yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] sabei:
@ignoramous I seem to have encountered an issue where on the Home screen it says STOP and underneath in pink "no internet" and keeps switching between that and "protected". If I press the || on the left it says paused with a 15m countdown timer.....

Just keeps going from one to other and I cannot access any web sites in my browser.

Restarted multiple times and cleared cache to no avail. Any suggestions short of deleting and reinstalling from scratch?

Internet is definitely connected and made no other changes since last use.

If I switch off Rethink I can access as normal .

I have copied a bug report to my pc if you can tell me where to send it?
[Android Apps and Games] sabei:
Seems like a whole host of people have reported on git hub.......

RDNS Error · Issue #1114 · celzero/rethink-app

When using rdns the app says no internet, after a restart, force stop & clear cache it changes to DNS error. DNS Tab shows a latency of around 50ms.

github.com
[Android Apps and Games] hengkidermawan:
yup, rdns error...try another
[Android Apps and Games] qsu:
For me, there is no such option or maybe it is a matter of code or some compatibility, that when I redirect all traffic through Orbot, for example on Google websites, but also on most websites, verification is required every time, which is very troublesome in everyday use. I tested several VPNs and some of them have this problem, others are even worse - verification is even 3-stage, and for example in some of them this problem does not occur at all, i.e. it works as if it did not exist at all. If it was supposed to be for everyday use and there is no way to turn it off and on, it would have to work like that. Plus terrible battery drain. Normally, the battery lasts me about 3 days with constant use, and if I leave it overnight with the program on at 50%, the phone is black.
[Android Apps and Games] qsu:
Is the censor block option combined with the ad block option or are they two independent options? If it is possible to turn off only the censorship option, how should I do it? I come from a country where this problem does not occur and this feature probably only slows down all the network traffic even further.
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Yeah, starting 16 Oct, our Cloudflare account was locked for reasons of "trust and safety". It is still locked. It took us a while to get the services back up and running without access to the main parts of the Cloudflare platform that "Sky" (our stub DNS resolver) runs on. "Max" (our recursive DNS resolver) was up and running throughout the ordeal. Today, "Sky" runs in a fairly limited mode, but should work almost all the time. Our account has not yet been unlocked, but should happen in the coming days. This process is just too long, apparently.

Anti-censorship comes from the "Firewall". You can use the app in just the "DNS-only" mode if you don't need the "Firewall" or its anti-censorship capabilities. Tap on the down arrow next to the START / STOP button on Rethink's homsecreen to change modes. You can also choose any upstream DNS of your choice from Configure -> DNS

This is a problem because services and websites set strict anti-abuse rules against traffic exiting from known VPN and/or Tor IPs. One way around it is to use VPNs that have good IP reputation (Tor does not) or let you use residential IPs (typically, very expensive).

Rethink does consume ~5% to ~10% battery in DNS + Firewall mode. It consumes way less ~1% to ~2% in DNS-only mode.

Another thing to understand is that battery drains are usually a function of installed apps. At night, it could be that some of the apps are trying to break past Rethink's firewall and end up draining battery (as keep retrying throughout the night; see). You can opt force stop (how) such apps before you go to sleep. Or, relax Rethink's firewall rule-set (for instance, disable pervasive settings like "Block when device is locked"; ref discussion on r/rethinkdns).
[Android Apps and Games] bibikalka:
Here is a feature request. We are using RethinkDNS to block OTA updates on Fire devices. The apps that need blocking are the same for all users. The config is also very much the same. I checked Configure/Settings/[backup+restore] in RethinkDNS, and it wants to save [app settings, network, and dns logs.] It'd be nice to save the full config and the app list separately without any logs, perhaps as a human readable xml file. Then on a new device one would simply import the xml file, and everything is ready to go without user input. Thoughts?

