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Love being interrupted when my monitor asks me to accept user agreements

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373 points h2odragon | 1 comments | 19 Oct 24 17:27 UTC | HN request time: 0.2s | source
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HPsquared ◴[19 Oct 24 18:23 UTC] No.41889560[source]▶
Is this a side effect of allowing monitors to use USB-C? Is there some driver via WHQL that allows the monitor to connect to the internet???

This seems to me like a potential security issue.

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johnnyo ◴[19 Oct 24 18:32 UTC] No.41889631[source]▶
That was my question as well. What is the user benefit of the monitor having a network connection?
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secondcoming ◴[19 Oct 24 18:46 UTC] No.41889730[source]▶
I use my monitor's network connection so devices connected to it via thunderbolt also have ethernet.
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crazygringo ◴[19 Oct 24 19:32 UTC] No.41890099[source]▶
I've never heard of this. What specific devices, if you don't mind me asking?

I had no idea a Thunderbolt hub could serve as a parallel Ethernet hub, nor that there were devices that could or would want to take advantage of this.

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1. jasomill ◴[20 Oct 24 08:42 UTC] No.41893949[source]▶
AFAIK, while there is a standard for Ethernet-over-Thunderbolt, typical Thunderbolt docking stations simply expose the underlying Ethernet controller as a PCIe device, typically using a chipset with drivers that are widely available if not preinstalled on all major OSes.

In other words, they not hubs (or switches) in the Ethernet sense, just a different physical connection to an otherwise ordinary PCIe NIC.

I imagine non-Thunderbolt USB docks are similar, presenting as a USB hub with a garden-variety USB Ethernet controller attached to one of its ports.

With that said, I imagine a "smart monitor" with integrated dock would additionally include Ethernet switch-like functionality, to enable sharing of a single physical Ethernet port (or wireless connection) between the connected host and the smart TV subsystem, just as some servers allow sharing of a single Ethernet port between the installed OS and an onboard BMC.