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Upside down house setup

  • 16 August 2021
  • 4 replies
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I have recently gone over to Sonos and am trying to make sure i don’t get this wrong.

Electricians are on site and therefore cabling not a problem at the moment.

My router, fibre at 316mbs, is situated in the entrance hall. Standalone, with a CAt7 cable to a switch on the sub basement where the office is, In the salon, 6 metres from the router, is an 85 ‘’ Bravia, ARC, Sub and two One SL’s. Eight metres away in the kitchen is a 75 ‘’ Bravia and another ARC. The floor is open plan. Across a bridge is a bedroom and in that room will be a Sonos Symfonisk Picture speaker. For this floor that is it. The stairs from the entrance hall to the lower level are adjacent to the routers location. This is where I come unstuck. Although I have for some reason two network SSID’s, one being 5G as a suffix the signal as you go to the lower floor and into the garage gets very weak, no matter which one you use. I have purchased a Boost which I will place at the foot of the stairs and that shoud broadcast the Sonos signal to the Sonos Symfonisk Picture speakers, of which there are three, on the lower level. My logic tells me that using the Boost as a repeater on Wifi is an easy way forward. However, at this juncture I can get the electricians to run a Cat7 from the Boost to the router, but, now I read that I will create a dedicated SonosNet and it will not use the wifi. I am just concerned that the Boost at the bottom of the stairs will pick up the signal strong enough to run the salon and kitchen systems.

Any expert thoughts out tthere?

Regards

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Best answer by melvimbe 16 August 2021, 16:57

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4 replies

A couple points to make first. 

Regardless of whether you are running your Sonos system off Sonosnet or off of WiFi, you will be able to control Sonos via devices on your WiFi network. 

As far as the Boost goes, they are only useful on Sonosnet.  If your Sonos speakers connect directly to WiFi, Boost serves no purpose.   As you mentioned, wiring one of you your Sonos devices, Boost or other speaker to the router is needed to create sonosnet.  That can be the Boost if no Sonos speaker is nearby, or you can use a Boost(s) to strengthen sonosnet if needed.  Boost can’t be used as a repeater for your router’s WiFi network.

Whether you should use Sonosnet or WiFi depends on the strength of your WiFi network, number of Sonos speakers/boosts you’re using (stronger) sonosnet, and the amount of wireless interference from neighbors and such.  For your setup, I would probably use Sonosnet, as it sounds like you have several Sonos speakers, so I would just hardwire one device to the router.  I would also make sure that I am using a router that is strong enough everywhere I need it to be for controlling Sonos and all the other WiFi needs.   Plenty of good mesh systems these days.

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Thank you for the very informative reply. I have taken note. 
it appears, if I have understood you correctly, that a Cat 7 to the Boost is the best option. It is line of sight to the router and then that should service the speaker downstairs. 
The Wi-Fi is on two SSID,s simultaneous one broadcasting 5G. From my iPhone I can access this SSID. The others do not appear on the network options on the laptops, Tapo cameras and other equipment. I am guessing the internal modems are not up to date, even though the firmware is current. I just hope the Boost can see the 5G because I get 311mbs down and 308 up compared to 73 up and and 81 down on the normal. 
I will get the architect to instruct for the cable. 
Thank you for taking the trouble to write. Greatly appreciate. 
Regards

I’m an anal wire freak. While you are able to run wires, I recommend wiring as many units as is practical. This includes the TV’s and set top boxes too. Wire is faster and more reliable than wireless. If you want to be future proof, run a fiber too. For the short term the fiber will be “dark”, but wire is running out of bandwidth. Add wire/fiber to any room that might include a cluster of devices in the future. Also wire locations that might support additional  wireless access points. Ubiquiti offers some access points that are wall mounted. These are not quite as potent as ceiling mounted units (due to their physical location), but you would normally use multiple in-wall access points and a less potent access point in the room or next room is more effective than a super potent access point down the hall or on another floor.

 I just hope the Boost can see the 5G because I get 311mbs down and 308 up compared to 73 up and and 81 down on the normal. 
 

 

Boost isn’t going to use your WiFi at all, you were going to wire it to the router.  Boost will then connect to the other Sonos speakers using Sonosnet.

And I agree with buzz, it’s a good idea to wire everything that you can.