Here is how the OTA gets blocked via RethinkDNS:

[WINDOWS/LINUX][TOOL]Fire Toolbox V35.0

Fire Toolbox V35.0 All-In-One Toolbox for Fire Tablets! The Fire Toolbox is a collection of useful ADB (Android Debug Bridge) tweaks that can be applied to Amazon's Fire Tablets. The Toolbox project aims to help users fully customize...

xdaforums.com

And here is a tweak to add RethinkDNS as VPN via the command line:

[WINDOWS/LINUX][TOOL]Fire Toolbox V35.0

Fire Toolbox V35.0 All-In-One Toolbox for Fire Tablets! The Fire Toolbox is a collection of useful ADB (Android Debug Bridge) tweaks that can be applied to Amazon's Fire Tablets. The Toolbox project aims to help users fully customize...

xdaforums.com
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
We're working on cross-device backup/restore (though, the logs *will* get carried over, but also that the restore process will try to apply as many rules as possible): https://github.com/celzero/rethink-app/issues/757

Ironic. I worked on FireTV and other devices for 5 years at Amazon!
[Android Apps and Games] danielo:
Hello,

I am looking for a firewall that I can install on my son's phone to block the internet connection for some apps via a mobile network. Rethink seems ok for this job, but for some reason, it stops working (it becomes disconnected) after some time and I have to start it again manually in the VPN Android settings or by simply opening the app. In VPN settings I enabled VPN always on option and block connections without VPN option. I also turned off battery optimization for the Rething app. As the application does not have any PIN protection I plan to use another application to lock this app with a PIN, just to prevent turning it off by my son. Any idea why Rething becomes disconnected after some time? My son has a Samsung Galaxy S10e, no rooted with all available updates.

Thanks for any tips/ideas
[Android Apps and Games] orgshooter:
Are you using v0.5.5d?

Then you can try v0.5.5c!
[Android Apps and Games] danielo:
No, I'm on v0.5.5.c
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
PIN protection is planned (but one can enable "biometric" or "password" based lock from Configure -> Settings -> Enable app lock).

Rethink on your Android may be crashing. Would you know how to take bugreports? If so (and if you're comfortable doing so), you can email them to me: mz at celzero dot com (and please mention this thread).

Touche. v055e is imminent ;)
[Android Apps and Games] danielo:
Hi,

but as only I need to manage this VPN, then I need a separate PIN protection, not the one from Android security settings like biometric/password. My son uses those Android settings.

Next time when I find the Rething VPN turned off, I try to get a bug report, so maybe it will help to nail the problem.
[Android Apps and Games] Jumbo100:
FYI

@Datastream33 's Fire Toolbox v34.0 has included RethinkDNS as the pre-configured default process to block OTA Updates on Amazon Fire tablets. From the release notes :

Let's Rethink the Blocking of OTA Updates​

OK, I’ll be the first to admit that the current restriction workaround of setting the Wi-Fi networks as metered isn’t ideal for a large majority of cases. It not only prevents HD streaming in some apps, but can slow down downloads and uploads. So, it would be ideal if we had a different approach, one that just works for our case? Well luckily for us, @blaacksheep has us covered as usual. In today’s update, I’m excited to announce that the Toolbox is now capable of installing and configuring Rethink Dns for tablets running on a restricted firmware! Huge shoutout to @blaacksheep’s guide, It was a very valuable resource in getting this thing setup!

Unlike the metered method, Rethink allows us to block connections to Amazon’s servers, without sacrificing networks speeds. But because Rethink is always running in the background it will consume some RAM which can impact performance on tablets with a lower RAM capacity. Despite this, it’s still worth a try if you’re experiencing issues with the metered method.

The method works by installing Rethink, setting it as an "always on VPN", and then restoring a settings backup that contains the neccessary rules for blacklisting connections to Amazon's OTA updates servers, and preventing network access for the OTA Update system packages.

If you’re interested in trying this method, all you need to do is launch the Modify System Settings tool, and click the toggle next to OTA Updates (you will have to revert the Metered method before the Rethink method can be used), and select Rethink from the new method selection window!
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Also enable "Block connections without VPN" (called the Lockdown mode).

Note that, System Apps (which the FireOS OTA downloader is likely to be) can bypass even locked-down VPNs.

Rethink does support connecting to SOCKS5 and WireGuard upstreams, but the UI may not work on TV screens. We will fix UI for TV within the next 6 months.

Nice! (:
[Android Apps and Games] blackhawk:
Killer firewall! Excellent😎

Stock N10+ running on Android 10. It increased my SOT by over 10%. I'm using Orbot but may not have it set up correctly, currently not using it.

