Password to avoid guests changing music

Well just because people don't have the same opinion as you doesn't mean your parenting is being questioned. Besides, it really isn't unreasonable to suggest that you should be able to avoid your children messing with music in particular if the parents have forbidden it. After all there are things in your house that could hurt or kill your children and they respect the warnings you give them about those things don't they?

I have rooms in my house that I don't want ANYONE to be able to play music in but me or my wife.
Split the Sonos into two (or more) Sonos 'households' (systems). Dedicate a controller or two to the 'private' household.

Controllers on the main system won't see the 'private' units. And a casual visitor won't be able to associate their controller app with the 'private' players without entering those rooms and pressing buttons.

If you need to operate the 'private' household on SonosNet then one of its components must be wired. But assuming the main household is already on SonosNet then the wired 'private' household device can even be plugged into one of the existing main household units.

Oh wait....I also manage my security system, surveillance, HVAC, lighting, etc. all through my network. Each one has some controls placed in front of them to prevent access....but not my audio. I'll make sure I bring this up in class too.

Does your banking app have a password on it? If so, why not just delete it and tell people not to access your account while on your network?

Sometimes accidents happen and someone does something they didn't mean to do.

People.....all of your suggestions will work. No one is questioning the ability to create and manage guest networks.
The real solution is even simpler....just add a PIN or password and we're done talking about this.

Sometimes accidents happen and someone does something they didn't mean to do.

People.....all of your suggestions will work. No one is questioning the ability to create and manage guest networks.
The real solution is even simpler....just add a PIN or password and we're done talking about this.

Look at the facts: This thread is over 2 years old. Others with similar requests go back to the very first days of Sonos. In that time, Sonos has not given one indication that they are going to implement this feature, in fact the Sonos CEO and founder expressly stated he never wants to implement a passcode feature.

Given these facts, exactly where should those of us who give advice on this site concentrate our efforts: Suggesting workarounds which help you accomplish what you wish to do, or agreeing with you and joining your vocal, but ultimately futile, admonitions to a company that long ago decided against this feature?

Answer honestly.

Ducati, these folks have such a bizarre line of reasoning I do not think it is possible to use logic against them.

Look, folks, these are not theoretical concerns. Kids and immature friends do stuff that annoys you -- that does not mean that you are a bad parent or bad friend or that you need to cut them out of your lives. We know that right now giving out a wifi password also gives control to Sonos -- we are ASKING for something to decouple that. We are NOT asking for advice on how to stop the behavior that led to that request, frankly, because such advice is obvious and condescending. I have had Sonos for more than 10 years, and it has only recently become a problem. Why? Because more and more people are tied to wifi (wifi-only devices, data caps on cell plans) and because Sonos has become much more mainstream. And therefore this will be a growing problem.

If there are things in my house that can hurt my kids I do whatever I can to protect them from it -- I have a pool fence, locked cabinets, and stuff high up out of reach. I don't put them all in a safe, but I do what I can to create minimum precautions against casual entry. A PIN would be a similar minimum precaution against casual entry. The guest-network solution requires that I change my wifi password, change that password on all the laptops/phones/kindles/ipads that currently have that password (at least 10 devices), set up a guest wifi network, and then give out that new password to all my friends and family. Not that bad, but would have been nice to just set up a PIN.

Now, I actually think the guest wifi is a good idea for the future, because there will be more and more of these devices and so it will make sense to create a "cordoned area" of the Wifi just for guests who want internet access. So I think it's not a bad solution. But, seriously, guys, the condescension is out of control. You could just say "Unfortunately, Sonos doesn't do that. A guest network on your wifi could do that for you." Instead we got "What kind of friends do you have that would mess with your system? Why don't you just revoke wifi passwords as you go? What do you mean your children aren't behaved enough to realize that playing Disney music at 6am in their zone also plays it in the parents zone?"

Ducati's point about the PIN-to-zone system is also good. There are definitely scenarios where it would be good to separate out at least one zone if not more for private access. I guess the multiple households thing would work, but then you need separate controllers.

I appreciate your feedback jgatie and understand what you're saying.
That's why after a few posts on this topic, I let it go. Didn't seem like it was going to happen.
Then read @juanb's comments and got me started again.

This was the first I've heard that the CEO will not support PINs/Passwords....if I had known that, I never would have posted my request.

jgatie, again - no one has issue with the constructive feedback. it's the condescending "control your friends" nonsense that is crazy. PINs and passcodes exist to a large degree because sometimes you cannot trust completely the folks you've given your wifi password to.

I also had not heard about the CEO's statement either. But surely having this issue die down in the forums is EXACTLY the way to ensure it will never happen, right???? Only if there are consistent, persistent voices will they think about implementing this. As you suggest, Sonos's aversion to this is clearly because of some philosophical reason rather than a technical one.

Will Sonos offer some parental controls to dumb down the interface and limit speaker volume?

We had lots of debates about this early on: how do you personalize a controller. With the CR100 and CR200 you don’t really know who’s using it. You can’t really put an identification step up front, it’s just getting in the way of time-to-music. But if we’re on your phone, that’s your phone. So we can start doing things like, maybe you have a mode on the Android controller or the iPhone controller to dumb it down. But that’s the challenge with doing things like parental controls, which one are you using and which one are they using. You can’t put, "hey, type in the three numbers to start using a controller" because that’s going to drive you crazy usability wise, you’ll turn it off and never turn that feature on again. We view the tablets as the social controllers, the one you’re going to pass around, and the smartphone as your personal controller. There’s a real nice opportunity to have zones that are ordered based on how often you use them and stuff like that.

http://www.theverge.com/2011/10/21/2504462/john-macfarlane-prepares-sonos-for-airplay-assault-and-possible-home

jgatie, again - no one has issue with the constructive feedback. it's the condescending "control your friends" nonsense that is crazy. PINs and passcodes exist to a large degree because sometimes you cannot trust completely the folks you've given your wifi password to.

I also had not heard about the CEO's statement either. But surely having this issue die down in the forums is EXACTLY the way to ensure it will never happen, right???? Only if there are consistent, persistent voices will they think about implementing this. As you suggest, Sonos's aversion to this is clearly because of some philosophical reason rather than a technical one.

"Control your friends and/or kids" is not condescending nor crazy, it is a natural reaction to descriptions of what most normal people would consider rude, disrespectful and unacceptable behavior. If my kid ever blasted rap music in my bedroom at 2 AM, his/her phone would be under lockup for a month. If my guests abused the music selection on a regular basis, they'd be put on the guest network as fast as I could change passwords. There's no way in hell I'd personally put up with constantly entering a passcode just so I could police rude guests or unruly kids. YMMV, but it is certainly a subject to be broached.

As to the CEO's statement, you can view it above, and it does seem to be philosophical. In my experience, the continued bleating of few, but vocal, advocates does nothing to change his philosophy. See the Windows mobile and Hires audio threads for examples, and the number of posts by "consistent, persistent voices" in those threads absolutely dwarf those calling for passcodes or parental locks.