Smart TV

[Infrasonic]

Pray tell. Although I would have thought with https you wouldn't be able to see the content of the packets. IT sniffing was much more fun in the days before encryption

The PiHole doesn't allow you to see the contents, but it does blocks the Samsung TV / Amazon Firestick / Roku / etc. requests to call home - and a lot of calls to home there are.

Yep - Pi-Hole is a DNS solution.

Wireshark can do encrypted traffic analysis for anyone that wants to go there - loads of tutorials on YT.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... +wireshark

[mc2fool]

Pray tell. Although I would have thought with https you wouldn't be able to see the content of the packets. IT sniffing was much more fun in the days before encryption

The PiHole doesn't allow you to see the contents, but it does blocks the Samsung TV / Amazon Firestick / Roku / etc. requests to call home - and a lot of calls to home there are.

You can do the same by getting an OpenDNS account (free), setting it up to block addresses you don't want your TV to access and telling your TV to use OpenDNS for its DNS server. I do that to stop ads showing in the catchup services. You do have to run an updater on your PC though to keep your dynamic IP updated for when your router changes address.

[Niksen]

You can do the same by getting an OpenDNS account (free)...You do have to run an updater on your PC though to keep your dynamic IP updated for when your router changes address.

My standard BT router will do that update automatically with DNS-O-Matic.

[mc2fool]

You can do the same by getting an OpenDNS account (free)...You do have to run an updater on your PC though to keep your dynamic IP updated for when your router changes address.

My standard BT router will do that update automatically with DNS-O-Matic.

My Huawei Talktalk router has similar capability, I suspect most probably do, and it updates my http://www.dynu.com DDNS using GnuDIP but I run Marcs Updater using DNS-O-Matic to update it for OpenDNS. I dunno why now, the various uses came along piecemeal and I should probably look at consolidating it all at some point ...

[Redmires]

The PiHole doesn't allow you to see the contents, but it does blocks the Samsung TV / Amazon Firestick / Roku / etc. requests to call home - and a lot of calls to home there are.

Yep - Pi-Hole is a DNS solution.

Wireshark can do encrypted traffic analysis for anyone that wants to go there - loads of tutorials on YT.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... +wireshark

I have a Pi-hole but was thinking that maybe TCPDUMP was being used as well, as it can on a regular Pi. The network company I worked for had a dedicated Sniffer (Network General) portable in the 90's, which cost around £20k a pop. Then 'Ethereal' and 'Wireshark' came out and these were game changers, and free.

[Infrasonic]

...I dunno why now, the various uses came along piecemeal and I should probably look at consolidating it all at some point ...

Free Tailscale has been a game changer for me. https://www.youtube.com/@Tailscale/videos

I don't use anywhere near all its features but I'm looking at buying a decent NAS with Tailscale container app capability (e.g Synology) with secure WAN side access and using syncthing across all client devices - DDNS becomes unnecessary then.
If you are logged in to TS on all the client devices they just find each other on the E2E encrypted network (LAN/WAN). Travel routers like the GL.iNET ones even have Tailscale/zero tier overlays built in, it's just a tick box option in the settings menu or hardware switch.

[doolally]

I don't think all this talk of PiHole, sniffers, Tailscale and whatever is going to help Dod with his problem
doolally

[Dod101]

I don't think all this talk of PiHole, sniffers, Tailscale and whatever is going to help Dod with his problem
doolally

Indeed. It comes and goes but is unreliable at best. I think starting from first principles I had better get the alignment of the dish checked.

Dod

[mc2fool]

I don't think all this talk of PiHole, sniffers, Tailscale and whatever is going to help Dod with his problem
doolally

Indeed. It comes and goes but is unreliable at best. I think starting from first principles I had better get the alignment of the dish checked.

Dod

Good idea.

[servodude]

Indeed. It comes and goes but is unreliable at best. I think starting from first principles I had better get the alignment of the dish checked.

Dod

Good idea.

Before that... start with the cable connections

Unplug, wipe clean, inspect
then insert and remove a couple of times
- then put it all back and see how you get on

... It's amazing how often this can help.
Certainly with intermittent stuff.

[mc2fool]

Good idea.