The logging features are great to have on a non rooted device. Fast, efficient and appears to be doing very well. Hasn't adversely effected functionality or usability; just a few minor glitches that were fairly easy to correct. A bit of a learning curve, still playing with it. My first try with it months ago didn't go well but this time it exceeded my expectations (spent more time playing with it). This firewall is great for tracking down the power hogs, a very valuable tool😎 Loving it.

The stats don't lie. SOT was at 8% and now seeing as low as 6% SOT with real time current draws as low as 50 ma with the high idle peaks knocked down too.

For some reason screen off time isn't being accurately recorded by Accubattey; it's >.3% an hour. This has improved as well.

*updated this review and it's all good.
[Android Apps and Games] dagata:
Mod edit - translated by https://translate.google.com/. Oswald Boelcke, Senior Moderator.

Hello, my name is Dimitar, I am an ordinary user and I do not understand much about this program. I am using pixel 8 pro, can you please explain how I should set up the app step by step to be effective for my phone. I currently set it to always vpn from phone settings. I would be very grateful if you could reply and teach me how to use the app, thanks! I don't speak English so I use google translate sorry for that!

*********************************

Здравейте, казвам се Димитър, аз съм обикновен потребител и не разбирам много за тази програма. Използвам pixel 8 pro, можете ли да обясните как трябва да настроя приложението стъпка по стъпка, за да бъде ефективно за моя телефон. В момента го задавам винаги на vpn от настройките на телефона. Ще съм много благодарен, ако можете да ми отговорите и да ме научите как да използвам приложението, благодаря! Не говоря английски, така че използвам google translate съжалявам за това!
[Android Apps and Games] Oswald Boelcke:
Hello and good afternoon, @dagata Welcome to XDA! I hope you'll always get the support you require and have enjoyable times on our Forums.

However, as a one-time courtesy I've translated your above post. With reference to rule no. 4 of the XDA Forum Rules, please post in English or add at least an English translation to your Bulgarian posts.

Spoiler content hidden.

Regards

Oswald Boelcke

Senior Moderator
[Android Apps and Games] maybeme2:
I am a simple enduser who applauds you for your efforts.

I am unrooted and currently use Netguard VPN and adblock Plus on my phone with Fairmail for my emails and Duckduckgo for browsing. Though very interested in privacy I'm really no expert.

So, how does my setup's protection compare with the Rethink protection? Am I missing an important component?

Thank you.
[Android Apps and Games] Steelskinz:
I only use rethink for DNS settings on child's smartphone but i can't autorun and pin password the app to prevent change. I see you plan to use global settings password.

Do you plan to add a custom password for the app ? Would be awesome. Thanks
[Android Apps and Games] MachinTrucChose:
Great app, great featureset. I feel a bit bad since this is pretty much the equivalent of a premium Netguard for free. I hope M66B/Netguard dev, who's been serving this need on his own for like a decade, isn't too affected.

Question: does this have Netguard's wide open design flaw where if you reboot the phone (or it reboots on you, or you run out of battery and have to power it on, etc etc), there is a time window at startup, just before Rethink launches, where the firewall is down and all the blocked apps that launch before Rethink can upload freely?

If you use these firewalls for privacy reasons, then it doesn't matter if something works 99% of the time, if it lets them upload all the queued spyware the other 1% of the time.

Question 2: in both Netguard (which I had on my previous phone) and Rethink, I hoped to mitigate the above flaw by configuring the VPN entry to Always On. But when I do, Internet stops working completely ((whether Block Connections Without VPN is checked or not). Why is that? Why can't we have a VPN firewall and not allow any connections until it's up, like with a real VPN?

Quick feedback:

1. By default all apps are unblocked, and it wasn't obvious to me how to block them all without doing it one by one (I like to Block All + Whitelist specific apps). I recommend you give a first-time dialog popup that asks the user what the initial behavior should be. Those icons/buttons are not obvious.

2. Until I did trial and error I couldn't figure out if "Rethink Plus" meant that the feature required an upgrade to a paid version. But no, everything seems to work. Whatever your intentions are, I've been conditioned to believe as a normal user that "Plus" translates to "unavailable on the free version" so you gotta improve on the UI messaging.

