Sonos Basic questions?

vining

I can't seem to find what I want on their site so I figure I'd ask here.

How the F does it work?

One device connects to the router not closer than 3' to avoid Wi-Fi interference (first clue)

Any subsequent devices can connect wirelessly yet you don't need to know any SSIDs or encryption keys and they all also have ethernet ports which can be used to connect another device if this Sonos device is connected wirelessly.

So from this I gather that any device can be an Access point and/or repeat broadcast on an invisible Sonos SSID and I assume it scans the horizon for clear space and picks the best RF channel. As long as one device is directly connected to the router all other devices can communicate on this un-seen wi-fi network so what happens when all 3 channels are already used? 1, 6 & 11. I would think all Sonos devices have to sync on a single channel to operate so at some point they have to be in close proximity to a standard access point on the same RF channel. Yet I see no mention of placing these devices in ideal locations and if you ask me 3' is still too close to a wireless router if that's what they're getting at.

I tried hooking a system up today and it seems to cripple the my wi-fi. Of course the clients host their shared music files on a laptop so streaming multiple zones from this laptop through the nearest access point which is also the most congested access point because of its location to all the kids rooms while having this Sonos' invisible wi-fi on possibly the same RF channel is pretty scary.

Does this maybe operation on a proprietary RF on a different spectrum or is this just an accident waiting to happen?

Maybe you don't need to know alot about anything to install this system because you're better off that way.

John Nagy

I have no direct experience, but our main IT consultant said they are a WIFI train wreck, don't play nice, and can severely load a home system that might have expected some bandwidth for other devices. That's all I heard, second hand, for what it's worth. They also seem to work.

vining

Yeah, that's pretty much my thinking too. I think that's why they don't actually tell you how it works. I don't even like the way it works, kind of slow and quirky. I guess if you don't have a distribution system and an existing wi-fi network it mightt be ok but i'd rather have a boom box.

shr00m-dew

Sonos doesn't auto select a channel, you have to choose one of 1, 6, or 11.

Sonos also does not support wireless streaming from a laptop. While it works most of the time, they highly recommend a NAS drive or hard wired PC. Probably because they know they know they are hogging the available wifi anyway.

Yes, any device increases the size of the Sonos network. Repeater, AP, whatever you want to call it. The original thought of that was that the Sonos controller also sits on this network, and any increase in the mesh increases the range that the controller works. With their free apps and no availability of their touchscreen glass, they are discontinuing their controller this fall.

Yes, they don't tell you how it works. Yes you can't diagnose things on your own. You pretty much wait on hold for two hours, submit diagnostics, then they tell you which device is too far away or which one has an issue. Unfortunately, if you try to minimize the issue by hard wiring everything, it doesn't work. We had a job with 6 players in a rack, no controller to worry about, so we hard wired everyone. They still tried to mesh the wireless, while still being hard wired. It wouldn't work until we only had one hard wired.

It has it's place, but it's not something that needs to be integrated into anything. If someone wants an audio system they can control with their phone/ipad and nothing else, sell a Sonos. Keep the video system separate. If they want everything integrated, sell something else.

Like I tell any new customer, the Sonos system won't control anything else and nothing else will control the Sonos system (regardless of some of the options out there). Until Sonos releases a integrator's box with an open protocol, it will be a stand alone system for us.

Kevin D.

vining

shr00m-dew wrote: »

Sonos doesn't auto select a channel, you have to choose one of 1, 6, or 11.
Kevin D.

Hmmm, there must be settings somewhere that i haven't come across yet.

The clients purchased this Sonos system. They have no distributed system nor was i trying to sell them anything cuz it ain't that type of client. I've never touched a Sonos so i figured WTF, i'll throw it in for them and see what it's all about. I never came across anything that would lead me to believe it was wireless although i think i thought it was and then the client said it was so i started reading and sure enough it was. It's not obvious though, my initial clue was the wi-fi network i just installed was spazzing out.