Hi
Let's say i'm having a party, and my Sonos is playing the music.
Many of my guests are friends that earlier has gotten access to my WiFi. During the party, these guests could download Sonos Controller/app, connect to Sonos, and start controlling the music.
There is no way in Sonos controllers to set a password, to avoid this behaviour.
Other workarounds would be setting up a guest WiFi network that doesn't have access to Sonos, but this would require a new router (in som cases), or change my original password in my entire existing network, which would be annoying ;)
Are there any plans to add this feature?
Maybe even a possibility to require a password for each Sonos device (tick box in controller preferences for each device?)
Am i missing something, other than keeping my guests sober and not annoying 😃
Password to avoid guests changing music
This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.
Page 1 / 8
Userlevel 3
+4
Thanks Ryan. I already have this but it does not allow for any control of sonos.
My problem is that I want the guests to have some control, just not full control
Like for example, I'd love them to have control of all the common areas (Living Room, Kitchen, etc), but not the bedrooms.
For overnight guests, this is particularly appreciated.
My guests don't do it on purpose. They are just trying to learn how to use a new app in a house they don't live in and end up playing musing in the bedrooms when people are sleeping...
Userlevel 7
+26
Hi everyone, there's no official news on this topic I can add today, but I'll make sure the team knows people are still asking. As ratty suggests, the best thing to do is to add a guest wireless network with restricted access to your home and not to give out the main wifi credentials to people you don't trust with the keys to your music, or your data, or any other personal details you might have on the home network.
Guest networks are very common these days and most all major routers are capable of broadcasting one.
Guest networks are very common these days and most all major routers are capable of broadcasting one.
One could say it's a long awaited feature
A selective edit, misquoting my response.
It doesn't matter how long it's been awaited if only 48 users (in this thread, at least a couple of whom are forum 'helpers') are interested.
By the way, the solution to this problem has been pretty simple for quite some time: don't give access to your network to people you don't trust. Most modern routers offer a 'guest' network facility.
Userlevel 3
+4
One could say it's a long awaited feature
Just to set this in context: 182 posts from only 48 unique users in 5+ years.
Userlevel 3
+4
Any recent comment from Sonos on this?
This is the Feature Request with Most Comments.
This is the Feature Request with Most Comments.
Hey guys, I have this problem -keep it simple, change the language in room settings for the party that no one speaks. nice
How do you do that? Is it possible on the same network?
You could put guest and Flatmate players into a different Household so they can't control your units. I believe different households can share music sources in most cases.
This is a big deal. I love the system in every single way except this one omission. I can't believe that many havnt suffered this problem, been blasted in the middle of the night accidentally by a valid user of the system. Another small side effect is I listen to pod casts in my bathroom speaker. I just control playback with the hardware switch. But if someone takes over that speaker, I lose my place in my podcast.
Look again, I really hope someone is still taking this thread seriously. I have 25 sonos units (playbars/play5-1/connect amp etc) not cheap. If there is some solution without having to get a network specialist in to firewall each private zone I would love to hear about it. Amazingly enough this was the last technical issue I expected to have with the sonos system. I made the biggest common mistake people make, I just assumed zones/protection would not be a problem. I am so passionate about this, I want to just keep writing. But I will stop and hope someone is actually listening and understanding the negative effect this is having on my relationships in our house.
Surely you just unplug it when you're asleep, problem solved.
As far as it being an easy fix to just add a password on your Sonos system, I agree that it seems that way on the surface, when you're only considering users who access Sonos through the Sonos app. However, there are a lot more entry points these days. You can cast to Sonos from Spotify or Pandora. There will be airpplay2 pretty soon. There is voice control. There is Smartthings, Logitech, and quite a few other third party products and apps. So if you add a password requirement on the Sonos app, you have to close the 'backdoor' entry points as well. And that means all those other things have to change their code for the password functionality. So it's just a matter of a easy code change (if that's what it) but a huge coordination effort as well.
As far as allowing guests to play their own playlists for a party and such. I somewhat solved this by keeping an old phone around (or any spare tablet would do) that I can give to guests that I trust to run the system. She wanted to use her Spotify playlist, so after setting that up, there were no issues. I don't use Spotify myself, not sure if you can setup multiple services of the same type.
