5/gen1, which can only run S1, and Sub/gen3, which requires S2. 

buzz

Tell us more about your network. Have you changed routers? Are any of your SONOS units wired to the network?

D

On the S1/S2 issue, I removed the gen3 sub and the One-SL’s.  Those are a different (S2) system at another location.  The home system is all S1. 

Yes, the Elon Musk Starlink has its own router with wifi.  They then charge extra for an ethernet adapter which feeds a few hard-wired devices, including a gen1 Play:5.  It was required when I set up my system to have at least one Sonos device hard-wired.  Not sure if that’s still the case.  Certainly the means for adding devices has changed with my other S2 system, which is at my apt, not at home. 

Logging into the Starlink router shows considerably less info than, say, what I recall from a previous old Netgear router.  May have to touch base with the Starlink folk to get better info.  I’ve tried cycling power on everything (by tripping the main for 5 minutes), which made no operational difference. 

Don’t I recall something way back when about the Sonos network being independent of the wifi network, which seemed to be a criticism.  Then later Sonos became more wifi integrated?  Certainly when I log into the router and look at all attached devices, my Sonos units are in the list with MAC and IP  addresses. 

It was a call to Sonos CS that essentially wrote me off as satellite internet not being adequate for Sonos.  Figured the Forum would get me a better assessment, as usual.

 

buzz

 With respect to wired or wireless, the early competition attempted to crush SONOS by claiming “liar”, “liar”, SONOS is not a wireless system because at least one unit must be wired. This was a very strong claim in the marketplace. It was a cheap trick for SONOS to also allow WiFi and all of the “liar” claims were instantly crushed. Overall, WiFi is not well suited for supporting real time audio (that’s why the SonosNet was developed) and I recommend wiring at least one unit to the network. SONOS then builds a private wireless mesh network and ignores WiFi.

Depending on the sophistication of the STARLINK router you might be better off wiring only one SONOS unit or wire multiple SONOS units only to a network switch that is wired to the router. Most consumer grade switches will work fine. The buzzword is “unmanaged switch”.

Make sure that STARLINK is set to use channel 1, 6, or 11 on the 2.4GHz segment, not “Auto”. Use 20MHz channels. It’s usually best to set SONOS to use a different channel.

You should be able to play music from your NAS even if all of the satellites crash. You will need WiFi to support wireless controllers, but a wired computer will work fine on SonosNet. Some wireless routers are reluctant to share data between network segments, particularly if the WiFi connection is on the 5GHz segment.

[Note that, while a wired computer can play music, it cannot setup the system]

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

If nothing else works can you add a second router? I don’t know Starlink and it might have internal configuration issues.

Best would be setting the Starlink to bridge mode, the other option would be to set the second router as a client of the Starlink.

You’d need your Sonos, Controllers and NAS all connected to the second router.

D

Thanks for the reply.  When I was on Hughesnet, Sonos CS looked up their router specs and said it was so bad that they were surprised it worked with Sonos at all.  I got a Netgear Nighthawk R6700v3, turned off Hughes wifi and fed the Hughes into the Netgear.  Worked fine.  Tried the same with Starlink with poor results.  Maybe victim of inexperience, but will try again.  I’m guessing that “bridge mode” is what Starlink calls bypass mode which turns off its wifi.  Will try that today.

Don

buzz

After switching to “bypass” mode, I recommend that you power down both Starlink and the Netgear. Allow the Starlink to reboot, then start the Netgear. It’s possible that both units will figure out what must be done without the reboot, but it’s frustrating if the system does not promptly or never works out the required details until a reboot.

Only the Netgear should be wired to the Starlink everything else is connected through the Netgear.

D

Thanx, tried that but found Netgear not connecting to internet, which gave me no access.  So turned Starlink wifi back on, so now I have two routes.  Making Netgear the preferred one.   Haven’t really gotten to the Sonos part yet.  Thinking of starting over usint a ONE as the hardwired unit instead of the old Play:5 G1.

buzz

I assume that the WAN port of the NETGEAR was connected to the STARLINK.

There is something odd with respect to the NETGEAR configuration if you cannot operate the SONOS system. Not having access to the Internet will not prevent operating the SONOS system to play local sources

It’s not the end of the world if you have both STARLINK and NETGEAR WiFi active, but it is not optimum. If you do this, make sure that both use different SSID’s, none of your devices use the STARLINK SSID, and your wired devices use only the NETGEAR.

