SONOS Compatability with Orbi

Dynamiteboy
Tutor
Feb 20, 2017
dleute wrote:
Yes you can mix and match wired and wireless. Just remember performance on that unit will be slower than the other two.

This does sound like wifi interference to me. If so, then the same thing will likely happen on google wifi. Should be interesting to see the results.

--Derrek

I agree that is should by Wi-fi interference, but for that reason I am confused, as almost all Wifi interference should be able to be mitigated by changing channels and adjusting frequencies. Using a Wifi Scanner no other networks were on the Orbi or the Sonos channels. I just have a feeling that a different Wi-fi system like google will work. I won't know why it works, but I just want it to work at this point. Orbi and Sonos are both supposed to be plug and play and have not been thus far. I should not have to do this level of troubleshooting for either product and for that reason there is still an issue that either Sonos or Orbi needs to address, just not sure what that is.

If my Wifi tops out at 120mb/s, I think with 2 wired points and a wireless one in between with the sonos bridge plugged into one of them I have hopes that this will resolve my issues with speed drops.

A couple more questions:

Do you reccommend an Onhub as one of the mesh points? If so which point? the main one? I have heard people getting better coverage with these (Obviously a bigger unit than google wifi)
Would you reccommend taking the bridge out of the picture completely and just wiring in a Sonos Connect amp? This will still leave the Sonosnet intact I beleive.
- dleute
  Apprentice
  Feb 20, 2017
  I would personally avoid onhub for the time being. For one thing, there are 2 of them made by different manufacturers. For another, they are not entirely google controlled. In this case, I would say simplicity is better and stick with just google wifi units unless there is an issue that onhub can solve. Technically, onhubs may have better antennae arrangements, but that should only make a difference in the most extreme cases. Well placed google wifi units should just work.
  
  It really shouldn't matter if you use a bridge or a connect. Like, really not at all. The only reason this would matter is if one of them was dysfunctional, then the other would work better. As I have only used a connect as my wired Sonos, I really can't speak to anything else. It seems to work well for me plugged into orbi. (They are less than an inch apart).
  
  My advice is to start simple.
  
  Dumb question of the day: Do you live near a police station, fire station, hospital or other public service?
  
  --Derrek
  - Dynamiteboy
    Tutor
    Feb 28, 2017
    After quite a few hours I was able to setup Google Wifi properly.
    
    The biggest issue with it I encountered was the fact that each node needed to be wirelessly added to the mesh before they were wired in at a much farther away point across the house. This brought a lot of confusion and is a dumb requirement for setup. Unless these things first saw the main unit wirelessly, they could not be added to the mesh properly
    
    Now I have 2 nodes, the bedrooms and living room wired into drops in the house. An Onhub upstairs as the main unit, and then the kitchen node which is closest to the upstairs Onhub is wireless. After much tinkering they are working all as they should be, showing up correctly in the app. A lot of trial an error was required, resetting them to factory default many times as a either the wired nodes or the wireless one would not show up depending on the order I set them up.
    
    Finally the correct order was:
    Onhub Main unit
    Wireless Kitchen Unit
    2 Wired nodes
    
    Sonos is only exeperiencing slight drops when playing music, even in the dead zone kitchen. Usally pulling the full 100-120mbs.
    
    I am baffled why this is working and Orbi did not, but I guess it doesn't matter. Obiviously the wired nodes help remove interference on the backend, but I thought the interference was on the front end, because of my wired speed test to the Satelite Orbi which had no issues (backend test).
    
    Oh well....

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