[ale] Stupid smart phone

[Jim Kinney]

But, but, but, it was only done that way to provide the the best possible user experience </snark>

If they have hard coded network addresses, I'll bet they also have hard coded root/admin passwords. Might even have an open port. That would be sad. <sniff><sniff>

On December 12, 2021 4:37:34 AM EST, Alex Carver via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>Oh they're very clever about it, too.  Despite DHCP giving it DNS 
>servers that I control and despite the manual network configuration 
>exposing only two DNS server entries it actually has Google's DNS 
>servers hardcoded as a third server.  So if I tried to blacklist 
>anything at my own DNS server, it would get around that by querying 
>Google directly.
>
>I spotted that when I first got the TV and put a sniffer on it before I
>
>let it out into the wild.  It was querying 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 even 
>though I had manually configured it for my local DNS. When I let the 
>sniffer pass the DNS queries through it still used Google servers to 
>handle Vizio lookups to the mothership.  Evidently the user configured 
>DNS is only for the extra applications like Netflix, Hulu, etc. while 
>the core spyware uses only Google for DNS.
>
>On 2021-12-11 22:42, Bob Toxen wrote:
>> GOOD FOR YOU to block it from spying on you and tattling!
>> 
>> Bob
>> 
>> On Sat, Dec 11, 2021 at 10:44:30AM -0800, Alex Carver via Ale wrote:
>>> I've got a two year old Vizio that has RCA L/R audio outputs on the
>back.
>>>
>>> Of course the TV does *NOT* have a built-in battery-backed RTC.  It
>wants to
>>> set its time every time you hit the power button via NTP and there's
>no
>>> manual way to set the time either.  So the firewall rewrites its NTP
>>> requests to point to my internal NTP server and blocks all other
>traffic so
>>> it can't call home like every other TV does.
>>>
>>> On 2021-12-11 02:19, Steve Litt via Ale wrote:
>>>> Jim Kinney via Ale said on Fri, 10 Dec 2021 18:22:04 -0500
>>>>
>>>>> Other days it's more like the vcr clock always
>>>>> blinking "12:00" for lack of a $0.10 rc circuit to keep the clock
>>>>> alive during a power blink.
>>>>
>>>> Speaking of for lack of, how many have noticed that oh-so-modern
>TVs
>>>> no longer have headphone jacks. You remember headphone jacks ---
>you
>>>> just patch the headphone jack to the line-in of any amplifier and
>bang,
>>>> you've got sound, and the sound is controllable by your TVs volume
>>>> control.
>>>>
>>>> But noooooo. That's just soooo *legacy*. Instead of a 30 cent
>>>> headphone jack, my Samsung TV has one of those silly "toslink"
>infrared
>>>> fiberoptics. So you have to buy a fiberoptic cable for about
>$15.00,
>>>> and then a $40 fiberoptic to line level converter, from which I can
>use
>>>> patch cords to go into my amp's line in. Because I don't have a
>$500.00
>>>> "home theater" system --- but rather have a $30.00 20 watt amp
>that's
>>>> tiny and works just great for TV sound.
>>>>
>>>> Well, after trying for days to get the toslink plus adapter to
>work, I
>>>> read that many Samsungs just don't work with those adapters. For
>lack
>>>> of a 30 cent headphone jack. Oh, and of course, the Samsung's
>built-in
>>>> speakers are guaranteed to be indecipherable, with various
>oscillations
>>>> at frequencies guaranteed to obscure speech.
>>>>
>>>> A couple weeks ago we went out and bought about the cheapest TV on
>the
>>>> market. Picture's not all that great but it had what we really
>wanted,
>>>> a headphone jack. Now we hear great sound that we can raise and
>lower
>>>> with the TV remote. Life is good.
>>>>
>>>> SteveT
>>>>
>>>> Steve Litt
>>>> Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the
>Successful
>>>> Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques
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>>>
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-- 
Computers amplify human error
Super computers are really cool
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