Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
Over the weekend I got Pi-hole up and running (first time user), and it sure is eye-opening seeing what your devices are up to.
The screenshot that's all red, for example, is my Samsung smart TV, which is constantly talking to Netflix (and other domains, even when using my PC and not interacting with the "smart hub".) I haven't opened the Netflix app in at least two weeks.
The other one all in green (allowed for now), is my Echo Dot with Alexa. That thing is talking to Amazon constantly...
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@blindcoder Youch. I hope you don't have one of the LG models that's having Copilot installed to it...
Benjamin
@killyourfm I have an LG TV, and NEVER EVER opened the Netflix app AT ALL.
It still tried to talk to Netflix ALL THE FUCKING TIME.
Nicely, LG allowed me to uninstall the NetFlix application. It's quiet now.
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
Also, I immediately switched to the included L-CARS interface, because of course I did.
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@NigelGreenway You know, when I upgraded my router (in preparation for the NAS), I realized to my horror how many of my smart plugs and smart lights need DEDICATED APPS on my phone just to get reconnected and activated.
So yea, Home Assistant is high on my list of things to set up next. Have you had a good experience with it?
jnr in life
@killyourfm yeah, I was horrified with the requests. I've since started investing in Home Assistant and just block stuff I don't want - to the annoyance of my partner who needs to be set up on an "allow all" rule in PiHole 🫣
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@blindcoder @draeath I deeply regret not just buying a dumb TV a few years ago (if they even still exist?).
Benjamin
@draeath @killyourfm With TV companies, I always assume the worst. Never been disappointed. I mean, they literally said something along the lines of "noone expects privacy in front of their TV" when they introduced always-on microphone and cameras in those devices.
Were it up to me, that thing would stay disconnected, but my wife insisted...
draeath
@blindcoder @killyourfm it's probably something stupid too, like a cronjob to upload in-app telemetry.
But since we can't actually look at what it's doing...
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@themipper That's absolutely bananas about your Smart TV!
Question: Do you have Vivaldi already blocking tracking and ads, or do you let Pihole handle all of that?
Whatisgoingon
@killyourfm It is crazy how much they are tracking with these things.
I am running pi-hole for a couple of months now and am still baffled by the numbers.
In the last 30 days 50% of all requests (100k) are being blocked by pi-hole. 60% of the blocked requests are coming from one Smart-TV.
At the moment the TV and HDMI works but it is not able to load the ads and tracking ridden main menu.
In comparison my main desktop with linux, vivaldi and ublock origin had 89 requests blocked.
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@chronovore I appreciate the advice! That makes a lot of sense.
I'm actually running my instance on my NAS (TrueNAS) with the OS installed to an NVMe drive.
chronophage
@killyourfm Hey! I too set up a pi-hole recently. Also seeing the netflix shenanigans and it's mind bending, 10K requests blocked and the next highest was around 200.
But more importantly wanted to share some advice someone gave me - when you get a moment to find an alternative storage media for the OS, since the SD card can get fried relatively quickly with all the R/W operations.
jnr in life
@killyourfm I did, and since then I've needed to move from MVP setup to setting up my home lab up properly as it's been left for a few months and I've unplugged my HA voice device.
When I used it, I loved it. Felt free and like I actually owned my own house devices 😅
Best part for me, being able to control the lights without an internet connection 🥰. Local first is just perfect for me!
My task next month is to get it all sorted - and cost up my network set up moving forward.
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@NigelGreenway Forgive the complete noob question here, but: in order to control the smart devices with home assistant (especially locally without internet -- love that), does that limit the types of devices I can use? Will anything I'm using with Alexa be compatible?
If that's way too broad a question and you don't feel like answering it, no worries :)
stigatle
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@malwareminigun Yea. Getting Home Assistant set up is HIGH on my list now.
Billy O'Neal
@killyourfm That's fair. It's one of the reasons I don't have those 👍
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@malwareminigun @catsalad Fair. But for me, I guess SEEING IT visualized like this drives home how awful it is.
Billy O'Neal
@killyourfm @catsalad I'm.... not sure what one was expecting an Echo device to do other than talk to Amazon constantly?
draeath
@killyourfm that UI is just... Chef's Kiss.
Did you set up unbound with it? Check that out on the pihole wiki if you didn't. It's easy to do and further removes you from potential fuckery.
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@draeath No, Unbound is new to me. I'll add it to my research notes, thanks!
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
Suffice to say, it's time to ditch Alexa and bump Home Assistant a little higher on the priority tree of things to get set up.
Bonus points if I can "dumb-ify" my Samsung TV.
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@himmelssohn Well, my current level of home automation is only lights and smart plugs right now (I'm renting too). More of a convenience factor than anything else.
I like having things all wired up for certain routines (outside lights going on at sunset/off at sunrise, changing to soft blue lights and dimming things in the evening, having my old-school component stereo system on a smart plug to make sure they're off at night, etc).
Himmelssohn
@killyourfm
I keep on hearing about home automation a lot. Please help me understand why that's a useful thing. I live in a rented apartment, so I wouldn't come to upgrade any hardware in my home.
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@bezet234 @himmelssohn Well now I'm twice as excited...
bazzete
@himmelssohn @killyourfm
Home assistant is more like your central brain for your home and not only about automation. You can implement all your smart devices into it, sure you can have smart light switches or bulbs or whatever but you can also control media play on speakers or TV, display your calendar, implement local voice assistants (also cloud based of course) and a lot more. If you like tinkering, your imagination is basically the limit and all can be achieved locally/privacy respecting.
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