General MoBlock thread

[lovinglinux]

Hi jre,

Moblock is not updating /var/lib/blockcontrol/guarding.p2p when restarting.

As you know, I only use local lists and I update them using a script. After updating my lists today and restarting blockcontrol, I've noticed that there was a difference between the number of ranges loaded by moblock and the local list being used. Moblock ranges simply didn't change.

So I did a test. I changed the local list used by moblock and restarted it. The ranges in moblock were updated accordingly. Then I changed the local list used back to the previous one and restarted moblock. The ranges were updated correctly, according to the new number of ranges in the edited list. Then I added a new line in my scripts to delete /var/lib/blockcontrol/guarding.p2p before any list changes and it works now. So it seems that moblock is not updating /var/lib/blockcontrol/guarding.p2p if I do not change the list used or if I do not delete this file first.

I know my case is a particular one, but I think this is something that should be investigated, because other users might be affected too. They might be using the same list cache for days or even weeks if this also affects on-line lists.

I hope this helps.

[jre]

Thanks. First off, this affects only users with local blocklists. Users with online lists are not affected.

I designed blockcontrol the following way: MoBlock loads the master blocklist (/var/lib/blockcontrol/guarding.p2p). This gets built from the single blocklists, but MoBlock does not know about them. The master blocklist gets rebuilt from the single blocklists:

• after "blockcontrol update" or "reload"
• if there is no master blocklist on "start"/"restart"/"reload"
• on "start"/"restart" if /etc/blockcontrol/blocklists.list or the variables BLOCKLIST_FORMAT or IP_REMOVE changed.

I decided against a rebuilt on every start, because I want to avoid this time consuming task if possible. For the same reason I don't want to check every single blocklist if it changed (this is not necessary because they only change on "update"). But I now realized that I still have to check local single blocklists for changes, because they can change without an "update".
This will slow down the "start" for the amount of time needed to get the locallist's md5sum. So this won't affect normal users, but guys like you.

Thanks for reporting this. It's good to know that some people really check my work.
jre

[lovinglinux]

Thanks. First off, this affects only users with local blocklists. Users with online lists are not affected.

I designed blockcontrol the following way: MoBlock loads the master blocklist (/var/lib/blockcontrol/guarding.p2p). This gets built from the single blocklists, but MoBlock does not know about them. The master blocklist gets rebuilt from the single blocklists:

• after "blockcontrol update" or "reload"
• if there is no master blocklist on "start"/"restart"/"reload"
• on "start"/"restart" if /etc/blockcontrol/blocklists.list or the variables BLOCKLIST_FORMAT or IP_REMOVE changed.

I decided against a rebuilt on every start, because I want to avoid this time consuming task if possible. For the same reason I don't want to check every single blocklist if it changed (this is not necessary because they only change on "update"). But I now realized that I still have to check local single blocklists for changes, because they can change without an "update".
This will slow down the "start" for the amount of time needed to get the locallist's md5sum. So this won't affect normal users, but guys like you.

Thanks for reporting this. It's good to know that some people really check my work.
jre

Thanks for the explanation. It makes perfect sense now.

I don't use use the update feature, because I thought it was designed only to grab the lists from the net, which is unnecessary in my case. I also thought that the master list was updated on every "start"/"restart". I remember there was a message about guarding.p2p being built when running those commands through mobloquer. Did you changed this behavior when you introduced blockcontrol?

This really don't affect me that much, because I usually switch between local lists all the time, by replacing /etc/blockcontrol/blocklists.list with presets. Now that I know how it actually works I just need to delete the master list before starting moblock to make sure it will be updated. Not a big deal. It's already in my scripts.

[jre]

Well, years ago the master blocklist was always rebuilt on start, but then there was also a update on start.
Then the most time I had only point 1 and 2 from my last post. So at that time a "restart" was the wrong thing when you only made blocklist changes, instead a "reload" was necessary.
The actual behaviour (added the intelligent checking from point 3) is since moblock-control 1.2-1.
So no, I didn't change this behaviour in a not-so-good way since mobloquer exists (IIRC).

