PfBlocker is a package for pfSense version 2.x that allows you to add IP block list and country block functions to a pfSense firewall or router. PfBlocker was created to replace the functions of the IP Blocklist ,and Country Block packages.
I would consider this package a must have package for anyone running an email server on their network. This package will quickly allow you to block the top 10 countries where spam originates from.
PfBocker also allows you to configure custom block lists for blocking traffic to or from any IP addresses or networks that you specify.
There are several free block lists which are available on the web that target known malicious IP ranges, botnet IP addresses, compromised IP's, and more.
Installing the Package
To install the package open the pfSense package manager by clicking on 'Packages' in the system menu. Locate the package in the list and click the plus symbol on the right side to begin the installation.
PfBlocker is only available for pfSense version 2.x, so if you haven't upgraded your pfSense installation then you'll need to do so before you can use this package.
After the installation is finished you will have a new menu item in the firewall menu for the package.
Configuration
The first tab of the configuration page contains the general package settings. To turn on the blocker you must select the check box 'Enable pfBlocker', otherwise no firewall rules will be created.
I also like to go ahead and enable the logging feature, it's much easier to troubleshoot any problems that may occur if the logs are turned on.
You will also need to configure the inbound and outbound interfaces and their associated actions, below are explanations for each setting.
Inbound Interface(s) - If you intend to block incoming traffic to your network then you should select your WAN interface in this section.
Inbound deny action - I recommend sticking with the default action of 'Block'. Blocked traffic will be silently dropped by the firewall and the source will not be notified with a reset packet or ICMP unreachable message.
Outbound Interface(s) - If you want to block outgoing traffic from within your network select the LAN interface here. This feature is useful if you want to prevent the users on your network from connecting to IP addresses on the block lists.
Outbound deny action - Again the default action here is usually suitable. Reject will notify the source IP with either a reset (RST) packet or an ICMP unreachable message for UDP traffic. A reject is useful for LAN hosts because it can provide applications and users some idea of what is going on with their traffic.
When you're finished with the general settings click on the save button.
Top Spammers
The Top Spammers tab allows you to quickly block any of the top 10 countries that spam originates from.
If you are hosting a mail server on your network then this feature is an easy way to reduce the amount of spam coming into your network.
Configuration
Blocking Individual Countries
The package comes pre-loaded with subnet lists for many different countries. You can select individual countries to block by clicking on the continent tabs in pfBlocker.
After selecting a continent page you can choose one or more countries to block. To select multiple countries hold the control button while making your selections.
The default action is 'Disabled' which will not block the countries. You must make a selection of either 'Deny Inbound' , or 'Deny Outbound' to actually block the traffic.
You can whitelist a country by changing the action to one of the permit functions.
Adding Block Lists
One of the great features of this package is that you can add your own IP lists. The list feature allows you to specify a URL for a public block list which can be automatically downloaded and updated by the package.
PfBlocker supports lists in either text or gzip format.
The custom list function allows you to specify a list of IP's or networks in CIDR format to add to a blocklist.
Adding a Custom List
Useful IP Block Lists
This table contains some of the most popular block lists available on the web. You can find many more at www.iblocklist.com
Managing Custom Lists
After the list custom list has been saved it will appear in the lists tab. If you plan to add multiple custom lists be sure to set a descriptive name so you can keep track of them.
To make changes to the custom list click on the edit button on the right side. To remove the ilst entry click the X symbol.
Memory Utilization
It's also important to keep in mind that each block list that is enabled will consume system RAM. If your pfSense box doesn't have enough memory then performance can suffer as a result.
You can monitor memory utilization using the system information dashboard widget. If you find that you are operating above 75% memory usage then you should consider adding more RAM to the system.
Checking the Status of pfBlocker
The easiest way to make sure that pfBlocker is functioning is to use the dashboard widget.
The pfBlocker dashboard widget will list the number of CIDR ranges that are loaded for each alias, the number of packets blocked by each list, the status (enabled/disabled) of each list.
Troubleshooting
If pfBlocker doesn't seem to be blocking any traffic there are a few things you can check that may resolve your problems. For additional assistance check out the pfSense forums.
Since pfSense is a stateful firewall a new rule will not be applied to existing states.
This means that a rule to block traffic will not affect existing traffic until the state clears. You can manually clear the states by rebooting pfSense, or on states page (diagnostics States Reset states).
