Hey there!!!! The only time I've seen Acrylic produce that warning is when there's another copy of Acrylic running on the same machine. Is the installed versions service still running? Shut the installed version down in the Start Menu or using the GUI and then start the portable. They both can't run at the same time Hasta!
Another question: I have Acrylic DNS Proxy Monitor configured to: 1. Start automatically 2. Start minimized 3. Load at start But on Windows 8.1 it doesn't execute at startup.
Same here. Maybe this Monitor needs an upgrade or there's any other problem in Windows, who knows? I need to investigate lol Strange issue
Enforce Privacy and Block IP Thanks lomticksoftoast for your hard work maybe I've found a way to enforce privacy and block MS calling ip directly. I've no specific knowledge to do it but maybe someone on MDL can help us. It seems that we can use a software called "dnscrypt-proxy" in combination with a DNS cache "acrylic". dnscrypt-proxy has also a lot of plugins maybe we need this one: "IP/domain names blocking" Want to filter ads, malware, sensitive or inapropriate web sites and domain names? This plugin can block lists of IP addresses and names matching a list of patterns. The list of rules remains private, and the filtering process directly happens on your own network. " The web site of this software is h**ps://dnscrypt.org/ To install dnscrypt I used this guide h**ps://support.opendns.com/entries/69002720-Encrypting-DNS-in-Windows-Server-with-DNSCrypt Starting from "Install DNSCrypt" I've modified the line: .\dnscrypt-proxy.exe -a 10.122.175.99:53 -R "OpenDNS" -L "C:\Program Files (x86)\DNSCrypt\bin\dnscrypt-resolvers.csv" --install to .\dnscrypt-proxy.exe -a 127.0.0.7:40 -R "ipredator" -L "C:\Program Files (x86)\DNSCrypt\bin\dnscrypt-resolvers.csv" --install The service were installed and running, then I've modified Acrylic configuration.ini PrimaryServerAddress=127.0.0.7 PrimaryServerPort=40 And everything was fine so we have our Lan or Wireless networking configured with DNS: 127.0.0.1 It goes inside Acrylic service parsing his configuration and AcrylicHosts.txt from Acrylic it goes inside dnscrypt-proxy configured listening on 127.0.0.7 port 40 (here we can have "IP/domain names blocking") then it goes on a dns server crypting our Dns request. We can summarize in: Lan or Wireless LAN Device ---->TCP/IP Config DNS:127.0.0.1---->Acrylic Service Listening forwarding to 127.0.0.7:40------>DNSCrypt-proxy Listening on 127.0.0.7:40----->WEB DNS Server Before dnscrypt send request on web server DNS we need to place IP/Domain names blocking using a dnscrypt plugin this is in my todo list. I hope this could help myself and everyone for privacy. P.S. Sorry for ** in the links but I've less 20 posts I'll do some test to set up Acrylic and Dnscrypt with ip plugin block
I see AcrylicCache.dat is slowly growing and being updated in each Acrylic session. Should I backup this file in case of HDD re-format?
It is the DNS cache that reduces the response / page load time when requesting prior visited sites. So its down to user choice. Delete the cache & any pre-visited web page will have to load from scratch. Keep it and the page only has to load changes since last visit, + there is no DNS look up request being made to the outside DNS servers. BR Mike
Hello. I already figured out how to set Acrylic for my network that the administrator set the DNS to fix So when I changed it to 127.0.0.1 will lost internet connection I contacted Acrylic dev, Massimo, via email He advice me to set the Preferred DNS Server network card configuration to 127.0.0.1 AcrylicConfiguration.ini file, set to my fix DNS Acrylic works but I can't get internet Then I tried this one : Preferred DNS Server network card configuration to 127.0.0.1 And Alternate DNS Server network card configuration to administrator's DNS (my fix DNS) AcrylicConfiguration.ini file, configuration to PrimaryServerAddress=administrator's DNS (my fix DNS) Acrylic WORKS LIKE A CHARMED! And my internet connection is stable. Any connections to MS site was blocked. Oh yes I found another Code: TResolver.Execute: TClientServerSocket.Create: Binding to address 0.0.0.0 and port 53 failed. Is there another DNS server/proxy running? I found that error message is not about wrong setting But because Acrylic's service already running on background and then we try to run Acrylic Console I already tried stop acrylic service on background and run Acrylic Console no more "port 53 failed bla..bll..blaa.." *edit About Acrylic DNS Proxy Monitor startup I checked the run automatically and minimized In fact on my systray next to clock and date time theres NO Acrylic DNS Proxy Monitor icon But in my task manager - startup it there but no *.exe running When I manually double click the exe it doesn't showed up but run on systray And the hit log showed the time running since the pc boot Did you guys get the same?
Thank you! This might work! Or let me rephrase that... This has to work or this 'privacy' approach fails!!! It's been pointed out to me that the Acrylic method is old skool! I was about to change the OP to reflect that this solution, or for that matter, any solution wholly dependent on hosts files is incomplete since hosts files on their own lack the ability to handle IP address! I don't know why this 'security failing' wasn't brought up by some helpful cousin on one of the earlier posts to this thread! Maybe people were being kind and not wanting to crush my dreams .. or something. I was so deep down the Acrylic rabbit hole that I only half remembered that domain names don't tell the complete story of how applications on your computer can call home. On a happy note, before I put up the OP, an MDL cousin also got Acrylic working with his dnscrypt-proxy and was very happy. Dnscrypt highly recommends using a DNS cache program, like Acrylic, for maximum performance. Dnscrypt was on my list of things to check out and if it can handle IPs then it might augment or replace peerblock and maybe supplant Acrylic as the means of blocking undesirable MS communication. However, to be completely honest ... We may all be fooling ourselves that anything less than bank/financial institution level of security is going to accomplish what we want. And bank/financial institutions use devices that run external to the devices they're trying to protect. Acrylic, as good as it is, and Dnscrypt, as good as it is, are not really designed to do what we're asking them to do. It's a little like shooting a pop-gun at an bull elephant. At best you might annoy the elephant, but more than likely he doesn't even notice your there! And in case you, or anyone else who reads this post, takes offense at shooting anything at a wild animals--in light of the whole Cecil the Lion incident--here's maybe an even better analogy. It takes people who meditate years and years to get any insight into consciousness. They're using consciousness to try and understand consciousness. It's the same with our PCs, trying to tame MS by using anything that runs on MS is really not going to be easy and maybe not even be possible! "Happy" note - pursue an external solution - a purpose built spare computer running some type of filter/firewall program is probably going to turn out to be what's required to truly stop the MS telemetry.