3. The blocklist list is huge and although you give broad categories there's no indication how each entry compares to others in its category. A simple ? button to get a description would be nice.
[Android Apps and Games] blackhawk:
Uses less battery, a lot less. I think Rethink's UI is better, great monitoring setup and the dns log is very handy.

I've rebooted and done cold reboots dozens of times with no issues as long as the firewall is set to run on start. Stuff would slip by Karma Firewall so I needed to put it in airplane mode before reboot. I haven't seen Rethink let any of my pesky apps get through... and they try like all hell at startup.

For a stock phone it doesn't get any better. Rethink is using a similar amount of battery as Karma which is easy on the power. Rethink enabled me to track down and shutdown dozens of trouble makers with relatively little effort.
[Android Apps and Games] MachinTrucChose:
Your firewall is set to run at startup, but so are many of the apps you want to block. How do you know the apps are not uploading at startup if they launch before Rethink?

I set up Swiftkey (keyboard app) once and blocked it permanently in Netguard. Then after a few months, in Settings -> Mobile Data I saw it had used 500KB data. That means Microsoft successfully received grabbed all my typing data from all those months.

It doesn't matter if you block it for 1 year or 10 years, all it needs is a window of 1 second of unblocked Internet at startup to upload and all your efforts have been pointless.

I would sure like a Rethink developer to answer this. There's no point to using Rethink for privacy if this flaw exists, it could only serve as an adblocker. People shouldn't be given the false illusion of privacy.
[Android Apps and Games] blackhawk:
If that really concerns you disable the offending apps!

Or put into airplane mode before rebooting.

Auto reboots aren't needed and a properly set up Android does not crash or self reboot. Personally I'm not losing sleep over this.

It's an interesting question though. Can you set start up that priority as a coder on a 3rd party app?

In Autostarts Rethink is listed as run after startup. It's pretty high of the list but not on top (if that's the actual sequence). It's about 2 dozen down (not shown in this screenshot).

There's a few trash apps above it.
[Android Apps and Games] MachinTrucChose:
>If that really concerns you disable the offending apps!

If this is the solution, then what's the point of using Rethink for privacy reasons? (which is a benefit Rethink advertises)

If I trusted every application I ran, I wouldn't need Rethink. If this was a GrapheneOS phone running apps exclusively off F-Droid, I wouldn't need a firewall.

I use a firewall because I try to get the best deal in the eternal sacrifice between usability and privacy. I have to use spyware apps to make the most of my phone, a robust firewall allows me to neuter all the downsides of those apps, so I try to get the best outcome for myself.

>Or put into airplane mode before rebooting

What happens if a bug causes an app to drain the battery while you're talking a shower?

What if your girlfriend bumps into your bedstand at night and this accidentally unplugs your phone from the charger and the battery empties by morning?

What happens if you get so lost looking at photos of Suchar Pinchai that you don't pay attention to the battery creeping to 0% during your furious masturbation session?

Can you guarantee none of this will happen for all the years you'll keep your phone?

And of course, you're wrong about Android phones not crashing. I didn't imagine the 3 crashes I had on my previous phone.

Look, I think you're way too optimistic (naive) to be able to give good advice on privacy issues. I appreciate that you're trying to help, and I'd buy you a beer if I met you, but no one who cares about privacy should follow your advice. It's downright dangerous.

Btw, the order of apps in Autostarts is probably meaningless. If it's like regular Linux, it's just the order in which launcher scripts are called. Each started app then needs some time until it's fully operational (varies depending on the app, the code it executes at startup, the libraries it loads, etc), so by the time Rethink is blocking new connections, an app listed after it might already have launched and sent its data.

The only people who can answer my initial question are devs, or people who have good test setups (not me).
[Android Apps and Games] blackhawk:
The only way to get what you want on a stock Android would be for the developer (and you) to give it Administrative privileges. That would make the device potentially less secure and be complete overkill.

Even my "untrusted" apps have no potential to cause damage or critical data loss if the firewall fails... otherwise they be long gone.

