Device Block
Block a device without a Fingbox
Prerequisites for Block and Pause devices
Approval process for Desktop Block and Pause devices
How to get the device blocking feature
How to block and unblock a device
How to pause and unpause a device
How to schedule Internet downtime
Why is there a delay in blocking devices?
What are Block and Pause?
Fing includes a Block and Pause device feature which can be used for network security and parental control.
- Block device: Permanently block a device from accessing your current network, such as intruders. This prevents the target device from accessing the internal LAN traffic and Internet traffic. Use Block to blacklist suspicious unrecognized devices that might be using your Wi-Fi without your consent. Any attempt to obtain an IP address will be countered, and it will not be able to send data to and receive data from any other device in the network, preventing sharing, streaming, casting, and any other local network activity.
- Pause Internet: Stop a target device from accessing the Internet temporarily via the current network but still allow connectivity to internal devices. Instead of cutting off access to the entire Network, pausing still allows those devices to communicate with other devices on your Local Area Network. For example, a child's computer can temporarily have no access to the internet but can still send a document to the printer; a paused mobile device could still cast a video on a streaming dongle.
- Schedule Internet downtime: Use Pause to temporarily pause internet access and enforce internet downtime; attempts to access the local network will be allowed, but requests to access the internet via the network gateway will be denied. Stop a user's devices from accessing the Internet during specific times or days, such as homework time for your child.
Note: Block and Pause cannot run simultaneously on the same device.
How to access Fingbox
Control Fingbox features from the Fing Mobile App on iOS or Android. To do this:
- From Overview, click the circular icon with three dots at the top right of the page
- This will open the My Networks page. Here, click on the network with the Fingbox icon beside it.
Block a device without a Fingbox
If you do not have a Fingbox, you can block a device with a Fing Desktop Premium subscription.
You also need a Fing Premium subscription to block a device from Fing Mobile App. Once you have a Fing Premium subscription, sync your Fing Desktop and Fing Mobile networks. To do this:
- From Overview, click the circular icon with three dots at the top right of the page
- This will open the My Networks page. Click on any of the networks under the Monitored Networks heading.
Once you have synced your Fing Desktop App with your Fing Mobile App, any actions you take on Fing Mobile are send to Fing's server and then to the desktop app.
Note: Follow these steps to enable Autoblock, Pause and Schedule Downtime on Fing Mobile App.
Why you cannot block a device with only Fing Mobile App
The Fing Mobile App shows you every device connected to your network but cannot block devices alone. This is because the mobile device hosting the Fing Mobile App does not sit on your home network all the time. Your mobile device is turned off at times and brought with you when you leave the house. When the Fing App leaves your network (when you take your phone out with you), any device can use your network.
Having the ability to block devices from an app alone is also dangerous. If an intruder accessed your Wi-Fi, they could use the app to block you from your own network.
By contrast, the Fingbox sits on your network 24/7 so you can permanently block devices. The Fingbox is a network security toolkit for home networks that acts as the hardware add-on to the free Fing app, and includes additional network security and Wi-Fi troubleshooting features to the app.
While you can block devices from Fing Desktop premium, it can only monitor the network when your PC or laptop is switched on. When you disconnect your PC/laptop from the network or put your PC/laptop in sleep mode, the monitoring will stop; all blocked devices will be unblocked from your network until your PC/laptop is online again.
Prerequisites for Block and Pause devices: Fing Desktop
- Block and pause devices is only allowed on private networks. To choose what type of network to monitor, click the Network tab on the left sidebar. In the Network tab, click on the blue highlighted text next to Context, if the network is not already assigned.
- The Block and Pause devices feature is intended to be used in a private, controlled environment where you are the owner and administrator of the network.
- Once you click Pause or Block, a dialog with the Terms & Conditions of the service will appear. Accept the Terms & Conditions by clicking on the I agree button. This will allow you to proceed and use the Pause and Block feature. You can also access the Terms & Conditions online by clicking the link in the dialog which directs you to the Fing website. To ensure compliance with the terms of service, some details of the network and blocked devices will be logged.
Approval process for Desktop Block and Pause devices
Each network is identified by the Gateway MAC address and must be approved to enable the Block and Pause feature. Use the Block and Pause feature according to the Terms & Conditions available on the website.
As such, the following prompts may be displayed, based on the approval process status:
The network context is missing
To set the context, click the Network tab in the left sidebar and click the blue highlighted text next to Context. You will be shown options to assign a network context to: Home, Office, Rental and Public.
