Peerblock and You

Peerblock and You

Non-profit and free for redistribution
Written on August 15th | 2016
Published on August 15th | 2016

For entertainment and research purposes only

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DISCLAIMER
The Paranoid's Bible and its writers hold no responsibility for the acts of others.

The Paranoid’s Bible is for research and entertainment purposes only.

Please visit our blog for more PDFs and information: http://www.paranoidsbible.tumblr.com/

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Contents
DISCLAIMER	2
Preface	4
Getting Started	5
Intermediate Use	9
Afterword	11

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Preface

Peerblock (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeerBlock) is referred to as, depending who you ask, a free and open-source personal firewall or as a “pseudo-firewall” meant to be the successor of Peerguardian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeerGuardian). For simplicity’s sake, Peerblock (abbreviated to PB from now for the remainder of this document) is nothing more than an IP blocker. You can block or allow IPs based upon “rule sets” in the form of subscriptions or files that list a series of IPs for PB to do with as you’ve stated.

Unlike a firewall, however, PB is more demanding of its users to be ever vigilant of what the IP is and where it resolves to and who owns it. Blocking what one assumes to be an IP of an AD network can lead to blocking several sites, due to a false positive, and hindering access to important sites like those belonging to banks.

In the end, it’s an ever increasing game of cat and mouse—the user either paying for subscriptions, and trusting the provider, or creating their own and working on ensuring the IPs being blocked are the ones that should be and not those needed.

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Getting Started

At the writing of this document, the main PB site is down due to an error. The forum only exists and is accessible, which means that we can’t give you any logical guess as to when it’ll be back up. So this means you must download the latest version from the Google Repository (https://code.google.com/archive/p/peerblock/downloads). You should get the proper installation for both your OS and its bit version (x32 VS x64), however for the average user all you really need is to download “PeerBlock-Setup_v1.2_r693.exe” (https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-archive-downloads/v2/code.google.com/peerblock/PeerBlock-Setup_v1.2_r693.exe) and follow the installation’s instructions.

If you choose to subscribe to any lists during the installation, please be aware that some will demand a subscription down the road, possibly, like I-Blocklist did a few months ago in 2016.

From there, settings should be up to you, however we do reccomend the below. Any deviation is up to you and your flavor of customization. Ports shouldn’t need to be messed with unless you know what you’re doing.

Settings two tab > Start with Windows - checked
> All these update checkboxes checked | Days set to 1
> use proxy untouched
> Auto-close window after update - checked
> Seconds set to 10
> Notify on HTTP blocks | Blink tray icon

Now before you begin to add any IPs or list subscriptions, right click the PB icon (a red, blue or yellow square) in the taskbar. Look at the menu that popped up and ensure you’ve un-ticked “Allow HTTP”. Now go to your subscriptions/lists in “List Manager” and ensure every one of them is disabled. From there, enable the default four: P2P; Spyware; Advertising; Education.

With these four enabled only, go to the sites you frequent most or sites that you need to use from time to time. The reason for this is to ensure they work and that you can log into them if you’ve an account.

For instance, many people have an issue with an IP that PB states came from “Synacor, inc”. Looking at the IPs being blocked in PB, on its main screen, you’ll need to right click it and select “Allow permanently” to see if the page is now unblocked or not. You’ll have to repeat this step several times, usually having to sort through a mess of IPs and re-blocking the ones that didn’t solve the problem of a blocked site.

It’ll be time consuming, yes, however you must go to each site, one at a time, and troubleshoot each one till it works smoothly and you aren’t seeing Ads or any malicious elements. This will also enable you to block some trackers and counters.

Once the initial troubleshooting is done, and you’re able to visit your usual websites. You can now begin to add more subscriptions/lists to your installation of PB. Before we go to any site for a subscription/list, and before we add our own rules, click the “Add” button and look at the new window that popped up.

