yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] Techdroid20:
Yes I am using the setting as mentioned by you.

I tried different times using adguard or clean browsing dns

But when I am browsing using Chrome or Firefox some of the sites are not connecting.

Should I disable the above setting or perform some other option after adding the servers.

Also the latency is also high.

But I never got this issue using server through private dns.

Please inform
[Android Apps and Games] bilalrajput:
Thank YOu so much bro
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Yes please, disable the option "Block any app not in use". It is an aggressive kill-switch and not intended for everyone but just the power users.

In the upcoming v0.5 release, we plan to include ability to add apps to whitelist (so that they aren't subject to aggressive firewall rules such as this). Another thing we are doing is to add a 30s to 1min delay before that rules is applied, so that, rapidly switching back and forth between apps doesn't cause wierd connectivity issues.

Like I said, this feature is very hard for end-users to reason about...I think we'd probably add an "experimental" tag next to it.
[Android Apps and Games] formerglory:
"Pi-hole in the cloud" - sounds just like NextDNS. Are you familiar with them? I use it and it's excellent, any advantages to your app over NextDNS?

Competition is always good, looking forward to seeing how your development progresses.
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Yes I'm aware of NextDNS and other such solutions in the market like DNSFilter, CleanBrowsing, OpenDNS and others.

Our focus is anti censorship (our servers are domain-fronted by Cloudflare right now, and that means it costs us more money than it usually would, to run a public DNS resolver, but it is censorship resistant: ESNI, behind Cloudflare IPs and firewall etc). Our DNS stub-resolver code (open source may be in a week or two from today-- we need to clean it up of our secrets and keys and stuff) would he dead simple to deploy and run it yourself: Think "one click" and you have a DoH server deployed to over 50+ servers worldwide (pi-hole esque analytics wouldn't be as simple though) with $0 in costs for upto 5 devices (or may be more) worth DNS queries.

As for advantages over NextDNS: There wouldn't be any (DNS-wise they're so prefect) except for the fact (if that counts) that we are focused on being more open with our code: Think GitHub vs GitLab. Our client is already open source, for example, whilst I'm not sure about NextDNS' plans.

Also, apart from anti-censorship, our focus remains on client-side capabilities (mobile-- specifically Android).

If you have any ideas or suggestions please don't hesitate to write to me, I'm mz@celzero.com
[Android Apps and Games] wulfnuts:
Are apps like this safe to use ? Does all my info go through their servers ?
[Android Apps and Games] Technical:
I miss this info into the OP and that's was the reason for me to not install (test) BraveDNS at first time, as I do not want to use brave.com apps.

1. Would it be worth to add ads-filters like Blokada (or other adblockers around)? (Maybe the need for an app outside Google Play again).

2. I really miss blocking apps phoning home facebook.com or google-analytics, for instance. It's not the Facebook/Messenger app itself, but others. By the way, using the DNS log is not possible to know which app is connecting to which subdomain. Anti-tracker features could be added with filters like DuckDuckGo Tracker Radar filter.

3. Show more info in the notification: blocked ads or blocked queries.
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Hey there. You must definitely not install any app you don't trust.

BraveDNS (new name: RethinkDNS) is opensource and you can view the exodus report on the app that's live on the PlayStore here: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.celzero.bravedns/latest/ That said, even Exodus has well-known limitations, one of which is it can only reveal well-known, already known forms of tracking since it relies on static code analysis and doesn't have much intelligence otherwise built-in. But hey, we come out clean in their tests: How many other apps can say that?

BraveDNS doesn't really tunnel all your traffic through its servers but just the DNS traffic and even that is configurable, that is, if you prefer to use another DNS resolver, you're welcome to reconfigure the app to use that. As for our privacy policy, see this: https://bravedns.com/privacy

Either ways, let me know if you have any more questions.

Yeah, it is an unfortunate naming choice, I guess. We've now changed our name to RethinkDNS (hey, don't judge me, our community on Telegram voted this name in :).

Re #1, you can configure blocklists and use the resulting URL as the DoH endpoint in the app: https://bravedns.com/configure

Re #2, we'll add a heuristic to map a DNS request to an app. This feature is due release may be a month or so from now (not more): https://github.com/celzero/brave-android-app/issues/3

Re #3: Interesting suggestion. I've added it to our backlog: https://github.com/celzero/rethink-app/issues/123

BTW, you may also want to try v05 (alpha release and bugs abound, download from the website: https://bravedns.com) which has on-device blocklists, IP blacklists, DNScrypt v2 support, DNS over Tor via Orbot support, forwarding connections to SOCKS5 TCP proxies, and 20 other features.

If you have anymore questions or suggestions, feel free to reach us over on GitHub, here, or over on email: I am mz@celzero.com
[Android Apps and Games] Technical:
I'm not a newbie in any sense. But it's not user-friendly at all. Too intimidating and requires a lot of interactions among the lists.

