Vodafone won’t work with Sonos

[Sand1011]

Hi, how do I get the Vodafone router to work with Sonos? 

I have connected and can see all my Sonos speakers, I can connect and play music but sometimes the connection drops every ten minutes stops the music and then restarts.

any ideas? 

[Anonymous]

Your problem is probably related to the appalling 2.4GHz performance of the VF router!  Even a mildly complex Sonos system is likely to be stretching the WiFi to breaking point!

One of the common fixes for similar problems is to switch to powerline networking, but these tend to work badly with Sonos systems (beyond 4 powerline devices and the performance drops off).  So you are really left looking at a third party VDSL MODEM ROUTER and getting your username and password from VF!  Personally, I'd be looking at an AC1500 or better.  Which one, probably depends on how tech-literate you are!

[Edster]

I recently joined Vodafone and switched my router to the Vox 3 that vodafone provided.  I planned to use the same SSID and password on the new router so that Sonos would not need to be re-configured but, annoyingly, the new router insisted on a more secure password.  This forced me to change the Sonos configuration but it was relatively straight forward.  It seemed to have all worked but then various problems started - speakers not playing and then 'Sonos system could not be found'.  I could get the app to work on my phone but my wife's would not work so I looked into the system and only some of the speakers would appear on the network.  Eventually I went for a full reset and re-install and ran into problems.  The solution was to take the Vodafone Wi-Fi out of the equation.  I used a cheap 2.4Ghz access point wired into the router and connected all of the speakers to the access point SSID.  As soon as I did that the re-install was simple so in short, the conclusion above, would appear correct to me - the 2.4Ghz wifi provided by these routers is not up to scratch.

[Toons]

Hi just moved to Vodafone.

Cant see my speaker at all from sonos app.

Reading this thread it looks like the network is the cause.

Can you advise on the best way to get it going. 

[Anonymous]

This is a pretty old thread and probably related to the older VOX2.5 HHG2500 router.  As far as I'm aware the new VOX3/THG3000 routers should not have the same issue.

In order to get your Sonos speakers working with the VF router, you'll probably need to factory reset the Sonos speakers and then re-pair them to the app.  If you still can't see them after a factory reset then please update us here!

[Toons]

Hi

Yes I've done all of that. Spent all afternoon on chat with sonos who told me I needed to change the band on my router which I did not want to do as it could effect other equipment. The also said to install the app on a second mobile or tablet which I don't own. Having read the Internet seems there is issues with vodafone and sonos where people are having to buy other devices to get it to work? 

[Jayach]

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@Toons wrote:

Spent all afternoon on chat with sonos who told me I needed to change the band on my router which I did not want to do as it could effect other equipment

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You can't do that anyway as Vodafone have removed the option.

If your Sonos is 2.4Ghz only it may not be a able to use channels 12 & 13 so if the Vodafone router has chosen one of those that may be the problem.

To see what channel the router is using check under Status & Support in the router.

Main Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz

Status On

Name vodafone12D8xx

MAC Address d4:35:1d:12:d8:xx

Security WPA2-PSK

Channel 6

Bandwidth 58 Mbps

Max BW 288 Mbps

Minimum Sync Speed 58 Mbps

[Toons]

Thanks

I have checked and it is using channel 6 the same as your output

[Jayach]

Then it won't be a WiFi channel problem. You could try a factory reset of both the Sonos and the router and start from scratch.

Do you know if your Sonos is 2.4Ghz only or can it use 5Ghz?

Presumably you have already followed this: Connect Sonos to a new router or Wi-Fi network | Sonos

[Anonymous]

FYI on 2.4GHz some SONOS will only use channels 1, 6, or 11.  If the router picks any other channel there can be problems (it's a common issue).