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

    PfBlockerNG v2.0 w/DNSBL

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved pfBlockerNG
    1.1k Posts 192 Posters 1.6m 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.
    • BBcan177B
      BBcan177 Moderator
      last edited by

      @fraglord:

      @BBcan177:

      It's not a DNSBL issue. Check your Unbound settings. Maybe an interface settings issue? If you don't resolve it, post in the DNS forum and see if anyone has other advice for you.

      Not sure if this is the cause of the problem - I am still investigating. At least I can confirm that with DNSBL disabled this problem does not occur.

      How many domains are you blocking? You can see the total in the widget? Your footnote shows 1Gb of ram, maybe with DNSBL, it's taking longer for Unbound to start and newwanip is attempting to restart a second time?‎ Can you increase the RAM size?
      ‎

      "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

      Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
      Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
      Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • RonpfSR
        RonpfS
        last edited by

        @BBcan177:

        How many domains are you blocking? You can see the total in the widget? Your footnote shows 1Gb of ram, maybe with DNSBL, it's taking longer for Unbound to start and newwanip is attempting to restart a second time?‎ Can you increase the RAM size?

        1099450 Domains in my case with 2.5GB

        2.4.5-RELEASE-p1 (amd64)
        Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz 8GB
        Backup 0.5_5, Bandwidthd 0.7.4_4, Cron 0.3.7_5, pfBlockerNG-devel 3.0.0_16, Status_Traffic_Totals 2.3.1_1, System_Patches 1.2_5

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • X
          XmickS
          last edited by

          @BBcan177:

          When you see "403 Forbidden", the site that your trying to download from is either blocking your IP or rate limiting you. Disable the snort list for 24 hours and re-enable to get around that issue.

          I can open the link in my browser, so i think they're not blocking me. I dont have the snort package installed on my pfsensebox. Which snortlist should i disable?

          Thanks for the help!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • BBcan177B
            BBcan177 Moderator
            last edited by

            Hi XmickS,

            Sorry I meant to say disable the spamhaus drop list in pfBlockerNG for 24hrs. Typically a "403" error means the site you are downloading from is blocking you. Is your browser using a different Gateway or DNS server then the pfSense box? Do you use a proxy? If that doesn't help, post a screenshot of the spamhaus alias settings.

            "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

            Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
            Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
            Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • K
              krhainos
              last edited by

              I'm starting from a fresh install of 2.2.6-RELEASE (amd64) and rebuilding to clear out cruft from multiple past upgrades.

              The installation of the pfBlockerNG package has been sitting at "Executing custom_php_resync_config_command()…" for about 45 minutes now.  The browser is not showing a loading animation either (shows the pfSense logo favicon).

              Is this normal?

              I'm on a 30 down/5 up connection. Whatever it's downloading, if it's downloading that is, shouldn't take that long.  Diagnostics/System Activity doesn't appear to say a whole lot is happening on the CPU either.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • BBcan177B
                BBcan177 Moderator
                last edited by

                Hi krhainos, can you post the last 20 lines of the pfblockerng.log? You can run this command from the Diagnostics: Command Prompt:

                tail -n20 /var/log/pfblockerng/pfblockerng.log

                Are there any relevant errors in the pfSense system log?

                "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

                Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
                Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
                Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • K
                  krhainos
                  last edited by

                  @BBcan177:

                  Hi krhainos, can you post the last 20 lines of the pfblockerng.log? You can run this command from the Diagnostics: Command Prompt:

                  tail -n20 /var/log/pfblockerng/pfblockerng.log

                  Are there any relevant errors in the pfSense system log?

                  I'm actually on the way to figuring it out!

                  Something about one of my rules is tripping up the pfBlockerNG installation.

                  I've been keeping configuration backups after every piece I configure.  I've only done restores from my old config on my alises list, and my rules.  It seems the installation hangs after I restore my rules.  I'll update once I figure out what exactly it dislikes about my rules.

                  Update: I found it.  After going through the filter section in my config, I found a line between two rules that read "<rule>".  It looked out of place, so I removed it.  pfBlockerNG is happy now!  It downloads, updates, crons and everything.  I don't know how it got in there, and going through old backups, it's been there for a while.

                  I've attached a screenshot in case a visual helps.

                  youruineverything.png
                  youruineverything.png_thumb</rule>

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • X
                    XmickS
                    last edited by

                    @BBcan177:

                    Hi XmickS,

                    Sorry I meant to say disable the spamhaus drop list in pfBlockerNG for 24hrs. Typically a "403" error means the site you are downloading from is blocking you. Is your browser using a different Gateway or DNS server then the pfSense box? Do you use a proxy? If that doesn't help, post a screenshot of the spamhaus alias settings.