This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.
© 2011 Sam Kear
Editor's Note For Parents: Always educate yourself and children on the dangers of online child predators. Learn how to monitor your child's activities online (on smartphones, too!), block access to websites or disable a webcam if you are concerned about your child having access to these and other similar sites.
The world's most popular social networking sites certainly have changed over the years, and they'll undoubtedly continue to change as time moves forward. Old social networks will die, popular ones will stick around as they're forced to evolve, and brand new ones will appear (just watch out for fake news sites!)
We've moved on from the days of MySpace to a social media era now dominated by Facebook and all sorts of other social mobile apps. A lot of kids even admit to using Snapchat the most, suggesting that it could be the future of where social networking is headed.
So, what's everyone using right now? Have a look through the updated roundup of social networks below to see which ones are currently the trendiest.
What We Like
What We Don't Like
Most of us already know that Facebook is the top social network on the web. It's a thriving beast of a social networking site on the web with about 2 billion monthly active users and more than one billion that log on daily (according to Facebook itself).
Statista shows that Facebook Messenger, with tons of cool features, is the second most popular messaging app behind WhatsApp. People use Facebook individually and by joining or setting up groups.
After failing to acquire Snapchat in 2013, Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 so that it could be the one that was on top of instant messaging.
What We Like
What We Don't Like
Twitter is known as the real-time, public microblogging network where news breaks first. Most users love it for its short message limit (now 280 characters) and unfiltered feed that showed them absolutely everything in the form of tweets.
Twitter has changed dramatically over the years, and today it's criticized a lot for going the way of looking and functioning almost exactly like Facebook. Besides Twitter Card integration, which now makes it easy to share all sorts of multimedia content in tweets, you can expect to see algorithmic timelines coming to Twitter as well.
What We Like
What We Don't Like
LinkedIn is a social network for professionals. Anyone who needs to make connections to advance their careers should be on LinkedIn. Profiles are designed to look sort of like extremely detailed resumes, with sections for work experience, education, volunteer work, certifications, awards and all sorts of other relevant work-related information.
Users can promote themselves and their businesses by making connections with other professionals, interacting in group discussions, posting job ads, applying to jobs, publishing articles to LinkedIn pulse and so much more.
YouTubeWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
Where does everyone go to watch or share video content online? It's obviously YouTube. After Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine. Despite being owned by Google, YouTube can still be recognized as a separate social network all on its own as the premiere place online to go to watch videos on every topic under the sun and upload your own as well.
From music videos and movies, to personal vlogs and independent films, YouTube has it all. YouTube also launched a premium subscription option, called YouTube Red, which removes all advertisements from videos. It also now offers YouTubeTV, a separate live streaming subscription service.
If you have kids watching youtube videos, you should probably use parental controls.
What We Like
What We Don't Like
Instagram has grown to be one of the most popular social networks for photo sharing that the mobile web has ever seen. It's the ultimate social network for sharing real-time photos and short videos while on the go.
Now it's even a leading advertising platform for brands as well as Instagram Influencers, who legitimately generate income through the network.
The app had initially been available for the iOS platform for quite some time as it grew in popularity, but has since expanded to Android and Windows phones, along with the web. Instagram was bought for a hefty $1 billion by Facebook in 2012.
What We Like
What We Don't Like
Pinterest has become a major player both in social networking and in the search world, proving just how important visual content has become on the web. As the fastest standalone site ever to reach 10 million monthly unique visits, Pinterest's beautiful and intuitive pinboard-style platform is one of the most enticing and useful resources for collecting the best images that can be categorized into separate boards.
Pinterest is also growing to become a huge influencer in social shopping, now featuring 'Buy' buttons right on pins of products sold by some retailers.
TumblrWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
Tumblr is an extremely popular social blogging platform that's heavily used by teens and young adults. Like Pinterest, it's best known for sharing visual content. Users can customize their blog theme, create blog posts in all sorts of different types of content formats, follow other users to see content in their dashboard feed and be followed back.
Reblogging and liking posts is a popular way to interact. If you post great content, you could end up with thousands of reblogs and likes depending on how far it gets pushed out into the Tumblr community.
SnapchatWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
Snapchat is a social networking app that thrives on instant messaging and is totally mobile-based. It's one of the fastest growing apps out there, building its popularity on the idea of self-destructing 'snaps.' You can send a photo or short video as a message (a snap) to a friend, which automatically disappears a few seconds after they've viewed it.
