Garmin Locking

Don't rely on the Garmin lock to protect your gps. Remove it from your car.

Fred

I totally agree. Sometimes extreme measures cause problems. Our COO setup mac filtering not only for wireless, but for wired, on his home router. Forgetting that he had his laptop replaced, he was supposed to lead a high profile video conference, where he would normally just connect his laptop to the router via a patch cable. I think you can guess what happened...

Yes, as long as you know the pin number you can change the security pin number and/or the security location, or you can just turn the Garmin Lock OFF.

One thing about the Garmin lock I've never understood is, the use of numbers only. As a computer security person, it is standard to use both numbers and letters to create strong passwords. Why Garmin doesn't allow for that is beyond me.

That said, I'll agree with the others here: just take it with you!

When there's a way to lock it, there will be a way to get around it. It's just a matter of time.

When you enabled the security lock, it first prompted you to input a PIN and then it grabbed your current location to set as the automatic unlock. You only need to use the PIN if you power it on more than 20 meters or so away from that location. When you return to your summer home, disable the security lock. Then re-enable it. It will again prompt for a PIN, so you can either use a new one, or re-use the one you prefer, and then it will grab a new position fix for your automatic unlock. You may also see a button on that page to change the security location. If yours has it, that will change the automatic unlock to your new location.

The idea behind the security lock is that if enough folks use it and the bad guys find that every time they break into a vehicle to steal a Garmin and come out with a paper weight, they would bypass Garmins. In most cases, they don't take the time to check before breaking and taking.... Most of them aren't that bright. Many users feel the security lock to be a nuisance and don't use it, and so the bad guys often get a working one.

If your PIN isn't trivial such as 1111, and if it were stolen, you have some sense that at least they won't likely be able to pawn or sell it for cash to support one of their other habits.

This should be an auto-reflex. Whenever leaving your vehicle, secure or at least hide anything that would be tempting... iPods, cameras, cell phones, GPSrs, wallets, etc. It amazing what you see laying on the front seat of parked cars.