BT Smart hub 2. At a loss as to best way forward to get signal to some areas of the house.

[Dinglebert]

Long story short.   I have issues with signal upstairs and in conservatory.  we now have fibre to the premises.  My signal is strong to most areas but weak to the bedrooms and consrvatory.   In the past I have tried the small BT discs which didn't work.  They sent me three different sets and two different routers at the time but to no avail.

I want to solve this problem now as have set up Sonos and need it to work correctly.  Tried a netgear n300 in the conservatory and while it has improved the situation it still isn't up to scratch.

Looking for a way forward.  My current package is Full Fibre 100.   Here are what I think are my options

Full Fibre 100 Halo 3+ - This will give me the new discs and a promise they will work.  Not too sure about the hybrid connect thing though.  This will cost me £17.52 a month Full Fibre 100 Halo 3 with Complete Wi-Fi - New discs upgrade price £12.52

Buy the new discs one at a time second hand to boost.

Buy a MESH system.  Not too sure what one.

What do you think?       Not been happy with old discs but new ones may work very differently or is there a better way forward?

If I go with option 1 then I may upgrade my speed at the same time.

[Steveee]

Hi, I've found the best way to get sonos system to work in a large house is to get sonos to create it's own sonosnet mesh network. 

The simplest way is to connect a sonos speaker to a router ethernet port. Sonos then creates the sonosnet network which is a true mesh network. Only the sonos move speaker remains on wifi as it doesn't support sonosnet - its a portable speaker 😉

If you don't have a sonos speaker near the router, but happy to carry on using sonos 1 app, connect a sonos bridge (around £5 on eBay) to the router. Unfortunately only sonos devices can use the sonosnet wifi network. However, if you get a few bridges, these can further strengthen the sonosnet network and I've even used one for putting an ethernet connection in my loft for a security system!!!! 

If you want to use sonos 2, then you would need a sonos boost if you can't connect a speaker to the router.

[Dinglebert]

Many thanks.

What I did yesterday is buy a gen 1 Play 5.  I needed a line in to connect to CD player.  Therefore everything is now set up on Sonos 1  rather than 2.   Oddly or not the signal seems to be far better on 1.  At the moment they are all connected in the same room to an extender.   May very well go down the bridge route.

[Steveee]

Good plan.

I moved to sonos 2 last year when I sold my Play 5 and replaced it with the Move. This forced me to use sonos 2 as the Move only works on sonos 2. As my playbar is next to my router, that is my bridge for the sonosnet network. Also meant my bridges were redundant so I sold these as well!

[Dinglebert]

I went down the Halo route and upgraded to 900 at the same time.  The new discs are superb compared to the old ones.  Now have excellent coverage everywhere down the stairs.  Just waiting for disc 3 to arrive to sort upstairs.   Sonos now a happy set of speakers.

[Steveee]

Glad you have resolved the issue. Only comment is, isn’t the BT WI-FI disc 5Ghz only, ie may not connect in older Sonos speakers such as play 1. 

[Dinglebert]

I don't know.   My speakers are Sonos 2 capable.  I have plugged the Sonos 5 directly into the wi-fi disc.

[Steveee]

Ok, by plugging the Play 5 directly into a BT Wi-fi disc makes it a connection point for setting up a sonosnet wired network. That means other Sonos speakers (apart from any Sonos Move speaker) are probably taken off the BT Wi-fi and moved them onto a sonosnet wired network.

To confirm that, have a look at the SH setup page. 

[Dinglebert]

Nope connection is BT wi-fi