The basic point is, have a cheap phone or tablet around as an extra controller you can give to guests you trust instead of letting them access with their own phone. Chances are, their playlist is coming from a music service, that will have to be setup anyone, not stored locally on their phone or device.
As far as allowing guests to play their own playlists for a party and such. I somewhat solved this by keeping an old phone around (or any spare tablet would do) that I can give to guests that I trust to run the system. She wanted to use her Spotify playlist, so after setting that up, there were no issues. I don't use Spotify myself, not sure if you can setup multiple services of the same type.
The basic point is, have a cheap phone or tablet around as an extra controller you can give to guests you trust instead of letting them access with their own phone. Chances are, their playlist is coming from a music service, that will have to be setup anyone, not stored locally on their phone or device.
The original question on this thread was actually from someone who was totally relaxed about all his friends being on his network, but not about them messing with his Sonos. I think it reasonable for the 'same five people' to point out that that is a pretty dumb perspective. It is technically possible to do (I imagine), but Sonos has so far not thought it important enough to do anything. This is not, however, what @bradjhooley was asking for in the post you quoted - he states, very sensibly, that there is no way he is giving out his wifi password.
Userlevel 7
+22
You have to connect to the wifi network to connect then direct to Sonosnet?
Userlevel 7
+22
If they have android controller they could connect direct to Sonosnet (assume running sonosnet)
You could change password temporarily for the night
add an access point to the main router with a different ssid password
You could change password temporarily for the night
add an access point to the main router with a different ssid password
Aren't there two different issues here? The thread is headed 'password to avoid guests changing music', but what @bradjhooley is asking for (supported by @DrAmyColesh) is to be able to allow someone to play their own playlists without his having to reveal his network password, just a Sonos password.
There are many on this thread who complain 'my friends know my network password and now they keep messing with my Sonos'. I have very little sympathy with someone who is happy to let everyone he/she knows loose on their network and worries most about control of Sonos.
But @bradjhooley's request (if I understand correctly) is different and a perfectly reasonable thing to ask and wish for. I think there may be a technical issue though. Sonos is fundamentally a networked system. Put a controller even on a different subnet from the players and it won't see them. I think you just have to have your friend's phone on your network for the technology to work, and how is that to be achieved without full access?
One (imperfect but workable) solution for those with a Sonos component with a line-in is to get a Bluetooth receiver and allow friends to bypass the network.
There are many on this thread who complain 'my friends know my network password and now they keep messing with my Sonos'. I have very little sympathy with someone who is happy to let everyone he/she knows loose on their network and worries most about control of Sonos.
But @bradjhooley's request (if I understand correctly) is different and a perfectly reasonable thing to ask and wish for. I think there may be a technical issue though. Sonos is fundamentally a networked system. Put a controller even on a different subnet from the players and it won't see them. I think you just have to have your friend's phone on your network for the technology to work, and how is that to be achieved without full access?
One (imperfect but workable) solution for those with a Sonos component with a line-in is to get a Bluetooth receiver and allow friends to bypass the network.
So, I'm having a party and I want to control the music. No one gets my private network password. Someone has another playlist and wants to take control of the music? I have to give them access to my network. No longer a guest network and I have to go change my router to secure it again.
This is a shortfall of the system. Admit it. There should be an easy way to secure, or share, the system within the sonos app. Hey, how about sonos setup a guest and private feature. Much easier than changing the router each time.
Absolutely, but the guys here think they know best.
The same 5 people that keep repeating "this isn't an issue" or "change your wifi settings" are infuriating. This lack of being able to password is the one reason I haven't yet purchased the Sonos, and am looking for alternatives.
As a software developer, this seems like a pretty simple thing to fix. I will admit that most of the people on my home network are trustworthy and I don't have an issue with them having access to control my shared devices. But there are a few relevant points in this thread where users share their WIFI with a roommate accidentally playing music in the bedrooms at all hours of the night, etc. Rather than forcing users to create separate networks or maintain a password, the app just needs to allow an administrator (the first user to set up the system) to grant access to other devices on the network trying to connect. By default, it can work the way it currently does in allowing everyone access. But, if a user wishes to limit who can access the system, they could choose to only allow approved devices to control the network. This would filter by the device MAC address and a user could grant any level of access to any one or more of the devices on the network.