By the “Add URL” line, you should see a dropdown menu. We’ll be adding the subscriptions/lists from there and re-doing the troubleshooting like before. This will enable us to block a large range of IPs that could potentially be a problem for us. Ensure you name each subscription/list appropriately as to avoid mislabeling or misplacing lists. You’ll have to disable and/or delete several lists before we’re done.

One way, which is quite time consuming, is to add one list, at a time, and then clicking the “X” button in the top right corner and letting the list update. As you do this and wind down the series of lists, you should see that you now have 15 lists/subscriptions. If you did everything correctly, every website and account you visit or log into should now work with minimal to no Ads or intrusions. You might even notice a decreased load time, too!

Now, one of our easier sites to find subscriptions/lists on would be Omegle Warden (http://omeglewarden.weebly.com/description.html). The individual in question runs this website and blocks IPs and sorts them into subscriptions/lists to be used with PB. Originally used to showcase bad users on Omegle, the lists have since then become a staple for many people who us PB due to their constant updates and solid precision and little-to-no false positives.

Don’t be afraid, though, to allow HTTP on PB due to Omegle Warden’s website not loading, even when you allow an IP or two from there. Another word of advice would be to avoid their “Allow list” and their “countryblockipite.p2p” list. This is because blocking an entire country is impractical and can lead to severely breaking many websites or hindering your use of chat clients like TOX. It also can prevent some people from connecting to/through their preferred VPNs, proxies or TOR-like programs.

Once done, re-block HTTP on PB. You should also now have 20 lists/subscriptions enabled on PB. Proceed with troubleshooting until everything works once again.

And please, believe us when we say don’t panic. Sites will be broken, initially, however by taking your time and allowing the IPs only needed, you’ll see a decrease in connections to your rig. This will lessen the data wasted and time it takes to load the page. So, if an image doesn’t appear initially, take your time and work on unblocking it. Sometimes, though, we’ll have to allow HTTP for one or two sites to work.

An easy way to work on unblocking images would be to right-click on them and select “View image”. This will take you directly to the image, itself, and will allow you to unblock the IPs needed more easily. Remember, the less items connecting to your rig mean the fewer items that you, yourself, are connecting to or being logged by. This means less information of yours being leaked onto the internet and elsewhere.

Now let’s go to I-Blocklist. There’ll be quite a few lists/subscriptions that you’ll need from here. So, please, take your time and relax. You don’t have to do this all in one sitting, either. And, before we select anymore, let’s click the “Lists” link and head to “Country”. Look for your Country’s list, add it to your subscriptions/lists and allow it. From there, select the US’ IP list and allow it, too. You should, hopefully, see quite a bit of the internet working for you and still blocking a lot of individual IPs.

The reason why we allow such a gaping, possibly dangerous hole in PB is due to the fact that a lot of websites rely on US’ IPs. The other issue is that individual countries will need to have their IP range unblocked depending on where the user is located.

Now, starting from the “General” tab and adding each subscription/list (Sans the “Exclusion” list), we should have 51 lists being blocked, except the allow list we’re working on through troubleshooting. Now, before we hit the “Corporations” or “ISP” lists, let’s ensure all of our needed websites work.

It’s tiresome work, yes, however look at how many IPs are being blocked and how many are being allowed. It’s quite shocking just how much traffic we allow when we don’t even need it. This is because not only does the government love spying, so does everyone else.

With the "Organization" lists, everything should be set to be blocked and troubleshoot as normal. However, once done, if you use any of these services, or any programs or websites do set them to "allow" whenever you use these services or programs or visit their websites. When you're done, block them again. This way can lessen your chances of leaking data and also prevent possible exploits or spying by these programs when not in use.

You should also have around 71 lists/subscriptions now on your PB installation.

Moving on, we're now going to hit ISPs.

When you're blocking these ISPs, remember to allow your ISP. If your ISP isn't on the list, ensure that they aren't renting or are a part of any of the ISPs listed. From there, you should just have to troubleshoot and you'll be done with a final list tally of 82 subscriptions/lists.

As you visit websites and get your core sites unblocked and the services needed unblocked. You should have should several million IPs blocked with very few allowed. This means you're not connecting to as many things as you once were. This will lessen your data footprint quite a bit and lower your chances of being monitored.

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Intermediate Use

Now, after a few weeks or so, you should be troubleshooting less and less often to the point it's almost second nature for you whenever you do find a site that doesn't work for you. Once you're able to keep blocking HTTP and not interrupt your general internet use, you'll be able to progress further by using the country block lists/subscriptions.

Now, you can select the lists/subscriptions from Omegle Warden and the lists/subscriptions from I-Blocklists. Going by one list at a time, and doing troubleshooting, you should finally be at 309 subscriptions/lists and have a large range of IPs blocked. Like the previous chapter, after a few weeks to months, your net use should be back to normal as you retain the HHTP block setting. You should, quite likely, only have to enable HTTP on PB for very minor reasons, if any.

Once you get into this period, it's time to block the US’ IPs list and your country’s IP list. The reason for this is that you should be able to have a permanent allow list with all the IPs that you need in order to access any of your needed or preferred websites and services. Programs and what not should also be able to be used without allowing any lists, sans their needed range.

It’ll take some time, however by doing this you’ll be able to block and monitor a large amount of traffic trying to connect to your rig and vice versa. However, on the off chance I-Blocklist pulls another stunt and demands you to pay for subscriptions, you should be able to simply shut down your modem and wait for your IP to change or you could try the below:

1. Turn off your modem and unplug the Ethernet cable from the back of your rig
2. Turn off Peerblock and exit the program completely
3. Go to C:\Program Files\PeerBlock
4. Delete cache.p2b;  history; history.db-journal
5. Open up peerblock.conf with your text editor of choice
6. Find this line “<UniqueId>random numbers</UniqueId>” and delete the numbers between the two tags
7. Find this line “<LastUpdate> random numbers </LastUpdate>” and delete the numbers between the two tags
8. Find this line ”<LastArchived> random numbers </LastArchived>” and delete the numbers between the two tags
9. Find this line “<LastStarted> random numbers </LastStarted>” and delete the numbers between the two tags
10. Save the file
11. Navigate to C:\Program Files\PeerBlock\lists
12. Delete all the files there, except the permallow.p2b
13. Restart your modem and ensure the internet is enabled on your rig
14. Restart PB
15. Everything should update finally

If nothing updates (sans the Omegle Warden files) and you’re still pestered for a subscription then you’ll need to head over to Github and give Walshie4 (https://github.com/walshie4/Ultimate-Blocklist) and Johntyree’s (https://gist.github.com/johntyree/3331662) lists a look. You can use either or, however realize there’ll be overlap on both lists. It’s up to you if you want to use one or the other or both.

You should, hopefully, be able to prevent quite a few trackers, counters and malicious items now. Remember, though, the PB isn’t a replacement for your hardware or software firewalls. This is simply a tool that helps you be just a little more secure and a little more private.

Once all of this is done, you should be troubleshooting like you breathe—without thought.

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Afterword

Peerblock isn’t going to prevent people from seeing you or connecting to your rig or network. It’s just one of many tools you’ll need to keep your information secure and private. Like anything, it takes time and practice to use properly, which will only pay off for you in the long run. There’ll never be a quick fix or short game “win” when it comes to security and privacy.
It’s also something you’ll need to do and do quickly before ICANN is taken away from American governance and handed over to a multi-national corporation (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/america-to-hand-off-internet-in-under-two-months/article/2599521). Because, within a short two months, once the internet is no longer in US’ hands, we’ll begin to see a crackdown on not only digital civil rights but also creativity and freedom of speech.
Remember: Peerblock isn’t a replacement for your main firewall, nor is it a replacement for your modem’s or router’s firewall.