What's at da.virginmedia.com ?

[RainmakerRaw]

I built and coded my own x86 router, using OpenBSD (which is currently on v7.0). It runs pf firewall, dhcpleased, dhcpd and unbound, alongside other niceties such as httpd, WireGuard, sshguard and so on. The DNS daemon (hardened unbound) forwards LAN queries upstream using DNS over TLS to my custom off-prem ad/tracker/malware blocking DNS server. That DNS server runs on an aarch64 VPS at Oracle and supplies me with clean, private DNSSEC-validated, QNAME minimised and case randomised DoH/DoT/DoQ/DNSCryptv2 DNS.

Lately, flicking through the DNS server stats, I've noticed hundreds of requests per day hitting the domain da.virginmedia.com and I wondered if anyone knows what it's for? I couldn't find anything in VM's (admittedly barebones and dumbed down) documentation, or through search engines. Shodan/Netcraft/the usual tools weren't very helpful either. Just curious as I've never seen it before and one of the VM devices on the LAN is pinging that domain a lot.

We have Gig1, TiVO v6 (x2), a VM mobile SIM and phone if that's any relevance.

[nodrogd]

My thought is it will be the V6 boxes. All EPG updates & firmware changes come in via the broadband connections. There is usually an EPG update every 2 hours.

[asim18]

I believe it's a data mining/AI initiative. da.virginmedia.com points to CNAME virgin01.sitestat.com. Sitestat domain is owned by adobe's data analysis suite.

Is the device making the requests a Set top box?

I'm guessing it's sending information every time you click, pause-unpause, fast forward, rewind, change volume, etc, etc.

I would personally just bin the device, all the channels I pay Virgin for are free-to-air on Astra 28.2. I would rather not have my connection used for sending pointless information.

It's sad too because what happens if not many people watch Top Gear on Dave, or Crystal Maze on Challenge? Will they just get rid of the channel in favour of the masses who are into other dross?

[Tudor]

I have a V6 and use two Pi-holes for my DNS then to Cloudflare HTTPS. Have checked V6 and it points to my DNS servers. No sign at all of that wa*** address.