Kids love this app because it takes the pressure off of having to share something with everyone like they would on traditional social networks. Snapchat is easy to learn. Snapchat also has a unique feature called Stories, which allows users to share snaps publicly when they want. Facebook and Instagram have recently added Stories as well.
What We Like
What We Don't Like
Reddit has never really had the nicest design but don't let that fool you – it's a happening place on the web. It has a very strong and smart community of people who come together to talk about the topics they love while sharing links, photos and videos relevant to the subreddit topic thread where they're participating.
Reddit AMAs are another cool feature, which allow users to ask questions to celebs and other public figures who agree to host one. Reddit works by displaying submitted links that get voted up or down by users. The ones that receive the most upvotes will get pushed to the first page of their subreddits.
FlickrWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
Flickr is Yahoo's popular photo-sharing network, which existed long before other popular competing networks like Pinterest and Instagram entered the social photo sharing game. It's still one of the best places to upload photos, create albums and show off your photography skills to your friends.
Yahoo has also worked hard at regularly updating its mobile apps with lots of great features and functions so that it's easy and enjoyable to use from a mobile device. Users can upload 1,000 GB worth of photos for free to Flickr and use the powerful app to organize and edit them however they like.
Swarm by FoursquareWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
Foursquare has broken up its location-based app into two parts. While its main Foursquare app is now meant to be used as a location discovery tool, its Swarm app is all about being social. You can use it to see where your friends are, let them know where you are by checking in, and chat or plan to meet up at a specific location sometime later.
Since launching Swarm, Foursquare has introduced some new features that turn interaction into games so that users have the opportunity to earn prizes.
KikWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
Kik is a free instant messaging app that's very popular with teens and young adults. Users can chat with each other one-on-one or in groups by using Kik usernames (instead of phone numbers). In addition to text-based messages, users can also send photos, animated GIFs and videos to their friends. Although it's most useful for chatting with people you already know, Kik also gives users the opportunity to meet and chat with new people based on similar interests. Similar to Snapchat snapcodes, Kik users can easily scan other users' Kik codes to add them easily.
According to the FBI, this app in particular makes it extremely easy for people of all ages to contact one another; use exra caution with children and teens. Teach them of the dangers of online child predators.
PeriscopeWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
Periscope is all about live web video broadcasting from your mobile device. It's a Twitter-owned app that's had its fair share of rivalry against another competing broadcasting app called Meerkat. Anyone who starts a new broadcast can send instant notifications to people so they can tune in to start interacting by leaving comments and hearts. Broadcasters have the option to allow replays for users who missed out, and they can also host private broadcasts for specific users. Anyone who just wants to watch something can open up the app and browse through all sorts of broadcasts that are currently being hosted live.
MediumWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
Medium is perhaps the best social network for readers and writers. It's sort of like a blogging platform similar to Tumblr, but features a very minimal look to keep the emphasis on content that's shared there. Users can publish their own stories and format them just the way they want with photos, videos, and GIFs to support their storytelling. All content is driven by the community of users who recommend stories they like, which show up in the feeds of users who follow them. Users can also follow individual tags as a way to subscribe to content focused on topics of interest.
SoundCloudWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
SoundCloud is the world's most popular social network for sharing sounds. Most users share music they've made or podcasts they've recorded. In fact, if you're looking for a new free music app, SoundCloud should be one to try out. While you won't exactly get to listen to all the popular songs you hear on the radio or can listen to on Spotify, you'll get to discover lots of covers and remixes that are often better than their original versions. Even so, many well-known popular artists use the platform, so you can follow your favorites to listen to what they've decided to promote on SoundCloud. You can also discover what's trending, browse by genre, and create your own playlists with tracks that you love.
TinderWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
Tinder is a popular location-based dating app that matches you up with people in your area. Users can set up a brief profile that mainly highlights their photo, and then anyone who's matched up to them can anonymously swipe right to like their profile or left to pass on it as a match. If some who liked a profile likes theirs back, then it's a match, and the two users can start chatting privately with each other through the app. Tinder is completely free, but there are premium features that allow users to connect with people in other locations, undo certain swipes and get more 'Super Likes' to let another user know they're extra special.
