Sky hub sonos play issues

[GregFraz]

Hi all,

First time posting and not hugely familiar with WiFi tech so bare with.

We have 3 speakers all Sonos play varieties, all work well and love the sound from them. We recently moved and got a sky hub delivered. Speakers won't connect at all. Did some initial reading and Sonos say the following

"Most Sonos products require a 802.11b/g network. If your router is set to "N only" or "AC only," change it to B/G/N, sometimes referred to as mixed."

Ok so I turned off the 5ghz WiFi and still wouldn't connect. Looked at the admin site (192.168.0.1) and the 2.4ghz mode is 802.11 g/n/ax and cannot be changed. Presume this is the issue as no b is there?

So I thought solution would be getting my own modem but on reading it sounds very confusing due to authentication sky uses? 

So in summary 

1. Have I investigated correctly 

2. If I got a tp link deco mesh system (e.g x50) and had it in access point mode with sky hub WiFi off would I be able to change tp link settings to the correct mode?

3. Or if 2 is no, do I need a router / modem (e.g x50 VDSL) which can do the things I need

Hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance 

[Chrisee]

@GregFraz if youbhave a white Sky hub its wifi supports all wifi current standards up to AX and turning off the 5GHz band permanently is not required and will cripple the WiFi speed. However you may need to connect kit with old WiFi chips or cheap no nsme IOT kit but once connected should be turned back on again.

However Sonos kit can be quite fussy although they build good audio equipment their networking is poor. 802.11g came out in 2003 which in networking times is the equivalent of the dark ages so your system should support at least that or hopefully 802.11n which dates to 2009 so it should connect.

Therefore I suspect the issue maybe the WiFi security level the new hub offers. While most older devices connect to the default WPA3T security level the hub uses so try going into the Advanced settings for the hub in the My Sky app choose WiFi security and change the setting to WPA2 and see if yiur Sonos kit likes that better. Again lovely audio kit lousy networking set up and bybtgexway if you have newer iPhones be orepared for them to warn you about weak security.

[GregFraz]

Thanks @Chrisee. I changed the security to WPA2 and still doesn't work 😓

I'm not sure how to see what the Sonos system supports apart from the bit I found in the help section of their site which states 802.11 b/g.

Any other suggestions? Or should I contact Sonos? It's so annoying as in our previous house we had a bit hub which had no issues at all.

[GregFraz]

BT hub I meant 

[Chrisee]

@GregFraz not really sure Indont own Sonos kit so I am stuck as to what suggest beyond the standard factory reset on the Sonos units which may clear the old router's settings. Hopefully somebody with Sonos kit will have some ideas.

[Jim_C_Smith]

Hi

I have been fighting with various Sky/Sonos issues for the last few years there are loads of posts on the Sky forums and the Sonos forums about the incompatability Sky/Sonos.  Largely around Sky Q problems but I suspect you may have the same issue with just the hub.  The only work round that i have found that works most of the time (software upgrades can knock this solution out) is as follows.

I turned off the wifi hotspots on all sky equipment and cabled in Devolo Homeplugs with wifi repeaters connected by cable to the router.  I named the Devolo wifi plugs to a seperate network name and logged all the Sonos equipment to that SSID.  The single wired Sonos connection is to the homeplug not the router.  Checked that all the Sonos equipment had logged to the Sonos Mesh.  If my phone/ipad is on this network SSID then I can access the Sonos equipment as normal.  My SkyQ euipment is wired via the Devolo plugs and their wifi is off.

Originally I stayed at that but a year ago Netflix and Prime via a Samsung TV suddenly didn't like the Devolo SSID so I had  to turn the Sky router wifi on (Not the Q boxes).  Logged the TV to the router by wifi.  At the same time my Alexa also had to move to the router directly so I suspect this is a security issue at the Amazon end etc.

I have no idea if your proposed solution will work unfortunately becasue if I turn on my SkyQ wifi it creates a Mesh and that seems to knock out the Devolo coverage.  I hope this is of some use.  The original forum posts that helped me are here.

Answered: SkyQ and Sonos interfering with each other | Sky Community

[Ryan+H]

Sounds like your speakers are fairly old if your speakers only support up to 'n'. Have you thought about upgrading them?

[GregFraz]

Thank you for such a detailed reply. What a pain that must have been. Unfortunately I've taken the approach of cancelling my sky plan and going with BT as I know their smart hub 2 works. Annoying as it's £8 a month more expensive.

[GregFraz]

I don't think something that works perfectly fine (when connected 😅) and has amazing quality sound is worth replacing just because another bit of tech has decided not to support it when others do.