Security and access control

Hello there, pistoia. Thanks for posting and welcome to the Community. I am happy to forward your request along to the team for consideration. In the meantime, users will usually make a guest network for visitors. This is so they do not control any smart home devices like thermostats, lights, etc.

Thanks again for the feedback!

A guest network for visitors would certainly be recommended. They could potentially do a lot more than just control your Sonos system depending on what else you might have on your network!

As for kids, maybe some parental controls on that iPod would prevent them from getting into things you don't want them to get into... or some kind of repercussion for changing what you're listening to. Or maybe get them their own Play:1 so they can listen to what they want on that instead of on your speakers.

Separate networks, have a look at google wifi.

Its a fantastic game sticking random songs into a pubs playlist when they they have Sonos on a open network.

Defenitely.
This has been requested for years (around 10) and it still does not happen (just google "Sonos Security"). You are perfectly correct to request it, and Sonos is perfectly allowed to ignore it. Which they so far have done, I'm sad to say.

I keep my hopes up however - this is the only flaw in an otherwize great system.

pistoia wrote:

Sonos systems lack any type of access control. As long as anyone has access to your home network (it could be your 8-year-old child using his/her iPod or a guest who came over), they can access your Sonos system and play the music they want. My 8-year-old daughter independently installed Sonos on her iPod and every time I am playing my favorite music, she hijacks the system and plays her teenager-style music. Once I had some guests over to my house from Italy. The guy installed Sonos on his phone and 2 minutes later my speakers were playing old-fashion Italian music. If one has an open network, you could imagine neighbors playing their own music at his house. I think that a Sonos system should be password-protected.

It is disappointing that there has been no progress on access control. There should be a way to designate a master user when multiple users have the app installed.

I think that not including access control will limit Sonos's market. My son wants to take a Play:1 or Sonos One to college with him. In his dorm, he will have to be on the school's network to function. Putting an unsecured speaker on the network is an invitation to crazy pranks. So, that's one more sale that doesn't happen.

gbeb wrote:

I think that not including access control will limit Sonos's market. My son wants to take a Play:1 or Sonos One to college with him. In his dorm, he will have to be on the school's network to function. Putting an unsecured speaker on the network is an invitation to crazy pranks. So, that's one more sale that doesn't happen.

University dorms have different network setups than your typical household, and the device could very well be blocked from setup. I'd look into getting a travel router for your son to use while in the dorm, for the Sonos devices and any other device that needs to remain relatively private.

Thanks Danny. But, forgive my ignorance. The only time I have used a travel router was going around Europe to have constant wireless access. How would this work? Find a router which will connect to the school's wifi network but let him restrict device access on his subnet?

I'm not going to claim to be an expert on this, I've just seen this used as a solution for dorms and the like posted on here before. The way I understand it is that Sonos access is already restricted by subnet. So just by connecting a travel router to the dorm internet, then connecting Sonos to the travel router, you're putting Sonos on it's own subnet. You would then have to connect your phone/tablet to the wifi generated by the travel router to control the speaker.

I may have misspoke when referring to 'other devices' as I really don't know what kind of security a travel router would add for non-Sonos devices.

If you have a travel router already, you should be able to test this out using your own home network in place of the dorms internet access.

gbeb wrote:

Thanks Danny. But, forgive my ignorance. The only time I have used a travel router was going around Europe to have constant wireless access. How would this work? Find a router which will connect to the school's wifi network but let him restrict device access on his subnet?

You connect the travel router to the public WiFi by entering the SSID/password of the public WiFi. Then you set the SSID/password for the router, and that will be the SSID/password for Sonos and any other devices your son wishes to use. That way, only devices logged into the travel router can use Sonos. Effectively, he is creating a secure private network that is getting its internet connection via the public WiFi.

Here is a popular model:

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-Portable-Travel-Router/dp/B00TQEX8BO/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1534951401&sr=1-3&keywords=travel+router

Thank you!!!

Note that many universities frown on the use of a travel router because they like to monitor all devices on the network. Check the school's policies before buying the router.

Ugh. Is access control that significant a development? Even a simple execution to lock to one user would be a huge improvement if prioritization is too costly a development.

jgatie wrote:

Note that many universities frown on the use of a travel router because they like to monitor all devices on the network. Check the school's policies before buying the router.

You were right. The school blocks these devices.

My son claims to have found a device which helps the speaker work via bluetooth. We'll cross our fingers and hope it works.

This would be unusual, as there's no bluetooth receiver in any Sonos device (for music, apparently the Beam has one for setup purposes, but it doesn't carry music streams).

Thanks. You're right. The device needs a line in port to work. His speaker doesn't have one. However, the article where he learned of it claims it will work with a Play:5, Connect, and Connect:Amp.

https://bgr.com/2018/02/21/sonos-bluetooth-adapter-amazon-prime/

Ah, I hadn't seen the article.

The devices you listed (or more particularly, the article listed) all have an analog line-in on them. Any audio device, including bluetooth devices, can be connected to the analog line-in on a Sonos.

This bluetooth "solution" isn't going to do anything to help get the device onto the large shared network though.

controlav wrote:

This bluetooth "solution" isn't going to do anything to help get the device onto the large shared network though.

Absolutely. I don't think my son is interested in making his speaker sharable while at college. He just wants it to be usable.

You may have misunderstood the post above - Not your son sharing his Sonos kind of sharing. Rather that the school's network is a large shared network, not a home network that Sonos is designed for.