Disarming with a PIN: quick, but with judgement
Instead of a password or Google you can use a 4-digit PIN to disarm. How to set it, what it protects and what to watch out for.
Anyone who wants to disarm their alarm system or phone quickly does not like typing a long password. That is why, besides password and Google confirmation, there is now also a four-digit PIN.
Why signing in again exists at all
Disarming is the moment at which a thief would win. That is why the running session is deliberately not enough: even an unlocked phone cannot simply be disarmed, but requires a second proof. Until now that proof was the password or confirmation with Google. The PIN is a third, more convenient option.
How to set it
In the viewer, under “Protection & map”, you find the section “PIN for disarming”. There you set, change or remove the PIN. For that you must confirm once with your password or with Google, and always, even to change it. That is deliberate: someone who only holds an open session should not be able to set their own PIN. The PIN needs exactly four digits. VintageCam does not accept obvious combinations such as 0000 or 1234.
How to use it
Wherever you have to confirm in order to disarm or to delete an armed system, you enter the four digits instead of the password. The app and the viewer recognise this by themselves. Password and Google continue to work.
What to keep in mind
A four-digit PIN has only 10,000 possibilities and is therefore easier to guess than a password. VintageCam balances this with a lockout: after five wrong entries in a short time the PIN is blocked for a while, and after ten wrong entries in a day it can only be used again the next day. Password and Google remain possible during this time. Only an irreversible hash is stored, not the PIN itself.
Under no circumstances choose the PIN of your phone lock. Someone who watched you unlock or knows it from the theft would otherwise also disarm your alarm system. That also applies to combinations such as your year of birth. The PIN belongs to your account: each household member has their own, and it cannot be shared for the whole house.
And auto-arm?
With auto-arm (see Auto-arm explained), unlocking the phone disarms it without a PIN. The PIN is meant for everything else: phones you armed by hand, a backpack, bike, car or a phone you want to disarm remotely.
