Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Blocking social media sites

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Firewalling
    11 Posts 3 Posters 5.9k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • N Offline
      n3by
      last edited by

      For blocking HTTPS traffic ( Facebook, Youtube… ) with SquidGuard you need to use wpad, (if you can).

      Without any package involved have a look if you can use OpenDNS as DNS servers for that PCs ... ( maybe you will still want to identify the PC you want to filter, by fixed IP or by IP range allocated to them and set firewall rules so it will not escape from OpenDNS )

      You can also try to use pfBlockerNG DNS blocker but by default will filter for all PC so you will need to set the rest of PC to use another DNS servers.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • johnpozJ Offline
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
        last edited by

        if you don't want to use the pfblocker or opendns a simple config in unbound can prevent resolving of domains.. If just a few you can just put in the advanced section a redirect for the domain and then 127.0.0.1

        something like for example

        server:
        local-zone: "facebook.com" redirect
        local-data: "facebook.com A 127.0.0.1"

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
        SG-4860 25.07.1 | Lab VMs 2.8.1, 25.07.1

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • N Offline
          n3by
          last edited by

          @johnpoz thank you posting this method.
          Can you please let me know if in some setup Unbound has to be set to forwarder this method will still work ?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • johnpozJ Offline
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by

            It should work in both forwarder and resolver mode I use resolver mode.. The data is local to unbound, just like an host override - but this allows for wildcarding of anything in that domain..

            Here I just added facebook.com in my above example.. And as you see anything.facebook.com returns 127.0.0.1

            I use this method in blocking ad domains, but I load it from a file vs putting everything in advanced box

            server:
            include: /etc/unbound_ad_servers

            This is pretty much what the pfblock dnl option is doing but they are returning an IP that is running a httpd that returns a 1x1 image for anything you request I believe..  This is just simpler to do and don't have to install that pfblocker package.  You could for sure redirect it something that serves up something vs just loopback address.

            example.png
            example.png_thumb

            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
            SG-4860 25.07.1 | Lab VMs 2.8.1, 25.07.1

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • N Offline
              n3by
              last edited by

              ok, thank you.

              I asked because I made a test:
              with Unbound set as Resolver with OpenDNS and only for some IPs port 53 redirected to use DNS forwarder on 8053 localhost with google DNS servers;
              and at some point I found that filtered domains from OpenDNS was not filtered any more for any IP so I had to set Unbound to forwarder to work again…

              I think somehow Unbound as resolver cached filtered domains from DNS Forwarder, google answer for unfiltered IP.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • johnpozJ Offline
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                last edited by

                You don't seem to understand the difference between a forwarder and a resolver..  If unbound set to resolver which is default – nothing would ever talk to opendns..  Resolver means that, it resolver down from root talking to the authoritative servers down the tree from root to the owning nameserver of the domain your doing a query for a record in.

                Sounds like you have a really convoluted mess..  If want to forward then forward, if you want to resolve then resolve.  Why you would point clients to anything other than your dns is making it complicated.  If you don't want things to resolve then setup your dns so those domains or fqdn don't resolve or return false info like the facebook.com example.

                Only time I don't point to my dns is my guest wifi clients - they have no need to resolve any of my local stuff, I don't really care what they go to or or do.. They are isolated from my network, I just let them have internet.  So they get handed public dns, and can not even query or talk to pfsense other than ping the guest wifi IP so they can validate connectivity.

                An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                SG-4860 25.07.1 | Lab VMs 2.8.1, 25.07.1

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • N Offline
                  n3by
                  last edited by

                  My "setup mess" is try to do same like your goal, but in my case I permit only to some IPs from 4 different LANs to use another unfiltered DNS servers, all other use OpenDNS servers defined in pfsense.

                  So this seems to be my mistake… I had the impression that resolver will only talk with DNS servers I defined in pfsense setup to resolve the request in my case OpenDNS servers and nothing more.

                  Thx for clarification.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • johnpozJ Offline
                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                    last edited by

                    If you want these 4 lans to use some other dns, then point them there via dhcp.  And in those lan rules block access to pfsense dns..

                    Guess you could run forwarder for them on different which seems like what you trying to do?  But that makes it difficult.. Just point them to say you isp dns on those lans dhcp and allow that out.. Here is my wifi guest rules

                    They can ping pfsense wlan guest IP, then they are blocked from talking to any interface on pfsense, and then they are allowed to go to whatever they want as long as not any of my local networks.  While the allow ! my local networks would normally keep them from talking to pfsense, they would still be able to talk to pfsense wan IP, etc.  So that block is easy way to make sure they can not talk to pfsense at all.

                    guestrules.png
                    guestrules.png_thumb

                    An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                    If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                    Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                    SG-4860 25.07.1 | Lab VMs 2.8.1, 25.07.1

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • N Offline
                      n3by
                      last edited by

                      Here I described already my filtering goal I try to achieve in my "setup mess" with DNS filtering:
                      https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=102432

                      At this moment it work - with only limitation that excepted IP's from pfsense/OpenDNS filtering will escape also from pfblocker DNSBL ( Unbound ) Ads filtering, yes I understand why:
                      I run:
                      OpenDSN as only DNS servers definded in pfsense setup ( for parental filtering… ) .
                      pfBlockerNG DNSBL to filter DNS Ads...
                      Firewall rules to prevent other than excepted IPs to escape from pfsense/OpenDNS.

                      DNS request is handled by:
                      Forwarder on 8053 only for some excepted IP's assigned from 4 LANs -> google DNS ( to escape pfsense/OpenDNS filtering )
                      Unbound as forwarder on 53 on all 4 LANs ->  pfsense/OpenDNS

                      _I prefer not to use DHCP & DNS servers define method because:

                      • for all clients DNS server apear to be the same, for all LANs.
                      • if I want to change, add/del excepted IPs - ( I only have to add once in an alias).
                      • if I want to disable/change this non filtering DNS servers it is much easy to change/disable only one NAT redirect DNS rules than edit DHCP / IP config for each excepted IP._
                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • johnpozJ Offline
                        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                        last edited by

                        Well have fun then..  Seems like lot of work for something that can be accomplished just letting those segments outbound to use public dns..

                        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                        SG-4860 25.07.1 | Lab VMs 2.8.1, 25.07.1

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • First post
                          Last post
                        Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.