5 ms·
How would the TV phone home if it's not connected to the internet?
by jzymbaluk 5y ago
How would the TV phone home if it's not connected to the internet?
- rubidium 5y ago"doing active scans for any unsecured wifi network in range"
- 10000truths 5y agoThis doesn’t seem like a practical thing for manufacturers to implement. How common are such networks in actuality? Literally the only time I ever encountered unsecured Wi-Fi networks in the past several years were guest networks, and all of those were gated by a capture portal that would have blocked any sort of attempt at telemetry or ad serving.
- monocasa 5y agoA deal with comcast and their ubiquitous pseudo public hotspots would simplify that.
- Firehawke 5y agoxfinitywifi, the comparable similar functionality from CenturyLink, etc, or if you happen to live just a bit too close to a McDonalds or other business that has open WiFi. And of course the possibility of one of your neighbors screwing up his WiFi setup. There are a lot of ways this can (and has) gone horribly wrong for privacy.
- jeffbee 5y agoI doubt any TV does this but if I needed to implement it I would just do it the same way that I use wifi in hotels that have captive portals without paying for it: tunnel IP over DNS.
- kazinator 5y ago> doesn’t seem like a practical thing for manufacturers to implement. In terms of what, lines of code? Engineer days?
- Avshalom 5y agoPretty common. https://finder.wifi.xfinity.com/ https://finder.wifi.xfinity.com/
- myrandomcomment 5y agoXfinity requires login. It is not open.
- beagle3 5y agoAmazon had (perhaps still has) whispernet - a global coverage of cellular networks. It was used to download books to your kindle, essentially anywhere in the world, without having to have a local plan or WiFi. It was 2G iirc, enough for book download. Uploading a perceptive hash of what you are watching - e.g. a frame every few seconds - also fits on 2G speeds.
- bogwog 5y agoAlso maybe I'm mistaken, but don't most modern cars have a built in modem for sending telemetry to the manufacturer as well?
- hellojesus 5y agoYes. Toyota seems to like putting the transceiver behind the glove box, forcing you to introduce a bundle of rattles to your newly purchased vehicle to remove. Also, I'm pretty sure removing it disables some of the front speakers, requiring manual wire connecting to get them back. You could maybe leave the device in there but encase it in a Faraday cage, but still rattles are introduced. Ford, iirc, places it on the floor under or behind some seats making it much easier to deal with. I think MA just passed a law about not allowing vehicles sold there to sell your telemetry data or something.
- vineyardmike 5y ago> I think MA just passed a law about not allowing vehicles sold there to sell your telemetry data or something. i believe they just have to share the data with others, which they don't want to do.
- scoopertrooper 5y agoWhispernet is dead from what I understand. As countries began shutting down 3G networks, Amazon was no long able to get connectivity at a price point where it was economically feasible.
- 5y ago
- _-david-_ 5y agoMight have 4g or 5g chips in them. I'm sure they could get a good deal on data if they put it in millions of TVs.
- kazinator 5y agoLike the parent comment says: scan for some open Wi-Fi in range and connect. If that provides Internet access, it's good to go.