Originally had problems with the Blu Ray streaming and just locking up. Tried a Sony and an LG with no love. The laptop six feet away is fine, even streaming the same movie on Netflix when the Blu Ray crashes.

Went to an integra Blu Ray so at least the client can play discs when the streaming locks up. Added a Roku player. In case of interference I thought I would attach to the Sonos Connect that is nearby and tag along there instead of relying on wifi. Client reports that it works fine for extended periods then she will have issues, like she did all this week. Error message NW-2-5 pops up, a Netflix connectivity problem. Online fixes call for rebooting to fix.

Comcast wifi with fairly new gateway reads 30mbps when I am on site. Six sonos amps are 15 feet away, with the first one hardwired to the router. The Connect, a Denon avr, Integra bdp, and Roku are in the cabinet. Originally the Blu Ray was a streamer and was fine for a couple years. No ethernet cable to the cabinet.

I can pull the ethernet cable and try wifi again, but this is so odd to me.

The one system change is that the cabinet is new, and whilst the Mitsubishi LCD used to be 6 or so feet away from the electronics, now it sits right above. It's probably a 10 year old set.

I asked her to request a new gateway from Comcast, yet her laptop works in the same room all the time. Ideas?

You may have a bunch of WiFi boxes too close to each other.

I recommend adding a network switch and tie the Sonos units to the switch. This will reduce the wireless traffic. The Sonos CONNECT wireless speed is not stunning, but it is a robust connection. You can minimize wireless traffic inside the cabinet if you hang a network switch off of the CONNECT and wire everything in the cabinet to the switch.

I've got a couple recent installations tied to that Comcast router that are bugging me. The throughput varies wildly. Make sure that it is set to RF channel 1, 6, or 11, not Auto. If you have a decent router on site, put the Comcast gateway in Bridge mode.

You may have some transient WiFi interference. The Sonos diagnostics can help spot this, see this thread. A disadvantage of phyerr is that it scrolls over 20 minutes.

We have issues with some equipment when:

There are multiple networks with the same SSID
Be it multiple WAPs
or
2.4Ghz / 5Ghz channels

This has been with printers and Roku mainly.
Just saw this Wednesday with an HP printer, the HP network report showed multiple networks with same SSID, and it noted that this can cause issues.

We now setup a single WAP, with a separate SSID's just for these devices on 2.4.
But this does require you having a WAP that will do separate SSID's.

One gateway only, acting as WAP.

All the Connect Amps are 15' away, just the Connect in the cabinet.

Tried changing DNS to google?

Put the Comcast POS into bridge mode (or get just a modem) along with some real network equipment?

WiSpy scan?

Disable Sonos wifi?

But don't you have other WiFi items in the cabinet?

In any case, check the Wireless Matrix at the bottom of the Sonos diagnostic page and make sure that the "Root Bridge" Sonos device has a wired network connection. This is not required, but it may help in situations where communication is at the edge.

Consider the possibility that there is a rogue 2.4GHz device in the area, such as a 2.4GHz cordless phone. Some of the older Panasonic phones are bad neighbors as are some microwave ovens and wireless security cameras.

Hard wire as many devices as possible. Wifi only talks to one device at a time and in half duplex mode at that.

Hard wiring devices enable the device to talk to the router at any time in full duplex mode.

If wifi, try and get as many devices on a 5Ghz frequency as possible as the 2.4 Ghz are usually very crowded.

Two indispensable tools for me.

[Link: metageek.com]

https://www.pingplotter.com/

Ping plotter has revealed a lot of ISP problems. Even when speed test shows a great speed, Pingplotter will show how much packet loss you may be experiencing.

There are two possibilities, that I can think of.

1) If you do a speedtest inside the cabinet with the door closed, how are the results?

2) Have you used Fing or any other network utilities to see what's going on with the network? Too much traffic on a particular channel, perhaps? Duplicate IP addresses? Low signal at that location?

Your best bet is to hardwire as much as you can, of course.

I hope this helps.


Damon

Not sure DNS can be selected in Roku. The error message, wind googled, is showing only that it is a connectivity error or a DNS error, but no more specific than that.

Many many users reported it was a parental control problem in their ISP, but these folks were across the pond. If it turns out to be a Comcast problem, substituting another router would not necessarily help, would it?

If it turns out to be a Comcast problem, substituting another router would not necessarily help, would it?

I don't recall any DNS settings for ROKU.

With respect to the DNS servers, the ISP's own servers will probably be closer, faster, but this varies. I do catch the ISP DNS servers being down from time to time. My tact is to specify an ISP DNS server as the primary and a public or private DNS server as secondary. Google's 8.8.8.8 is a decent public choice in the US. Most routers will support this. The the only real disadvantage is that, if the ISP changes their DNS server address, the router will not pick this up. Also, Google is a little snoopy.

If you dig around you can find multiple flaming discussions about who has the "best" DNS server.