Sonos Unifi Pain Resolved, hopefully

After crashing my Wi-Fi the other day, I took the opportunity to learn more about the intricacies of RSTP/STP and Unifi and the pains of supporting Sonos speakers.

TLDR for me:

Don’t plug any Sonos device into a LAN port, only use them with Wi-Fi.
RSTP/STP exist so switches can detect multiple routes to the same device. These multiple routes can lead to loops. The two protocols (and their many derivatives) exist so that paths can converge optimally.
- Example: having a smart TV connected via a LAN cable and having the Wi-Fi active and connected to the same network as well. That means there’s two routes to the same device. That can lead to loops.
Having (R)STP active (the default), means one has to set priorities for switches/routers that support STP. 0 being the “most important” and then increasing by 4096 for every other STP supporting switch. That way, the optimal route can be found.
Something smart I read on reddit: reserve priority 0 for emergencies. The same applies to 4096, as it is sometimes the default value. Plugging in new hardware with these priorities, while already having a switch assigned this as well, will lead to trouble. Hence, start with 8192, just to be on the safe side.
If your switch doesn’t have any (R)STP settings, it means it doesn’t support it. That’s not a problem. It will still forward all packages accordingly. It just can’t protect/help with avoiding network loops.

None of this is really new. It’s nearly all on the Ubiquiti docs page about troubleshooting Sonos. I was personally missing some pieces in my head that tied everything together. I found all of them on the networking subreddit. Always grateful.