I'm not sure what mobloquer says, but mobloquer "might" be wrong, since it was written by someone else. Only believe what you see in /var/log/blockcontrol.log (you still can see this log in mobloquer. Most probably you were talking about this.). So I'm not sure if you don't remember correctly, or if there is a bug in mobloquer/blockcontrol, or if I don't remember correctly. Unless you insist I tend to believe everything is ok

BTW: Most feature changes happen(ed) independent of name changes. In the past even version numbers didn't tell, if there were big changes. But I try to change this in order to get more user friendly. If you are interested in the changes have a look at /usr/share/doc/blockcontrol/changelog.Debian.gz (this is the default place for every Debian package).

[lovinglinux]

So I'm not sure if you don't remember correctly, or if there is a bug in mobloquer/blockcontrol, or if I don't remember correctly. Unless you insist I tend to believe everything is ok

Don't worry, I'm probably wrong about this and I'm definitely not insisting . I was just curious. It is probably a confusion due to the way I update things and use multiple configuration setups. Anyways, it's all good now.

Thanks for you help.

[chinaski]

I have a question:

I turned blockcontrol on after rebooting the router (new public IP address) and was checking /var/log/moblock.log to see if anything happens

amule is off (I use no other P2P apps)

nothing happens

but if I turn Skype on, blockcontrol start blocking

here's a log example:

Fri May 29 23:34:41| OUT: Skype,hits: 4,DST: 204.9.163.214
during those 4 minutes skype was off
Fri May 29 23:38:33| OUT: Skype,hits: 5,DST: 204.9.163.214
Fri May 29 23:38:35| OUT: Bogon,hits: 9,DST: 239.255.255.250
Fri May 29 23:38:35| OUT: Bogon,hits: 10,DST: 239.255.255.250
Fri May 29 23:38:35| OUT: Bogon,hits: 11,DST: 239.255.255.250
Fri May 29 23:38:35| OUT: Bogon,hits: 12,DST: 239.255.255.250
Fri May 29 23:38:35| OUT: Communications Networking Services,hits: 9,DST: 212.8.163.76
Fri May 29 23:38:35| OUT: Skype Technologies,hits: 1,DST: 194.165.188.76
Fri May 29 23:38:35| OUT: Skype,hits: 6,DST: 204.9.163.214
Fri May 29 23:38:35| OUT: Vodafone Omnitel N.V,hits: 1,DST: 93.150.84.252
Fri May 29 23:38:35| OUT: Vodafone Omnitel N.V,hits: 2,DST: 93.150.84.252
Fri May 29 23:38:35| OUT: University of New South Wales,hits: 1,DST: 149.171.92.172
Fri May 29 23:38:36| OUT: University of New Brunswick,hits: 1,DST: 131.202.34.5
Fri May 29 23:38:36| OUT: Videotron Telecom Ltee,hits: 1,DST: 207.253.162.42
Fri May 29 23:38:36| OUT: Vida Optics TVV,hits: 1,DST: 89.215.255.71
Fri May 29 23:38:37| OUT: Communications Networking Services,hits: 10,DST: 212.8.163.76
Fri May 29 23:38:37| OUT: Skype,hits: 7,DST: 204.9.163.214
Fri May 29 23:38:37| OUT: University of New South Wales,hits: 2,DST: 149.171.92.172
Fri May 29 23:38:38| OUT: Videotron Telecom Ltee,hits: 2,DST: 207.253.162.42
Fri May 29 23:38:38| OUT: University of New Brunswick,hits: 2,DST: 131.202.34.5
Fri May 29 23:38:38| OUT: PCCW Business Internet Access,hits: 4,DST: 220.241.188.220
Fri May 29 23:38:38| OUT: Oxford University,hits: 1,DST: 163.1.230.239
Fri May 29 23:38:38| OUT: XO Communications,hits: 1,DST: 66.237.19.176
Fri May 29 23:38:38| OUT: SURFnet bv,hits: 16,DST: 194.171.12.179
Fri May 29 23:38:38| OUT: Vida Optics TVV,hits: 2,DST: 89.215.255.71
Fri May 29 23:38:40| OUT: XO Communications,hits: 2,DST: 66.237.19.176
Fri May 29 23:38:40| OUT: Oxford University,hits: 2,DST: 163.1.230.239
Fri May 29 23:38:40| OUT: PCCW Business Internet Access,hits: 5,DST: 220.241.188.220
Fri May 29 23:38:40| OUT: SURFnet bv,hits: 17,DST: 194.171.12.179
Fri May 29 23:38:41| OUT: University of New South Wales,hits: 3,DST: 149.171.92.172
Fri May 29 23:38:42| OUT: University of New Brunswick,hits: 3,DST: 131.202.34.5
Fri May 29 23:38:42| OUT: Videotron Telecom Ltee,hits: 3,DST: 207.253.162.42
Fri May 29 23:38:42| OUT: Vida Optics TVV,hits: 3,DST: 89.215.255.71
Fri May 29 23:38:44| OUT: PCCW Business Internet Access,hits: 6,DST: 220.241.188.220
Fri May 29 23:38:44| OUT: Oxford University,hits: 3,DST: 163.1.230.239
Fri May 29 23:38:44| OUT: XO Communications,hits: 3,DST: 66.237.19.176
Fri May 29 23:38:44| OUT: SURFnet bv,hits: 18,DST: 194.171.12.179
Fri May 29 23:38:45| OUT: Skype,hits: 8,DST: 204.9.163.214
Fri May 29 23:38:46| OUT: Vida Optics TVV,hits: 4,DST: 89.215.255.71
Fri May 29 23:38:46| OUT: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA,hits: 1,DST: 131.247.206.157
Fri May 29 23:38:46| OUT: Uninett,hits: 1,DST: 158.39.24.24
Fri May 29 23:38:46| OUT: CESNET,hits: 1,DST: 147.230.27.6
Fri May 29 23:38:48| OUT: Vida Optics TVV,hits: 5,DST: 89.215.255.71
Fri May 29 23:38:48| OUT: CESNET,hits: 2,DST: 147.230.27.6
Fri May 29 23:38:48| OUT: Uninett,hits: 2,DST: 158.39.24.24
Fri May 29 23:38:48| OUT: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA,hits: 2,DST: 131.247.206.157
Fri May 29 23:38:52| OUT: Vida Optics TVV,hits: 6,DST: 89.215.255.71
Fri May 29 23:38:52| OUT: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA,hits: 3,DST: 131.247.206.157
Fri May 29 23:38:52| OUT: Uninett,hits: 3,DST: 158.39.24.24
Fri May 29 23:38:52| OUT: CESNET,hits: 3,DST: 147.230.27.6
Fri May 29 23:38:55| OUT: Skype,hits: 9,DST: 204.9.163.214
here I stopped skype and the rest stopped too

does anyone knows why is this?

[lovinglinux]

I have a question:

I turned blockcontrol on after rebooting the router (new public IP address) and was checking /var/log/moblock.log to see if anything happens

amule is off (I use no other P2P apps)

nothing happens

but if I turn Skype on, blockcontrol start blocking


does anyone knows why is this?

It blocks because it is doing what it is supposed to do. When you start Skype it will try to connect to it's servers and they are currently on your blocklists.

Please notice that all blocked connections are outgoing, so they are probably all from Skype trying to connect to the Skype servers.

If you don't want to block Skype connections, then you need to add those blocked IPs to moblock allow list or setup moblock to ignore outgoing connections on the ports used by Skype.

[chinaski]

thank you

what I ask myself now is what those universities listed in the log have to do with Skype

[lovinglinux]

thank you

what I ask myself now is what those universities listed in the log have to do with Skype

I don't know if they could be hosting skype servers, but probably is just an issue with the ip range on your blocklists. The people who create the blocklists usually include larger IP ranges when they don't know exactly all the IP's used by a company or institution.

[chinaski]

I see

thank you very much for your replies, we never stop to learn