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Lockdown: Open-source firewall that blocks app tracking, ads, snooping

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Re: Lockdown: Open-source firewall that blocks app tracking, ads, snooping

#51

Post by salzig »

Fnoord wrote: post #49

On macOS, we got a port of OpenBSD pf (probably not up to date though). I've been able to convert hosts files to OpenBSD pf format in, when was it, 2002? What you'd need to do is create an anchor. Perhaps there's a GUI for it as well for those who prefer. There's at least pfBlockerNG which basically does that for PfSense. [1] FWIW, all of this existed before Pi-Hole (or Raspberry Pi for that matter). IIRC there was a…

On the product page[1] of little snitch you‘ll find a mention of a „blocklist“ feature.

[1] https://www.obdev.at/en/products/littlesnitch/index.html

Re: Lockdown: Open-source firewall that blocks app tracking, ads, snooping

#52

Post by OJFord »

Spivak wrote: post #44
OJFord wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$10 for 1GB?!

$10/GB is pretty much the going rate for a la carte data on all major US carriers. You typically get better rates for your monthly plan but if you go over you're flipped back to the a la carte pricing.

Eesh. My monthly plan in the UK is about $10 (£7), for 2GB, unlimited texts, 500 calls.

I suppose an Indian commenter would 'Eesh' at that too though!

Re: Lockdown: Open-source firewall that blocks app tracking, ads, snooping

#53

Post by hombre_fatal »

ropiwqefjnpoa wrote: post #12

It's functions similar to other mobile ad-blockers in that it can route all your phones traffic over a VPN tunnel it establishes. But the ad-blocking vpn server is 127.0.0.1, so perhaps, like it says all the blocking happens right on your phone. This is what I've been waiting for if this works. Still getting ads on instagram though.

Everyone should fire up https://mitmproxy.org/ from time to time just to see how much chatty your mobile apps can be, phoning home to places like analytics services on every tap and swipe. I was using a translation app on my phone that sent every keystroke to google analytics.

Of course also fun in its own right to see the sorts of APIs an app uses and how often the developers like to query it.

Re: Lockdown: Open-source firewall that blocks app tracking, ads, snooping

#54

Post by newscracker »

mosselman wrote: post #48
ropiwqefjnpoa wrote: post #12

It's functions similar to other mobile ad-blockers in that it can route all your phones traffic over a VPN tunnel it establishes. But the ad-blocking vpn server is 127.0.0.1, so perhaps, like it says all the blocking happens right on your phone. This is what I've been waiting for if this works. Still getting ads on instagram though.

On iOS I use DNSCloak. It takes some work to setup, like downloading the blocklist from somewhere yourself, but it works. I will try lockdown to see how it compares though. It looks easier.

DNSCloak and Lockdown cannot be enabled at the same time. When I tried it quite sometime ago, it was one or the other, which is a bummer if you want to use Lockdown while also choosing specific DNS servers to use. I’m guessing this is due to a limitation imposed by iOS, but have no idea how it can be solved.

Re: Lockdown: Open-source firewall that blocks app tracking, ads, snooping

#55

Post by mosselman »

newscracker wrote: post #54
mosselman wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On iOS I use DNSCloak. It takes some work to setup, like downloading the blocklist from somewhere yourself, but it works. I will try lockdown to see how it compares though. It looks easier.

DNSCloak and Lockdown cannot be enabled at the same time. When I tried it quite sometime ago, it was one or the other, which is a bummer if you want to use Lockdown while also choosing specific DNS servers to use. I’m guessing this is due to a limitation imposed by iOS, but have no idea how it can be solved.

It probably can't, seeing as both use a local VPN server to implement what they do.

You could always manually enter your DNS servers in your iPhone's settings.

Re: Lockdown: Open-source firewall that blocks app tracking, ads, snooping

#56

Post by newscracker »

GeoffIsTheBest wrote: post #41

As a pihole user for years I recently bought a firewalla blue. Installed pihole on the firewalla, turned off firewalla ad blocking, and done. I can VPN to my home ad blocking network from anywhere, have more insights into my home network shenanigans, and still use my personal block list built over years. Super easy and most importantly, done.

Did you research if the Pi could be setup with additional software (apart from pi-hole) to handle all that (or most of what) the Firewalla provides? Seems like that’d be a lot cheaper if one doesn’t need very high network performance.

Re: Lockdown: Open-source firewall that blocks app tracking, ads, snooping

#57

Post by newscracker »

rubyfan wrote: post #33

Wish I could use this AND 1.1.1.1 Warp. iPhone doesn’t seem to be able to do both.

That was my observation too. They’re both classified as the same class of “VPN” services. So you’d have to choose one or the other. Other VPN apps and services, such as ProtonVPN and Guardian Firewall, can be enabled while using 1.1.1.1 or DNSCloak.

Re: Lockdown: Open-source firewall that blocks app tracking, ads, snooping

#58

Post by pbhjpbhj »

GeoffIsTheBest wrote: post #41

As a pihole user for years I recently bought a firewalla blue. Installed pihole on the firewalla, turned off firewalla ad blocking, and done. I can VPN to my home ad blocking network from anywhere, have more insights into my home network shenanigans, and still use my personal block list built over years. Super easy and most importantly, done.

I'm not sure I get it? Why not run OpenVPN on your pihole's RPi, forward the port on your router, bingo-bango-bongo?? What extra are you getting with the firewalla? Is it 'just' ease of administration (which is probably worth the price!)?

Re: Lockdown: Open-source firewall that blocks app tracking, ads, snooping

#59

Post by newscracker »

StopHammoTime wrote: post #29

I did a test of this. uBlock Origin blocked all the calls before it made it to the firewall. IMO why would you use anything else.

There is no uBlock Origin for iOS, and never will be because of Apple’s list based content blocking mechanism where the blocker doesn’t intercept and process requests. It just provides the block list to Safari, which is also the only rendering engine (that can be) used by every browser on iOS.

Re: Lockdown: Open-source firewall that blocks app tracking, ads, snooping

#60

Post by vezycash »

vageli wrote: post #25
flavor8 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blokada seems to be very similar to DNS66, and is more actively maintained. Any reason to prefer DNS66?

> Blokada seems to be very similar to DNS66, and is more actively maintained. Any reason to prefer DNS66? No, I've never heard of blokada. Thanks for the tip.

The blokada in play store doesn't block ads. Get it from their store.

Also agressive power management from phone makers close them.

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