homeplug and wireless/SONOS extending

[tylerdurden]

let me try and explain my problem.

One end of the house has a BT master socket to which is connected my O2 wireless broadband modem router. The SONOS bridge is also connected here.

Works fine.

Problem; due to spread out design of the building there are several areas with v poor signal such that WIFI is tricky and SONOS players don't seem to work as they are not getting picked up by the bridge.

My proposed solution is as follows. Purchase homeplugs from amazon. Connect 1 homeplug to the current router. Place the other homeplug at a central location in the house and move the SONOS bridge to this second homeplug.

I may consider attaching a NAS to the SONOS bridge.

Also ideally I would be able to connect one of the old wireless modem/routers sitting in a box to the second homeplug to extend the range of my WIFI.


I am not up on all the tech nowadays and would appreciate advice on whether this is a sensible plan before spending any money.
Thanks

 

[balge]

Hi
not a big wifi fan, but you could use a couple of wifi repeaters to boost your signal to dead spots? saves some configuration if your not confident with networking

cheers

 

[MercFanUk]

Home plugs can be a great tool, but just make sure you don't skimp on the ones you get. I used a few in the past, and I've noticed that cheaper ones have a tendency to break within a few months.

 

[@MARK]

Home plugs can be a great tool, but just make sure you don't skimp on the ones you get. I used a few in the past, and I've noticed that cheaper ones have a tendency to break within a few months.

+1 on that

I have used these with great success in the past but find that quite often the kit itself runs quite hot so doesn't last long.

I am using XyXEL ones at the moment to link my sons toy room into the network and they have been in for about 3 years now,

Also you must plug these directly into the wall socket and not into a 4 way gang or similar as those things can really degrade the throughput.

 

[widewalt]

I've used the Devolo dLAN 200 AV wireless starter kit in several installations and find them fairly good. The benefit of the far end unit is that it has 3 wired outlets and builtin wifi access point so you have no IP addressing/routing problems.

Devolo dLAN 200 AV Wireless N Starter Kit Wireless router - 3-port switch (integrated) - EN, Fast EN, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, HomePlug AV (HPAV)

Separate far end units are available individually if you need to extend your network in other directions.

The included software makes reprogramming the security settings very easy and a good way of seeing the actual LAN speed.

One location I used them in I got 65mbps with master and 1 remote unit but when I added the second remote unit the speed jumped up to 105mbps so a bit of an unexpected result.

 

[developer]

+1 for Devolo - my three have been trouble free for the last couple of years .

 

[nurple]

Each Zone player is its own wireless booster, you may be able to distribute them around the house to make an umberella type effect.
Also consider hardwiring maybe a couple of Zone players to help with the signal
Sonos used to make a small signal boosting unit that you can plug in to help with the signal.
One thing that you mustnt do is hardwire 2 Zoneplayers together whilst next to each other (as it confuses the way the signal is sent)

 

[mapleleaf]

agree with Nurple about spreading the sonos units about to create an umbrella or as sonos put it a mesh effect , but disagree with hardwiring units together that are in close proximity causing issues. I have approx 3000sq feet on three levels . I have a zone bridge hardwired to my router on the top floor & in the middle/South (ish) part of the house. I have a wireless zone player hooked up to my AV system in the living room, (East/ground floor) a wireless zone player in the basement , (East). I have a contoller in the kitchen (west/groundfloor), One in the basement and another controller in the master bedroom .
Also have an iphone with the sonos app installed.
Contollers are also used as signal boosters and help with the mesh effect.

In the basement I have a hardwire cat5 cable from the router top of house to a bank of 4 sonos uints that serve dining room, patio, kitchen, and master bedroom, all linked together with cat5 patch cables - no evidence of any intereference or signal confusion. I know this in some ways defeats the object of placing sonos units near to the speakers to avoud running wires but it was easy to flood wire the house with concealed speaker cables during a major renovation)

My neigbour has a similar size house but fewer sonos units and did experience loss of connection issues as units were spaced a lot farther apart than mine ( he has 2 S5 portables and a zone bridge plus 2 of the touch controlers. We solved his issue by changing the channel that sonos uses so as not to conflict with any other wireless kit in the house.

You might want to try changing the chanel as a first step or buy another zone bridge ( relatively cheaper than buying more sonos amp units).

feel free to PM me if you like. I've had sonos for 3 years now and love it.

HTH

 

[nurple]

"but disagree with hardwiring units together that are in close proximity causing issues"

Sonos themselves advise not to do do this as it "may" cause difficulties.....Im talking about units stacked on top of each other.

 

[BTB 500]

I've been using four 200 Mbps Devolo units in our house for two and a half years without any issues at all. They are literally plug & play.

 

[mapleleaf]

"but disagree with hardwiring units together that are in close proximity causing issues"

Sonos themselves advise not to do do this as it "may" cause difficulties.....Im talking about units stacked on top of each other.

"Ah right, ... My bank of 4 amps arent actually stacked on top of one another. they are above one another but separated by shelving so approx 1"-2" space above each one, mainly to give decent air circulation to each unit. I'l try unplugging the patch cables to see if it makes any difference but cant say I've noticed any issues so far. I just figured that hard wired is always best but in practice for streaming music wirelss seems to work just as well.

My wireless router is a draytek vigor 2820n. We also use netflix which streams flawlessly over the wireless connection too.