Peer Guardian 2, once called MoBlock, has taken the place of the original Peer Guardian which has been abandoned. This helps guard against nasty internet peers such as other users, honey pot type servers, ad servers or known malware hosts. Other uses can be to protect yourself against IP loggers such as copyright activists.
The internet. It's a dangerous world out there full of "WTFs"...
The installation process is now much easier than it was 2 years ago when I first posted about IP blocking, so fire up a terminal and let's get busy!
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jre-phoenix/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pgld pglcmd pglgui gksu
Without gksu (or kdesu), you'll get errors such as this:
Could not use either kdesu(do) or gksu(do) to execute the command requested. You can set the path of the one you prefer in "Options - Settings - Sudo front-end"
Now run pglgui (either through command line or your system menu).
- If the blocker is running, click "Stop"
- Click on "Configure" tab
- Update the lists weekly
- Tick "bluetack/level-1"
- Untick everything starting with "tbg/". These will render your internet useless unless you know exactly why you need it.
- Everything else is optional and to your liking.
- Click "Apply"
- Switch back to the "Control" tab
- Click "Update"
- Once it's done, click "Reload"
- Then click "Start" as soon as it's ready
In case you're unsure, the lists I kept are:
- atma/atma
- bluetack/bad-peers
- bluetack/dshield
- bluetack/level-1
- bluetack/spyware
This ensures I'm blocked against the standard baddies, but at the same time still able to connect out to the big bad internet.
*update 19/12/14* Thanks to Anonymous for spotting out a typo!
Sources
- Linux Mint Forums • View topic - Online Security?
- I-Blocklist Houses Loads of BitTorrent Blocklists for Increased Privacy
- PeerGuardian / Wiki / pgl-Install-DebianUbuntu
- I-BlockList | Lists
- I-BlockList | Bluetack - level1
- Linux Mint Forums • View topic - ? peer guardian
- gksudo - Why is gksu no longer installed by default? - Ask Ubuntu
