Database Users

Selectively disable net access by app?

I have a Touch Pro2 which connects to the net every 15 minutes for reasons that I'm not aware of (I have Outlook and Weather set to Manual, have disabled Latitude in Google Maps, etc). SPB Wireless Monitor tells me only that system.exe or services.exe are doing the accesses.
Since my provider charges per session this can get quite expensive, so I've been forced to turn 3G/GPRS access on/off manually using NoData.
Is there a way of selectively enabling net access for designated applications only? e.g. allowing it to Opera and Outlook only by default, and selectively enabling other apps on demand?
Alternatively, is there a way of finding out which apps are trying to access the net without my knowledge? (e.g. by forcing a prompt every time an application attempts 3G/GPRS access)?
TIA for any tips
Ian

itm said:
Alternatively, is there a way of finding out which apps are trying to access the net without my knowledge? (e.g. by forcing a prompt every time an application attempts 3G/GPRS access)?
Ian
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Hi,
If you grab a trial of SPB Wireless Monitor,that will show what apps and how much data has been used per application.

i think this is a greate idea. someone should really develop this.
basically the user would provide the application with an approved list of applications that can connect using the 3g/edge connection. the rest can only connect using wifi or activesync

GLO said:
Hi,
If you grab a trial of SPB Wireless Monitor,that will show what apps and how much data has been used per application.
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Click to collapse
but it doesnt do anything after it tells you this stats.
a simple application similar to "no data" should still be developed. what do you all think?

look into your taskmanager
RSSHub ? QuickGPS ?
good look

Quote:
Originally Posted by itm View Post
Alternatively, is there a way of finding out which apps are trying to access the net without my knowledge? (e.g. by forcing a prompt every time an application attempts 3G/GPRS access)?
Ian
THE GRIZZ said:
but it doesnt do anything after it tells you this stats.
a simple application similar to "no data" should still be developed. what do you all think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, this wont stop the apps, but as the OP had asked, this will let him know what apps are accessing the NEt

GLO said:
Hi,
If you grab a trial of SPB Wireless Monitor,that will show what apps and how much data has been used per application.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SPB Wireless Monitor tells me only that system.exe or services.exe are doing the accesses.

Mamamam said:
look into your taskmanager
RSSHub ? QuickGPS ?
good look
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried installing and runnign TaskMgr but it hangs during startup on my TouchPro2. What's the best alternative Task manager app?

itm said:
SPB Wireless Monitor tells me only that system.exe or services.exe are doing the accesses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspect that they are your Network Operator settings checking for updates or
something like that.

GLO said:
I suspect that they are your Network Operator settings checking for updates or
something like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They make 87 connections in 18 hours - does that sound likely? It works out very expensive for those tariffs which charge a per-connection fee.
Any idea how I could disable this (or confirm that this is indeed the explanation)?

Hutchison3G sets up virtually all their supplied phones with network configurations to connect very frequently like what you describe.
See if you can simply disable your data connection. As with H3G in Australia, you dont get charged when it is simply accessing its own intranet, and when its roaming it only displays a 'lite' homepage.
Perhaps consider a non-network issued rom, or determine whether that data is 'free intranet' or not.

GLO said:
See if you can simply disable your data connection. As with H3G in Australia, you dont get charged when it is simply accessing its own intranet, and when its roaming it only displays a 'lite' homepage.
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Click to collapse
I already use NoData to manually enable/disable the data connection when it's required/not required. I was just hoping for a more elegant solution to stop unauthorised apps incurring data charges, while not sacrificing the convenience of automatic access for apps that I use alot (like Opera and Outlook)

hope someone develops this

You can try PPC version of ProxyCap to restrict or proxify access per application - http://www.proxycap.com/
It doesn't pop up when an aplication attempts to communicate with the Internet, so manual configuration is required. You'll need to set up proxy bypass for the applications you want to be allowed to connect and use localhost as a proxy by default, so that other applications can't communicate with external hosts. You can also filter traffic based on destination IPs and ports. E.g. an easier solution may be to allow http and https traffic only for all applications and drop everything else if you only need to use a web browser.
ProxyCap may not prevent your GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA connection from being established every time, but at least there will be application or protocol filtering in place and thus less unexpected traffic. ProxyCap does not seem to be able to filter ICMP traffic. It appears to be allowing DNS traffic through regardless of the filtering configuration too, as it can't be proxified and is required for proper name resolution.
Another alternative is PPC firewalls like
http://www.airscanner.com/products/firewall/
and
http://www.anthasoft.com/anthafirewall-firewall-for-mobile-device.php
I haven't used any of these products though and can't recommend them.
Both seem to be more user friendly than proxycap though.

firewall filtering by application

I would like to control which application may access the Internet and which may not.
Thus, not in the IP/Protocol/Port level, but by application name instead.
I tried "Airscanner Mobile" and "ProtectStar Mobile Firewall", but it is not possible to create filtering rules based on application name. It is difficult to know which Protocol/Port/Service is used by any application.
I don't have a fixed monthly data line rate, and I want to let access to the Net for some application, and block it for other ones.
Who can guide me to an existing firewall application that implements this
behavior?
Thanks in advance.

http://www.proxycap.com

thx you

[Q] Firewall app?

