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Please restore SMBv1, you probably have no idea how many Sonos users you have silenced...

Please please please restore SMBv1, you probably have no idea how many Sonos users you have silenced.

 

Before the May update music played fine, no issues, no machines compromised, no security issues, no loss of password, it just worked. 

Every Sonos user I know has had access to their local libraries dropped, without their permission due to loss of SMBv1 support. Many did not realize what SMBv1 was, their system just worked. Even me didn’t realize, as it just worked, select music and press play...music played.

 

Come May update, libraries gone, no way to reconnect. Surely it is up to us the users if we want to enable/disable SMBv1 support not Sonos ?

 

Don’t give me that bollards of “they must move on...” my new Android V14 phone connects fine to SMBv1 share, my Window 11 connects fine so why not Sonos ? 

 

Very very disappointed in Sonos behaviour.

 

I even wrote a review of Sonos speakers on a major retailers web site about Sonos behaviour and degradation of functionality and a executive contacted me saying are you sure you review is correct it is very negative. I pointed him at this forum and shortly afterwards my one star (lowest possible) review appeared on their website. Mind you all following reviews were one star as well, describing crap app and loss on existing connectivity the speakers were purchased for….

14 replies

R
Userlevel 7
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Every Sonos user I know has had access to their local libraries dropped, without their permission due to loss of SMBv1 support. Many did not realize what SMBv1 was, their system just worked. Even me didn’t realize, as it just worked, select music and press play...music played. Surely it is up to us the users if we want to enable/disable SMBv1 support not Sonos ?

 

I would have thought it’s up to Sonos to decide what protocols they support, if they feel security is an issue? Whilst Sonos has probably not communicated this properly (if at all), as I understand it doesn’t it just need users to migrate to SMBv2? There are plenty of threads on here about this if people are having difficulties. 

I don’t know what the wider implications are for doing so in terms of your network/devices, and I see from your post that the idea of moving to more updated and secure protocols is not something you want to entertain, but wouldn’t you have it all back and working if you did implement SMBv2?

(It would certainly help if Sonos made a post about this to help people out, rather than forum experts needing to do it for them.)

I
Userlevel 3
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I don’t know what the wider implications are for doing so in terms of your network/devices, and I see from your post that the idea of moving to more updated and secure protocols is not something you want to entertain, but wouldn’t you have it all back and working if you did implement SMBv2?

 

I have all my music stored on my Popcorn Hour-C200 media player. It is old, it plays video media fine, Bluray, DVD and MP3 files fine. It just worked, I regularly MP3’ed a CD, copied to Popcorn hour, Sonos re-indexed at 3am (or prodded manually) and Sonos just played fine. Never had an issue, it all just worked, no fiddling, no setting up. When I got my Sonos’s I pointed it at the shared directory, music played. Job done, so I thought.

 

One friend has a 256GB USB stick in his Internet providers router, Sonos just played music fine. All silent now.

 

Another has a Western digital 2TB drive with an RJ45 on the back. Doesn’t know the part as once again it just worked and was bought based on a list of products suitable for use with Sonos.

 

I work all day with embedded stuff & Linux & Windows and did not want to spend my spare time re-creating what once worked fine 100%, really happy with, which is why I bought Sonos so I could spend my time listening to music and not configuring, not researching but just using….

A

If you are running kit that is that old (such as popcorn hour) it’s a given that at some point it will stop working with hardware and software created 15yrs+ later.  In tech terms these are generations apart, and I don’t think the blame entirely rests with Sonos for not supporting such outdated protocols.
Maybe this is the prompt to update some old gear that has served its useful life.   It’s not hard to do and if you’re working with Linus and Windows it really should be easy for you.

jgatie

There’s been a long running campaign by some extremely concerned folks to eliminate support for SMB v1, which was picked up by the audio press.  The chance that Sonos is going to face their wrath and restore SMB v1 is probably slim. 

R
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

There’s been a long running campaign by some extremely concerned folks to eliminate support for SMB v1, which was picked up by the audio press.  The chance that Sonos is going to face their wrath and restore SMB v1 is probably slim. 

There was one pop-up in the app a few weeks ago

and then when the app was rolled out, literally a few days later, SMB1 access was not supported. It was not "in the upcoming months" as claimed. Nothing new there when it comes to abysmal communication from Sonos, I suppose...

Is people using SMB1 a security risk for Sonos? If it's not, then why can't they let customers decide what risk they want to expose themselves to and avoid the expense of buying new kit?

Fortunately, I had a spare Mini-PC that I've set up Plex on (although I did have to spend £90 on a 2TB internal SSD), but I much preferred my previous set up where I had a 2TB hard drive plugged into my SMB1 only router USB port that also powered it.

jgatie

Of course it wasn’t a security risk.  There’s not a single documented case of anybody breaching a Sonos system or a music library due to SMB v1 sharing.  But there were posters who saw it as their mission, and it was picked up by a couple unsavory websites, to the point where Sonos decided it’s not worth the hassle.  Would I have given customers the choice?  Sure, but I’m not the one making those decisions. 

