Round 3: What Really Happens On Your Network?

postmaster · July 6, 2017, 7:52pm

Originally published at: https://pi-hole.net/2017/07/06/round-3-what-really-happens-on-your-network/

Here we are again

Using Pi-hole, users have discovered unexpected, strange, or disturbing things happening on their network. In fact, so many things have been discovered (and discussed publicly), that this is our third time posting a list of things people have found happening on their networks.

Preface

This post--and it's predecessors--are meant to be educational in nature; you may not know what is happening on your network, but Pi-hole can provide some insight.

Pi-hole is an ad blocker, but since it works on the DNS level, it can double as a network monitoring tool. There are several apps specifically designed to view network traffic; using Pi-hole for this purpose just provides a high level overview such as which client queried which domain.

Onto The Examples

Smart TVs And Other Devices Gone Wild

This isn't the first time we've seen Smart TVs querying domains, "calling home", or even spying on you, but it is interesting because most of the time you would not see this sort of behavior since these devices often don't let you adjust the DNS settings.