Firewall not allowing local connections

[Sunny Rio]

I've tried a couple of firewalls now, noroot and netpatch, and neither of them allow local connections. My phone is using wifi, and that works fine, and the firewalls allow me to choose which apps can access the internet. But I run Boinc on the phone, which is monitored and controlled by a Windows 10 PC on my network. Despite allowing Boinc on the phone access to wifi, and it can get tasks from the internet, the Windows PC cannot see it so I can't monitor or control it that way. Are there any firewalls that don't mess about with local access like this?

 

[mikedt]

I've tried a couple of firewalls now, noroot and netpatch, and neither of them allow local connections. My phone is using wifi, and that works fine, and the firewalls allow me to choose which apps can access the internet. But I run Boinc on the phone, which is monitored and controlled by a Windows 10 PC on my network. Despite allowing Boinc on the phone access to wifi, and it can get tasks from the internet, the Windows PC cannot see it so I can't monitor or control it that way. Are there any firewalls that don't mess about with local access like this?

It might be possible on a rooted device, running an appropriate custom ROM. Because otherwise third-party Android firewall apps tend to be either ON or OFF, with just the options to select which apps use it.

OT: is there any point in running BOINC on a phone, compared to running it on a desktop PC? Which tend to have much more powerful processors than mobile devices.

For anyone who doesn't know what BOINC is about:
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/

 

[Sunny Rio]

The firewall has options to enable each app. Boinc is enabled and it gets to the internet ok. My problem is getting the firewall to allow connections not to the internet, but another device on the local network.

I run Boinc on 2 phones, 9 CPUS, and 4 GPUs. I've collected all sorts of old stuff and run different things on them. For example I was running Einstein's radio tasks (they're not available for CPU and GPU) on the phones, but this one is now cycling the tasks back to zero after 1-10 minutes and not getting anywhere with them. All it will run with the firewall off is WCG covid tasks (they use a lot less memory). With the firewall off, I think the adware is eating the RAM. The phones are slower, but they also use bugger all electricity and are silent.

 

[mikedt]

The firewall has options to enable each app. Boinc is enabled and it gets to the internet ok. My problem is getting the firewall to allow connections not to the internet, but another device on the local network.

That would definitely require the device to be rooted, with the firewall running with root privileges to do that. Which basically means a suitable custom ROM is required. Because otherwise, user-installed firewall apps can't do that.

I run Boinc on 2 phones, 9 CPUS, and 4 GPUs. I've collected all sorts of old stuff and run different things on them. For example I was running Einstein's radio tasks (they're not available for CPU and GPU) on the phones, but this one is now cycling the tasks back to zero after 1-10 minutes and not getting anywhere with them. All it will run with the firewall off is WCG covid tasks (they use a lot less memory). With the firewall off, I think the adware is eating the RAM. The phones are slower, but they also use bugger all electricity and are silent.

I have an old MacBook Air(2015 Intel i5), I've considered using for doing BOINC work, but that's it. As for Android devices, I've got my phone, and an Android TV box for playing movies.

 

[puppykickr]

So is the firewall to prevent ads? If so, then maybe an ad-blocker like Blockada would be better. Get it from F-Droid, because the version on Google Play is incomplete.

 

[Dannydet]

Why run a firewall at all?

 

[puppykickr]

Why run a firewall at all?

Well, I use them to prevent ads, and also to block undesireable apps from making contact with the internet (ie. Google and others).

 

[Sunny Rio]

That would definitely require the device to be rooted, with the firewall running with root privileges to do that. Which basically means a suitable custom ROM is required. Because otherwise, user-installed firewall apps can't do that.

Why does it need rooted? I'm not asking anything much different. The firewall just intercepts anything headed for wifi and blocks or allows it. Why is it so different if it's a 192.168 address? Boinc can clearly use that address without a root. Yet the firewall is managing to block it, I just want it to not do that.

I have an old MacBook Air(2015 Intel i5), I've considered using for doing BOINC work, but that's it. As for Android devices, I've got my phone, and an Android TV box for playing movies.

I use everything for it, 96 cores and 4 GPUs. It's fun if you connect everything to Boinctasks, controllable and viewable on one screen (or in my case two above each other as it's a big list).

So is the firewall to prevent ads? If so, then maybe an ad-blocker like Blockada would be better. Get it from F-Droid, because the version on Google Play is incomplete.

Yes, just to block ads, I don't think there's anything harmful on there. I think the seller messed around with it to earn himself click throughs. Thanks, I'll try blockada.

What is it with Google play? They seem to think they own the world.

 

[Sunny Rio]

Blockada isn't on F-Droid, I found their website, the older one (as I have pre-Android 7) says "unable to parse apk". I looked through APKpure's stuff as that has a nice installer program on the phone, but all those say installation failed. Do you know of an adblocker for Android 4.4?

 

[puppykickr]

Google sucks.
I really dont want to get into that, as I am sure that everyone here is tired of me going on about it.

But the bottom line is that ad-blocking is against Google's terms of service, so Blokada from there is only a DNS changer.

