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Not a networking guy here, and this is nowhere near all you're asking for, but here's a classic GUI-controlled router setup which allowed me to totally block my son's internet access when needed. Sounds like your TV needs that too:

* Router was a Linksys WRT54GL [1] re-flashed with Tomato [2] firmware

IIRC it took two steps to stabilize things:

* One of the menu options [sorry, don't recall which one] allows watching the MAC and IP addresses of connected devices in real time as they come and go. You can somehow assign names to devices in this list to help sort them out. Unhook or power off off everything else or use the OUI lookup or somehow otherwise identify the TV. Click on 'static' so as to force Tomato's DHCP service to make the current IP address fixed for the TV's MAC.

* Now that the TV has a static IP on your LAN, you can use Tomato's 'Access Restriction' on that IP to disallow all outside access. Works as well for restricting one's kids' access to reasonable time ranges -- and cutting them off when necessary ;).

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[1] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124...

[2] http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato




And unfortunately totally doesn't work for a "Smart TV" where you want the TV to be able to browse YouTube but you don't want it to send the names of your local files to anybody.

We need much more capable filtering.

It seems that because of these immoral corporations (hm, aren't they by definition that way?) we as users have to implement the "Great firewall of China" for our own networks. Bad times.

And as Terr_ notes on this page, we should actually fight for the legal mechanisms to forbid such practices and punish the companies who invade our privacy.


The UK (where these TVs are being sold), much like the rest of the EU, does have legal mechanisms to forbid such practices and punish infringers, under the Data Protection Act 1998 [1]. The fact that LG still sold these TVs in the UK shows that legal mechanisms are not sufficient.

Sure, one can argue that this particular mechanism is not sufficient, while others would be, but we often don't know that until the deed is done.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Act_1998




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