After a brief moment of hope for Slingbox salvation, the DIY crowd is outraged as Dish has tampered with Slingbox firmware in such a way that stymies a community replacement server/software solution. But… we can’t say they didn’t warn us. From Sling’s EOL notice, originally published two years ago, an update two months ago reminds us:
Slingbox servers will be permanently taken offline November 9, 2022, at which point ALL Slingbox devices and services will become inoperable.
While many assume malicious intent, I do wonder if this could be an unintended consequence of Dish attempting to optimize their networks.
I can imagine a scenario where DISH doesn't want Slingboxes, that they thought were dead, hitting their servers until the end of time. (Keeping in mind that Dish Hopper w Sling and AirTV use similar endpoints.)
— Dave Zatz (@davezatz) November 11, 2022
In any event, the end result of otherwise functional hardware being bricked is the same… for, at least, certain models of Slingbox. While some are shouting for the predictable, requisite class action lawsuit, I’m wondering if sufficient negative press attention could lead to positive developments. Time will tell.
Appreciate your covering this, Dave. As one of the many who expected to be able to continue using my Slingbox thanks to Gerry Dazoo’s workaround, I think it’s outrageous that Dish would intentionally kill our hardware, even if it means our devices would continue to ping their servers until they die a natural death. Here’s hoping that either terrible publicity will cause Dish to relent or that the many brains working on this latest situation will come up with a solution.
As of this moment, My SlingBox M2 is still working with my local Slinger server. Not sure if this will change. Perhaps I can set a firewall rule that prevents any contact with sling servers to prevent being bricked in the future.
I have set a firewall filter blocking any outbound traffic to any site that contains “sling” in the server name. It effectively blocks any outgoing traffic from my network to *sling*.com. I’ve tested it. We’ll see what happens.
I’d try to block all outbound/inbound Internet traffic from the Slingbox vs destinations we may not know (including IP address versus domain name).
Yep. Thanks. I’ve blocked all TCP and UDP traffic between the SlingBox and ALL intrernet IP’s.
I got the admin pw for my two remaining boxes (not the STACK of legacy boxes, catchers, etc)… but I wasn’t able to setup any alternative prior to 11/9/22..
I heard the box in the BR activate in the middle of the night. Is it safe to assume they have been bricked and no work around (even with the adminPW) can be done?
Also, for these various work arounds, was there any way for a mobile slingplayer app/device to still work or was it only going to be some browser access at best?
I really only used my SB’s in the past few years for moving content around the LAN, and not too much WAN slinging (other than international travel which was very limited). Being able to sling in the LAN to an ipad something that was also playing on a device in the home was a great use case for me at least
As to whether the box was bricked or not depends. Seems like older boxes like my M2 were not initially affected. They may still be OK. YMMV. Since I firewalled the M2 Slingbox so it can’t Phone home it still works fine with Slinger.
The Slingplayer apps and Slingplayer for Web are toast in either case since they required connectivity to Sling servers which are now gone. I’m now using VLC media player on Windows, and the Android version on my phone to play streams using the Slinger server app (in my case on Windows, not Linux). If you have your SB passwords, all you can do is try Slinger and see if it works.