Skynet Block entire regions?

[BeachGuy]

I read that entire regions can be blocked using the following country codes and wanted to confirm. Thanks

• Asia (AS)
• Africa (AF)
• South America (SA)
• Eastern Europe (EE)

 

[Tech9]

You are going to block your access to major Internet hubs by doing so. You probably know your firewall already blocks everything not called by you by default.

 

[dave14305]

No, those won’t work. Skynet uses ipdeny.com for country blocks. Those are all countries, not regions.

https://ipdeny.com/ipblocks/

 

[BreakingDad]

I block these countries on my network using skynet:

cn br ir ua ar iq tw th lv ru ro cl sa pk sg bg in by er sy kp pk iq dz ao am bd bo bi cf cg cu sv gq kz kg la mg ml mn mz tr tm it af al dz sv il na sd ae zw sd kw qa tj bt cu ke mw mx ni ne ps rw so

I have no issues doing this, very rarely there is a piece of Chinese tech I want to look at, and if I stumble over one that is blocked I just unblock that one individually.

Appreciate this will disgust @Tech9 again.

 

[BeachGuy]

Ok thanks all

 

[BeachGuy]

You are going to block your access to major Internet hubs by doing so. You probably know your firewall already blocks everything not called by you by default.

So my router doesn't even need Skynet? The doc says it "extends" firewall.

 

[BreakingDad]

GitHub - Adamm00/IPSet_ASUS: Skynet - Advanced IP Blocking For ASUS Routers Using IPSet.

Skynet - Advanced IP Blocking For ASUS Routers Using IPSet. - Adamm00/IPSet_ASUS

github.com

Skynet is a powerful addition to your firewall. Your router doesn't "need" it to work, it is just a tool that you can addon to your router. It can be complex to set up correctly, and it can cause anxiety "if" your knowledge of the reports is lacking. Only you can decide if it's a tool you require.

 

[BeachGuy]

GitHub - Adamm00/IPSet_ASUS: Skynet - Advanced IP Blocking For ASUS Routers Using IPSet.

Skynet - Advanced IP Blocking For ASUS Routers Using IPSet. - Adamm00/IPSet_ASUS

github.com

Skynet is a powerful addition to your firewall. Your router doesn't "need" it to work, it is just a tool that you can addon to your router. It can be complex to set up correctly, and it can cause anxiety "if" your knowledge of the reports is lacking. Only you can decide if it's a tool you require.

"It can be complex to set up correctly". So it doesn't work correctly upon install? Can you give any tips how to set up correctly?

 

[BreakingDad]

"It can be complex to set up correctly". So it doesn't work correctly upon install? Can you give any tips how to set up correctly?

It works correctly upon Install however what I mean is that over time you will need to whitelist some websites/hosts as on occasion there are false positives. (you may find some websites not working and will have to debug to discover if this is a skynet block) - There is a correct way of doing this as detailed Here however when I do it I tend to disable skynet in putty, see if the website works when it's off, if it does I know it's skynet, if it doesn't I start looking elsewhere (adguard etc) If it is skynet I then use the whitelist command to whitelist it.

There have also been many cases of people installing skynet and then getting anxiety over the amount of stuff it is blocking in the logs and then coming on here to check it's ok etc. Remember Skynet is an extension to the regular asus firewall that adds a lot of features and helps you see in the logs what is going on more clearly than the regular firewall. Sometimes as they say ignorance is bliss. There is a 22 page thread here started by me back in 2022 asking if Skynet is necessary that goes into some detail. For me I decided it was a good idea. ymmv

For example some of mine that have historically had false positives are:

Whitelist
9.9.9.9 comment "ManualWlist: quad 9 dns"
1.1.1.1 comment "ManualWlist: cloudflare dns"
8.8.4.4 comment "ManualWlist: google dns"
23.227.38.74 comment "ManualWlist: govee website (shopify)"
37.244.54.10 comment "ManualWlist: roblox"
23.227.38.74 comment "ManualWlist: govee (shopify)"
128.116.119.3 comment "ManualWlist: battlenet2"
37.244.28.102 comment "ManualWlist: battlenet1"
91.199.81.1/24 comment "ManualWlist: phasmophobia"
http://mirror.ossplanet.net (rpi/linux update)

As I recall Quad 9 was falsely blocked at some point so I chose to add the main dns server ips that my network uses to avoid this happening in the future.

You can also blacklist sites as you go (for example)

Blacklist
https://incoming.telemetry.mozilla.org

You can also pick and choose which ban lists you use and/or add as per the github link above. Personally I just use the defaults, but some of the guys on the forum are really into it and use all kinds of custom lists.

Hope this helps.

 

[BeachGuy]

Yes. Call of Duty (believe it or not I play it) wasn't working about a month ago and I traced it to Skynet blocking and had to whitelist it (they've since unblocked once I reported it). I agree with sometimes "ignorance is bliss".

 

[BreakingDad]

Yes. Call of Duty (believe it or not I play it) wasn't working about a month ago and I traced it to Skynet blocking and had to whitelist it (they've since unblocked once I reported it). I agree with sometimes "ignorance is bliss".

Nothing wrong with CoD, except they rip you off by forcing you to buy it every year if you want to play competitive. Only reason I don't play it now

 

[BeachGuy]

Nothing wrong with CoD, except they rip you off by forcing you to buy it every year if you want to play competitive. Only reason I don't play it now

I only play Warzone (free)

 

[Tech9]

So my router doesn't even need Skynet?

No, unless you want to limit yourself.

 

[Tech9]

@Tech9

How’s the big project going?

 

[BreakingDad]

I only play Warzone (free)

Fair, I was really enjoying comp until they killed it in 2024 to try

How’s the big project going?

Tbh I don't really know, I know there is a lot of building work going on over there first, assume when that is complete they will start putting in the network. The Disc cutter for running the cabling through the concrete is still at this site so when that goes I will know they are comencing with the big fit out Will keep you posted.