I’m kind of surprised there isn’t an OpenWRT style project out there to provide a replacement OS for common Smart TVs. At least I couldn’t find one. I’m obviously lacking in understanding the massive difficulties such a project would likely face. But it sure would be very nice to be able to replace my TVs firmware with something open source. I don’t want a dongle or extra box or extra remote. There’s a perfectly good computer in my TV. And all the Roku’s or FireTVs are rubbish and intend to invade your privacy just the same.
72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
191–200 of 673 posts
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
What DNS do you hardcode? Google's? Or do you advice the use to set it up himself? I am very suspicious of the push for https and the like. I feel it is mainly about hiding the payload from me not any third party.
You're right to be suspicious. The DNS-over-HTTPS model favors those who run the servers (because they get exclusive access to monetizable end user name resolution data) and those who control the resolvers. You might control the resolver on your personal computer (for now). You probably don't control it on your phone. You most likely won't control it on your embedded devices.
I believe that Google pushed DoH to track your cross-site browsing. TLS hides your URL, and blockers can break adsense tracking and/or any other call-home backlinks.
Using DoH, especially one served by an advert company is just signing up to be their open book.
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#193Just don't buy smart TV, or any of that IoT crap. It is possible to buy 58 inch dumb TV, connect that to a machine you own.
Is it? I’m still holding onto my TV from 2014 because it doesn’t have “smart” functionality. Every time I look at new ones I can’t find good dumb ones.
What are your thoughts on the Sceptre brand?
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you do this? Wrapping it in grounded tin foil? Ripping out the wifi module? Do I need to void warranty and dissect a new piece of consumer electronics to remove the spy organ? Is that really an acceptable situation?
Does your TV magically crack the WPA2 password?
No but your neighbors echo might just give it theirs https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/b?ie=UTF8&node=213281...
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#195I've always wondered why you couldn't resolve all the hostnames in the DNSBL of your choice into IPs, and then block packets to those IPs. Maybe some routers simply don't have that functionality but it seems pretty trivial for pfSense.
Is there some reason why that's a terrible idea that I've overlooked?
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not just shitty devices. By putting it on the HTTP layer which usually is even available to sandboxed applications they made it possible for every single application to bypass your own resolver. Pretty much a trojan horse.
I've hated DoH from the beginning, and not just because shoehorning everything into http is a silly idea, but as I suspected, we now live in a reality where you have to keep an adblock-esque list of DoH servers. Now you have yet another internet arms race.
DNS based blocking was already trivially bypassable before DoH was ever conceived so I don't see how DoH or its use by browsers is at fault for that problem.
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
DoH absolutely can get network filtering: if I block port 53 outbound to control DNS queries within my network, DoH (and other tunneling technologies) is bypassing my network filtering of DNS.
By the same logic HTTPS is bypassing your network filtering of every service which happens to have an alternative available over HTTPS. So do you block HTTPS?
I’ve been thinking about installing a proxy with my own root for this reason.
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
What DNS do you hardcode? Google's? Or do you advice the use to set it up himself? I am very suspicious of the push for https and the like. I feel it is mainly about hiding the payload from me not any third party.
You're right to be suspicious. The DNS-over-HTTPS model favors those who run the servers (because they get exclusive access to monetizable end user name resolution data) and those who control the resolvers. You might control the resolver on your personal computer (for now). You probably don't control it on your phone. You most likely won't control it on your embedded devices.
I still prefer DoH giving "exclusive" access to resolvers, because the alternative is sending that data in plaintext for everyone along the path to read?
Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#199Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings
#200They appear to not be trustworthy to be on our networks - so we should: 1. Not join them to our networks 2. Stop buying 'Smart TV's' 3. Get panels and a smart box that you can control I'm lucky enough to be able to direct ALL DNS through my router first. Nothing gets out without my say so. Not everyone has that capability, sadly, with home routers. The solution provided by the OP is a solid one - another would be to…
It’s going to be really difficult to not get a smart tv pretty soon. You can, of course not hook it up to the internet. But pretty much all of the current TVs (particularly the good ones with nice displays) are going to be “Smart”. One reason for the recent huge price drops on TVs is the ability to subsidize the price by selling viewing data. It’s the new normal in the CE world.
Yeah the only thing that can stop this trend at this point is regulation unfortunately. Unless you make it a rule that TV manufacturers can’t do this putting them all on a level playing field the ones that do will always be ahead on price.