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

    DNSBL not activating

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved pfBlockerNG
    13 Posts 3 Posters 2.6k 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.
    • RonpfSR
      RonpfS
      last edited by

      Have a look at

      https://forum.netgate.com/topic/91736/pfblockerng-v2-0-w-dnsbl
      https://forum.netgate.com/topic/102967/pfblockerng-v2-1-w-tld

      to see the requirements and how to configure.

      Did you configure any DNSBL Groups ?
      Did you ran a Force Update after saving the changes ? or Force Reload DNSBL ?

      Check the logs tab.

      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

        Try this tutorial:
        https://www.linuxincluded.com/block-ads-malvertising-on-pfsense-using-pfblockerng-dnsbl/

        "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
        • C
          CyberMinion
          last edited by

          @RonpfS Thanks for the suggested links, but I'm afraid I'm not finding much there that seems to help. I have set up two DNSBL groups, and I did force an update (which was successful) I have now done this a number of times, and rebooted PFsense altogether a few times as well.

          @BBcan177 That tutorial seems to be for a slightly different version of pfBlockerNG. I have 2.1.4_16. Anyway, I walked through it as best I could, verifying my work. I found no issues.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • C
            CyberMinion
            last edited by CyberMinion

            I see that under the checkbox to enable DNSBL, it says "To Utilize, Unbound DNS Resolver must be enabled." I went ahead and re-enabled the DNS server, mopped up the mess, and restarted. Still no luck.

            I might have found at least part of the issue: My DNS server was using request forwarding. When I disabled that and reinitialized, The DNSBL listing on my dashboard turned to a checkbox. However, I tried some links on the DNSBL lists, and after getting a few 404s, I found several which I were able to access through the firewall. I am not using the TLD check, but I went direct to the ad company's TLD, as was specified in the blocklist, so that shouldn't matter.

            Any thoughts?

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

              You are slowly getting there 😉

              If you haven't enabled TLD, I would disable Live Sync Reload until BBcan177 can debug that part of the code.

              After Restarting Unbound, I would have done a Force Reload DNSBL.

              Then inspect pfblockerng log, resolver log, system log to spot error messages.

              Do some nslookup from the box for the domain that are supposed to be block. The answer should be the VIP.
              Go to the Logs tab, DNSBL file to find those domain names.

              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

              C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • C
                CyberMinion @RonpfS
                last edited by CyberMinion

                @ronpfs Slowly indeed....sorry, this is my first experience with PFsense and pfBlockerNG.

                So, where in the blazes do I find "Live Sync Reload"? I have "pfBlockerNG XMLRPC Sync" disabled, but that doesn't sound like what you are talking about. I may enable TLD detection, but I also have Snort running on the same box, and based on the resource warning on TLD detection, I wasn't sure if I had enough to turn this on too...I would think it couldn't be too bad, but what do I know?

                Question: What in this case of DNS config is meant by "unbound"?

                I went to the DNSBL files, and checked a few URLs that it pulled from feeds. They were successfully redirected to the internal server. While I do have deduplication on, I don't see any reason that TLDs I manually pull from feeds should not be on the internal block list.

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

                  Live Sync Reload may only be available with the pfblockerng-devel version.

                  unbound is the services used by the DNS Resolver.

                  As for the warning about TLD, depending on the number of DNSBL entries you have, the TLD might not be able to complete, so after a point, it stops reduce domain names to TLD and just put the domains as they are found in the feed.

                  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
                  • C
                    CyberMinion
                    last edited by CyberMinion

                    You might be correct. I did not get the dev version.

                    Okay, so if it gets to be too much, it has that fail-safe option. Good to know! It seems to me that a simple if statement looking for *. *. *. *. * URL. *. *. *. *
                    for each lookup would be all that is needed, but I'm no developer, so I assume it's more complicated than that. Anyway, I think I'll try enabling it and see what happens.

                    Thanks for the help!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • C
                      CyberMinion
                      last edited by

                      With TLD enabled, I hardly even notice a change in resource load. I guess I'll keep it.

                      How would I go about adding custom domain names to be blocked? Do I need to make my own feed, just so DNSBL pulls it down, or can I enter then directly in somewhere?

                      Thanks!

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • C
                        CyberMinion
                        last edited by

                        Apparently the firewall did run out of memory today. Also, when I ran a reload on my DNSBL entries, I got this error: "TLD Domain count exceeded. [ 100000 ] All subsequent Domains listed as-is"

                        I don't know how I reached that cap...

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

                          If you inspect the pfblockerng.log it has been saying that for every Cron update or Force Reload DNSBL since you enable TLD.

                          To track memory usage, use Status Monitoring , System Memory

                          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
                          • First post
                            Last post
                          Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.