Before that... start with the cable connections

Unplug, wipe clean, inspect
then insert and remove a couple of times
- then put it all back and see how you get on

... It's amazing how often this can help.
Certainly with intermittent stuff.

Good idea.

[stevensfo]

Pray tell. Although I would have thought with https you wouldn't be able to see the content of the packets. IT sniffing was much more fun in the days before encryption

The PiHole doesn't allow you to see the contents, but it does blocks the Samsung TV / Amazon Firestick / Roku / etc. requests to call home - and a lot of calls to home there are.

and a lot of calls to home there are.

What sort of info does it send? I assume that knowing which channels and programmes are watched most can be useful. Maybe which functions of the TV are used.

But is all this anonymised? Would they know the IP address along with all that info and could they discover your name and physical address?

Steve

[Niksen]

and a lot of calls to home there are.

What sort of info does it send? I assume that knowing which channels and programmes are watched most can be useful. Maybe which functions of the TV are used.

But is all this anonymised? Would they know the IP address along with all that info and could they discover your name and physical address?

I would assume that the information would have value and could be sold, for example if I was a commercial tv channel would I want to know if people were changing channels when the adverts came on, did they return after the adverts, if they didn’t change channels did they mute the tv, etc.

Add in some other details such as the type of tv, the channels watched, the broad location from the ip address, and perhaps other services subscribed to or devices connected, and you could make a decent guess as to viewer demographics which would add value.

[stevensfo]

and a lot of calls to home there are.

What sort of info does it send? I assume that knowing which channels and programmes are watched most can be useful. Maybe which functions of the TV are used.

But is all this anonymised? Would they know the IP address along with all that info and could they discover your name and physical address?

I would assume that the information would have value and could be sold, for example if I was a commercial tv channel would I want to know if people were changing channels when the adverts came on, did they return after the adverts, if they didn’t change channels did they mute the tv, etc.

Add in some other details such as the type of tv, the channels watched, the broad location from the ip address, and perhaps other services subscribed to or devices connected, and you could make a decent guess as to viewer demographics which would add value.

Thanks! I have no problem with this. If I get a Smart TV, I just don't want even more ads appearing on websites, and cetainly would go ballistic if they had personal date.

Though given the fashion of making up our data these days, I'd quite like to be known as The Cool One, 233, Sodbury Terrace, Shittington.

[Niksen]

If I get a Smart TV, I just don't want even more ads appearing on websites, and cetainly would go ballistic if they had personal date.

The other issue with smart TVs is the adverts appearing on the TV - not in the tv shows you are watching but in the TV guide and menu options, however again it is possible to block them.

[mc2fool]

If I get a Smart TV, I just don't want even more ads appearing on websites, and cetainly would go ballistic if they had personal date.

The other issue with smart TVs is the adverts appearing on the TV - not in the tv shows you are watching but in the TV guide and menu options, however again it is possible to block them.

Not in my Samsung or my Youview boxes (also "smart" in the sense of being internet connected).

Please tell us which smart TVs do that, so that folks can avoid them!

[stevensfo]

If I get a Smart TV, I just don't want even more ads appearing on websites, and cetainly would go ballistic if they had personal date.

The other issue with smart TVs is the adverts appearing on the TV - not in the tv shows you are watching but in the TV guide and menu options, however again it is possible to block them.

Adverts?? Never seen any ads at all! We do actualy have a Smart TV, though not in the UK.

I just asked my son who is in the UK, and he has never had any ads.


Steve

[Niksen]

The other issue with smart TVs is the adverts appearing on the TV - not in the tv shows you are watching but in the TV guide and menu options, however again it is possible to block them.

Not in my Samsung or my Youview boxes (also "smart" in the sense of being internet connected).

Please tell us which smart TVs do that, so that folks can avoid them!

Samsung - https://gist.github.com/peteryates/b44b ... d4bcef1e52

[mc2fool]

Not in my Samsung or my Youview boxes (also "smart" in the sense of being internet connected).

Please tell us which smart TVs do that, so that folks can avoid them!

Samsung - https://gist.github.com/peteryates/b44b ... d4bcef1e52

Ugh! Thank god mine's an older model!