WD TV Live and its disturbing traffic while supposedly off

Hi,

I’m myself a big fan of WD TV products, having myself 4 different models (ranging from the WD TV Plus to the WD TV Play).

However, it is the 3rd gen WD TV Live which concerns me. I’ve found that this this device not only keeps associated with the WiFi router after powered off, but also:

* Announces itself on UPnP;

* And the most disturbing, keeps phoning www.cinemanow.com and www.wdtvlive.com. While supposedly off.

Heck, this device is supposed to be turned off; why is it doing stuff on my back?

The 2nd Gen WD TV Live doesn’t show this behavior: It is effectively shut down when it is powered off.

I’m not comfortable with this behavior and I’ve set a iptables rule preventing this device to going to the internet. Uncool.

PLEASE FIX IT, WD.

Evidences:

[root@rasp-rodhome ~]# tcpdump -nnti eth0 host 172.16.9.244
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes
IP 172.16.9.244.56449 > 192.168.1.1.53: 60718+ A? www.cinemanow.com. (35)
ARP, Request who-has 172.16.9.3 tell 172.16.9.244, length 46
ARP, Reply 172.16.9.3 is-at b8:27:eb:6b:25:61, length 28
IP 172.16.9.244.56449 > 192.168.1.1.53: 60718+ A? www.cinemanow.com. (35)
IP 172.16.9.244.50263 > 192.168.1.1.53: 56832+ A? www.cinemanow.com. (35)
IP 172.16.9.244.41333 > 192.168.1.1.53: 49610+ A? www.wdtvlive.com. (34)
IP 172.16.9.244.50263 > 192.168.1.1.53: 56832+ A? www.cinemanow.com. (35)
IP 172.16.9.244.41333 > 192.168.1.1.53: 49610+ A? www.wdtvlive.com. (34)
IP 172.16.9.244.42971 > 192.168.1.1.53: 23732+ A? www.wdtvlive.com. (34)
IP 172.16.9.244.42971 > 192.168.1.1.53: 23732+ A? www.wdtvlive.com. (34)
IP 172.16.9.244.52901 > 192.168.1.1.53: 56298+ A? www.cinemanow.com. (35)
ARP, Request who-has 172.16.9.3 tell 172.16.9.244, length 46
ARP, Reply 172.16.9.3 is-at b8:27:eb:6b:25:61, length 28IP 172.16.9.244.1900 > 239.255.255.250.1900: UDP, length 280IP 172.16.9.244.1900 > 239.255.255.250.1900: UDP, length 327IP 172.16.9.244.1900 > 239.255.255.250.1900: UDP, length 325IP 172.16.9.244.1900 > 239.255.255.250.1900: UDP, length 271IP 172.16.9.244.1900 > 239.255.255.250.1900: UDP, length 337IP 172.16.9.244.1900 > 239.255.255.250.1900: UDP, length 335

Unless you are pressing the Power button on the remote for longer than 5 seconds the unit only is going into standby mode.  The network interface stays alive to perform updates, media scans, etc.

1 Like

FINE!

That worked.

Are you aware of any config flag that make full power-off the default action?

Thanks a lot.

rfreire1978 wrote:

FINE!

 

That worked.

 

Are you aware of any config flag that make full power-off the default action?

 

Thanks a lot.

No, you can’t change the power button behavior, but you can set an idle-time power-down in the settings such that it’ll shut itself off completely after a period of unuse.

By the way, this behavior is documented in the user manual, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise… :wink: