DroidWall - Apps to unblock ?

[Dylan_G]

Hi guys.

Does anyone know what services are essential to let through Droidwall ? I'm on a HTC Desire S. The auto sync isn't working 100%. Mxit has the ability to show you your offline messages as notifications and these aren't coming through. I'm guessing I've blocked the wrong thing somewhere, but the Mxit application is checked in both the Wifi and 3G boxes. Any background services that I should open up for Syncing to occur ?

 

[Dylan_G]

Ah, figured this one out. Opened up 9999. It had a whole range of widgets and included auto sync in there. Sad though, theres a list of 30 things included in this 9999 list. You cannot select individual ones. Something to do with the ID of all the apps being released by the same person. They're all grouped together and all granted permission together. Thankfully I don't keep widgets open.

 

[Elimentals]

Only way I know how to block individual apps is with custom roms like MIUI's firewall app as seen below

The next best thing is to install https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onavo.android.onavoid
and set data hungry apps to WiFi only.

 

[TheBadMadMan]

droid wall and adfree is a boss combination.

 

[CranialBlaze]

droid wall and adfree is a boss combination.

Droidwall is for noobs, only useful if you don't actually know how to setup your phone.
I used it for like 2 weeks, then I bothered to learn how to use the phone properly and it became useless.

 

[TheBadMadMan]

Droidwall is for noobs, only useful if you don't actually know how to setup your phone.
I used it for like 2 weeks, then I bothered to learn how to use the phone properly and it became useless.

well for me it works 100% with little effort. I know you can play with the IP tables manually but I have no reason, as Droidwall does what it should. The same with AdFree, I know you can go edit your host file manually, but again I just let AdFree take car of it.
Unless there is some sort of benefit of NOT using Droidwall, then please enlighten me.

 

[CranialBlaze]

well for me it works 100% with little effort. I know you can play with the IP tables manually but I have no reason, as Droidwall does what it should. The same with AdFree, I know you can go edit your host file manually, but again I just let AdFree take car of it.
Unless there is some sort of benefit of NOT using Droidwall, then please enlighten me.

I don't mess with IP tables, I have no form of firewall or internet blocking active on my phone in any way shape or form.
Setup your sync properly, set the market to update on wifi only, install addfree and your golden.

Droidwall is a pointless waste of resources. I used like 40-50mb a month and the only thing that's essentially blocked from wifi is the market, and that's only it auto updates.
DW will end up causing more problems as the new market licensing feature means many apps require the internet on launch to verify purchase, About 20 or so of my apps actually exit if i try and runt hem without internet.
I used to run onavo to track bandwidth and the biggest culprit is facebook, its default setting is to check for updates hourly and it downloads images when its checking, set that to manual, which honestly do you really need facebook up-to-date every time you open it.

All google services, viber, whatsapp, facebook use push so blocking them is redundant. Weather updates you can set easily, I leave mine on hourly but the data usage is so miniscule its pointless blocking (used 44kb since the 24th). Tapatalk checks every half hour, but the new version goes push as well. Most apps that are configured to use background data have the option in them to disable it, droidwall blocks data, background or not which when launching an app that actually needs it you need to go unblock it and re-block it again.

 

[Dylan_G]

Aha, thanks for the ideas. I'm now running Tasker, Llama, Droidwall, AdFree, Onovo and 3G watch dog. Very nice setup.

 

[Dylan_G]

I don't mess with IP tables, I have no form of firewall or internet blocking active on my phone in any way shape or form.
Setup your sync properly, set the market to update on wifi only, install addfree and your golden.

Droidwall is a pointless waste of resources. I used like 40-50mb a month and the only thing that's essentially blocked from wifi is the market, and that's only it auto updates.
DW will end up causing more problems as the new market licensing feature means many apps require the internet on launch to verify purchase, About 20 or so of my apps actually exit if i try and runt hem without internet.
I used to run onavo to track bandwidth and the biggest culprit is facebook, its default setting is to check for updates hourly and it downloads images when its checking, set that to manual, which honestly do you really need facebook up-to-date every time you open it.

All google services, viber, whatsapp, facebook use push so blocking them is redundant. Weather updates you can set easily, I leave mine on hourly but the data usage is so miniscule its pointless blocking (used 44kb since the 24th). Tapatalk checks every half hour, but the new version goes push as well. Most apps that are configured to use background data have the option in them to disable it, droidwall blocks data, background or not which when launching an app that actually needs it you need to go unblock it and re-block it again.

What about games that try to run internet in the background, yet you still want to play them ? Will they close ? Droidwall can still let them run but restrict their data usage.

 

[CranialBlaze]

What about games that try to run internet in the background, yet you still want to play them ? Will they close ? Droidwall can still let them run but restrict their data usage.

None of my games use background data, but many of them error if there is no connection to the market to verify purchase, i know the talking tom/ben etc series do that, if no connection they error and close, bought bout 10 of them for my exs kid and 3 of them removed themselves from the phone cuz she turned off the phones internet.

In my experience droidwall causes more harm than what iys worth, if you really wany onavo is a better idea as it monitors data usage and can restrict background data as its not a firewall and does not need root.

that way you can see which apps are problimatic instead of blocking most of your phone. Personally id get pretty dam annoyed if a firewall kept on causing my apps to uninstall. especially jamie olivers cook book, that was a 400mb download and it checks the market on every single launch, something more and more apps will start to do to limit piracy.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2 Beta-4

 

[Elimentals]

None of my games use background data, but many of them error if there is no connection to the market to verify purchase, i know the talking tom/ben etc series do that, if no connection they error and close, bought bout 10 of them for my exs kid and 3 of them removed themselves from the phone cuz she turned off the phones internet.