Thank you.

It shows value. Thank you again.

I've tested... Wow! It's a huge change in the interface (for better) and features. The configuration of block lists are much easier.

I'll have to start "new" suggestions :o

---------- Post added at 10:59 ---------- Previous post was at 10:47 ----------

On alpha version:

1. I miss the version number on the About section.

2. How the non-Play Store version will be updated? There is no setting for updating.

3. Export/import settings: heavy users will like this feature. For instance, when upgrading from v4, I lost all the "excluded apps".

4. I think an option to set a password to protect settings will help (for instance: kids' phone and adult content)

5. I'm a bit worried with the latency time (too high). Is there a way to remove redundancy of the lists or calculate the impact on performance (speed)?

6. On the apps lists (exclusion), can we have filter options? Like "running apps", "system apps", etc.?

7. Minor wish: themes (dark/light) + accent color
[Android Apps and Games] username1100:
does it support tls over dot ?
[Android Apps and Games] Keule-Tm:
DOT=DNS over TLS
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Thanks.

1. Quite a few users asked for this. Added version number in the about page.

2. The app now has a "check for updates" in the About page.

3. Android's native backup solution should work like a charm for import/export, but we haven't implemented it yet. Issue tracker: https://github.com/celzero/brave-android-app/issues/103

4. It is trivial to disable VPN (example, from Android's own Settings app, or by connecting to another VPN, for example, unless "Always-on VPN" is set, which again could be toggled off through the Android's Settings app). What I am trying to say is, protecting an app with password does nothing to prevent anyone from killing it or disabling it, unfortunately. We need to see what else could be done here, but nothing so far that I've looked at will solve this unfortunate problem.

5. Blocklists have no bearing on latency. It is usually either the network or the resolver. The RethinkDNS resolvers are deployed to within 50ms of any city. What latency times do you see and which resolver are you using?

6. Interesting suggestion. Noted: https://github.com/celzero/rethink-app/issues/129

7. Someday... we need to fix the code-base, which is a proper hot-mess of soup, to eventually properly do UI theming among other things. (:

Please do let me know if you have anything else in mind.

No, it does not support DoT. It does support DNSCrypt v2, though.

Nebulo, which is another free and open source DNS changer for Android, supports DoT (and DoH and custom blocklists and DNS proxy mode): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.frostnerd.smokescreen

And so, you can forward DNS connections from RethinkDNS to Nebulo if you really want to use DoT: Run Nebulo in "proxy mode" and afterwards setup RethinkDNS to forward it to Nebulo (from the "Configure" screen in the "DNS" page in RethinkDNS, choose "DNS Proxy", click "Add" and fill in Nebulo's local IP address and port number in the pop-up).

I hope that was clear enough? If not, do let me know if you have any more questions.
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Hey there,

The features you requested are live:

1. DNSCrypt v2 (with anonymized relays) is now supported. One can choose from existing DNSCrypt resolvers and relays or add their own.

2. One can now add DNS over HTTPS and plain-old (unencrypted) DNS resolvers.

3. One can also forward requests to other apps: That is, RethinkDNS can forward both DNS and TCP connections to Orbot, to use DNS over Tor and generally Tor itself as a proxy for all TCP traffic.

4. Added "System Apps" and "System Components" in the application firewall list.

5. You cannot really block a domain yet (this is coming next month), but you can now block individual IP addresses from the "Network Logs" screen in the "Firewall" page.

Try it out and let me know what you think: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.celzero.bravedns
[Android Apps and Games] Technical:
Indeed. I just suggested because, maybe, under the hood we have a different approach, but I think we don't.

I was seeing the latency displayed by the app itself. I've noticed that it shows a higher number and some seconds after that it goes down by ~50ms.

I have issues with WhatsApp Web even allowing it to by-pass the app into Rethink's settings.

The Web interface have quite some issues to sync with the phone.

If I disable Rethink at all, it connects.

The issue does not apply to Blokada.

What kind of logs could be collected to debug this?
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Are you using any of the two "Universal Firewall" settings: "Block any app not in-use" or "Block all apps when device locked"? If so, that might explain why WhatsApp might have been blocked. Of course, if you add WhatsApp to the "Whitelist" (from the Universal Firewall screen), then firewall rules shouldn't apply.

You can inspect the "Network Log" (from the Firewall screen) as well to see if WhatsApp is in fact being blocked by RethinkDNS: Tapping on any entry in Network Log would why a particular connection was allowed or blocked, and that might help narrow down the issue with WhatsApp Web further.

I am on Vanilla Android 10 and WhatsApp Web works for me just fine: Allow Bypass isn't enabled.
[Android Apps and Games] :
Best app ever!

