Blocked that hard-coded google dns garbage.

    • @AdventuringAardvark@lemmy.oneOP
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      231 year ago

      No, you can block ads with a pihole. This is because Roku hard codes its dns server as 8.8.8.8. Pihole doesn’t handle IP addresses, only DNS.

      • Illiterate Domine
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        101 year ago

        Interesting. I set an adblocking dns via DHCP and, as far as I know, the Roku respects it. Ads are blocked and I can see it failing to delivery telemetry in my dns logs (most persistent thing on the network).

        I set a rule to catch outside dns to see if anything, the roku included, has been misbehaving.

          • Spaz
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            81 year ago

            Tv crashing? Add an external device and don’t use TVs for their smart features as they tend to be pretty bad.

            • @jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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              31 year ago

              Some days I miss my old LG Plasma. Sold the house and left it bolted to the wall. 1080P, deep blacks, crisp colors, and zero “smart” features.

              It put off enough heat to warm up the living room but that was only a “bug” in the summer months. Simpler times.

        • Illiterate Domine
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          31 year ago

          Well, I’m back and can confirm the sneaky DNS resolver. I have two roku devices and they both were making requests to 8.8.8.8.

          Thanks for this post! TIL.

    • @StrawberryPigtails
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      101 year ago

      Not familiar with Rokus, but it depends on what your filtering. Mostly it’s to block needless analytics tracking. I use a pair of PiHoles for much the same purpose.

    • @normonator@lemmy.ml
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      01 year ago

      One reason used to be to switch to a different region for Netflix, etc but I’m not sure if that still works, I haven’t had to use a Roku in a long time.

        • @normonator@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Using the firewall to force dns because the services were stupid enough to rely on dns to determine location. You would use a (usually paid) dns service hosted out of the wherever the content you want was and get access to region locked stuff like the US netflix library from abroad. This worked because vpns were being detected and rokus dns was hard coded so assumed to be trusted.

          I don’t know if this still works because I no longer own anything Roku and Netflix’s service hasn’t been worth that kind of shenanigans for a long time. It likely doesn’t work anymore.

          Edit: Unblock-US used to be such a service