                    Found the problem. I was using vpn client and the ip i was using was being blocked by spamhaus. when i switched to another ip i was able to download the list. now everything is working as (i think) it should. thanks for the help!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • X
                      XmickS
                      last edited by

                      maybe a newbie question, but im curious. what is the difference with pfblockerng and adblock plus (or ghostery)? when these extensions are saying that they're blocking stuff, does that mean that my pfsense box is not blocking everything, or are they blocking the same stuff?

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • RonpfSR
                        RonpfS
                        last edited by

                        Adblock plus is an extension inside your Browser, so it does filter what your browser is using. It does not filter traffic for other application like Windows Update.

                        pfBlockerNG is on the firewall and filter traffic from all applications and computers.

                        2.4.5-RELEASE-p1 (amd64)
                        Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz 8GB
                        Backup 0.5_5, Bandwidthd 0.7.4_4, Cron 0.3.7_5, pfBlockerNG-devel 3.0.0_16, Status_Traffic_Totals 2.3.1_1, System_Patches 1.2_5

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • X
                          XmickS
                          last edited by

                          @RonpfS:

                          Adblock plus is an extension inside your Browser, so it does filter what your browser is using. It does not filter traffic for other application like Windows Update.

                          pfBlockerNG is on the firewall and filter traffic from all applications and computers.

                          But there is no difference in what they filter? Thought maybe pfblocker can't filter everything as well as an adblocker extension.

                          Sometimes an ad slips through my firewall. Does that mean I don't have everything set as it should?

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • R
                            Ramosel
                            last edited by

                            @XmickS:

                            Sometimes an ad slips through my firewall. Does that mean I don't have everything set as it should?

                            Probably not… it just means the devious little bastards that foist their crap on us have found new inventive ways to sneak shit through.  Give the list writers time, they'll catch up.

                            Rick

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • V
                              vomcliff
                              last edited by

                              While I'm relatively new to PFBlockerNG, I've been reading up a lot so I don't ask a question that hasn't already been answered. I hope this is a new question.

                              I setup PFBlockerNG first at home to test and now I'm implementing it in my office environment (starting with a branch office so I don't disrupt everyone if something gets messed up). The issue I encountered is minor. My home setup utilized PFSense for DHCP and DNS, so the DNS Unbound receiver just worked out of the box once enabled. When testing the config on the Windows Domain network, I had some issues. Windows Server 2012 manages DHCP and DNS. DHCP was configured to set the DNS server as the local DNS server and a remote server (connected over VPN). DNS forwarders were set to point to multiple DNS servers (a few public ones provided by our ISP).

                              Once I got the settings setup at the office, I noticed no traffic in the PFBlockerNG Alerts. After redoing some settings, I removed all DNS servers from DHCP and set the server running DNS on the local subnet and 10.10.10.1 (set in DNSBL settings) as the other DNS server. Then in DNS I removed all forwarders and replaced it with 10.10.10.1. After completing this, everything was working with PFBlockerNG filtering out ads based on the lists I used from setting it up via this post - (https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=102470.msg572943#msg572943).

                              Now, everything seems to be working properly, but I noticed that within my local subnet (192.168.2.0/24), I am unable to ping PFsense or access the webgui interface using the internal IP (192.168.2.1). However, I am able to access the webgui using the public WAN IP (all over HTTPS). Also, when I am on the main office subnet (192.168.1.0/24), I can access the PFSense webgui for the remote office with the LAN IP over the VPN at (192.168.2.1) as well as by using the GUI.

                              I assume this is due to DNS but I am not 100% sure on how to resolve this on the local subnet. It's not a major issue as I can manage it with the WAN IP but if possible I'd like to be able to resolve this problem I've created. Any ideas?

                              TL;DR -
                              I configured PFBlockerNG, updated DHCP and DNS settings on my Windows Server 2012 box, and can only access the PFSense web gui via the WAN IP. Any ideas on what setting I am missing or did I mess something up?

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • BBcan177B
                                BBcan177 Moderator
                                last edited by

                                @XmickS:

                                @RonpfS:

                                Adblock plus is an extension inside your Browser, so it does filter what your browser is using. It does not filter traffic for other application like Windows Update.

                                pfBlockerNG is on the firewall and filter traffic from all applications and computers.

                                But there is no difference in what they filter? Thought maybe pfblocker can't filter everything as well as an adblocker extension.

                                Sometimes an ad slips through my firewall. Does that mean I don't have everything set as it should?

                                Which DNSBL Blocklists are you using? There are two posts in this thread for multiple DNSBL lists.