Best app ever, I searched for this kind of app and also tried to log connections with Termux + Proxychains and OpenDNS but this beats it! Especially "Internet log" is WOW! Also check Invisible app...
[Android Apps and Games] Dor71:
Works great, thank you very much.
[Android Apps and Games] astrod:
Works well, thanks for your efforts. One issue is that it frequently crashes and then doesnt restart, leaving me unprotected. I am on unrooted android oreo.
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Thanks. Do let me know if you have any features or other suggestions in mind? I am mz at celzero dot com.

Yeah, we are aware of the frequent crashes and do fix them as we get bugreports or encounter ourselves. Some crashes are just hard to reproduce and hence hard to fix. That said, the app is pretty young and has evolved significantly in the past 4 months. We would better if we simply did a stability focused release and cleaned up the code-base...

If you're so inclined, you can share the debug logs (adb bugreport) with me over email so I can take a look? mz at celzero dot com

Thanks (:
[Android Apps and Games] totalcmdext:
Is it possible to block trackers based on exodus?
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
RethinkDNS, the resolver, supports over 170 blocklists, including some of the bigger ones like 1Hosts, Energized, OISD, Lightswitch05, and GoodbyeAds.

Does Exodus have entries that are missing from these lists?

Besides, we are readying support for over 2400 blocklists tracked by filterlists.com, but that is a few months away.
[Android Apps and Games] rudolfm:
I cannot enter a bootstrap IP for DoH, only a URL. But to resolve this URL, some DNS must be used. Which is used, and can I change it?
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Hi there,

Ability to Bootstrap DoH IPs (like DNSCrypt does) is coming soon to the app: https://github.com/celzero/rethink-app/issues/94

The default DoH resolvers (RethinkDNS Basic, RethinkDNS Plus, Cloudflare, Cloudflare Family, Cloudflare Security) already come with respective IPs bootstrapped.

Today, if no bootstrap IP is present (which is the case for all custom DoH endpoints), the OS provided DNS resolver is used instead (which is usually the network-provided DNS resolver).
[Android Apps and Games] rudolfm:
Thank you. If I were to spoof DNS, I would also redirect all known DoH URLs to my own evil DoH. That is why I consider the boot IP as important.
[Android Apps and Games] androik:
Work fine in my RN9 Pro joyeuse, thank you
[Android Apps and Games] halilb1978:
Can we use this app together with trackercontrol app?
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
We've opened up our blocklists for users to propose / request adding newer ones: https://github.com/serverless-dns/rethink-blocklist-metadata/

True, that's one reason we want to expose bootstrapping IPs to end-users.

Thanks! More improvements coming :)

Unfortunately, you can't in the same profile. But you can across different users and profiles on your Android.
[Android Apps and Games] smilem21:
Hello can't block system components on CAT 62S Pro phone, I would like to disable android OS OTA updates.

Help.
[Android Apps and Games] astrod:
I just started using this app again on a new android 10 device and so far no crashes!

I have a couple of questions:

1. Is it possible to block apps in my work profile? I currently don't see them in the app list (I don't think I can run this app in my work profile and my main profile at the same time...)

2. Are you thinking of implementing separate blocking for different networks (e.g. unmetered WiFi vs cellular)? Something similar to what NetGuard can do? That would be awesome but I know probably a lot of work.

Currently your app is the best firewall/adblocker that I have found so thank very much for it!
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Hi there,

1. Tap on the 'Firewall' card on the homescreen, then go to 'Universal' tab, and look for 'Whitelist App'.

2. Tap on 'Whitelist Apps' and unselect all of those (unless you want to keep them on whitelist for some reason). Apps on the whitelist (allowlist) are exempt from all firewall rules (but not DNS rules). Click 'Done'.

3. Now, navigate to 'All Apps' tab, and see if you can then block 'System Components'.
[Android Apps and Games] den077:
Just want to say many thanks for this app, I can finally use custom private DNS, firewall and VPN together. Waiting now for the next update :)
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Thanks, v053g (released Sep 15) must be even more stable (live on both F-Droid and Google Playstore). We refactored a lot of things and paid up the accumulated technical debt (but it took us 5 months to do it, unfortunately).

Re: Your queries:

1. We haven't tested the app in Work Profile or in multi-user mode, so it may or may not work. As far as limitation in Android is concerned: One can definitely run the same app (even a VPN app) in both the profiles at the same time.

2. Yes, this is coming in v054, due end of this month (October)... or next, depending on how the development goes.
[Android Apps and Games] user4001:
This app is bloody amazing. Never thought I'd get so much control from non-root. Huge thanks 👍
[Android Apps and Games] Toumakun:
Checked that App several Months ago and ditched it in favor of Wireguard.

sadly.

This App is really amazing and recommended and if you guys implement Wireguard in any way. I would buy a lifetime license.

Because DNS / Firewall and Wireguard in one App is just unbeatable.

