Its an old LG, but given the recent light on the lengths they’ll go to spy on us, I figured this guy was better off without any ability to even connect wirelessly. Don’t know if the Ethernet still works but I plan on keeping my TVs as dumb as possible, HDMI only.
If you’re wondering how to open lg TVs you just have to remove all the screws then start pulling open at the bottom and open the clips going up. With the TV face down on a soft surface just keep pulling on the back case from the bottom, it’ll take some effort to pop open. The top edge folds open more like a hidge than clips.
Mine is blocked at the router. It has LAN access just in case it can scan for networks and so I can control it via any APIs with home assistant is I need, but no traffic from it can leave my home network, it gets dropped at the router. It’s been that way for years, I didn’t trust TV manufacturers long before this debacle.
Good reminder for me. I’ve just added a firewall rule to drop everything outgoing from TV’s MAC address. This thing is as chatty as my Android phone which I use much more and for way more things.
They are constantly scanning for any open networks to connect to aswell, so it could offload your data without even passing through your home connection. Unfortunately, the only ways to stop it is to remove the chip or scrap the TV.
To my understanding they only do this when denied a connection flat out. As long as it has network and can send, it isn’t aware of what’s happening at the router end with the outgoing traffic. There’s simply no route to the destination address.
Plus, I live in the rurals and can confirm there are no open connections in range unless the LG C1 has a 5g chip I’m unaware of.
I think it is more of a problem for people in apartment buildings or denser housing where there would be unsecured networks and devices to jump to.
But the TV definitely knows that it can’t reach its manufacturer’s servers. Not that it can do anything about it in your case.
If it’s blocked at the router, it knows there’s no call hone connectivity.
Maybe not now, but you cant guarantee that forever.
Actually I can, because it’s locked down to my network and never receive additional updates to firmware or WebOS. If it’s not performing that behavior now, it’s because it cannot.
I also have full device administrative access via service remote.