Kids still accessing Games despite games block on

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Michael Lyons

• October 08, 2020 00:06

So I setup a rule for my kids computers to block access to games sites during school hours... And they are blocked from web requests for websites. But it appears if they have steam running... Or maybe the game running... It doesn't do a normal web call and they can get to the game servers. I've added stuff like *.steampowered.com and stuff like that to attack it a domain level. What else can I do? Game server IPs are a dime a dozen... Do I have to track them down and add them to the block list?

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  Firewalla

  • October 08, 2020 05:23

  There are two types of games that the firewalls (likely other devices as well) can’t block

  1. Those that doesn’t require internet connection, local play games.

  2. Games using ad hoc connections (say to a server hosted by a friend)

  The second problem can be solved if you know the ports that’s being used, or can manually identify them.  (There is no automatic way of detecting these).   You can follow the example here https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050863873-How-to-block-an-application-using-Firewalla-Network-Flows-

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  Michael Lyons

  • October 08, 2020 16:25
  • Edited

  As I analyzed the data flows I realized a call to beacons.gtv2.com preceeded the game servers from being accessed.. I added references to *.origin.com, *.ea.com, etc... And now *.rvt2.com to the games blackist to try to block what I think are the sever aggregator from responding. The actual servers being accessed are pure IP addresses so nearly impossible to block without a constant fight IP by IP.

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  Firewalla

  • October 08, 2020 16:38

  how about the ports being accessed?  Some of the games out there use a well-known port for gaming traffic.  I 

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  Daniel Negron

  • October 18, 2020 18:17

  I'm in the same situation as you Michael.  Let me know what you find please.  Thanks.

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  Michael Lyons

  • October 19, 2020 05:33

  So here's what I had to do - I used the "All Gaming Sites" block rule for the desired period of every day - but I had to add user managed domains using the "+" symbol in the "All Gaming Sites" list.  I added the following based off what I saw going on in their data flows:

  *.rbxcdn.com    ... a roblox content service

  *.steam.com    ... obvious 

  *.ea.com ... obvious

  *.gvt2.com  ... seemed to be a broker for active game server IPs...prevented joining online games from locally installed clients

  *origin.com ... obvious

  *.mordau.com ... blocked the Mordau game services

  *.playfabapi.com ... saw it in their data flow...blocked now

  *.epicgames.com ...obvious 

  *.roblox.com ... obvious

  *.steampowered.com ... the other part of Steam services 

  *.joinsquad.com ... for the game Squad

  *.steamcontent.com ... more steam blocking

  *.mojang...blocks minecraft content 

   

  Under the system managed it picked up variations on many of the sites I added above...but it wasn't getting the job done.  There's a lot of redundancy between what my system shows as user managed and system managed...but it's working now.  I must thank my 12 year old who loves to challenge my 'security' - he let's me know every time he finds a way around my blocks and even is proud to show me what he did!  LOL...his older brother just looks at him with a stunned face when he does it...bruh!  

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