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    How to block in Windows10 Telemetry with pfsense

    Firewalling
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    • R
      robi
      last edited by

      @n3by:

      yes it looks ok.

      It's not ok as per your description, because it's a pass rule, not a block rule.

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      • R
        robi
        last edited by

        @KOM:

        yes it is required because other way update destinations will be blocked from Blocked rule that have these destinations included in case you don't want to allow update.

        Huh?  Windows Update domains shouldn't be included in your telemetry alias.

        Which are the Windows Update domains, btw?

        I found these:

        windowsupdate.microsoft.com	 
        update.microsoft.com	 
        windowsupdate.com	 
        download.windowsupdate.com	 
        wustat.windows.com	 
        ntservicepack.microsoft.com	 
        

        Are there any others?

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        • S
          Sea Monkey
          last edited by

          @robi:

          @n3by:

          yes it looks ok.

          It's not ok as per your description, because it's a pass rule, not a block rule.

          It's two rules.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • H
            Harvy66
            last edited by

            Setup a WSUS server, whitelist that to talk to Microsoft, and block all clients?

            I'm torn between Linux and FreeBSD. Linux has better Steam support, but a lot of stuff is being done in FreeBSD to increase comparability. ZFS and Jails are very attractive, even on a desktop.

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            • 2
              2chemlud Banned
              last edited by

              Whenever I have the choice, M$-shyt has been replaced by opensuse or PC-BSD (the later has a steeper learning curve and is not so well supported, but is free of systemd). Big plus: you can both run with KDE desktop, which made it much easier to switch between these two, and btw the handling is not sooo far away from Windows xp/7…

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • 2
                2chemlud Banned
                last edited by

                PS: Here

                http://techne.alaya.net/?p=12499

                you can find a long list of IPs and host names to block for Windows telemetry.

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                • 2
                  2chemlud Banned
                  last edited by

                  …just for the record:

                  I uninstalled on Win 7 pro 64/32 (various computers) the following KBs:

                  97 1033
                  290 2907
                  295 2664
                  299 0214
                  302 1917
                  302 2345
                  303 5583
                  304 4374
                  305 0265
                  306 2345
                  306 5987
                  306 8708
                  307 5249
                  307 5851
                  308 0149
                  308 3325

                  and in addition I set up a block rule with loggin for an alias containing all the IPs and host names listed here

                  http://techne.alaya.net/?p=12499

                  As you might expect, the firewall log is full of blocked "MS telemetry" this morning.

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                  • 2
                    2chemlud Banned
                    last edited by

                    …just to add:

                    Had my PC-BSD 10 PC up today for updating. Really amazing, I found in the firewall logs repeated access of this computer to an IP blocked for MS Telemetry.

                    WHAT has PC-BSD with MS-Telemetry in common? Or is it more correctly NSA telemetry featured by Microshyte?

                    I'm surprised!

                    ![BSD to MS 07.12.2015.JPG](/public/imported_attachments/1/BSD to MS 07.12.2015.JPG)
                    ![BSD to MS 07.12.2015.JPG_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/BSD to MS 07.12.2015.JPG_thumb)

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                    • KOMK
                      KOM
                      last edited by

                      That IP address is a-msedge.net and it takes you to Bing.

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                      • 2
                        2chemlud Banned
                        last edited by

                        So basically you think it's Firefox? But I have no Bing (removed it from search options in Firefox), I use no Bing, I've never been there in my whole live… Firefox was running in PRIVATE mode all the time btw...

                        So: why does my OS/Browser try to contact OVER AND OVER AGAIN something I've never asked to contact? Things are not really getting better at this point...

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                        • KOMK
                          KOM
                          last edited by

                          No idea.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • 2
                            2chemlud Banned
                            last edited by

                            …sometimes I really think about starting a 24/7 wireshark session on all networks... storage space is so cheap nowadays. How about an integration into pfSense?

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • KOMK
                              KOM
                              last edited by

                              How about an integration into pfSense?

                              pfSense already has a Capture Packet function.  You want Wireshark??

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                              • 2
                                2chemlud Banned
                                last edited by

                                But is 24/7 feasible on an embedded nano? Not really, I guess. Maybe I set up a Linux machine and start copying the whole internet traffic…

                                But overall: This story really frustrates me...

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                                • C
                                  cmb
                                  last edited by

                                  Wireshark is just a GUI to pcap data, you wouldn't run that on the firewall given it has no X and will never have X. You can feed Wireshark over SSH, or run tcpdump on the firewall dumping to disk if you have plenty of disk space.

                                  It's extremely unlikely PCBSD is communicating with anything to do with Microsoft. Whatever telemetry blocking list you have is way over-blocking I expect. It also seems to block critical portions of Windows update, which is likely the bulk of the attempts you're seeing.

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                                  • D
                                    doktornotor Banned
                                    last edited by

                                    @cmb:

                                    Whatever telemetry blocking list you have is way over-blocking I expect. It also seems to block critical portions of Windows update, which is likely the bulk of the attempts you're seeing.

                                    Yes. Things like HPHosts that block this without thinking break Windows updates.

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                                    • 2
                                      2chemlud Banned
                                      last edited by

                                      Nope, Windows update just works fine on the Win-machines in the network, no problem at all.

                                      But please, it's the local IP of my PC-BSD 10 running on an old Dell Precision 670, no question about that. No Windows involved. No software other than Firefox was running a the time of the blockings in the firewall log. And the log is FULL of these blocks.

                                      I REALLY have no idea what is going on here…

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                                      • KOMK
                                        KOM
                                        last edited by

                                        And you're sure that this PC-BSD box isn't running a browser that is trying to talk to Bing, for whatever reason?  Otherwise, I really can't see a *BSD distro needing to talk to Microsoft for anything.

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                                        • 2
                                          2chemlud Banned
                                          last edited by

                                          What could make Firefox with No-script in private mode make talk to Bing, except using Bing, is this the question? Honestly, I don't know!

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • KOMK
                                            KOM
                                            last edited by

                                            Perhaps it's a beacon or something on some page you were on that it talking to Bing?  Some other plugin you're running?  I have no idea either, just wild guesses.

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