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by swiper_lux 1484 days ago
Can't you just block it at your router?
4 comments

Below the main post:

"since this got boosted if anyone happens to know about service manuals for appliances, lmk. i’m textin a buddy about this and now we just wanna kill it instead my backup plan (forever dhcp lease + block IP from pf.conf). even the manuals i can find online from samsung don’t mention the smart features, it seems to be more of a “don’t burn down your house idiot” thing "

It seems their plan was to block it at a network level if they couldn't do this.

Changing router means you have to re-block. Plus nothing better (more reassuring) than an actual air-gap from the internet.
After I cut over to a new wifi router I left my old one partially configured with no internet connection and mirroring everything to one of the LAN ports that goes to an un-numbered (no IP address, no IP egress) port on my main server where I can maniacally sniff their futile unrequited traffic at my leisure.

The idea is to some day make a per-gadget catalog of all the hostnames and addresses these things want to reach, but hopefully someone beat me to it already and you folks can let me know where to find it.

Or don't enter your wifi credentials to start with?
Might work on this model but more and more appliances refuse to work at all until they’re connected to WiFi. Additionally, “Amazon Sidewalk” allows appliances to connect to your neighbors Wi-Fi automatically if your own isn’t working for it.
According to Samsung's site, assuming this is the same model of fridge (Family Hub Refrigerator?), it is technically possible to skip the WiFi setup, but some people are pointing out there are rumors that it will try to connect to open wifi to still phone home to samsung.