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

Post by protomyth » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 11:21 PM UTC

mrmanner wrote: post #397

protomyth wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m responsible for a bunch of IoT hardware, and every firmware spec I write includes a note on not using the DNS servers provided via DHCP. And that along with DoH is contributing to making my life a pain in the butt. How exactly do you folks who avoid our DHCP's DNS expect us to comply with legal filtering requirements? Also, what happens when your hard coded DNS servers are shutdown?

> How exactly do you folks who avoid our DHCP's DNS expect us to comply with legal filtering requirements? I would argue that this is more a problem with the legal requirements than with the equipment - the law(maker) has expectations you can’t reasonably fulfill. Doesn’t make your situation any better of course, the law is the law even when it’s impossible

Post by protomyth » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 11:27 PM UTC

asclepi wrote: post #454

mrmanner wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How exactly do you folks who avoid our DHCP's DNS expect us to comply with legal filtering requirements? I would argue that this is more a problem with the legal requirements than with the equipment - the law(maker) has expectations you can’t reasonably fulfill. Doesn’t make your situation any better of course, the law is the law even when it’s impossible

Oh, we can fulfill them. We'll resort to TLS inspection and force you to trust our CA on your device if you want to continue accessing our corporate network. And now we get to see (almost) everything again, like in the "good old days," not just your DNS queries. Clear text DNS is the ultimate compromise, a gentleman's agreement if you want, that benefits everyone. We can see just enough to filter what we are required…

Post by pishpash » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 11:39 PM UTC

throwaway09223 wrote: post #398

smileysteve wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. My 75 yo parents still have a dumb tv. They have different remotes for cable, sound, blue ray player ( some smart apps), fire tv, and apple tv. Their life is not easier because of this, they don't watch what they want when they want because it takes minutes to get to a different source. I know what I'm getting them for Christmas

The right way to fix this is one single smart device, which is the only device connected to the dumb TV. The best of these types don't have a remote. They're controlled by a phone. If the intelligence is built into the TV then it cannot be updated or replaced -- so either there will again be multiple devices, or the TV will need to be replaced on a frequent basis. A smart TV makes the problem you describe even worse

Post by x87678r » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 11:54 PM UTC

yeswecatan wrote: post #284

x87678r wrote: post #44

I'm not sure if its worth posting, but I just installed pihole and its great. You dont actually need a pi, you can run it in docker. its nice that you can see all the dns queries that are happening.

Can you recommend a guide for setting it up on something like a mac?

Post by kzrdude » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 12:05 AM UTC

twblalock wrote: post #462

Spivak wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is all a result of consumer preference -- dumb TVs were once the majority of the market. Smart TVs have taken over because people prefer them. Regulation should not be used to override clearly demonstrated consumer preferences or to force companies to produce products that few people want.