I
Userlevel 3
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Just come back from a week in Malta.

 

Went to a bar in Valletta and whilst ordering drinks noticed a big pile of (possible 6 or more) Sonos speakers thrown in a pile behind the bar, most still with speaker brackets attached. Ask what they were doing there and said they stopped working, a couple of weeks ago and were waiting for the company that installed them to take them back. Hmm I wonder what caused that….

They now had a single JBL speaker behind the bar.

 

 

R
Userlevel 7
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The direct impact of all of this, spotted in the wild…

This is just the tip of the iceberg too.

I
Userlevel 3
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I did find a Raspberry Pi setup that connected to a SMBv1 share and converted to SMBv2 (and v3) to allow “old” devices to just work.

 

Lost the link now, but used a single USB powered Raspberry Pi, in a box connected to network. Low costs and just worked. Must find it again….

 

Found it.

https://github.com/LePopal/SMBv1-Gateway

 

I
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Thank goodness Microsoft support backward compatibility for older products, so some of us can just carry on listening to our music, as we have done so for the last 15 years odd. Sonos take note “backward compatibility” and “user choice” are the key words here.

This is the just released Windows 11 24H2.

Tick the box, can now connect to all my Linux NAS shares and see all my Music and movies. All play fine on my Windows 11 boxes, as they have done for years.

controlav
Userlevel 7
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What old-ass system are you running that only supports SMBv1? Windows for Workgroups 3.11??

Note that the v80 app update has broken some local libraries for many other reasons, still slowly getting fixed, but the dropping of SMBv1 was a righteous change that should affect almost no-one.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
I
Userlevel 3
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What old-ass system are you running that only supports SMBv1?

 

Loads of people affected. Most people who plug a USB stick into the Internet router find SMBv1 only, people with older media players & storage, a lot of single drive NAS drives from a while back, all SMBv1 only. Sad thing is they all worked 100% with Sonos (and Windows 11) until Sonos updated.

 

My Sonos system worked 100% fine all day one Saturday (whilst doing DIY), then when I came back on  Sunday to carry on would no longer play any of my music.

V
Userlevel 1
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I am an IT guy, SMB 1.0 was dropped for numerous reasons (performance, security and so on) that I will not go over here.

The point is: are you still using a fixed phone with a cord? Probably not. Chances are good that you don’t even have a landline no more, only a cell phone.

 

Your network desperately needs love if you’re still using a protocol that’s been out there since 1984.

We cannot hold technology evolution forever back for the sake of interoperability.

 

At one point, a line has to be drawn. If not, the software becomes heavier/slower, harder to support, more vulnerable… and people will also complain about that.

 

  • SMB 1.0 was initially introduced in 1984 by IBM as part of their PC network program for file sharing in a DOS (disk operating system) environment. Implementing SMB 1.0 was a big step towards simplified networked file sharing. Microsoft modified and updated this version in 1990, incorporating it into their Windows operating system.
  • CIFS improved the SMBv1 protocol, delivering better performance, support for long file names, and more advanced security features. Its release in 1996 coincided with the new Windows 95 operating system.
  • SMB 2.0 was released with Windows Vista in 2006, bringing about another boost in performance and efficiency. SMB 2.0 could deliver data much faster than SMBv1, thanks to various optimizations (such as a reduced number of commands and subcommands).
  • SMB 2.1 came out with Windows 7, continuing to improve the outstanding inefficiencies of the previous version. SMB 2.1 reduced protocol overhead by minimizing the amount of data exchanged between client and server, improved bandwidth efficiency, and delivered even better performance.
  • SMB 3.0 was introduced with Windows 8 with more updates and fixes. The most notable improvement SMB 3.0 brought was enhanced security — this protocol version was the first to support end-to-end encryption.
controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

I am an IT guy, SMB 1.0 was dropped for numerous reasons (performance, security and so on) that I will not go over here.

The point is: are you still using a fixed phone with a cord? Probably not. Chances are good that you don’t even have a landline no more, only a cell phone.

Your network desperately needs love if you’re still using a protocol that’s been out there since 1984.

We cannot hold technology evolution forever back for the sake of interoperability.

  • SMB 2.0 was released with Windows Vista in 2006, bringing about another boost in performance and efficiency. SMB 2.0 could deliver data much faster than SMBv1, thanks to various optimizations (such as a reduced number of commands and subcommands).
  • SMB 2.1 came out with Windows 7, continuing to improve the outstanding inefficiencies of the previous version. SMB 2.1 reduced protocol overhead by minimizing the amount of data exchanged between client and server, improved bandwidth efficiency, and delivered even better performance.
  • SMB 3.0 was introduced with Windows 8 with more updates and fixes. The most notable improvement SMB 3.0 brought was enhanced security — this protocol version was the first to support end-to-end encryption.

Nice history! There was a version change that extended the maximum file length past 2GB (32-bit signed value, doh!), I remember having to update the SMB client on the Xbox 360 for that. It was around 2007.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS

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