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Posted by
Bongo
Quote:
Posted by
Aragorn
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Posted by
ExomatrixTV
~WTF? ... my big Samsung LCD TV screen updates software in "standby mode" to the internet and I did NOT gave it permission NOR a password!
Just saw by "accident" a dim message on my tuned off 32inch LCD-TV a moving bar with 100% "software updating complete" ... how is that possible? Weird!
Normally I pull the 220volt plug every-time when I am finished watching TV, today I forgot!
Samsung's new TVs run an operating system based upon a Linux kernel - presumably it's a version of Android specifically for TVs. This software, like all other software, contains bugs and possible security leaks. The operating system is therefore set up to regularly check for updates and bugfixes, and to download those automatically if applicable and available.
I agree that the fact that this happens in the background and without the user's consent would cause an alarm to go off in most user's minds, but I'm sure that if you read the manual - which may have been printed on dead trees or supplied with the TV on a CD-/DVD-ROM - it will explain this mechanism of self-updating.
Of course, one has to actually
read the manual, and most people don't even bother with that anymore these days. ;-)
If you don't trust the software, then at least have some faith in the millions of Free & Open Source Software developers out there, because the operating system running on those TVs is indeed Free & Open Source Software, so the source code is visible and open to scrutiny. That is how the bugs get spotted
and fixed so rapidly - as opposed to in proprietary platforms like Microsoft Windows or Apple OS X.
Actually that doesn't explain how the tv was able to connect to the internet without having access to an internet connection, unless you are saying that the tv has a direct 24/7 connection to where it gets its updates from which is very unlikely.
Only the original poster knows whether his television set is connected to the Internet or not. Many modern TVs - i.e. so-called
smart TVs - have provisions for connecting to either a cable modem or (A)DSL connection directly via a UTP cable and possibly a switch, or to do this via a WiFi LAN connection.
It doesn't need "a 24/7 connection to where it gets its updates from", because that's not how computer network traffic works. Smart TVs running under a Linux-based operating system - whether it's GNU/Linux or an Android variant - can run a so-called cron daemon, which is a scheduler process. This cron daemon can schedule all kinds of events, and one of those may very well be - this is actually even most likely the case - a program which contacts a firmware repository at Samsung's website for updates, and if present, downloads and installs those.
I myself don't own a smart TV, but I do have a digital television decoder with a built-in hard disk recorder which I am renting from the cable TV company, and this device works the same way. It is connected to the TV network via a standard coaxial cable, and to my cable modem via a UTP cable. Well, there are two power line network adapters in between because my cable modem sits here in my computer room and the device sits in the living room at the other end of my apartment. It probably also runs a GNU/Linux system underneath, but the actual TV programming logic et al is written in Java. There is however one difference, i.e. it doesn't periodically check for updates, but rather the cable TV company itself is pushing the updates. So there is a process within the device which listens on a certain network port for a signal to download updates, and as such, the cable TV company can tell the device to download updates when they are available. After downloading those updates, the device typically needs a reboot - often it will do this itself, but sometimes the user has to do this. The device also sits on an isolated subnet from the cable TV provider, because they are also my Internet Service Provider, and so the subnet and IP address of the device must be distinct from a regular Internet connection. This device is proprietary to my cable TV provider and as such, a bit different in methodology from a consumer-grade device such as a smart TV which is available to every customer regardless of who their TV and Internet providers are.
The updates are usually scheduled late at night - around 04:00 - and if you happen to be recording or watching a movie or other program when the update comes in, you're screwed, of course. Well, in my case it doesn't really matter anymore because the device has gone belly up, and it's not the first time this happens. They have a very short lifetime due to the poor quality of the components, and in the case of my device, it was the hard disk that broke down - note: I am talking of the digital decoders supplied by my cable TV provider, not of Samsung smart TVs. Therefore I haven't been watching TV anymore in, oh, well over a year already.
