openthread.thread.home.arpa in network , Monterey

Just updated to Monterey. open thread.thread.home.arpa is showing up in network. Any idea what this is? thank you

Posted on Oct 25, 2021 6:03 PM

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Posted on Jan 3, 2022 3:21 AM

I'm running a Raspberry Pi with PiHole on it. I see a lot of .ARPA requests from Bonjour to lookup the DNS name of devices from conditional forwarding from DHCP of my router. These all are typed as "PTR".


In contrast, THREAD queries are requested as A/AAAA for the IPv4 and IPv6 network and forwarded by the system to the external DNS server. This is unsightly and is probably not answered correctly (namely not at all, how does the external DNS provider know the internal IP address of my Apple TV with THREAD support?).


Therefore I created a static IP address for the AppleTV and a DNS entry in PiHole (<APPLETV>.OPENTHREAD.THREAD.ARPA) with the IPv4+6 address (instead of <APPLETV> insert here the name of your used THREAD border router, for me it's my AppleTV called "homecinema", I have no HomePod Mini).


Maybe there will be an update in future for this either on Apple side or on router/PiHole side to block these entries or answer them correctly ... !?


The requests are now answered correctly and felt HomeKit reacts faster with e.g. sockets from EVE and the Homebridge.

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Jan 3, 2022 3:21 AM in response to billc270

I'm running a Raspberry Pi with PiHole on it. I see a lot of .ARPA requests from Bonjour to lookup the DNS name of devices from conditional forwarding from DHCP of my router. These all are typed as "PTR".


In contrast, THREAD queries are requested as A/AAAA for the IPv4 and IPv6 network and forwarded by the system to the external DNS server. This is unsightly and is probably not answered correctly (namely not at all, how does the external DNS provider know the internal IP address of my Apple TV with THREAD support?).


Therefore I created a static IP address for the AppleTV and a DNS entry in PiHole (<APPLETV>.OPENTHREAD.THREAD.ARPA) with the IPv4+6 address (instead of <APPLETV> insert here the name of your used THREAD border router, for me it's my AppleTV called "homecinema", I have no HomePod Mini).


Maybe there will be an update in future for this either on Apple side or on router/PiHole side to block these entries or answer them correctly ... !?


The requests are now answered correctly and felt HomeKit reacts faster with e.g. sockets from EVE and the Homebridge.

Nov 30, 2021 9:58 AM in response to peterdandreti

I have found these exchanges very helpful, even if they do not quite solve the issue. I have found this same item appearing in my list of Network items. The most recent change has been to connect my network to Hive (the British Gas/Centrica control program and devices such as a thermostat and radiator valves). On a simple "before and after" analysis this looks like the source - aka "The Internet of Things". Strange that Phllips Hue did not produce the result previously

Oct 26, 2021 7:04 AM in response to Mal-S

Thanks, I heard about that. No I don't have that. I have AppleTV HomePod and Sonos. The Home app isn't connecting to AppleTV or HomePod (although they are connecting from iPhone).


And I also have this strange that it's there item in Notifications settings, Kerberos (which is usually a backend ticket protocol). It showed up, along with all these other odd things precisely after Monterey installed (Mac M1)


I bring all of this up b/c I think they are interrelated.

Oct 26, 2021 8:11 AM in response to billc270

PS Home app is now working, so that makes the issue seems less deep.


So what's left is open thread.thread.home.arpa in network - question, is this an indication of a separate device in the home or is it being generated from the Mac system?


My main concern is that I have some malicious software, b/c that with the Kerberos issue (above), makes it seem like I have virus or malicious software on the Mac hidden.


Any insight would be super helpful, bc if I can rule out any security compromise of the system then I can live with a mystery and oddity. Thanks



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openthread.thread.home.arpa in network , Monterey

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