Mobileconfig.sascdn.com blocked 485 times in a hour?

Hello,
I installed Blokada yesterday on my Poco X3 NFC Android 10. I always disconnect wifi and 4G antennas when I go to sleep. In the morning I reconnect and now the file mobileconfig.sascdn. com gets blocked in about an hour 485 times.

  1. Where did you download Blokada from? Android app store
  2. Which device do you use? Poco X3 NFC
    Do you use a custom ROM? NO
    Do you know which OS version you are using? 10
  3. Since when are you facing this issue? This morning, 1 day after install.
    1. Did you already try to solve the issue somehow? I googled it and did find: https://domain.glass/mobileconfig.sascdn.com but what does this say? Is it the phone or an app on the phone and if so witch app?

UPDATE: it seems like a security company so now I want to know why this is in a block list and why my phone wants to contact it …

I followed the IP on cloudfire and stubled on this
subdomainfinder.c99.nl/scans/2020-12-09/sascdn.com
https://subdomainfinder.c99.nl/geoip/2.16.186.90
company akamai. com

This seems to be a tracking domain, though there’s almost no documentation or context surrounding it, so it’s hard to say with absolute certainty (but akamai most definitely is a tracking outlet). Either way, it is being blocked because two things are happening: 1. You are using a list in Blokada which contains the domain in question. 2. A site you frequent, or an application on your phone, is repeatedly attempting to establish a connection with mobileconfig.sascdn.com. it’s nothing to worry about. Either whitelist the domain, or, if your phone is working as expected, go about business as usual.

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It comes from hBlock list.

question
when it tries All the time without response does this not use battery power because it’s waiting on reply to stop pinging that host? .

It is used as far as I can see to stabilize streaming performance on many apps like YouTube, Netflix and more.

I have an OP 7 pro on Android 11, use OISD and hblock. I do not have this http://mobileconfig.sascdn.com/ in my activity as allowed or blocked so it may be software or phone manufacturer related.

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That’s an interesting question (about battery consumption and aggressive reconnect attempts). One of the Android devs could answer this more completely I’m sure, but I remember when I used to play a few games on my phone, there would often be single domains being blocked over 50 times a minute, and I didn’t notice a decrease in battery life. It’s the software that is aggressively initiating repeated connection attempts which would be responsible for any potential change in battery life too, not Blokada.

HBlock is a trustworthy project, and quite comprehensive, so I would also recommend not using too many additional lists if you’re using HBlock. A good rule of thumb is to have no more than 3 or 4 lists enabled at any time, and to choose ones which fit your needs and habits. This reminds me to mention that it’s memory consumption one should keep an eye on when using a Local VPN, DNS-based blocking solution like Blokada. While I’ve never noticed a big hit on battery life, I have noticed big hits on available memory when using a lot of comprehensive lists at once. This would apply to even the most stripped down Local VPN, DNS-based blocking applications. I’m of course partial to my own list, so I only use that, but if I was using HBlock, I’d probably only combine it with one or two other, smaller lists at most.

There’s very comprehensive multipurpose lists like HBlock, smaller, more focused lists like Dan Pollock’s, URLHaus, and The Block List Project. Then there are lists which attempt to occupy a middle ground, like mine, and the default OISD light list. Some people might need or want to block over 500,000 domains, and some people are OK with 50,000, or 100,000. It all depends on what you wish to accomplish, and the available resources on your device.

DNS resolvers also play a role here too. For instance, if you were using OpenDNS or Quad9 (both of which are quite efficient at blocking malware servers), then selecting lists which mostly focus on advertising and tracking would be the sensible choice. On the other hand, when using a non-filtering resolver like Cloudflare, you’d likely want lists that have you covered in both regards. Then you have the other end of the spectrum, with resolvers like AdGuard, where it would be ideal to use lists that include a good amount of entries to protect against malware and suspicious domains. I’m getting out of scope here, so I’ll stop myself.

TLDR: You don’t have much to be concerned about from Blokada when it comes to a domain being repeatedly blocked. On the contrary, look at the app which is ceaselessly initiating those requests. Also, choose your block lists depending on what works best for your device, and for you.

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