SkyQ and Sonos interfering with each other

[woodchal]

@Mad+Sweeney 

Interesting forensic stuff.  I think I know enough to understand what you are saying, but could never of got anywhere near this - thank you.  I hope others in the community can pick up from your detailed analysis and drive forward their own solutions.

Indeed one of the switches is that old that it is only 10/100.  I will see if changing this out makes a difference.  It would be interesting to get feedback from others watching this thread.

I assume I could/should revert the Sky modem/router/hub to gigabit.

[Mad+Sweeney]

@woodchal

Yay - I'm convinced we've cracked what was up with your original install. Sky Q's whole home Wifi will not work 100% if the Sky boxes are connected by most 10/100 switches or powerline converters with 10/100 interfaces.  Not because of the speed but because the chips used in them match up with standards of the time for 10/100 where ethernet frames were smaller as loads of VPN stuff that needed extra bytes wasn't invented yet.  Sky Q borrows some of those extra bytes added over the years for other purposes for itself and so will work 100% on newer gigabit switches.  On 10/100 swithces between Sky Q devices, If data sent between the Sky  Qdevices is smaller than the hardware limits of the 10/100 devices  then it will work, so it's hard to diagnose as only some stuff will fail.  Tools like ping without special extra options added won't spot it.

This document which is in draft goes into all the gory detail:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10YdZgbMzptfQo0hoIeVNKwEt5uhKvA9a/view

Yup, revert the Sky Hub setting to Gigabit too after getting your new switches to replace the old one(s).  I strongly suspect that after doing that if you switch back on the Wifi from on all the mini boxes (that Sonos told you to switch off in their forum) that doing that will not break the Sonos but you'll have Wifi in the garden ready for the summer!

[woodchal]

Now also covered on sonos community 

https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/sky-q-and-sonos-problems-6854848/index2.html#p...

I have new switch on order - delivery today.  I will post my result

[woodchal]

All installed, and all working.

Wifi turned on at both 2.4 and 5 on SkyQ box.  Iphone successful connecting to Sonos system via different access points.

@Mad+Sweeney  - total respect!

@Dunshavin - hope you can get this sorted now too  - your problem seems to be the 10/100 powerline

@Rhonny , @Piesarus - as you are level 10 and above and are regulars on these forums perhaps you can spread the word.

[woodchal]

@Sam333, @dingers05, @Tjech 

[Rhonny]

@woodchal

I'd love to help but I've never had any issues with Sky Q and Sonos (ethernet to the router on one Sonos, the rest then automatically on SonosNet; plus main Sky Q box connected by ethernet to the router, and the Q minis by ethernet to powerline plugs).

I lost track of this thread a few pages ago so I'm not sure which of the 250,000 words I should spread... 

[woodchal]

@Rhonny OK for you and anybody who is affected by the problem described in my OP,  who doesn't want to read through the forensic work by @Mad+Sweeney that got us to the solution.

As I understand it, the problem is SkyQ adds extra bits to records it sends or transmits and can end up sending 1528 bits (when the original record is 1500), but fast ethernet standard is a maximum of 1514.  The extra bits can get srtipped off and screw things up by 10/100 switches.

Johnno_1 has done a good job at explaining this in a diagram on the Sonos comunnity forum to which I have added a link above.

[Stu+P]

Hi All - I was so pleased to find this thread as have been going mad with similar Sky / Sonos issues!

HOWEVER - unfortunately the gigabit switch solution is not working for me. As far as I'm aware I have a gigabit switch in place (quite an old one - a Netgear G724Tv3) but I still cannot connect to Sonos via the Sonos app. All sky boxes (router; hub, main q box, 3 sky minis) and Sonos devices are hardwired to the network/switch via a cat 6 network. 

As soon as one or ore Sky Mini boxes are added to the network the Sonos problem starts and the Sonos app stops working... So the tunnelling issues seems to make sense but I'm surprised this happens given I've got a gigabit switch...

Any ideas why this might be the case? Would a new switch help? 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/ideas! 

[Dunshavin]

Hello. My problem was totally solved by replacing my older 10/100 Powerline devices with newer TPLink gogabit Powerline. I can now see all Sonos products all of the time. Thanks everyone!!

[woodchal]

@Stu+P  there is network kit  that sonos says is incompatible https://support.sonos.com/s/article/41?language=en_US

Can you just bypass the switch to test using a simple cable joiner or borrow another switch.

[Mad+Sweeney]

@Stu+P 

Ensure that Jumbo Frame support is enabled on the switch. It looks like your switch supports them but as a managed switch you'll likely need to enable them.

[Stu+P]

@Mad+Sweeney 

OMG - amazing that has fixed the problem! The ports were set to default 1518 so I increased them all to 9000 and now it all works fine. 

Thank you so much! I cannot tell you have many hours I've spent on the phone to Sky + Sonos over past 12 months to try and fix this without success. 

[hannahheyes]

After months of flakey connection to my Sonos system via the app, this has solved my issue!

I was on the phone to Sonos for 45 minutes yesterday and their only suggestion was that I hard wire all the mini boxes and turn off wifi on them. Just not a practical solution, and even after turning off the mini boxes completely, as soon as my devices were using the main Sky Q box to connect, connection to Sonos failed.

While I won't pretend to understand the technicalities of the solution, I swapped out a small 10/100 switch that sat between my Sky Q box and the main PoE switch that serves the rest of the house and bingo, everything is back to working as it should.

Thanks so much @Mad+Sweeney