1y ago

The spam came from inside the house: How a smart TV can choke a Windows PC

The curious case of a living room screen making Windows' Settings app disappear.

7 comments

Never connect a smart TV to the internet. Always buy them from a store with a good return policy. If it doesn't work without an internet connection, then return it.
- I've had the same early smart TV for about ten years now. The greatest thing that happened to it was the WiFi dying. I suspect I wouldn't have it anymore if that weren't the case.
  It's a 42" Samsung if anyone is curious, and the WiFi just... Stopped working.
  
  I don't think I would ever buy a Samsung TV knowing what I do about them now. Not sure I would ever buy a smart TV at all.
Culprit 1: Stupid TV that has no business connecting to the internet, but if it must, definitely not like that.
Culprit 2: Windows' behaving stupidly where so many things break because of how it handles other devices on the network.
If you need to use the Smart TV, setup a vlan on your network, or connect the tv to the guest wifi.
Disable uPNP in Windows! And in your router

7 comments