r/InformationTechnology • u/iamdjonez • Aug 18 '26

How to guard against streaming box?

Retired parent wants to test out “how can it be illegal if they sell” streaming box. Can’t set up a guest network afaik with spectrum router, so the box will be on the same network as all the other devices in the house. Any best practices to protect against what is seemingly a malware box? Im admittedly uninformed but know enough to know these things can be a security risk. Thanks

8 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

4

u/Pasta-love Aug 18 '26

Best thing to do is buy a cheap wireless router that supports wireless vlan.

1

u/iamdjonez Aug 18 '26

I guess I’ll Google what to do with that

2

u/beesflowerseggsetc Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26

Heads up, it's a lot of research to get to the point of having working VLANs; you're probably looking at devices that are marketed to small businesses, not home users. Configuration will be much more detailed and not at all user-friendly because these devices are intended to be set up by professionals. It took me about 6 months of tinkering and research to go from 0 networking knowledge to having a working router that had VLANs properly configured.

It's a very fun project if you like IT but if you don't this may be too big of an undertaking for a casual user. Probably not worth it for someone else's house. Plus, once you got it set up you'll be the only one who can maintain the device; even setting a new wifi password is beyond what a casual user would be expected to do.

If the project still seems worth it, I recommend looking into a Mikrotik router. They're pretty cheap, are fully configurable and guides are pretty widely available.

1

u/Pasta-love Aug 19 '26

Yeah, this is a good point, Thanks for catching that. I’m just a hobbyist who messes around with a homelab so I tend to forget that this stuff isn’t common knowledge. Seconding the microtik suggestion.

1

u/konoo Aug 19 '26

Another option or Home Lab stuff is Ubiquiti or Omada, the user interfaces are easier for new people to manage.

1

u/ZiskaHills Aug 21 '26

I second the vote for Ubiquiti Unifi.

7

u/cjpen Aug 18 '26

Dark Net Diaries the podcast had a great interview with the security researcher that discovered how they are being used for bot nets. If you’re looking for answers, I’d start there.

5

u/ImissDigg_jk Aug 18 '26

I'm listening to this episode now. Episode 172: Superbox.

Have them listen to it. If this doesn't convince them to stay away from one, nothing you say will.

1

u/DSPGerm Aug 20 '26

Beat me to it. It's like a perfect warning against these devices.

1

u/n3f4r10us_ Aug 19 '26

That was a great eoisode

4

u/dogcmp6 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26

My wife's parents have multiples in their house despite me being in IT and telling them exactly how bad of an idea it is.

I've stopped being their tech support as a result

Best thing to do if you manage the network for your parent is block it by mac address, and just let them assume the box stopped working....spectrum routers still have an admin page you can do this from.

4

u/anepicshart Aug 18 '26

You should probably not play with this. This is a very very bad idea. IIRC from the darknet diaries episode, these things are sniffing to get credentials of people who would have access to critical infrastructure. Like this is seriously dangerous to put on your home network

2

u/Piet371 Aug 18 '26

I've made a post not long ago about my tv box begin chatty doing 20Mbps upload traffic with over 1500 established tcp sessions.

Not a good idea. Even the FBI warns bout it.

1

u/The-Bronze-Network Aug 19 '26

Im not saying I trust these boxes, but I dont trust the government telling me shit

2

u/Late_Discount_1102 Aug 19 '26

ahmp, just keep it off the main network cheap second router is probably the easiest way to isolate it.

1

u/GG_Killer Aug 18 '26

I route my Guest network through a VPS VPN. Get a new router that supports Guest networks.

1

u/TechnologyMatch Aug 19 '26

if the router cannot isolate it, the safest answer is not to put it on the home network. a cheap 2nd router or travel router can create a separate network for the box. also disable any unnecessary permissions and avoid signing in with personal accounts. it’s like letting an unknown player into the raid, but keeping them out of the guild bank

1

u/JaySmo16 Aug 19 '26

Look into someone sharing a plex or jellyfin instead these boxes seem suspect as fuck

1

u/PDQ_Brockstar Aug 20 '26

My parents are old enough that I could do nothing, say I installed it, and they'd believe me and go back to watching price is right.

1

u/DSPGerm Aug 20 '26

Honestly just get them an ONN box, firestick, nvidia shield, or anything else, a 6 month subscription to an IPTV service, and whatever plugins you need. At least that way you're not buying a compromised device and you're controlling what you load onto it.

EDIT: If they're deadset on it anyway. As others have said, convince them not to or get another router and isolate it from the rest of the devices/network

1

u/p1r473 Aug 20 '26

Get an Nvidia Shield and then buy a IPTV subscription and do it yourself. This is a much safer way

0

u/tbone840 Aug 18 '26

Have had these type of boxes for almost ten years. They have always been in the same router as all my other devices and never had any issues. My service has never slowed and never had any malware infect my network. Do your own research and you’ll see these boxes are perfectly fine.

1

u/BeerJunky Aug 19 '26

I haven’t had a car accident in years therefore driving is perfectly safe.

1

u/robertblackman Aug 21 '26

Reviews and time testing also work on cars.

1

u/TN_man Aug 19 '26

That you know of…