Sonos Bridge Not Detected When Using Sonos Controller

[battags]

My Sonos Bridge was previously detected but no longer seems to be accessible to the controller.  I did a factory reset of the bridge and I still can't locate it.

I am also noticing that the bridge was assigned an IP address (if you go to where you can assign static leases, the MAC address appears with an IP address next to it) but the device itself does not show up under the active leases where things like the laptops and phones show up.  Is this to be expected?  Are there any logs I can send you to help diagnose this?  Otherwise I'm going to have to switch back to my old router.

[Lameth]

Got the same problem myself. I found 2 solutions.

First one: You have to plug your bridge on the Almond+, therefore the IP address the Bridge will get will be delivered by the Almond+ and it should work again. Of course you need to have your Phone/computer on the same network (the Almond+) as well.
Second one: If you have 2 WiFi/LAN networks, plug the Almond+ on you first network and put it in AP mode, like this everything will be on the same network and your Bridge will be detected again.

You might have to reconfigure every devices of your Sonos config to detect everything again.

Good luck.

Lameth

[battags]

Thanks for the reply.  Its not clear to me how what I had already set up is different than your first suggestion.

My Almond+ was my primary (and only router).  The bridge was connected to it directly via cable (and I could see that it got an IP address but never showed up under the list of devices).  The Android Controller was unable to find the bridge (tried both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz networks).  I just changed back to my old router, and everything works perfectly. At the moment I'm using my old router as I prefer having my Sonos functionality.

Thanks
Scott

[Lameth]

Thanks for the reply.  Its not clear to me how what I had already set up is different than your first suggestion.

My Almond+ was my primary (and only router).  The bridge was connected to it directly via cable (and I could see that it got an IP address but never showed up under the list of devices).  The Android Controller was unable to find the bridge (tried both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz networks).  I just changed back to my old router, and everything works perfectly. At the moment I'm using my old router as I prefer having my Sonos functionality.

Thanks
Scott

Hey Scott,

I'm pretty sure your problem is due to the IP address. By plugging your Bridge and configuring it on your old router you probably worked on the IP range of 192.168..... When you switched to the A+ the IP range changed to 10.10.... If the Bridge does not assign an IP address dynamically each time and keeps the old IP address it got assigned from your old router setup it could explain why it works on your old network but not the new one when plugged in.

My advice: once everything is plugged on the A+ you should go through the connecting process of your Sonos network again. Do not hesitate to power off/on the bridge and the speakers you have, I noticed sometimes it needs to reboot entirely to work properly on a reconfiguration.

Hope it helps,

Lameth

[battags]

Lameth,

I actually did do a factory reset on the bridge, as well as also setting my Almond+ to use the 192.168.1.x range.  Neither worked.  I'm not sure what else to do.  Any ideas?

Thanks
Scott

[Lameth]

Hey battags,

I did some testing on my system, and I found out that even though I'm on AP mode for whatever reason it is not working perfectly.

Basically I have my old router from which the internet is coming from. This old router is emitting a WiFi (lets call it WiFi "Old"). Then I plugged the Almond+ on it through ethernet and the almond+ is emitting a WiFi too (lets call it WiFi "A+"). The Almond+ is in AP mode.
All my equipments are plugged on the Almond+ through Ethernet (NAS, Sonos, etc...).

It seems that when trying to access the equipments from the WiFi Old it does not work even though it should. Of course when connected to the WiFi A+, I've got no problem trying to access my equipments. I will test the other way around in the afternoon (equipments on the old router in ethernet and accessing it from WiFi A+).

In your case did you make sure the Bridge was connected on the same router that was emitting the WiFi on which you are trying to connect from? it might be the solution for you.

[poshul]

So this is just a guess (since I don't have any Sonos' on hand to test), but I'm betting that the Almond+ is discarding spanning tree protocol(STP) packets (http://forums.sonos.com/showthread.php?t=16973). You can check if STP is enabled on your LAN side, go to the web interface -> Advanced ->OpenWRT-> Network -> Interfaces -> LAN -> edit -> Physical settings tab -> Enable spanning tree protocol on this bridge.

Let me know if that helps.

[joltdude]

I wonder if Sonos is also doing some mDNS/Zeroconf/Bonjour type stuff... I have lost count the number of AP's that have problems handling mDNS... or don't pass it through!....

[ja3hawk]

I wonder if Sonos is also doing some mDNS/Zeroconf/Bonjour type stuff... I have lost count the number of AP's that have problems handling mDNS... or don't pass it through!....

It most definitely does... The devices send out some sort of broadcast or multicast packet when they are initially setup. This allows the controller app see other Sonos devices. I currently have all of my Sonos gear disconnected so I haven't been able to test. I sure hope the Sonos hardware plays nice with the A+ though as I intend to have them all on the same network.

[battags]

In your case did you make sure the Bridge was connected on the same router that was emitting the WiFi on which you are trying to connect from? it might be the solution for you.

Yes, my bridge was connected directly to the Almond+ (which was the only router plugged in and active)

[battags]

So this is just a guess (since I don't have any Sonos' on hand to test), but I'm betting that the Almond+ is discarding spanning tree protocol(STP) packets (http://forums.sonos.com/showthread.php?t=16973). You can check if STP is enabled on your LAN side, go to the web interface -> Advanced ->OpenWRT-> Network -> Interfaces -> LAN -> edit -> Physical settings tab -> Enable spanning tree protocol on this bridge.

Let me know if that helps.

I will try it when I get home tonight and let you know.  Thanks for the suggestion.

[mwbelsaas]

Let's rule the Bridge out as a problem. Can you try to directly connect one of your Sonos speakers (or zone player/amp) to the A+ via ethernet and see if you are able to connect? The recent Sonos software update renders the Bridge unnecessary, but it's still a better signal if one part of its network is hardwired.

[battags]

I could try ruling out the bridge except based on where my router is I would need it, plus it works perfectly fine with my old router.  I tried the spanning tree protocol tip and that didn't make a difference.

[battags]

I also just updated to the most recent firmware with no improvement.

[battags]

Just for completeness I managed to get a Play:5 next to the router temporarily with no improvement in my ability to access the system.