NetGuard

NetGuard provides a simple way to block access to the internet - no root required. Applications can individually be allowed or denied access to your Wi-Fi and/or mobile connection.

Blocking access to the internet can help:

• reduce your data usage
• save your battery
• increase your privacy

NetGuard is possibly the first free and open source no-root firewall for Android.

Features:

• No root required
• Simple to use
• Free of charge
• Open source
• No extra battery usage
• No bandwidth reduction
• No calling home
• No tracking or analytics
• No ads
• No internet permission required
• IPv4/IPv6 TCP/UDP supported
• Optionally allow when screen on
• Optionally block when roaming
• Optionally block system applications
• Material design

Most of these features are the result of sending selected traffic to a sinkhole, instead of filtering all internet traffic. This means that advanced features, like address based filtering (needed for ad blocking), traffic logging, and on-demand configuration, are not possible. Routing selected traffic into a sinkhole relies on an API introduced in Android 5.0 (Lollipop), therefore older Android versions unfortunately cannot be supported.

Since NetGuard has no internet permission, you know your internet traffic is not being sent anywhere.

Downloads:

• GitHub
• Play store (stable)
• Play store (beta)
• F-Droid (unsupported, often outdated)
• XDA Labs App (web page)

Usage:

• Enable the firewall using the switch in the action bar
• Allow/deny Wi-Fi/mobile internet access using the icons along the right side of the application list

Compatibility

Devices / ROMs with a broken VPN implementation:

• Alcatel™ OneTouch Idol 3 / Android 5.0.2 (reported in the Play store) (all traffic blocked)
• Asus™ ZenFone 2 / Android 5.0.2/5.1.1, reported on XDA (all traffic blocked)
• Asus™ ZenFone 4 / Android 5.0 (reported in the Play store) (all traffic blocked)
• BQ™ Aquaris M5 / Android 5.0 (reported in the Play store) (all traffic blocked)
• Lenovo™ Yoga Tablet Pro-1380L / 2 Pro / Android 5.0.1, reported on XDA (all traffic blocked)
• Samsung™ Galaxy A5 / Android 5.0.2, reported on Github (all traffic blocked)
• Sony™ Xperia™ M4 Aqua Dual / Android 5.0 (reported in the Play store) (all traffic blocked)

NetGuard will crash when the package com.android.vpndialogs has been removed or otherwise is unavailable.

Tethering will not work when NetGuard is enabled due to a bug in Android (issue).

Unfortunately it is not possible to workaround any of these problems.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

(1) Can NetGuard completely protect my privacy?

(2) Can I use another VPN application while using NetGuard?

(3) Can I use NetGuard on any Android version?

(4) Will NetGuard use extra battery power?

(5) Can you add selective allowing/blocking applications/IP addresses?

(6) Will NetGuard send my internet traffic to an external (VPN) server?

(7) Why are applications without internet permission shown?

(8) What do I need to enable for the Google Play Store to work?

(9) Why is the VPN service being restarted?

(10) Will you provide a Tasker plug-in?

(12) Can you add on demand asking to block/allow access?

(13) How can I remove the ongoing NetGuard entry in the notification screen?

(14) Why can't I select OK to approve the VPN connection request?

(15) Why won't you support the F-Droid builds?

(16) Why are some applications shown dimmed?

(17) Why is NetGuard using so much memory?

(18) Why can't I find NetGuard in the Google Play Store?

(19) Why does aplication XYZ still have internet access?

(20) Can I Greenify/hibernate NetGuard?

Permissions

• ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE: to check if the device is connected to the internet through Wi-Fi
• RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED: to start the firewall when booting the device
• WAKE_LOCK: to reliably reload rules in the background on connectivity changes
• com.android.vending.BILLING: to accept donations via in-app billing

Support

• Questions: please use this XDA-Developers forum thread
• Feature requests and bugs: please create an issue on GitHub

Please do not use GitHub for questions.

Contributing

Translations:

• Translations to other languages are welcomed
• Check if the language is supported by Android and find its locale
• Copy this file to the correct locale folder
• Translate the strings in the copied file and omit all lines with translatable="false"
• Create a pull request on GitHub for the new/updated translation
• If you don't feel comfortable using GitHub, you can sent the translation to marcel(plus)netguard(at)faircode.eu

Current translations:

1. Arabic (ar)
2. Dutch (nl)
3. Simplified Chinese (zh-rCN)
4. English
5. French (fr)
6. German (de)
7. Italian (it)
8. Japanese (ja)
9. Korean (ko)
10. Polish (pl)
11. Romanian (ro)
12. Russian (ru)
13. Slovak (sk)
14. Spanish (es)
15. Ukrainian (uk)

Please note that you agree to the license below by contributing, including the copyright.

Attribution

NetGuard uses:

• Picasso
• Android Support Library

License

GNU General Public License version 3

Copyright (c) 2015 Marcel Bokhorst (M66B)

All rights reserved

This file is part of NetGuard.

NetGuard is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your discretion) any later version.

NetGuard is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with NetGuard. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.