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this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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Works with both vendors if looking into Pi-hole‘s logs and once they should really hardcode the DNS or similar stuff here, the connection will be disabled (which is the best way to deal with this anyway apart from updating firmware if you use an external box).
Once they try to reach IPs directly (ECOVACS once did so) you may block those on a firewall-basis but everything depends on your needs, will and setup of course.
if pihole says its blocked, that does not mean your device does not also query another DNS server
but how'll you notice that? that ads return? different subsystems of the tv might work differently
and how do you know what IPs to block? and then, a server on an IP could hold multiple services such that blocking it breaks multiple things.
I'm not here to tease you, but I really think that this might not be enough even today
Well, there is some work to do with identifying the device in your network (which shouldn’t be the problem) and monitor the connections over a specific time. When (as happened with ECOVACS) a single device frequently connects to DNS and HTTPS reaching a single IP belonging to this vendor, this is regulated quite easily with a proper firewall. Without the insights, this is (like you wrote) difficult to accomplish and yes, there may be false positives. Also separating those devices within an own VLAN could be part of a (individual) scenario.
Samsung mostly talks to specific hosts, LG does as well and searching for firmware triggers different targets. These are easy to find if you know what you‘re doing but this depends on setup and knowledge. It‘s a hare-and-tortoise-race though.
The safest way would be disabling the WiFi or LAN-connection if you don“t need any of the services shipped with the devices but while this may work for TVs, it may make your Vacuum Cleaner useless as the specific app for that device won‘t work anymore.