72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings • Hacker News Board

Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings

#211

Post by skinkestek » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 4:41 PM UTC

syshum wrote: post #148

acdha wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not just the U.S. A problem report once lead me to discover that the Spanish company Telefónica cached DNS results for years longer than the TTL. My error monitoring also picked up content injection (prior to HTTPS) and DNS hijacking around the world. Before going with the conspiratorial take note that Mozilla shipped DoH early and both Microsoft and Apple implemented it. Untrustworthy ISPs are a real problem ev…

At this point Mozilla is just the Non-profit Arm of Google, They do what google tells them.... and DoH is absolutely designed to get around network based security and filtering, both for Ad's and other reasons.

> At this point Mozilla is just the Non-profit Arm of Google, They do what google tells them....

As someone who has used (and still use Firefox) continously since around 2005 it surely feels that way sometimes and some of the decisions I see would make much more sense to me if I knew top management was somehow in Googles pocket.

(That said

1. for my workflows I still consider Firefox the best browser.

2. switching would only make it even easier for Google.

3. I always hope something will change and Firefox will become really really great again or someone will fork it.

Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings

#212

Post by xurukefi » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 4:42 PM UTC

I always found it puzzling that DNS blacklisting for adblocking purposes works at all. I mean I'm not a webdev or anything like that, so what I'm saying might be a bit native, but couldn't you simply serve your ads using the same domain you use for your content? This immediately defeats things like PiHole completely.

Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings

#213

Post by sp332 » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 4:43 PM UTC

thatguy0900 wrote: post #190

zo1 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, till they start adding cellphone-tower enabled connectivity. Your move, consumer.

Don't even need this, with projects like Amazon sidewalk they can mooch your neighbors secured wifi

Details https://mashable.com/article/amazon-sidewalk-surveillance-ne... If you have certain Ring cameras or Echo devices, Amazon enabled a new radio in it back in September. You can opt out from the Alexa app: More -> Settings -> Account Settings -> Amazon Sidewalk -> Off.

Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings

#214

Post by Spivak » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

wang_li wrote: post #47

fingerlocks wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, support is supremely expensive. This is especially true in the hardware IoT space under discussion. Some large fraction of any semi-successful hardware company will exist to field a constant onslaught of support emails, handling returns, warranties, and social media. It’s a big money sink. Margins are already razor thin in hardware, so yeah anything that can be done to reduce your support costs is welcomed.

> Yes, support is supremely expensive. I agree. I have support costs too. Which is why every company that sells a product with a hard coded DNS server configured but doesn't advertise said aspect prominently in all advertising, so I can know to avoid their intentionally defective product, should pay me $10000 for the time I wasted buying their product, discovering their product is secretly and intentionally broken, a…

Why would they advertise this feature? The device isn’t broken, it’s not violating any standards, devices aren’t required to accept DNS servers offered by DHCP — my laptop doesn’t for any network that isn’t my home.

This is done because the manufacturer’s and public DNS servers are more of a known quantity then you ISPs router and DNS servers. Using pihole is super rare and wouldn’t be worth the effort if it weren’t for the fact that it makes devices more reliable.

Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings

#215

Post by WarOnPrivacy » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 4:47 PM UTC

newscracker wrote: post #145

Getting people to add another device like a Pihole or a separate router with better filtering capabilities isn’t going to be an option that most people can handle by themselves. This solution would definitely not work for DNS Over HTTPS (DoH), which I’m guessing will soon become prevalent in many devices. It also seems like DNS Over TLS (DoT) isn’t going to get as much traction exactly because it’s easier to block. A…

>It also seems like DNS Over TLS (DoT) isn’t going to get as much traction exactly because it’s easier to block.

DoT is upticking, albeit at a non-boosted rate. The number of servers supporting DoT has doubled in the US (as in from 3 to 6).

Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings

#216

Post by fuzzy2 » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 4:47 PM UTC

Zhenya wrote: post #188

Dahoon wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To get 5 stars by EuroNCAP (and AFAIK EU law demands it too) the car have to call 911/112 automatically if it detect a crash. I doubt you can remove telemetry without also disabling this. If you do the car is illegal.

Illegal to sell by the OEM or illegal to drive? Two very different things.

Because it is probably part of the vehicle type approval, it would be a modification that needs to be authorized by whatever institution does that in your country.

Otherwise it is probably mostly equal to driving without registration. It may not be a felony, but it will be fined.

Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings

#217

Post by Spivak » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 4:48 PM UTC

oxfordmale wrote: post #87

CraneWorm wrote: post #22

Just 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.

This is getting harder and harder, even for devices like dish washers where there is absolutely no need for internet connectivity.

It would be nice to get notified when my dishes are done. We’re it not for weirdly malicious data harvesting I think this would be considered a neat feature.

Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings

#218

Post by grawlinson » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 4:48 PM UTC

stiltzkin wrote: post #189

Is PiHole the best all around solution for network filtering?, last i tried to setup one i did not find it user friendly.

A few years ago, I tried using ansible to automate setup of PiHole. That did not go well because it's essentially a poorly coded hobby-level project. I've since switched to BIND (named) & it's fantastic implementation of DNZ RPZ[0].

[0]: https://dnsrpz.info/

Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings

#219

Post by Spivak » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 4:49 PM UTC

Havoc wrote: post #202

Will they respect a gateway setting on a router though?

You don’t really get a choice on that. If you try to throw packets at something not the gateway they likely won’t go anywhere.

Re: 72% of smart TVs and 46% of game consoles hardcode DNS settings

#220

Post by wishinghand » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 4:50 PM UTC

Not a smart TV, but the Youtube app on my Playstation 4 and iPhone. I never see an ad on Youtube when on Firefox with Pihole and uBlock Origin, but almost every video will have a preceding ad and then more if it's longer than 4-5 minutes on non-PC platforms.