Your Network is not private
In the Network tab, the Context is not set as Home. To set the context to Home, click the Network tab on the left sidebar and click the blue highlighted text next to Context. You will be shown options to assign a network context to. Select Home.
Terms & Conditions agreement is missing
The Terms & Conditions agreement must be included.
Approval Pending
Access to the Block and Pause feature is under review by Fing for this Network. The Fing Support team will contact you before proceeding.
Approval Denied
Fing has denied access to the Block and Pause feature for this Network. Contact the Fing Support team if you think you own this Network. You can contact the Support team for further instruction by clicking on your name at the bottom left of the screen. Then click Help.
How to get the device blocking feature
From a technical perspective, Fingbox blocks a device via ARP poisoning and DNS Spoofing. When you block a single device, the computer DHCP address and DNS entries change and point towards the Fingbox. Therefore, the device is not blocked from getting to the Internet or Internal resources.
To ensure the blocking feature works:
- Enable UPnP on your router
- Disable IPv6 on your router (This is required to ensure that Internet Pause and Blocking work)
- Best Practice: Reserve the IP address of the Fingbox
- Create the following TCP rules and point them to the Fingbox's IP address:
- 80 (Internet Speed Test)
- 443 (Fing Service and Software Updates)
- 3001, 3002, 3003 (Internet Speed Test)
- 4443 (Fing Service)
- 5671 (Fing Diagnostics)
How to block and unblock a device
Fing Mobile App: Block
- From Overview, click the Online devices widget. Alternatively, click the blue See Devices button.
- Select a device. This will bring you to the Device Detail page.
- Scroll down to the heading Manage this device and click the blue Block device circular icon
- Confirm you would like to block the device by clicking OK
Fing Mobile App: Unblock
The Block device circular icon will now turn red and be named Unblock device. Click this if you wish to unblock the device.
In addition, you will immediately receive an alert if a new device joins your network. You will receive alerts on your Fing Mobile App, where you will get the option to allow or block the device from your network.
Fing Desktop: Block
- From Overview, click the Devices tab in the left sidebar or click the blue See all devices button in the Connected Devices widget. This will bring you to the Devices page.
- Click the device you wish to block. This will bring you to the Device details page.
- Under the section Improve security to the right of the page, click the Block button
Once blocked, the status in at the top right of the page will change to Blocked. In the Devices page, a red hand icon will appear next to the now-blocked device under the Status column.
Fing Desktop: Unblock
- Under the Improve Security section to the right of the page, you will see that the Pause button is disabled and the Block button is labelled Unblock. Click Unblock. Alternatively, unblock a device by clicking the Pause button, which is now labelled Resume.
- Confirm that you want to unblock the device. This will grant you access to your Network.
Note: The first time you use the feature, you will be prompted to review and agree with the Terms & Conditions before proceeding. You will be asked to confirm the block of the device indefinitely.
How to pause and unpause a device
Fing Mobile App: Pause
- From Overview, click the Users widget. Alternatively, click the Online Devices widget and then click the People tab.
- Click a user and select Pause Internet
Alternatively:
- From Overview, click the Online devices widget or click the blue See Devices button
- Select a device. This will bring you to the Device Detail page.
- Scroll down to the heading Manage this device and click the blue Pause Internet circular icon
- Select how long you would like to pause the Internet for this device
- Confirm you would like to Pause Internet for the device by clicking OK
Fing Mobile App: Unpause
The Pause Internet circular icon will now turn red and be named Resume Internet. Click this if you wish to unpause the Internet for the device.
Fing Desktop: Pause
- Click the Devices tab in the left sidebar. Alternatively, from Overview, click the See all devices button in the Connected Devices widget. Either action will bring you the Devices page, where you will see a list of all your devices.
- Click the device you would like to pause Internet access for. You will be brought to the Device details page.
- Under the Improve Security section to the right of the page, click the Pause button.
You will be prompted to select how long you would like to pause the selected device for. The device's ability to access Internet will be suspended for the selected duration. When you select the option Pause and resume later, the Pause will remain until you un-pause the device manually.
A new network scan will be scheduled to run when the time expires. This will update the list of your devices. Under normal usage, the timing is sharp but depending on the status of the PC (power-safe mode, sleep-mode), it may take a few additional minutes to run, causing a slightly longer period of blocking.
Fing Desktop: Unpause
- Under the Improve Security section to the right of the page, you will see that the Block button is disabled and the Pause button is labelled Resume.