What We Like
What We Don't Like
Currently the most popular instant messaging provider worldwide, WhatsApp is a cross-platform app that uses your internet connection or data plan to send and receive messages. Users can send messages to individuals or groups using text, photos, videos and even voice messages. Unlike Kik and other popular messaging apps, WhatsApp uses your phone number rather than usernames or pins (despite being an alternative to SMS). Users can allow WhatsApp to connect to their phone's address book so that their contacts can be seamlessly transferred to the app. The app also offers a few customizable features like profiles, wallpapers and notification sounds.
SlackWhat We Like
What We Don't Like
Slack is a popular communication platform for teams that need to collaborate closely with one another. It's basically a social network for the workplace. Team members can take advantage of real-time messaging, integration with other popular services like Dropbox and Trello, deep search for files and other information, configurable notifications and so much more. It's meant to keep everyone in the loop about what's going on at work or with a particular collaborative project and is super helpful for teams that include members working from different locations.
Google+What We Like
What We Don't Like
Making its debut in the early summer of 2011, Google+ became the fastest growing social network the web has ever seen. After failing a couple times already with Google Buzz and Google Wave, the search giant finally succeeded at creating something that stuck . . . kind of.
Nobody really needed another Facebook clone, so Google+ had always been widely criticized for being a social network that nobody really used. In late 2015, a brand new Google+ was rolled out to put more emphasis on its Communities and Collections features to help differentiate the platform a bit more and give existing users more of what they wanted.
According to Wikipedia: 'In October 2018, Google announced that it was shutting down Google+ for consumers, citing low user engagement and a software error, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, that potentially exposed the data of hundreds of thousands of users. Google indicated that Google+ would operate until August 2019, allowing users to download and migrate their information.'
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Certain websites not only distract employees from their work but also pose a security risk to the company. Facebook and other social networking sites are often targets of malware as hackers use social engineering to trick their users into downloading viruses. To prevent workers from accessing unauthorized websites, configure your router to block certain keywords and domains.
NETGEAR1.
Connect to your network. Navigate to the following Web address: 192.168.1.1
2.
Use 'password' or '1234' as the password and then press 'Enter'; use the second option if the first does not work.
3.
Select 'Block Sites' under Content Filtering. Click 'Domain Blocking' and then select 'Always.'
4.
Enter into the blank field the domain you want to block. For example, to block Facebook, enter 'facebook.com' into the field.
5.
Click 'Add Domain' to block the website. Repeat the step for each domain to be blocked. Once all the blocked domains are entered, click 'Apply' to set up the filter on the network.
Linksys
Connect to the Linksys router. From a Web browser, navigate to the address '192.168.1.1' -- without the quotes.
2.
Enter 'admin' into the Password field. Click 'OK' to sign in to the Linksys device.
3.
Click 'Access Restrictions.' Choose a number from the Access Blocking Policy drop-down menu.
4.
Create a name for the policy and then select 'Enabled.' Click 'Edit List.'
5.
Enter into the MAC Address fields the physical addresses of the computers or devices you want to restrict.
6.
Click 'Deny.' Confirm that 'Every Day' and '24 Hours' are selected. Enter into the URL fields the websites to block. Click 'Save Settings' to restrict Web access on the network.
TRENDnet1.
Connect to the TRENDnet router and then navigate to the following URL from a Web browser: 192.168.10.1
2.
When prompted, enter 'admin' into both login fields. Press 'Enter' to proceed.
3.
Select 'Advanced,' and then choose 'Web Filter.' Click 'Enable' and then enter into the Web Site field the address to block.
4.
4 Social Networking Sites
Click 'Save' to block the website on the network. Repeat the above step to block additional sites.
TipsTop Social Networks 2019
References (4)About the Author
Ruri Ranbe has been working as a writer since 2008. She received an A.A. in English literature from Valencia College and is completing a B.S. in computer science at the University of Central Florida. Ranbe also has more than six years of professional information-technology experience, specializing in computer architecture, operating systems, networking, server administration, virtualization and Web design.
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Ranbe, Ruri. 'How to Configure a Router to Block Websites.' Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/configure-router-block-websites-55204.html. Accessed 03 July 2019.
Ranbe, Ruri. (n.d.). How to Configure a Router to Block Websites. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/configure-router-block-websites-55204.html
Ranbe, Ruri. 'How to Configure a Router to Block Websites' accessed July 03, 2019. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/configure-router-block-websites-55204.html
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