A little thought would need to go into this, but I think it is a feature that could be implemented without much time and/or effort. It would allow the devices to function like they do now for so many of the users that prefer that, yet give a better level of control for users who would like that.
A little thought would need to go into this, but I think it is a feature that could be implemented without much time and/or effort. It would allow the devices to function like they do now for so many of the users that prefer that, yet give a better level of control for users who would like that.
For something that has been on request for 14 year you would figure that this wouldn't be a problem. So what I'm being told by people that think they understand the world is that the number of people who this feature would benefit is so small that it would be negligible to implement. That statement right there is flawed immediately for the small fact that this is a request this is ranging over a DECADE. On top of which I can't very well create a separate LAN network when I'm in college and had no power on the system. I am writing this about 10 minutes after having my speaker just randomly cycle through 5 different songs that were not of my doing. This is the result of someone in my building thinking they are listening to their music but just connected to my speaker. What I'm being told is that in a building that has the same network ranging nearly a mile, a password system would be completely useless when people with the same speaker or app can just access my speaker, that I paid $200+ for, and be a okay? Can someone with an actual brain explain to me the sound logic behind that? And yes I understand that in the grand scheme of things $200 is pocket change, but for people who have spent upwards of 10k on an extensive system (which isn't hard) would be happy to know a simple feature like this is included in their rather hefty investment.
Hi All,
Bought my first unit for my son's Christmas present. With the intention of expanding into a whole house system when we move into new house. The house is being fitted with in ceiling speakers pretty much throughout the place and I have run the cables to a central point where a bank of Connect:amps are planned to bring music to our ears.
I've come from a now pretty much end of life Squeezebox system.
This was a flawless and customisable system- admittedly perhaps too complicated for the masses and hence it's long term failure.
Sonos seemed the logical easy step.
For all those not understanding the need to restrict controllers to certain players I can't think of a reason why you shouldn't be able to do this!
I don't want my Son (accidentally or otherwise) putting on music in other zones. Or changing the volume etc
Music servers should also be set up to allow restrictions to controllers.
This is a big short coming as far as I can tell.
13 years in the asking on this forum so I don't think it will get sorted unfortunately...
Nic 🙂
Bought my first unit for my son's Christmas present. With the intention of expanding into a whole house system when we move into new house. The house is being fitted with in ceiling speakers pretty much throughout the place and I have run the cables to a central point where a bank of Connect:amps are planned to bring music to our ears.
I've come from a now pretty much end of life Squeezebox system.
This was a flawless and customisable system- admittedly perhaps too complicated for the masses and hence it's long term failure.
Sonos seemed the logical easy step.
For all those not understanding the need to restrict controllers to certain players I can't think of a reason why you shouldn't be able to do this!
I don't want my Son (accidentally or otherwise) putting on music in other zones. Or changing the volume etc
Music servers should also be set up to allow restrictions to controllers.
This is a big short coming as far as I can tell.
13 years in the asking on this forum so I don't think it will get sorted unfortunately...
Nic 🙂
I'm not sure who sonos put in charge of this forum, but the attitude is awful. Just got a sonos for Christmas and this was one of the first things I thought about. Getting into the router each time I want to allow or disallow access to my sonos network doesn't work for me.
So, I'm having a party and I want to control the music. No one gets my private network password. Someone has another playlist and wants to take control of the music? I have to give them access to my network. No longer a guest network and I have to go change my router to secure it again.
This is a shortfall of the system. Admit it. There should be an easy way to secure, or share, the system within the sonos app. Hey, how about sonos setup a guest and private feature. Much easier than changing the router each time.
So, I'm having a party and I want to control the music. No one gets my private network password. Someone has another playlist and wants to take control of the music? I have to give them access to my network. No longer a guest network and I have to go change my router to secure it again.
This is a shortfall of the system. Admit it. There should be an easy way to secure, or share, the system within the sonos app. Hey, how about sonos setup a guest and private feature. Much easier than changing the router each time.
Those companies that focus on selected markets - by definition that means ignoring all others - almost always make more money in the long term than those that do not do so.
I figure the number of home users with Enterprise networks is initially a low percentage of the market, and those that would allow guests unfettered access to their local LAN instead of an internet only guest network even more minuscule. Enterprise networks are usually associated with more strict levels of access security.
Page 1 / 8
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.