How to block access via UC Browser on Android

[s_o]

Hi! I have configured DNS servers on my router and it seems to work fine with the content I want to block on all my devices. But one particular Android app, UC Browsers, seems to bypass the DNS servers and use its own proxy and can access all the blocked contents. So this basically makes all my setup void if someone uses UC Browser on my network. Any feedback is appreciated,

[rotblitz]

Weird.  As I don't use UC Browser, I cannot find out, and I ran out of ideas.  All I know is that UC Browser uses proxies and stuff, and these circumvent a lot, including your DNS configuration.  This is what my researches have shown.

The next step would be to follow your plan with the PC Android emulator or to visit Android forums to maybe find someone who knows how this UC Browser works or to point you at Android debugging tools which are able to measure what this UC Browser does.

[s_o]

Using Lagado proxy test I could find that UC browser is using proxy via IP 8 37 233 217

I am not able to find domain used by this IP address.. I guess if I block that domain then maybe UC traffic will get blocked?

hcidata.info/host2ip.cgi says it is not able to find domain of this IP..

[mattwilson9090]

If you can identify the domain then OpenDNS can block it for you. However, not all IP addresses are associated with a domain, and it's entirely possible that this browser directly calls that IP address rather than using a domain

[rotblitz]

[jrajib]

I think I have found a simple solution for this problem. 

For android UC Browser go to settings > Cloud Boost > un-check both Mobile Network & Wi-Fi Network. 

This fixes my problems of not blocking my desired websites by opendns solution. I have tested this for some websites and got positive results from each one. I hope this fixes your problems. 

[s_o]

Hi jrajib.. thanks.. Yes this solution we know, but this has to be maintained on each client. What I am looking at is domain settings instead of each individual phone to update settings, as we may not be able to get each device and change settings.

[rotblitz]

You may not be successful with blocking by domain names, but may need to go for the proposals outlined in my other comment above which is about blocking ports and/or IP address ranges on the router.

See also https://www.mysonicwall.com/sonicalert/searchresults.aspx?ev=article&id=814