Hosts: Breaks Hulu app on smart TV

[thedannywahl]

The adblock list creates an odd, breaking behavior on the Hulu app on my smart TV.

The app functions perfectly when watching an episode of TV, however, when the episode ends and another episode auto-plays, or is selected manually, an immediate "playback error occurred" alert is displayed with "OK" and "retry" Retry continually fails. Selecting "OK" and then navigating to any other video in the Hulu library results in the same error.

The only way to resolve the error is to exit the app on the TV and relaunch. The issue reappears after watching an episode of anything. The issue also occurs if you exit an episode before it ends and try to resume or play another episode.

The issue does not occur when the list is removed from the router. The issue does not occur if an alternate list is used without ad blocking.

I've tried to capture some of the traffic and so far all I can find is multicast search requests 239.255.255.250:1900 and requests that terminate at Akamai 23.222.28.99:443

This issue does not occur using hulu on a mobile phone or laptop on the same network.

I have the ad-free hulu subscription as well.

• Vizio E60-C3 v2.1.180.0180
• Yahoo TV v1.7.35.2
• App Container 1.7.221.26
• HuluHtml5Launcher 3.0

[welcome[bot]]

Hello! Thank you for opening your first issue in this repo. It’s people like you who make these host files better!

[thedannywahl]

I forgot to mention I've also tried commenting out all lines with "Hulu" or "Akamai" in them in the hosts file to no avail.
sed -i 's/.*hulu.*/# Removed Hulu/' /tmp/hosts
sed -i 's/.*akamai.*/# Removed Akamai/' /tmp/hosts

[dnmTX]

@thedannywahl i see you're on Linux system.If you have dnsmasq installed i can walk you trough how to start logging dns requests so you can catch exactly which blocked domain is at fault here. Without that information your guess is everyone's guess.

[thedannywahl]

@dnmTX yes, I'm running a basic linux w/ busybox which has dnsmasq on the router. I also have various other clients which could be used.

If you give me the instructions, I'll start logging :)

[dnmTX]

@thedannywahl great. Ok,as i'm not sure which firmware you using on your router i'll give you the basics and i'm pretty sure that you are smart enough to figure out the rest.
First you need to find out which directory is the volatile one(resides in the memory) as the log file you're about to create will fill up fast.Usually is the /tmp.
Next you need to locate the dnsmasq.conf file and add few options there but make sure that after restarting dnsmasq those options will remain there,so if your router's GUI has field for additional dnsmasq options you do it from there.
Once you're done with the above add to dnsmasq.conf:
log-queries
log-facility=/tmp/dnsmasq.log
log-async
save and restart dnsmasq(very important),every firmware is different so find out which command on yours restarts services.
Next,open shell and execute tail -f /tmp/dnsmasq.log and if you've done all of the above properly you'll start seeing every incoming and outgoing dns request also the blocked once.
You can start reproducing your issue and it will show you exactly which blocked domain is at fault.
After you finish your troubleshooting remember to remove the mentioned options above from dnsmasq.conf and delete the log file as well.
See,it's simple as that,good luck and if any problems please ask,i'll do my best to help 👍

[thedannywahl]

dnsmasq.log

log file is attached, filtered to only the TV's traffic.

the hits are:

geo.yahoo.com
b.scorecardresearch.com
secure-us.imrworldwide.com

The last one, secure-us.imrworldwide.com appears to be the culprit - as it's second entry in the log is the result of me pressing "retry" on the button on hulu.

[thedannywahl]

secure-au.imrworldwide.com is whitelisted, no other country alternates are, however. I haven't had a chance to run git blame for the US entry or the AU entry, but the AU entry is recommended for whitelisting here:
https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/issues/174#issue-176266851

[thedannywahl]

after commenting out the referenced line and restarting dnsmasq, the issue is resolved.

[dnmTX]

@thedannywahl i'm glad that you got it done. Next step is to report it to the curator of that lists.
You need to write him email [email protected] as he doesn't have repo here.You can also reference our conversation here in the email.
About geo.yahoo.com and b.scorecardresearch.com,don't worry about them,they're known offenders and they won't break anything by being blocked.Also the comment(#174) that you referenced above,don't worry about that either as most of it is bull.
Enjoy your HULU TV 📺 🎈 🎈 🎈 👍

P.S. Just FYI(based on your log file),your current dnsmasq version is 2.75.You really need to check if there is firmware update for your router as the version you using it's not safe,many security vulnerabilities were patched,so it's recommended to use at least 2.78 or above.

[thedannywahl]

I have notified the author of the issue, thanks for your help.

Regarding the FW, I will look into it, but the router's 10 years old so it's doubtful. But I double check that I've locked it down to the best of my ability.

[StevenBlack]

Thanks everybody.

Closing.

[thedannywahl]

This site was whitelisted upstream by the author.