The full version is both that and an ad-blocker.
F-Droid is a great source for apps, and Blokada is available there, among other ad-blockers as well.

 

[Dannydet]

https://adguard-for-android.en.uptodown.com/android/versions

 

[puppykickr]

Blockada isn't on F-Droid, I found their website, the older one (as I have pre-Android 7) says "unable to parse apk". I looked through APKpure's stuff as that has a nice installer program on the phone, but all those say installation failed. Do you know of an adblocker for Android 4.4?

Yes, it is.
Perhaps it is hidden from you for some reason.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.blokada.alarm/

I probably gave you the wrong spelling.

Anyway, the parsing error would be due to the wrong version (arm) of the app trying to be installed.

If you install the F-Droid app, the app will take care of that kind of thing for you.

 

[puppykickr]

If you have Android 4.4, let me see what versions may work for that.

 

[puppykickr]

Well, that sucks.
It appears that no versions support any Android earlier than 5.

That is going to become more and more prevelent as time moves on.

I have two more places I can look.

 

[puppykickr]

Damn, no luck on those either.
Usually a firewall, especially NoRoot, wont cause this issue.

Have you tried turning it off to verify that it is the cause?

 

[Sunny Rio]

Google sucks.
I really dont want to get into that, as I am sure that everyone here is tired of me going on about it.

I agree, they're guilty of throwing ads everywhere, including on Youtube which they own. I don't see those either. They also closed my YouTube account because someone hacked into it and posted illegal (software piracy) videos. Despite them sending me a message to my phone alerting me to the hacking, "there is no evidence your account was hacked". WTF?

The full version is both that and an ad-blocker.
F-Droid is a great source for apps, and Blokada is available there, among other ad-blockers as well.

Yip, wrong spelling, looks like their search engine couldn't handle that! I tried a few different permutations, but didn't think of removing the C.

https://adguard-for-android.en.uptodown.com/android/versions

Do you know if any of those work ion Android 4.4?

Damn, no luck on those either.
Usually a firewall, especially NoRoot, wont cause this issue.

Have you tried turning it off to verify that it is the cause?

Yes, NoRoot and the other one I tried both block local connections.

The ApkPure app doesn't seem to take care of what version, they just all try and fail.

 

[steiny180]

Have a look at the free NoRoot Firewall app in the PS.

This app allows you to allow or deny some or all wifi and / or data accesses on an app-by-app basis with wildcard support.

A great free little app I use the hell out of.

 

[puppykickr]

Have a look at the free NoRoot Firewall app in the PS.

This app allows you to allow or deny some or all wifi and / or data accesses on an app-by-app basis with wildcard support.

A great free little app I use the hell out of.

This is one of the firewalls that has been tried.

I too use the hell out of it.

 

[puppykickr]

I know of another firewall, but it is rather in depth.

It also incorporates an ad-blocker that can be customized.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.faircode.netguard/

 

[puppykickr]

Another app that may do the trick, but is extremely involved to get set up, is Tracker Control.

With it you can actually block individual sites per app, instead of either totally allowing or blocking access.

There is also an ad-blocker on it as well.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.kollnig.missioncontrol.fdroid/

 

[Sunny Rio]

I've been recommended AFWall+ by the author of Boinctasks, which is what I'm trying to allow to connect.
I'm now in the process of trying to root the phone for it.
Tried Kingoroot on the phone, which has a "root now" button, which just takes me to a webpage telling how to do it. I'm already doing it!
So I tried Kingoroot for Windows to get the PC to root it over USB, which gets to 35% then sits there forever.
Might have to try another root program.
Not sure if it's stopping it, but play protect keeps telling me it's a dangerous program. I haven't told it to uninstall it yet, but the stupid play protect won't shut up. How do I turn it off? I've googled it, but I'm supposed to go to "google" under settings. I don't have google under settings. This is Android 4.4, which looks nothing like any instructions I find online. Why do people assume one particular Android version when writing instructions, they're all vastly different! They also things like "pre-marshmallow". FFS I don't know all the names or what order they came in. Mine is a lollipop (rolls eyes) apparently. Is a lollipop more or less than a marshmallow? Oh hang on, Wikipedia says Lollipop is 5.0, but I know mine is 4.4, which should be a kitkat. WTF? I get lollipop messages on the screen.

 

[Dannydet]

https://adguard.com/en/welcome.html
This is what I use on a daily basis.
Blocks ads on mobile and pc.
Creates a VPN connection that acts as a firewall.
Blocks ads on browsers and apps.
I buy the yearly license and works fine on my home network and at work.

 

[Sunny Rio]

Anything using a VPN thingy seems to block the connection between the PC and the phone via wireless (I'm not sure which one initiates the connection). But I've managed to root it and put AFWall+ on it (recommended by the author of Boinctasks who is very helpful), which has a nice list of tickboxes for all the apps, allowing connection via wifi, 4g, wifi local, 4g roaming, etc. So I just restricted absolutely everything except Boinc, and it's running happily.