Can eBlocker be used as a passive (or passthru) router. I have it installed on a RPI4 (4gb), that has a USB to 1gig Ethernet adapter. I would love to place it between the ISP's modem and my home WiFI router. The configuration would mean the eBlocker would talk to the ISP's modem and my home WiFi would talk to the eBlocker.
Does anyone else have this setup like this? If so, what are the steps to get it going.
@animatco Today eBlocker already acts as gateway and passes only the „good“ requests to your router (and so to the Internet). There is no real advantage of a second ethernet adapter for „passive routing“ as you call it, since it’s already built in - but with just a single ethernet port.
So logically eBlocker is a „passive router“ already - passing in- and outbound traffic thru one port without need for a second network adapter. (see also „how eBlocker works“ page).
The only advantage of a second ethernet port is the (theoretically) higher thru-put. But this would only make a positive effect with an Internet bandwidth of 400 Mbit/s upwards (on a Raspi 4). Not the normal case today for 99.99% of home networks. 🤔
But certainly support for a second ethernet adapter could be implemented software-wise. If you are a developer you are welcome to join the team and tackle the implementation. With the core team we have sooo many ideas to make all users happy, that I fear no time is left to pick up an idea that makes 0.01% users happier.
THX!
To add to the discussion: Of course you can place eBlocker inbetween your ISP router and your WLAN network router today. Like ISProuter<->eBlocker<->WLANrouter.
But if your WLAN router spans a different logical network the whole network appears to eBlocker as a single device.
For instance: ISProuter has internal network 192.168.0.x using 192.168.0.1 as it's own IP and eBlocker with 192.168.0.2. WLANrouter‘s network is 192.168.1.x. Then WLANrouters „external“ IP address is, say 192.168.0.123. Then …123 will be the only device eBlocker sees in it‘s network (next to the ISProuter).
With such a setup you‘d loose the possibility to configure each device in your WLAN individually - which is eBlocker‘s big advantage. But again: it can be done today.
Remember: eBlocker does not route between different networks (as it has one IP address only) but it rather acts as gateway to your router (on the same logical network).
I‘m with @random: of course routing between networks could be implemented into eBlocker using one or multiple network interfaces. But I rather doubt this would be a setup „for the masses“ as it doesn‘t provide any advantage (but for super high bandwidth environments - maybe in a commercial setup).
As eBlocker is a community driven project made up by ideas of talented volunteer developers we would like to welcome you if it's your desire to implement routing and/or multiple network interface support to eBlocker. Please join 🤗
Hope this helps 😉
You are correct I would loose the ability to have individual devices make use of or not make use of as needed, but there are certain devices in my home that I do not have access to there IP configuration to modify what they use as a DNS source.
I wish I had the programming knowledge to implement and add to the project. But I am always willing to look at code and see if I can make sense of it, my job is mostly server (windows) automation, so I live in Powershell and some Yaml (ansible).
Steve
there are certain devices in my home that I do not have access to there IP configuration to modify what they use as a DNS source.
Sorry, I‘m not clear about your config. Could you give me an example how your network is setup, please. Maybe there is another solution?
Background: The DHCP server usually sets up the IPs, the gateway and the DNS to be used by all devices in the network. I‘m not aware of a device having a „hard wired“ DNS server set 🤔
THX!