Re: Power line Ethernet stopping iPhone Sonos app working

["Nicholas Humfrey njh@xxxxxxxxxx [ukha_d]" <ukha_d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,


Yes, I have also experienced problems with high latency and packet loss
with power line ethernet at my parents house. I personally have Cat6 in
my house, but I can understand that not everyone can/wants to lift the
floor and chase wires in the walls!


I imagine part of the problem with Sonos is that because it aims for a
low latency audio between speakers/zones, it doesn't cope will with
having to do packet re-transmissions, which then add to the delays.


Very odd that power line has problems with DHCP - I have not seen that.
Although it is possible if packet loss is high enough, the repeat
requests/responses just aren't getting through; DHCP uses UDP not TCP.


Additionally BBC R&D have done some research that shows power-line
transmissions can interfere with broadcast transmissions:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/publications/whitepaper195
http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/search?query=PLT




nick.




On 2016-06-25 08:33, Phil Harris phil@xxxxxxx [ukha_d] wrote:
> Yup - they're the f*cking bane of my life too and the first thing that
> I get anyone that calls me with streaming / discovery issues with our
> kit to remove from their networks as the very first test ... Almost
> always resolves the problem.
>
> I wish I could ban the b*stard things!
>
> Then of course the next thing is 'but I can't run a network cable ...'
> ... :-)
>
> Phil
>
> Sent from another bloody fruit-based portable device...
>
> On 25 Jun 2016, at 07:59, Noel Andrews noel@xxxxxxx [ukha_d]
> <ukha_d@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Morning all,
>>
>> Fantastic Sonos support experience yesterday even if it did dent
my
>> man pride!
>>
>> Ever since getting Sonos the iPhone and iPad apps in the house
>> unreliably connect to them. Just says searching then talks me
>> through pressing the two buttons on the Sonos unit to re-link.
>>
>> That was fine albeit annoying until latest app update that changed
>> that process and now encourages you to call them.
>>
>> Called up and spoke to Peter, he realised I wasn't your average
low
>> tech home user and talked me through some pings etc.
>>
>> Turns out that pings from my Mac to my iPhone were taking between
>> 200 and 500ms.
>>
>> Talked through what devices I had and as soon as I said power line
>> Ethernet he said there's your problem. This is the point that I
was
>> thinking yeah yeah whatever!
>>
>> So he got me to go round the house and then them all off and
repeat
>> the ping tests.
>>
>> Immediately it was down to 0.1ms consistently. Launching the Sonos
>> app worked first time very quickly.
>>
>> His explanation is that the power line units cause routing issues.
>> Some googling seems to imply that the power line units don't pass
>> dhcp broadcast traffic.
>>
>> This also seems to be why now and again my iPhone will stubbornly
>> not browse to Internet sites.
>>
>> Sonos from my macs has always been perfect including control from
>> light waverf switches through indigo. I suspect because the macs
>> have static ip reservations.
>>
>> I'm somewhat reliant on my power line units so as a potential
>> workaround I've now made sure all the iPhones have got static ip
>> reservations in the hope that might work. So far so good but
thought
>> I'd post here in case a)anyone else was having the issue and b) in
>> case anyone knows a bit more and cares to comment.
>>
>> Cheers all
>> Noel
>
>
>
> Links:
> ------
> [1]
> https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ukha_d/conversations/messages/165922;_ylc=X3oDMTJyNHZob2Y0BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzExMDk2MzkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDQxOTkyBG1zZ0lkAzE2NTkyMgRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNycGx5BHN0aW1lAzE0NjY4NDAxMDY-?act=reply&messageNum=165922
> [2]
> https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ukha_d/conversations/newtopic;_ylc=X3oDMTJlcHBvN2ptBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzExMDk2MzkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDQxOTkyBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA250cGMEc3RpbWUDMTQ2Njg0MDEwNg--
> [3]
> https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ukha_d/conversations/topics/165920;_ylc=X3oDMTM4bmNvbWxzBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzExMDk2MzkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDQxOTkyBG1zZ0lkAzE2NTkyMgRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawN2dHBjBHN0aW1lAzE0NjY4NDAxMDYEdHBjSWQDMTY1OTIw
> [4] https://yho.com/1wwmgg
> [5]
> https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ukha_d/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJlZnU1anMzBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzExMDk2MzkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDQxOTkyBHNlYwN2dGwEc2xrA3ZnaHAEc3RpbWUDMTQ2Njg0MDEwNg--
> [6]
> https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJkOTcxZDViBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzExMDk2MzkEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDQxOTkyBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2dmcARzdGltZQMxNDY2ODQwMTA2
> [7] https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html
> [8] https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/




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Posted by: Nicholas Humfrey <njh@xxxxxxx>
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