Post 03 2021 (Rourer firewall useless)

**tec0** · 24-Jan-21, 11:50 AM

Hi everyone i hope all of you are keeping safe.

Today i wish to tell companies business owners a little something.

Your inexpensive router will no longer block websites like YouTube or Discord. Here is why.

From the looks of it each have multiple access points and IP addresses and so on. This means if your router can only block 8 to even 16 addresses your employees will be able to access these websites. I do recommend a proper firewall or something in that nature but by the looks of things, these services are making it intentionally difficult to darn near impossible to block with "basic to small devices"

This means your employees may well be able to use YouTube on their phone regardless of the firewall. Especially with HUAWEI phones that use YouTube Go app. i have yet to find a way to block this on "inexpensive" devices.

Computers are less of a problem and they do get blocked still. The problem is with Android older android devices.

Nothing i have done could stop Discord from working. So configuring a firewall and policies did help a tiny bit but for the most part if your employee wants Discord they will get it to work on "basic to house-hold grade routers" The better firewalls are able to stop it "for now" But i am running into some problems and is looking into dedicated firewall devices rather then build in router functionality. At this point i have no solution.

So if you are the boss and you allow your workers to access the Wifi at work with these limitations chances are they are bypassing it without even knowing it.

the more your know, i hope this will be useful to you in some way but right now "on a budget" i am still working on a solution. I will update as soon as i figured it out.

But if you have something that works please leave a post below i am very interested. Specially for home networks using LTE, they are hit the hardest as LTE speeds are not bad "range from 7mb up means it will auto-play at high resolutions consuming more data per minute. Also the default streaming on Discord IS a security risk as anyone can stream their desktop. Also it consumes a TON of data for all you LTE users.

Perhaps banning the use of Discord as a company policy is almost an easier task then trying to mitigate it at this point.

thank you for reading and let me go

for a bit see if i can get a solution going.

**tec0** · 26-Jan-21, 11:09 AM

Follow up grabbed my old raspberry pi got a nice new SD card for it. So now it is a question of installing the software get a USB to network connector for it and we will see how this goes.

Just a follow up. So yes you can use Wire-shark to try and figure out Discord but it is not that easy. Anyhow how if anyone is reading this if i figured it all out i will share.

**tec0** · 27-Jan-21, 06:01 AM

so if you want to block Discord the following work on your standard router: discord.gg As a few webpages suggested it would. HOWEVER IF an account is already logged in it will not work. But if you force a network shutdown and all computers are off and you apply the restriction the software will not be able to complete the startup process. "For now this is a working solution" BUT it is an easy change from Discord side to make this useless. i am still fighting to plug up YouTube on some mobile devices. It really should be law that YouTube provide instructions to block their site in the work place.

Why Should YouTube provide this info? Simply put some content is not considered to be "work-safe" same with facebook and twitter. Some companies want these sites blocked. Simple as that. It is a work place after all. Also if the company has a slow line media like video can have a devastating effect.