Is there a firewall app which blocks all traffic like the personal firewalls for PCs do? With it you could
- whitelist certain apps for all destinations e.g. Google Earth, GMail, browser
- whitelist certain destinations in general e.g. *.google.com
- blacklist certain apps e.g. SuperGameButWhichAlsoPhonesHome.apk
- pops up if an app tries to connect to an yet unlisted destination and blocks or allows by default
The problem with permissions is, it's all or nothing. E.g. I want allow most apps to connect to Flurry or GoogleAnalytics to help the developers improve and understand the usage or if it uploads pics to facebook, but if an SMS app reads my SMS and also has the internet permission (probably for ads and analytics), who knows they're not also transferring my SMS?
Editing the hosts file is not an option as this would only be a blacklist and also very tedious to maintain.
Of course you need root access and it also needs to be open source for it to be trusted. I'm thinking of an addonn for CyanogenMod or so.

I'm not really all too familiar with firewall stuff, but found this for you: http://www.droidsecurity.com/droidhunter/index.html
Then maybe it's overkill but that one combined with this: http://www.carrotapp.com/2010/04/10/app-protector/
Might do the trick?

Thanks for your efford but I am looking for something completely different. A firewall is an app which controls internet traffic.

DroidWall would be perfect, but it doesn't function.
mcmurph said:
Thanks for your efford but I am looking for something completely different. A firewall is an app which controls internet traffic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I search the same. DroidWall would be perfect, but it doesn't function.

totos1234 said:
Yes, I search the same. DroidWall would be perfect, but it doesn't function.
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Click to collapse
It works fine for me on a g1!

DroidWall does not prevent Wifi connections at all.
As such, as a firewall it's next to useless.
It's more a "3G data connection" limiter than a real firewall.

vasra said:
DroidWall does not prevent Wifi connections at all.
As such, as a firewall it's next to useless.
It's more a "3G data connection" limiter than a real firewall.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't understand your problem with DroidWall. I don't even have a data plan, so I only use it for Wifi. Sometimes I forget I have it installed, open a program that needs internet access, only to find that it won't work until I allow it to have the access through DroidWall. Works everytime.

VPN for certain apps ONLY?

Hi all,
I have Shield TV with IPVanish (set to Netherlands) installed and working fine. I have it set up to launch on startup which is great but it then prevents some apps from working correctly, such as BBC, ITV and Plex Media Server to name a few.
Is there a way to set something up so the VPN is only working with certain apps? I'm techie but this stuff is beyond my paygrade so any help would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Stuart

I use dns4me.net, which allows you to make settings per app/service. I dont know about other vpn / dns location services though sorry.

This is possible by installing the openvpn app. This allows to autostart a vpn connection and assign it only to certain apps. Works very well.
Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

jimmisavage said:
Hi all,
I have Shield TV with IPVanish (set to Netherlands) installed and working fine. I have it set up to launch on startup which is great but it then prevents some apps from working correctly, such as BBC, ITV and Plex Media Server to name a few.
Is there a way to set something up so the VPN is only working with certain apps? I'm techie but this stuff is beyond my paygrade so any help would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Stuart
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will need to use IPVanish Openvpn service. The app below has a feature to choose which apps to go through VPN.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.openvpn.openvpn
You will need to download the configuration file and certificate as provided in the guide below. Don't use the app mentioned in the guide as it doesn't provide a feature to limit the VPN traffic to certain apps. Choose the configuration file for the Netherlands server.
https://support.ipvanish.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002080973-Android-OpenVPN-Setup

AFWall+ (Android Firewall +) by ukpriya will allow you to do what you are trying to do. be sure to enable the firewall VPN option in settings.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.ukanth.ufirewall&hl=en_US

I use torguard and I can filter the apps

Not for certain apps it's used for numerous apps like Netflix ,Kodi or many types of devices and operating systems like IOS,ANDROID you can easily access those site's which was banned in your region
Cheers!

Looking for a Solution: How to Identify Unknown Connections Made from My Smartphone?

I live in a region where phone security and anonymity is a concern.
To address this, I have installed a rooted custom firmware, AFWall firewall, and ProtonVPN on my smartphone.
AFWall is set up to block most apps and system apps, routing only the ones I use through the VPN.
I monitor AFWall's logfiles, which show thousands of (blocked) unknown(-100) connections, most of which resolve to Github CDNs or Googleaccount, while others resolve to unknown IPs.
I want to find out which app or process is making these connections, but as AFWall reports them as unknown(-100), I am unsure how to proceed.
I have tried using Termux (root) and "sudo netstat -nputwc" to monitor connections, but some connections remain "empty" and do not provide any "PID/Program name".
How can I identify the app/process making these connections?
Thanks in advance!

John Dekka said:
I live in a region where phone security and anonymity is a concern.
To address this, I have installed a rooted custom firmware, AFWall firewall, and ProtonVPN on my smartphone.
AFWall is set up to block most apps and system apps, routing only the ones I use through the VPN.
I monitor AFWall's logfiles, which show thousands of (blocked) unknown(-100) connections, most of which resolve to Github CDNs or Googleaccount, while others resolve to unknown IPs.
I want to find out which app or process is making these connections, but as AFWall reports them as unknown(-100), I am unsure how to proceed.
I have tried using Termux (root) and "sudo netstat -nputwc" to monitor connections, but some connections remain "empty" and do not provide any "PID/Program name".
How can I identify the app/process making these connections?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know but probably these can already help?
PCAPdroid | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
No-root network monitor and traffic dump tool for Android devices
f-droid.org
mitmproxy - an interactive HTTPS proxy
mitmproxy.org

Awesome! I'll test a bit with this app to see what I can capture. Thanks!
Edit:
Well, now I can collect a lot more data. Nice. But still the same as with AFWall. I run PCAPdroid as root and can scan all connections. But "app" still "unknown". It can't figure out which process is making a connection.
For example the "unknown app (-1) transfers data from local ip 10.2.XXX.XXX:48100 to remote 146.75.XXX.XXX:443 which resolves to "fastly, Inc".
hmm...
I'll try to dump the whole payload to examine.