- Click Resume
How to schedule Internet downtime
Fing Mobile
- Open Fing Mobile App
- Click Overview on the bottom toolbar
- Click the Online Users widget. Alternatively, click the blue See devices button and click the People tab.
- Scroll down and click the blue Create new schedule button. If you have any Scheduled Internet Pause’s scheduled, they will be displayed here.
- Select the type of schedule: Bedtime, Homework, Generic
- Select the days and times you want to pause the user's Internet
- Click the user you wish to restrict
- Click Save
Fing Desktop
- From Overview, click the Users widget. Alternatively, click the Online Devices widget and then click the People tab.
- Scroll down to Schedule Internet downtime and click the blue Create new schedule button
- Select the type of schedule: Bedtime, Homework, Generic and click OK
- This will bring you to the Edit page. Here, select the days and times you wish to pause the user's/device's access to the Internet. You can also name the schedule.
- Click on the user you wish to restrict from accessing the Internet on these days and times
- Click Save
Autoblock
You can also use the Auto Block feature. Windows 10 and other devices can use MAC randomization. This means that the MAC address of the device can change. For example, if you block a device, it will simply change MAC address and get a new IP address. Turn off MAC randomization.
Enabling Auto Block will prevent these devices from joining the network with a different MAC address. To do this:
Fing Mobile
- From Overview, click the Devices widget
- Click the Security tab
- Scroll down to the Autoblock widget and click the blue Manage button. This will bring you to the Auto block new devices page.
- Turn on the on/off switch at the top right of the page
Fing Desktop
- From Overview, click the Security tab in the left sidebar
- Scroll down to the Autoblock widget and click the blue Enable button
Timeline of events
The Desktop app allows you to retrieve Pause and Block events in the device timeline. In the Device details page, click on the View Timeline button to the top right of the page. This action will take you to the Device events history page.
The timeline will show you the following Pause and Block events:
- When the Pause or Block event started
- How long the event lasted
The block events are marked with a red dot and the pause events are marked with a yellow dot.
Protected Devices
The Pause and Block feature is disabled by default in your Network in order to ensure the right functionality of the entire network environment for the following devices:
- The Gateway
- The Fingbox, if present in your Network
- The device where you are currently running the Desktop app.
Both tools will appear grayed-out and not executable.
Restricted Devices
Once you have blocked or paused devices, you will have a selection of devices that are restricted from accessing the Internet. To see which devices are restricted from accessing the Internet:
- From Overview, click the Online devices widget. Alternatively, click the blue See Devices button.
- Click the Network tab
- Scroll down to Restricted devices
Why is there a delay in blocking devices?
Fing's block feature makes the device you have blocked from your network believe Fingbox is the gateway of the network. Fingbox receives the packet and discards it. Fing also makes the device you have blocked believe that its IP is owned by another device. All of these low-level techniques can be bypassed by a number of seconds or minutes if the router put in place has anti-spoofing or similar techniques.
When a device tries to connect to the router, the device cannot connect until the Fingbox has checked if the device is on your list of blocked devices. Once Fingbox has checked the list, the device will be connected or blocked depending on whether you have blocked it or not.
The verification of the list may take up to a few minutes. Then Fingbox can block the device.
Network setup warnings
The Block and Pause functionality works with IPv4 networks. Based on your network setup, some IPv6 configurations may also work. Fing automatically detects an end-to-end IPv6 configuration and prompts a warning that blocking may not work on that setup.
IPV6 is active
The Desktop app can detect that an end-to-end IPv6 setup is active in your Network. When IPv6 is detected, Fing may be unable to pause Internet access or block devices and suggest disabling IPv6, opening the router configuration. The Desktop app will show a warning. If you click on Don't show again, keeping IPv6 enabled in your Network, the warning will not display again.
The blocking device is offline
For each network, a user may have only a single PC that performs the Block and Pause network activity. If you have multiple Fing Desktop installations on the same network, only one device will perform the blocking.
The device that has been used to accept the Terms & Conditions is automatically elected as the 'Blocking device'. When looking at the network from another Fing App, if that device is detected as offline, a prompt will inform you that the request to pause or block has been recorded, but it will be applied only when the blocking device is back online.
To elect a new PC to act as the blocking device, go into the Network page in the home dashboard on the new device. Click on Make this the blocking device.
Troubleshoot
Click here to learn more about troubleshooting the Block and Pause functionalities.
How to block a device: Video
Need help?
Click the Submit a request button at the top right of the page