This stock N10+ running on Android 10 has had Rethink running on it for almost 3 months. After a brief learning curve Rethink has caused zero issues. With a 3900 mAh rated battery I'm getting 6-10% @ hour SOT. It's not hard on battery at all.

This is streaming vids today more then half of that time.
[Android Apps and Games] blackhawk:
Has anyone ever seen something like this?

It would generate random names and appear a couple times a day. Because it kept altering its name I couldn't block it. No excessive upload data were generated.

Not tracked down as I first thought...
[Android Apps and Games] GalaxyA325G:
Hi guys, I just found out about ReThink yesterday from blackhawk over here... where I have known for years about NetGuard & more recently about PrivateDNS where my goal is privacy on an unrootable Galaxy with most Google packages long ago uninstalled from the user space using using adb.

My main goal in that old thread was to prevent the creation/upload of the Firebase App Indexing information (particularly for Google Map searches) which, if someone knows how to do with ReThink, please let me know (as I've failed, for years, at preventing the Firebase App Indexing information from being periodically uploaded to unknown servers).

In addition, if there is a good comparison of the three privacy approaches, I'd love a pointer

ReThink APK (with ad blocking HOSTS)

NetGuard APK (with ad blocking HOSTS)

Standard Android native PrivateDNS settings
[Android Apps and Games] Steelskinz:
You can block firebaseinstallations.googleapis.com url in hosts file or with DNS
[Android Apps and Games] GreenDotBlue:
You could also use App Manager (foss) to block Firebase trackers and yes components in apps.

App Manager has a bit learning curve but it's worth it

App Manager - Android package manager | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

A full-featured open source package manager for android.

f-droid.org

(There's also v. 4.0 beta available at F-droid it's very stable)
[Motorola Edge Guides, News, & Discussion] For_itembine:
Is there a screen protector on this phone that I can't see or it's just grainy? I haven't seen a grainy phone display for years, I know it's pentile AMOLED and only 1080p, but grain is really obvious lower brightness on white/light backgrounds
[Motorola Edge Guides, News, & Discussion] trickbiker121:
I also see a grainy display, sometimes it's bothersome especially on views that have same solid color. Coming from an original Pixel XL that AMOLED screen did not have a grainy image.
[Motorola Edge Guides, News, & Discussion] For_itembine:
Yes gradient/blur pictures/wallpapers look terrible on this phone ?
[Motorola Edge Guides, News, & Discussion] bronkish:
No such grainy display in November. Bestbuy retail.
[Google Pixel Questions & Answers] JanuGerman:
Hi,

After I manually erased all the partitions on my Pixel (Sailfish) by using fastboot erase < name of the partition) on bootloader screen (please don't ask me why I did that :-| ) , I am not able to install Android 8.1 or any newer Android versios on that. I can install only Andorid 7.11 to 8.0 versions from google factory image site.

if I install 8. 1 or newer version, the device constantly reboots and sometimes stops in stock recovery or on the bootloader screen. I have tried pretty much everything with no sucess. Before erasing partitions, phone was working fine with Android 10 with December 2019 updates.

I will be ok and satisified if I can at least get Android 8.1 with July 2018 updates. Can someone please help me figure out what the heck is wrong with my device. There is no physical, or electrical damage on the device whatsoever.

Thanks.
[Google Pixel Questions & Answers] JanuGerman:
There is a difference and something strange, that I can't seem to grasp, between any version of Android 8.0 or prior and Android 8.1 or newer. some partition(s), checksum or a flag seems to be off...goddamnit!:crying:
[Google Pixel Questions & Answers] JanuGerman:
Well, I was able to get a copy of persist.img from someone online and restore the /persist partition on my OG Pixel (Sailfish) and now I am able to boot into Android 10. if someone needs any help in this regard, I will be more than happy to help. Thanks. ciao :D
[Huawei Ascend XT Guides, News, & Discussion] Aguamandan:
Alright, so I achieved root with that frp key. Fastboot isn't right, it still thinks frp is locked, but I have su access, magisk is fully functional. TWRP is good. Got her done, fellas. Thanks for the help.
[Huawei Ascend XT Guides, News, & Discussion] clsA:
care to explain the steps ?

pretty sure I covered about everything