Restrict access to certain zones

Just wanted to voice my strong agreement with all the sensible suggestions in this topic. I set up my brand new Sonos system last week. While I am generally very happy so far, I am frankly shocked that it seems that anyone with brief physical access to any of the components can immediately gain complete and unrestricted access to the entire system through their own phone or tablet just by pressing the connect button on that component. And even for people you want to have access, there seems to be no way to make that access restricted (or subsequently withdraw the access entirely). In addition to the many excellent proposals by other posters (e.g., party mode, limited access for certain controllers (one room only) etc.), I would add that there should be an option to require a password each time an additional controller is added to the system, and it should be possible to delete/restrict the access of previously added controllers using the "My Account - Products" menu when signed in on the Sonos website. These should all be easy software updates for Sonos to make.
Then, if they are using Android at least, they have complete and unrestricted access to your internet connection. I will have to do some testing to see if they have access to your network as well, I suspect that they do.

Absolutely agree with the 'party mode' so that the 'play now', and 'replace queue' options are removed from the list. I also think both of these should be at the bottom of the list anyway as it is annoying when unintentionally pressing 'play now' and it jumps to the end of the queue to play the song, then stops.

I came across a 2011 interview with Sonos CEO John MacFarlane, in which he addresses access restrictions (see excerpt below). In the interview, this is framed as a pure parental control issue. However, as discussed in this thread, the parental control aspect is just a small part of a much broader set of issues relating to unauthorized and unlimited access. For example, if I ever invite my neighbor over and he, with or without my permission, adds his iPhone as a controller to my Sonos system (literally with the push of a button), it would seem that he will retain unlimited access to my system on a permanent basis (and, if he can pick up my wireless signal in his apartment, on a continuous basis). Or am I missing something? Apart from the interview below, does anyone know if Sonos has otherwise publicly addressed these issues? From http://www.theverge.com/2011/10/21/2504462/john-macfarlane-prepares-sonos-for-airplay-assault-and-possible-home: “Will Sonos offer some parental controls to dumb down the interface and limit speaker volume? [John MacFarlane:] 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.”

I came across a 2011 interview with Sonos CEO John MacFarlane, in which he addresses access restrictions (see excerpt below). In the interview, this is framed as a pure parental control issue. However, as discussed in this thread, the parental control aspect is just a small part of a much broader set of issues relating to unauthorized and unlimited access. For example, if I ever invite my neighbor over and he, with or without my permission, adds his iPhone as a controller to my Sonos system (literally with the push of a button), it would seem that he will retain unlimited access to my system on a permanent basis (and, if he can pick up my wireless signal in his apartment, on a continuous basis). Or am I missing something? Apart from the interview below, does anyone know if Sonos has otherwise publicly addressed these issues? From http://www.theverge.com/2011/10/21/2504462/john-macfarlane-prepares-sonos-for-airplay-assault-and-possible-home: “Will Sonos offer some parental controls to dumb down the interface and limit speaker volume? [John MacFarlane:] 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.”
This interview speaks volumes--thank you for finding that. When a vendor allows themselves the power to literally dictate how a customer is to view his or her own equipment, it shows how much regard they will have for that same user's feedback.

Agreed, this is a must have.

agreed , combine with https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/allow_controllers_to_pair_with_multiple_home_systems

Come on Sonos this would not be difficult to implement! Should defo support max volume calibration so that when the volume is on max it translates to a much lower volume than actually possible (for renting out situations...)

I can't believe Sonos having got moving with this yet! The sheer volume of people wanting this feature is overwhelming - and as already pointed out, it creates a whole new selling point: ideal for hotels, apartments etc. Rather disappointing there has been no word from Sonos on this at all - WHY aren't you implementing this highly demanded feature?

Think this feature has been under consideration for too long!? Vote for this: https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/implement_customers_good_ideas_more_quickly

This is basically the same idea: https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/multiple_user_room_whitelist_volume_max_level But this is based on a room whitelist per device. This would be much easier to realize as the access restriction is part of the controller installation and not part of the system. This won't really help if you want to allow guests to change something, but for the children/parents/grandma it would be enough. It would work for guests as well but only if you prepare the device and provide it.