Debugging dashboard connection tests

This document describes how eBlocker's dashboard connection tests work and how you can debug them using the tools dig and curl.

All connection tests are based on HTTP(S) requests that are made in the browser. The client code is implemented in ConnectionTestService.js.

Note: if you debug any connection test you must remember to clear the DNS and browser cache after changing eBlocker's settings.

Be careful not to have eblocker.org on any blocking list.

Device is monitored

This is the routingTest which can be checked with

curl -i http://controlbar.eblocker.org/api/check/route

The expected result is 204 No Content. The domain controlbar.eblocker.org is resolved to a public IP address, but this address is directly bound to eBlocker's eth0 interface (see ip addr list). The path /api/check/route is mapped to the ConnectionCheckControllerImpl class which sets the response code to 204 and sets the header field

Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *

DNS Firewall

This is the dnsFirewallTest. The domain dnscheck.eblocker.org is expected to be resolved locally to eBlocker's IP address (see Settings / DNS Firewall / Local Network), if the DNS firewall is enabled.

The test can be checked with

curl -i http://dnscheck.eblocker.org/api/check/route

The expected result is 204 No Content, if the DNS firewall is enabled.

If the DNS firewall is not enabled, the request will go to the webserver (since *.eblocker.org resolves to the webserver's IP). It will return a redirect to https://eblocker.org/api/check/route.

Web filtering (HTTP)

This is the httpRoutingTest which can be checked with

curl -i https://setup.eblocker.org/_check_/routing

The expected result is 204 No Content. This is hardwired in the RedirectFromSetupPageProcessor class.

Web filtering (HTTPS)

See above, but use protocol https instead of http.

Domain Blocker (ads)

This is the adsDomainBlockerTest which can be checked with

curl -i http://ads.domainblockercheck.eblocker.org/_check_/domain-blocker

The expected result is 200 OK. The response must contain the header field

Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *

for the test to pass which is set in the AccessDeniedRequestHandler class. Otherwise the browser will not allow the cross-origin request.

The domain is resolved to eBlocker's blocking IP 169.254.93.109. It is blocked in the file eBlocker-ads-blacklist.txt.

Domain Blocker (trackers)

See above, but use domain tracker.domainblockercheck.eblocker.org instead of ads.domainblockercheck.eblocker.org.

The domain is blocked in the file eBlocker-tracker-blacklist.txt.

Pattern Blocker

This is the patternBlockerTest which can be checked with

curl -i http://setup.eblocker.org/_check_/pattern-blocker

The expected result is 204 No Content. This is configured in the special blocking rule:

NO_CONTENT  HIGHEST setup.eblocker.org  ENDSWITH    /_check_/pattern-blocker    -   -   -

If the above rule would not work, the server at setup.eblocker.org should return 404 Not Found.

IPv6 Filtering

This is the ipv6RoutingTest which can be checked with

curl -i http://ipv6.eblocker.org/_check_/routing

The expected result is 204 No Content. The URL path is hardwired in RedirectFromSetupPageProcessor (see section "Web filtering" above).

Note that the name ipv6.eblocker.org is only resolved to an IPv6 address (AAAA). There is no IPv4 (A) record for this name. So if you do not have IPv6 connectivity, the above curl command will complain:

curl: (6) Could not resolve host: ipv6.eblocker.org