If it were that he was whitelisting only his firewall then it would seem other devices too would be having issues.

If he’s blacklisting something that Samsung requires maybe that’s the issue.

I have a Sony that if you blacklist certain Sony sites I cannot turn the tv on with the remote. If I unplug the tv from the wall and plug it in I can turn it on until I turn it off. If I disconnect the lan cable I can turn it on and off at will with the remote. This is intentional by Sony because they want to force you to let them track you.

I don’t use the built in apps and never watch commercial tv nor do I have streaming services. I have a raspberry pi connected and it does all the work.