How to check what sites blocking in iOS apps

[okynnor]

Please follow the below template, it will help us to help you!

Expected Behaviour:

When using the Bloomberg iOS app, The apps plays audio streams but blocks live streaming feeds. The recorded video segments can play normally and without any issues.

Actual Behaviour:

Live streaming video is blocked

#Remedies attempted
Pihole tail logs and watched streaming feed
whitelisted all entries possible and that logically made sense to no avail.

Also studied the top sites blocked dashboard with no success

used the search option to isolate all dns queries while trying to open the live video stream also didn't produce the desired result.

Debug Token:

5dar5eih0l

[jfb]

@okynnor

whitelisted all entries possible and that logically made sense to no avail.

This can be difficult if using the IOS app only, since some of the tools you have available on a browser to inspect content are not available for the IOS app. Note that domains may not "logically make sense."

You can try opening the Bloomberg site on a browser and using the tools in this FAQ to help you determine where the content is being blocked.

How do I determine what domain an ad is coming from?

Block ads or fix broken sites This FAQ is written in the context of finding out how to block an ad that isn't blocked automatically, but the same steps can be used to troubleshoot issues with sites that don't function properly. An example is that sometimes certain payment gateways try to collect metrics on the sale, but these domains are blocked by Pi-hole, so the payment cannot be processed. Also, some links send you through several referrers and if one of them is blocked, you may land on a …

As an example, DNSThingy extension on the Chrome browser shows the following domains loading when opening www.bloomberg.com in the browser:

* bloomberg.com
* www.bloomberg.com
* assets.bwbx.io
* www.googletagmanager.com
* login.bloomberg.com
* location.bloomberg.com
* personalization.bloomberg.com
* js.spotx.tv
* cdn.gotraffic.net

[okynnor]

The Bloomberg site on desktop works perfectly with PiHole -- that is, content streams without the issues found in the iOS app. Do you think that there is no way to get the iOS app to stream?

Is there a way to exclude the IP address of my iPhone? This way, Pihole just lets all ads go through. Thus, it may be a possible solution?

[jfb]

@okynnor

Do you think that there is no way to get the iOS app to stream?

There is a way. The trick is to look carefully in the pihole log (tail it with pihole -t while you load the IOS app), and see what domains are getting blocked. Then incrementally whitelist until it works.

@okynnor

Is there a way to exclude the IP address of my iPhone?

You can easily assign the iPhone a manual DNS to something other than your Pi-Hole.

Settings > Wifi > select the circled "i" next to your network name > Configure DNS > Manual > input your DNS servers here > Save

[okynnor]

I don't follow. May be I'm missing something because I can't find the "WIFI" after "settings" in the PiHole web interface. Could it be possible that I'm missing something?

[jfb]

These instructions were for the iPhone, not for Pi-Hole. I should have clarified that.

[okynnor]

Thanks! It works now. It's better than nothing at all.

[jfb]

Do you use the Pi-Hole as DHCP server? If so, there is a dnsmasq configuration that can assign the iPhone an alternate DNS, so the iPhone won't use Pi-Hole.