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Prominent Collaborator II
July 28, 2021
Answered

pin no

  • July 28, 2021
  • 21 replies
  • 1821 views

Whos bright idea was it to introduce pin no’s to set up the amps

 

What good does it do

 

why is it printed in micro sized print on the underneath of the amp where you cannot see it, after it's been plugged in and placed on your rack shelf. 

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Best answer by Corry P

Hi @James Truelove 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

While I don’t know exactly who thought of it, the reasoning behind it is to significantly increase security. While our newest products include NFC tags with the PIN number on them and products without the tags but with their own speakers will “chirp” the code to your controller device, so no reading of the PIN is required, products with neither the NFC tag nor their own speakers must instead be read by the user. This is only the Amp and Port devices.

I believe that during the manufacturing process, the PIN is etched on by laser under control of a computer to minimise the possibility of the wrong code being applied to a unit’s housing (which could easily happen with an easier-to-read sticker going through a mechanical application process). The etching also prevents the code being rubbed off after a time, as could happen with a sticker.

In the majority of cases, the PIN code need only be used once for each of these products so the impact is seen as momentary, though I appreciate your feedback about the PIN code’s legibility - unfortunately, a laser can only burn, and the casings of these products are quite dark in colour.

21 replies

jgatie
July 29, 2021

All good answers

 

have there been security concerns ?

 

Yes, and while they were wholly the fault of people who stupidly open their local network up to the internet, they were very public and blown way out of proportion by some shady websites..

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/sonos-bose-security-flaws,news-26304.html