                                Are you sure that your LAN devices are not using a different DNS server?

                                Which sites are showing ADs?

                                "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

                                Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
                                Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
                                Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • BBcan177B
                                  BBcan177 Moderator
                                  last edited by

                                  @vomcliff:

                                  Then in DNS I removed all forwarders and replaced it with 10.10.10.1.

                                  Point your local LAN devices to your windows Server, and set the MS DNS forwarder to the pfSense IP Address to have DNSBL filter the DNS requests.

                                  "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

                                  Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
                                  Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
                                  Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • V
                                    vomcliff
                                    last edited by

                                    @BBcan177:

                                    @vomcliff:

                                    Then in DNS I removed all forwarders and replaced it with 10.10.10.1.

                                    Point your local LAN devices to your windows Server, and set the MS DNS forwarder to the pfSense IP Address to have DNSBL filter the DNS requests.

                                    I went back and did what you said. LAN devices point to the windows server and the MS DNS forwarder was set to the pfsense LAN interface IP. DNSBL did not filter. I troubleshot it and got it to work by using the pfsense WAN interface IP. While everything is working now with DNSBL filtering traffic, I can't ping the LAN interface IP or access the webgui when on the LAN subnet. I enabled logging on the firewall and tested sending a PING to the pfsense LAN IP and here is what I get:

                                    Act                 Time         If Source         Destination Proto
                                    –--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                    pass/100000101         Mar 2 15:58:02 LAN    10.0.0.9     10.0.0.1       ICMP
                                    pass/100000101         Mar 2 16:42:23 LAN 10.0.0.9     10.0.0.1       ICMP
                                    pass/100000101         Mar 2 16:42:25 LAN 10.0.0.9:137 10.0.0.255:137 UDP
                                    pass/100000101         Mar 2 16:42:33 LAN 10.0.0.9:63623 10.10.10.1:53 UDP
                                    pass/100000101         Mar 2 16:42:33 LAN 10.0.0.9:63729 10.10.10.1:53 UDP
                                    pass/100000101         Mar 2 16:42:36 LAN 10.0.0.9:65440 10.10.10.1:53 UDP

                                    Did I mess up a setting or is my system in need of a fresh install? Thanks for your help!

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • RonpfSR
                                      RonpfS
                                      last edited by

                                      Maybe DNSBL was not filtering because the DNS on your Windows server cached the domain name ip before the switch.

                                      2.4.5-RELEASE-p1 (amd64)
                                      Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz 8GB
                                      Backup 0.5_5, Bandwidthd 0.7.4_4, Cron 0.3.7_5, pfBlockerNG-devel 3.0.0_16, Status_Traffic_Totals 2.3.1_1, System_Patches 1.2_5

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • BBcan177B
                                        BBcan177 Moderator
                                        last edited by

                                        @vomcliff:

                                        I went back and did what you said. LAN devices point to the windows server and the MS DNS forwarder was set to the pfsense LAN interface IP. DNSBL did not filter. I troubleshot it and got it to work by using the pfsense WAN interface IP. While everything is working now with DNSBL filtering traffic, I can't ping the LAN interface IP or access the webgui when on the LAN subnet.

                                        I would start by disabling DNSBL and fixing one issue at a time. You should be able to ping and browse to the pfSense LAN IP from any LAN device first before attempting to use any package. Always best to troubleshoot with less obstacles. Then once the basic connectivity is working, you can add additional features. Using the pfSense WAN IP in a local Windows Server DNS Forwarder, doesn't look to be a solution.

                                        "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

                                        Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
                                        Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
                                        Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • T
                                          troyborg
                                          last edited by

                                          Can anyone help me figure out how to get rid of this?

                                          I got pfblocker running and all setup.  But when it blocks stuff I get this big error image.

                                          When I try to go to the domain it shows in the alerts I get that 1x1 image.  Why isn't it applying it to the page?

                                          https://pcpartpicker.com/b/YfXH99

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • BBcan177B
                                            BBcan177 Moderator
                                            last edited by

                                            @troyborg:

                                            Can anyone help me figure out how to get rid of this?

                                            I got pfblocker running and all setup.  But when it blocks stuff I get this big error image.

                                            I get that 1x1 image.  Why isn't it applying it to the page?

                                            DNSBL pushes a 1x1 pixel image for any blocked domain. So if your viewing a page with ADverts, the Blocked AD is replaced with a hidden 1x1 image so that you don't see a big blocked image. But if the whole site your visiting is blocked completely by DNSBL, you will see the image that you show. Its a normal behavior.

                                            "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

                                            Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
                                            Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
                                            Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

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