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.
Pihole blocks the basics for Roku. Things like logs ads etc. but there’s a lot more telemetry that they’re collecting. Here’s a hackernews thread about the topic and the associated article it references.
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.
Is this to block ads?
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.
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.
Pihole blocks the basics for Roku. Things like logs ads etc. but there’s a lot more telemetry that they’re collecting. Here’s a hackernews thread about the topic and the associated article it references.
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.
I doubt it but could this help my tv randomly crashing
It’s genuinely so annoying and is such a 2023 problem
Tv crashing? Add an external device and don’t use TVs for their smart features as they tend to be pretty bad.
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.
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.