Off Topic - Block iCloud -

[Cameron Simpson]

On 09Apr2013 11:12, Bob Goodwin - Zuni, Virginia, USA <bobgoodwin at wildblue.net> wrote:
| Can anyone tell me how to block Apple iCloud in my router?

Let me start by saying I think it would be better to get your
daughter to sync less stuff. Get her to turn off automatic app
installs and media syncs and see where you are.

If you restrict iCloud to calendars and bookmarks and contacts it
should be a lot less aggressive. Likewise, the push notifications
are not high traffic either.

| I've
| tried filtering icloud.com as mentioned in Google

That's a bit vague; what exactly did you do?

| but it still
| downloads at about 3GB per hour,

That's huge! Do you know what they are - media, apps or what? Do
you know which specific devices offend?

| Presently I am forced to block all the Apple devices on my LAN. I
| would like to be more selective and allow them other functions,
| e-mail and browsing, etc. They can use the 3g/4g system for their
| iCloud needs.

You'll need to allow 443 in general for the web. But...

A grep through an access log shows these hosts with "icloud" in their name:

    aolauth.icloud.com
    keyvalueservice.icloud.com
    p02-bookmarks.icloud.com
    p02-caldav.icloud.com
    p02-contacts.icloud.com
    p02-contactsws.icloud.com
    p02-content.icloud.com
    p02-fmip.icloud.com
    p02-fmipweb.icloud.com
    p02-keyvalueservice.icloud.com
    p02-mailws.icloud.com
    p02-pushws.icloud.com
    p02-quota.icloud.com
    p02-ubiquity.icloud.com
    p02-ubiquityws.icloud.com
    p07-content.icloud.com
    p11-content.icloud.com
    setup.icloud.com
    statici.icloud.com

I imagine there are p03-* etc in play too. Look up their IPs. Block
access to those IPs on ports 80 and 443 in your router. Port 5223
(iCloud DAV services) should be low traffic. I expect:-(

However, this is overkill and you'll basicly be breaking the Apple
devices as far as a lot of convenient things go.

It would be far better to get your high traffic user to cut back on
what is synched. If you get her to turn off the app and media auto
stuff the traffic should drop enormously. You can sync contacts and
calendars and bookmarks at little cost.

Of course, there are still media downloads etc, but if your user
mediates that all through iTunes on a Mac and syncs from the Mac
to their devices instead of implicitly via the iCloud then at least
their bandwidth use will be obviously in their face, and you and
they can see what's going on.

Cheers,
-- 
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au>

Piracy gets easier every day, but listening to legally purchased
music gets harder by the day.
Firehed - http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=179175&cid=14846089