D

Thanx, Buzz.  Yes, the WAN port of the Netgear is connected to the Starlink.  As I said, haven’t had a chance to deal with the Sonos yet.  Today’s tasks are dealing with last night’s storm and a failed Generac, and the IRS ;=)

D

Followup on month-old post . . . I changed my “wired Sonos” unit from a Play:5, gen 1 to a ONE, factory reset all units and rebuilt the (S1) system.  It comes up with Tune In and Sonos Radio, but haven’t figured out how to add NAS drive again.  I have used an Adonics NAS 4.0 for years.  Having no luck getting it to work and Addonics seems to have retreated to Taiwan.  All their pages come up 404.  I know all music is on the USB drive because if I plug it in the car, all works fine.  Windows Explorer (is that what it’s called?) shows ADDNAS as a network drive, but subservient to it is Don23805, which is the Admin User name for Addnas.  Clicking on that returns “Windows cannot access \\ADDNAS\Don23805”, error code 0x80070035 Network Path not found,  and a useless offer to Diagnose suggesting misspelling.  Any insights?

TIA

Don

N
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Is ADDNAS the host name or the drive folder?

buzz

Their website seems active and there are manuals, but I don’t know if this is your model. If the USB drive is OK, maybe you can attach it to your network another way. Some routers will support USB memory.

I don’t expect that “Don23805” should be part of the Path name. It would be part   of a username/password, if required. What is the folder structure that you see in the car?

D

is this the answer to your question? . . .

If I click on the Don23805 folder I get:
does that help?
Don

 

Ken_Griffiths

@Don_23805 
I’m guessing it’s an old SMB1 share and the SMB1 protocol has been disabled in your windows O/S - you just need to switch on the earlier version of the protocol in Windows to access it via that platform. See this link:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/file-server/troubleshoot/detect-enable-and-disable-smbv1-v2-v3

To setup the library however in Sonos S1 App see this link below:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/78

Airgetlam

For what it’s worth, Sonos doesn’t care that Windows can’t see the share. It’s working from the Linux side on the Sonos devices, and using that access to feed the data to the controller. 

Bruce
D

Wow! Lots of possibilities.  I got rid of the ADDNAS, and plugged the USB music stick into the USB port on th Netgear Nighthawk router.  Rebooted it & W7 PC.  No real progress. 

At my apt I have an S2 system (2x ONE SC’s and G3 sub).  Since the laptop there is always on, I plugged the music USB drive into the laptop and it works fine.  Maybe I could try the same at home on the S1 system since the intel NUC is always on.  Thoughts (and gratefu for all the help)?

Don

 

PS:

both cars have identical USB drives.  Hard to tell hierarchy since both come back to previous playing music.  Bet never any mention of a Don23805 folder.  That seems to be an ADDNAS artifact.

Ken_Griffiths

@Don_23805,

A Sonos S1 system is able to view/access a shared library using SMBv1, or the http protocol, from a mobile device or PC/Mac computer respectively.

An S2 System can also view/access library shares using the higher (more secure) versions of the SMB protocol - upto version 3. 

If using the USB drive, then simply share the library folder on your Intel NUC and use the Sonos App Controller installed on that PC device to setup the share using http - the issue of course is you need to leave the NUC powered on at all times to use it and ‘may’ have to switch off some of its power management features to prevent the connection to the shared library being lost (perhaps🤔?), but just see how it goes after you have setup the library share and have it working with Sonos.

M

So is there a way to get Sonos working with StarLink? Just upgraded from HughesNet which worked fine with Sonos…..

D

I’m not sure my advice should be gospel since I’m having all the trouble.  I, too, went from hughes to Starlink.  The new Starlink router doesn’t have an ethernet jack.  You have to spring another $25 for their accessory one.  My impression was that I didn’t get the wifi coverage with their router as I do with the Netgear.  So the Netgear is fed by the SL.  Everything thing comes from the NG.  Only have to be careful to set network to NG, because things like my printer are connected there.

Everything working except getting my music thumbdrive to play to Sonos.  HTH

Airgetlam

Agreed, the Starlink doesn’t have an ethernet jack. However, my friend set up his StarLink system to use the same SSID and password at his vacation home as he has with his normal home. So all devices just connected when plugged in, not knowing that they were in a different location. 

However, if you’re installing new devices, they can get the SSID and password from the normal setup process via BLE from your phone or tablet. You’d just use the normal process to connect them to whatever SSID the StarLink is broadcasting on. 

The only challenge is when you decide to use a different SSID for the StarLink than you have for your normal location….which you could easily just add the new data to your Sonos before you packed it up and moved it.

Another option here is the whole “travel router’ potential, which you could use to log in to your StarLink SSID, and have it broadcast a different SSID. Most travel routers (or many?) have a spare ethernet port, that you could attache a switch, or just a speaker to, as needed. 

Bruce
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