[Feature request] Accessible Firewall Usage Guides

[issuant]

I have checked if others have suggested this already

• [X] I have checked this issue tracker to see if others have reported similar issues.

Feature description

Since an integrated firewall is unfortunately currently out of scope (https://github.com/mullvad/mullvadvpn-app/issues/6775#issuecomment-2410116849), can we instead get accessible, beginner-friendly guides on how to use the VPN with the default Windows firewall, and also (non-root) Android firewalls? Of the unspecific desktop firewall guides that do exist out there, most are either written for Linux and derivatives, those with domain knowledge, breakdown once you turn on Mullvad, recommend or are about apps that do not work simultaneously with Mullvad, or have the potential to go very wrong if configured improperly.

Alternative solutions

n/a

Type of feature

• [ ] Better privacy/anonymity
• [ ] Better at circumventing censorship
• [ ] Easier to use
• [X] Other

Operating System

• [X] Android
• [ ] iOS
• [X] Windows
• [ ] macOS
• [ ] Linux

[issuant]

bump

[Serock3]

Hello! The VPN app automatically sets up firewall rules on all desktop platforms. You shouldn't have to configure anything manually unless you are hosting a server, which is not very common on windows, or want to poke very specific holes on the firewall in a way that is not covered by our split tunneling functionality. Is there any specific issue you are having the with the windows firewall?

Non-rooted Android devices do not have access to firewalls in the same sense as desktops. As far as I know, any third party firewall works by hooking into the VPN API provided by Android, and it only supports one VPN at a time.

[issuant]

Is there any specific issue you are having the with the windows firewall?

I am asking for an accessible, Mullvad-focused guide, like this and this, on how to completely block specific apps, like Notesnook and Visual Studio Code, from accessing the internet (even) when Mullvad is turned on. Since there is unfortunately currently no plan to add a firewall to the app, I am asking for this to be done with the default Windows firewall app but a third-party app is fine too if that is recommended.

I have been researching this for the last month but have come up empty. The guides that do exist are either Linux-focused and assume their audience are networking experts, written without any consideration for a VPN and stop applying once the VPN is turned on, or focus on third-party apps incompatible with Mullvad or rely on very brittle-looking configurations.

Non-rooted Android devices do not have access to firewalls in the same sense as desktops

That is true and why it has been repeatedly asked for but even on desktops, at least outside Linux, the situation is still poor when a VPN is involved. Can you provide insight on what is holding back the implementation of a firewall in the app?

[issuant]

bump

[Serock3]

Sorry for being slow to reply. I tested applying a l simple firewall rule in windows to block a single app, and it works fine regardless of whether you are connected in the VPN or not. Here's a beginner friendly guide for how to do it https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-11/how-to-block-a-program-from-accessing-the-internet-windows-11/m-p/2772951. Could you try that and tell me if it works for you? If our VPN app doesn't affect the way to set up firewall rules then it's probably not relevant for us to write out own guide.

@kl, could you elaborate on the Android side of the issue?

[kl]

On Android there are firewall apps such as NetGuard. However, such apps will not work when using the Mullvad app because they also need to set up their own VPN tunnel in order to block specific app traffic, and we can't have multiple VPN apps running at the same time on Android. So it won't be possible to block specific apps unless a firewall feature is added to the Mullvad app.