Blocking future LG TV updates.

forgotmyname

My LG TV has done it again, its been popping up the update button for a few days and someone accidently clicked yes to update.

For the 2nd time its messing with my Media playback whether from the NAS box or Prime Video.  Watch a show and its fine but when
the show ends it constantly buffers or says an error occured.  This happened with a previous update so we usually delay the update
until everyone says its good. We have to close the app or even goto TV mode and back again to fix it.

First thoughts were the Pi-Hole but we have a company provided router which is locked, passwords have been changed so no tinkering.
Is it possible to use a Pi as a firewall for the TV only? Annoyingly the router assigns random IPs when devices are powered off.

We game on several PCs at the same time and we don't want the Pi adding any lag to those.

Any options?   Thanks.

Neil_Jones

well if there's an option for "automatic update", turn it off

The IP address changing thing can be fixed by specifying fixed addresses on your devices.

forgotmyname

Auto updates cannot be disabled you can just select not now when switching it on but its easy to accidently
press the allow update button.  Fairly sure there was an option originally to disable auto updates?

Don't think there is an option to change the IP on the TV?  Thats just an annoyance though, powercut when we
are out and the router decides to assign different IPs to everything.  Sorted that with another UPS.

Just had a thought (and yep it hurts a little).       If a Pi cannot be used could a 2nd router be used?
TV is currently connected with WiFi not a network cable.

Thanks.

tacpot12

You might find that the Update process uses a specific protocol (some variation on FTP?) that can be blocked using the firewall features of your router, or using a cheap firewall device off eBay.

[Deleted User]

forgotmyname said:

My LG TV has done it again, its been popping up the update button for a few days and someone accidently clicked yes to update.

For the 2nd time its messing with my Media playback whether from the NAS box or Prime Video.  Watch a show and its fine but when
the show ends it constantly buffers or says an error occured.  This happened with a previous update so we usually delay the update
until everyone says its good. We have to close the app or even goto TV mode and back again to fix it.

First thoughts were the Pi-Hole but we have a company provided router which is locked, passwords have been changed so no tinkering.
Is it possible to use a Pi as a firewall for the TV only? Annoyingly the router assigns random IPs when devices are powered off.

We game on several PCs at the same time and we don't want the Pi adding any lag to those.

Any options?   Thanks.

Easy solution
The Pi is an option but for the same money and less effort I would offload your media playing from the TV itself on to a dedicated device. I've never been a fan of the inbuilt TV apps and operating systems across a wide range of TV's, they never perform as well as a dedicated device and often the apps are not as polished or up to date.

So for the price of a Pi you can get an Amazon Firestick to replace all the above functionally. If you want to push the boat out get something like an Nvidia Shield Pro that will blow your socks off for smart TV performance and range of apps, you can even run a Plex server on it to share all your media from you NAS across any device in your house.

Raspberry Pi / PiHole solution
If you want to tinker and block various urls for just the LG box then it is entirely possible but will be a bit awkward given you can't get into your router settings but you can still set up a PiHole as a DNS server and manually change the DNS server settings in the LG TV to force it to use the PiHole.

The only problem I found when using my PiHole is that some devices have a hard coded DNS fall back, typically Android devices which will revert to Google DNS when either the DHCP allocated or manually configured DNS servers fail, which will totally bypass the PiHole.

You would need to know what URL's the LG TV is calling for updates though so it will take some experimentation to set the PiHole to block them as it won't do that by default.

You could also go down the firewall option, Pfsense is probably the best and most well known but it won't run on a Raspberry so you could try IPFire instead. Wire the PI via ethernet and use the wifi as a hotspot for the TV for example. Again you would need to know what you are blocking in terms of outgoing traffic / URL's before it would be effective.

Speaking from experience it will be a lot of fun to set up either of them but will be time consuming and difficult if you are not familiar with the Linux kernel.

Another option if you want the fun of a Pi with less hassle is setting Android TV on the Raspberry PI giving you full Smart TV capabilities and media centre functions.

forgotmyname

Thanks, yes I had read that some TV's seem to bypass firewall and DNS settings sneakily using their own settings in the background.

I can stumble my way through the Linux settings but I REALLY hate doing it.  I like the TV app in one way (the wife finds it easy)

but my daughter hates the Plex app and wants Kodi back.

Silly thing is we have a PC linked to the TV already...   (Waits for tar and feathered)....  2 PCs in the same room gets a bit toasty

in the warmer weather though, another reason to try and sort the TV issue.  No good if it fails after watching a show though.

Thanks again.

prowla

If the TV uses a DNS name (rather than an IP address) to access the remote LG site, then you could configure a DNS entry which points it to an invalid address.

tacpot12

prowla said:

If the TV uses a DNS name (rather than an IP address) to access the remote LG site, then you could configure a DNS entry which points it to an invalid address.

This is a good idea, but there is also the chance the the TV will default to some hardcoded IP addresses that can't be changed if it can't contact the LG site. 

bengalknights

Is this a lg tv built in last few years?

On mine you can disable auto update in settings>system

tafelmoneysaver

forgotmyname said:

If a Pi cannot be used could a 2nd router be used?

I have this set-up in my home and would provide an option for you to manage with the restrictive ISP-provided router. You will also gain adblocking on all networked devices. 

Internet <--> ISP Router <--> 2nd Router >>> In-home Wifi

You could also use ethernet to connect the PiHole to the 2nd router. 

[Deleted User]

tafelmoneysaver said:

forgotmyname said:

If a Pi cannot be used could a 2nd router be used?

I have this set-up in my home and would provide an option for you to manage with the restrictive ISP-provided router. You will also gain adblocking on all networked devices. 

Internet <--> ISP Router <--> 2nd Router >>> In-home Wifi

You could also use ethernet to connect the PiHole to the 2nd router. 

Do you really mean you have 2 routers with both operating as routers or is the one connected to the internet in bridge mode (modem only) or the second one in AP mode? 

2x routers creates double NAT situation which isn't a great suggestion at all.