Edit:

Setup RethinkDNS with enabled Firewall and DNS (Nextdns) + Restricted Mode in VPN

Installed Wireguard and enabled Kernel Backend + imported my pihole Wireguard Config

Now I can connect and surf like I'm in my home network and have the pro capabilities of RethinkDNS.

Best stuff of both worlds.
[Android Apps and Games] Dontasy:
My understanding is that this app bypasses my blocking rules from the /etc/hosts file, right?

Is there a benefit to using this app instead of energized protection magisk module + a custom dns server? (ISP cannot see requests bc they are encrypted with https?).

Or any drawbacks? (More battery usage than hosts file?)

Thanks for any advice .
[Android Apps and Games] Nastrahl:
Editing the HOSTS file is the worst method actually.

It's slow. Hosts file needs to be cached in RAM by the DNS client and that takes time + processing power.

When the DNS cache is flushed, it needs to cache it again.

Internet may be completely unresponsive during the caching

It takes an enormous quantity of RAM especially if you use energized because their lists are huge

There's a high risk of blocking useless domain because you'll never try to resolve in the first place so it's a waste of resources.

It's non optimized as it's supports no filtering rules.

Using a VPN means that it will ignore system's hosts file for the VPN's database so it's an other waste of resources

If you already use a custom DNS server there's no need to use the hosts file. Instead, let the DNS server to filter domains out by importing energized lists in it.

The benefit i see is than you can also make use of the firewall to block locally everything you need per apps, while hosts file/ DNS filtering are system wide.

You can customize a lot of rules based on your preferences also.

I don't know if it can do cosmetic blocking to hide placeholders of ads on websites though
[Android Apps and Games] buddy96:
Just came across it whilst looking for an alternative to blokada as I wanted the ability to block specific apps. Amazing ! and I've only scratched the surface. I'm surprised this has not attracted more attention from users with non-rooted devices.

Thank you !
[Android Apps and Games] celestialspring:
I am waiting for the next version because it will have some features that i must have in such an app.

The devs are working hard on it! Hopefully we will get an update soon.
[Android Apps and Games] FFW:
I just stumbled upon this app from a comment in the weblog of Mike Kuketz - and I did not believe my eyes when I read through this thread: finally there seems a chance to have the combination of a local firewall, ad blocker AND a VPN client to forward the traffic to my own network after filtering on an unrooted Android! This is ***so*** great news!

With an integrated Wireguard client included, this app will be quite likely to replace NetGuard on my phone if it runs stable :)

Some questions I had during setup:

what is the difference between unblocking and whitelisting apps in the firewall module?

while transferring my blocked apps from NetGuard for the test, I found the grouping of the blocked apps a little irritating, especially since there is a button that switches to "unblocked" as soon as I unblock one app of the whole group (and blocks the whole group again if I accidentially press it). Can this be turned off?

I know from Netguard there is a switch to block/unblock apps with "root" id. Is there something similar in ReThinkDNS?

how are the blocklists I have chosen updated? For Netguard, I have the possbility to update the Blocklist I chose to use via tasker in a time interval I can specify (yes, not the most intuitive way to do this...).

can I backup/import my list of blocked/allowed apps and chosen blocklist(s) and other settings?

But: all in all, this looks very promising! I am looking forward on how this app develops!
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Interesting Mike Kuketz should talk about Rethink. We're not European, you see :)

----

Re: Unblocking and whitelisting: Whitelisting is letting an app bypass all "Universal" firewall rules ("Block apps when device is locked", "Block all UDP traffic except DNS and NTP" etc that are enforced across all apps). We have renamed whitelisting to "Bypass universal" in the latest version (`v053i`) to make that more clearer.

Re: Unblock app UI: The UI has seen a considerable change in `v053i`. How do you find the new one? Still long ways to go to fix all the niggling confusing bits in Rethink... but I hope we're going in the right direction.

Re: NetGuard `root` ID: I don't know why NetGuard calls it `root`? On Rethink, `root` only appears in "All Apps" tab if it makes an internet connection. `root` is named `ANDROID` (all caps) in Rethink. There are many such `root` apps, like `GPS`, `MDNSR`, etc. You'd find Rethink track them (and show them in "All Apps") only if they make atleast one internet connection when Rethink is enabled, otherwise not.

Re: Blocklist update: We compress the blocklists and make them available for download on our servers. Users can download them on-demand (these are not auto-downloaded). We tend to update blocklists once a week. As for user setting their own blocklists, Rethink doesn't support them yet, but soon will.

Re: Backup: We're implementing this as we speak! :)

Thanks. We have been doing this for a good part of 2 years now (with two long health / pandemic enforced breaks in between), and despite the bugs and lack of features, it warms our hearts that people find the app promising (we have our share of haters too).
[Android Apps and Games] ignoramous:
Do you know just how they run Blokda? If you did, you'd start questioning the transparency of it all...