What to replace Sonos with

Portable to Attic (as currently wired) has a rather borderline signal. Portable has the option of a two-hop route via Bedroom if things get sticky, though SonosNet tends to hang onto single-hop connections if it can.

I would ignore the amber 'OFDM Weak signal level: 3' boxes in the left column. The older radios seem prone to this now for some reason.

FWIW the Play:5 gen 1 has a somewhat weaker radio than the Play:1. But if everything stays stable I'd recommend getting a Boost to replace the Bridge anyway.

Router and Sonos both on channel 6? They should be different, at least 5 channels apart.

Router and Sonos both on channel 6? They should be different.Ideally, but in some crowded environments the best solution might be to share the channel. If so, they'd do so cooperatively.

revdv,

Connections don’t look too bad, I would recommend the Boost too (more powerful signal).. that would be my purchase priority and move it further away from the router... as far as practicable.

I would ensure the router 2.4ghz channel 6 is 'fixed' and not allowed to auto-select it’s channel and if your powerline adapters are wifi access points and you need them, then they too either need to be fixed to channel 6, ...or much better don't use them with Sonos and perhaps just use their 5ghz radio with your non-Sonos devices. As a very last resort, you could cable Sonos to the powerline adapter, but look to that as being the very last option open to you.

In summary, run all your Sonos devices on the the Boost SonosNet signal, or cable them to your network. Use either SonosNet channel 1 or 11 to keep the radio signal far apart from your router channel.

As @Ratty mentions, goto the Sonos App 'Advanced Settings/Wireless Setup' and reset/remove the WiFi credentials... not needed when all are on SonosNet.

Dedicated Android Controllers running direct on SonosNet are good too as they connect/control via the nearby speakers/devices

I will recommend one further thing too and that’s to add your Sonos IP addresses to your routers DHCP Reservation Table, so that they get the same address on reboot/restart of the device or network.

And here I thought this was a bad April Fool's joke. Was I ever wrong.

Kudos to those IT ninjas out there helping the OP. This is some network magic happening right now.
Glad to know some experts are in our midst in the event I should ever encounter my own Sonos poltergeist.

Glad to know some experts are in our midst
This probably is still the big Sonos differentiator.

replace it with bluesound.

Really cheap alternative. lol

replace it with bluesound.

Really cheap alternative. lolha ha now that is ...

Initial results seem to be positive. Just tried grouping - no problem.
Just tried playing from diskstation - no problem

thanks all, let you know tomorrow when I'm back online. Out now till 10pm.

All - especially @ratty, John B and Ken_Griffiths
THANK YOU!
This morning, for the first time in months and months, I went to the kitchen to make tea for the beloved OH and lo and behold, Sonos just fired up and worked immediately. No "searching for Sonos", no messing about. This is amazing. Also, there was a large dead spot for wifi / Sonos control in the dining room which has now vanished (due to proximity to the connect:amp's SonosNet, I assume) - again, a great result!

Kudos and thanks to you guys (how do you know so much?! - especially the matrix thingy).

I don't want to put a Play:1 on the half-landing by the router, so I shall fork out and get a Boost (expensive, aren't they!).

A couple of points to note:
- my router was pretending to be on channel 11 according to the manager (it's a vodafone router) but clearly was operating on channel 6. My wifi analyser is showing channel 6 as the home network and now channel 11 is carrying the SonosNet (I assume that's what the HHID_xfO ...... signals are (there are 5 showing). Maybe that's why sonos support told me to use channel 6, although they should have seen that from the diagnostics.
- I've tried to specify IP addresses for the individual Sonos devices but (a) I don't see them all and (b) the MAC addresses don't tally. The addresses that the router reports are usually one hex digit different to what the network matrix reported. Odd.

And another question: should my wife's android phone be able to connect to the SonosNet too? It doesn't see the HHID_55.... SSID so I typed it in manually - and then it asked for a password. That's normal, I understand, and I've enabled / disenabled / enabled but it didn't seem to pick up.

The powerlines, by the way, do have wifi but it's turned off except one in the attic for guests and that's on a guest network.

many, many thanks again - I thought Sonos Support was the place to go - how wrong I was. You guys in the Community are amazing.
(BTW, I have been a community member before, but pressures of time meant I couldn't participate much and I have also changed email, so re-joined. Are there ways I can contribute / learn more?)

THANK YOU ALL!

Good to hear.

(how do you know so much?! - especially the matrix thingy).Originally because of a need to understand why my system wasn't behaving right (we're talking 2007/08), then out of interest as to what other goodies the diagnostics offered. The user-visible bits used to be far more comprehensive, but are now hidden away by Sonos on grounds of security. (Foolish people were forwarding port 1400 through their router, and thousands of players were visible on teh interweb.)

I don't want to put a Play:1 on the half-landing by the router, so I shall fork out and get a Boost (expensive, aren't they!).

Cheap at the price of a modest night out, if you ask me.

My wifi analyser is showing channel 6 as the home network and now channel 11 is carrying the SonosNet (I assume that's what the HHID_xfO ...... signals are (there are 5 showing).

Those beacons are showing because you have Androids connecting to SonosNet.

I've tried to specify IP addresses for the individual Sonos devices but (a) I don't see them all and (b) the MAC addresses don't tally. The addresses that the router reports are usually one hex digit different to what the network matrix reported. Odd.

The MACs you should use for reservation are the ones you see in the router's DHCP table. These are the internal (bridge) MAC address. They also tally with the serial number.

Those in the matrix are the MACs for the wireless interfaces, which are +1 with respect to the internal MAC (and +2 for a home theatre speaker's 5GHz interface).

And another question: should my wife's android phone be able to connect to the SonosNet too?

Yes. Go into Advanced Settings on her phone's controller and enable it. The SSID will appear in the WiFi settings. You can't configure the SonosNet SSID manually.