In my experience droidwall causes more harm than what iys worth, if you really wany onavo is a better idea as it monitors data usage and can restrict background data as its not a firewall and does not need root.

that way you can see which apps are problimatic instead of blocking most of your phone. Personally id get pretty dam annoyed if a firewall kept on causing my apps to uninstall. especially jamie olivers cook book, that was a 400mb download and it checks the market on every single launch, something more and more apps will start to do to limit piracy.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2 Beta-4

This is the 1st I hear of games trying to uninstall when there is no internet. Not one of the games I play(and I do have a crapload of them) does this. I do block all of my games from internet access, hell my Xperia Play has no 3G and when I play games on it not one of them complained.

I am not saying this is not happening, just that I have not seen it once.

 

[CranialBlaze]

This is the 1st I hear of games trying to uninstall when there is no internet. Not one of the games I play(and I do have a crapload of them) does this. I do block all of my games from internet access, hell my Xperia Play has no 3G and when I play games on it not one of them complained.

I am not saying this is not happening, just that I have not seen it once.

Was talking ben, talking tom, some counting thing on her phone, saw the warnings on mine, but i guess it needed to fail a few times. spshell3d uninstalled on me when my net was down and it failed once and ive seen the warning on 1 or 2 apps before.

Most likely only a few developers doing it, but its likely more will start. There has been a big spike in the pirated droid games last few days, bout 5 or so games and apps each day this past week on rlslog. Even saw new versions of 2 of my games on monday/tuesday that still have not updated on my devices legally paid for copies.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2 Beta-4

 

[Elimentals]

That is odd? I use SPB Shell 3D on my Xperia Play and not once did it uninstall and I know it doesn't connect to the internet for weeks at a time as the weather widget is normally blank.

I must admit if developers move to this method of copy protection they just going to cause more people to pirate apk's, as the pirated world dont have this problem at all, I know this because I normally test APK's before I buy full versions all the time and not once did I fail to locate a pirated copy of a game/app.

So its kind of shooting themself in the foot and if any of the apps I use does this I would personally email the developer and inform them of how bad such a method is.

 

[CranialBlaze]

That is odd? I use SPB Shell 3D on my Xperia Play and not once did it uninstall and I know it doesn't connect to the internet for weeks at a time as the weather widget is normally blank.

I must admit if developers move to this method of copy protection they just going to cause more people to pirate apk's, as the pirated world dont have this problem at all, I know this because I normally test APK's before I buy full versions all the time and not once did I fail to locate a pirated copy of a game/app.

So its kind of shooting themself in the foot and if any of the apps I use does this I would personally email the developer and inform them of how bad such a method is.

was the "sample" sp3d shell that did that to me, bought it in the end, was worth it. I agree with you fully, but then again if you seylt your phone up properly it would not matter. As i said earlier, i use bout 40-50mb per month, and yes not many ppl in sa have adsl, but we not exactly a give a dam about market.

Usa and asia have almost nation wide wifi coverage, europes already begun running out mass wifi in the tourist popular countries, evem even hete in backwards sa we have begun the ground work for it.

Fot me any firewall would be useless, of my 200+ installed apps only the ones that use push actually use background data, the rest just dont. Nothing special bout my phone, no custom ip tables other than adfree.

Onlu actual reason I keep on addlfree is its actually a pretty good fix for a big security problem, think it was lifehacker withing the last 2 weeks reported that the adverts in free aps are the number 1 source (that or pretty high up) of android malware and viruses as well as general security holes. Adfree is basically a security patch, blocking the apps from calling the add server helps keep ur phone safe.

Although generally if there is a paid version and its something I will use then I will rather support the dev than block the add.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2 Beta-4

 

[TheBadMadMan]

i have yet to experience a single problem with droidwall blocking all but the essentials and those that i approve of. No app closes or uninstalls. But i understand not all users use a device the same way. so what works for you may not work for me, and vice-avers. oh i have talking tom full and i have it blocked from 3g and wifi, no probs ever.

 

[LemonScrub]

Onlu actual reason I keep on addlfree is its actually a pretty good fix for a big security problem, think it was lifehacker withing the last 2 weeks reported that the adverts in free aps are the number 1 source (that or pretty high up) of android malware and viruses as well as general security holes. Adfree is basically a security patch, blocking the apps from calling the add server helps keep ur phone safe.

Although generally if there is a paid version and its something I will use then I will rather support the dev than block the add.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2 Beta-4

How does people without rooted devices keep safe from apps with ads?. I am using a galaxy tab p7500 and would like to make it as secure as possible

 

[CranialBlaze]

How does people without rooted devices keep safe from apps with ads?. I am using a galaxy tab p7500 and would like to make it as secure as possible

You have 3 options

1. Buy app
2. Don't use app
3 Root device and install adblocker.

 

[LemonScrub]

You have 3 options

1. Buy app
2. Don't use app
3 Root device and install adblocker.

Thanks

Doesnt always help if the apps dont have a bought version...

Another thing pertaining to device sercurity.. i came across that one can gain access into the honeycomb device via usb even when the device is locked, and only by disabling usb debugging can this be stopped. Another site refers to have the lock come in immediately after the screen times out, and anything set other than "immediately" poses a security risk, i wonder how this has any insight, since surely if the device is locked the timeout even if set to other options besides "immediately" should have no bearing?

 

[CranialBlaze]

Thanks

Doesnt always help if the apps dont have a bought version...

That's what option 2 is for.