Netguard: Restrict Mobile applications from accessing the internet (Part 1)

A few years ago, I had difficulties managing the internet bundle on my Android device. It got to a point where I had to subscribe more than three times in a month.

One fateful day, I shared my experience with my friends who were tech geeks at that time, and they advised me to get an application called ”the noRoot firewall” from Google PlayStore which I did, and since then the amount of internet data used by my smartphone has reduced.

Before I had difficulties managing the internet data on my Android device, I had an iPhone which I was using, and taking control over the applications which can access the Internet was made easy by the developers.

The developers of Apple products took necessary measures to ensure each application installed on an Apple product can be denied access to the Internet connection at any time.

While using my iPhone, I didn't have any reasons to be worried about applications using my internet data while running their background activities because only five applications were granted access to the Internet connection.

Last month, I felt the need to change the noRoot application because it did not have most of the features I required. I search through www.f-droid.org, and I found an application called Netguard. After reading through its review on the www.fdroid.org, I proceeded to download its free version.

Introduction

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The Netguard application is an open source application which has nifty features. Its main purpose is to provide users with absolute control over installed applications that can access their internet services, protect their privacy and improve their device battery life.

The features on the Netguard application are numerous, and it provides endless possibilities to its users. For instance, a user can block a particular application from accessing the Internet services over a WiFi connection while allowing the application access over a mobile data connection and vise versa.

Comparing the Netguard application with other applications, I have seen clearly that the developers of the Netguard application took a lot of time in studying the discrepancies faced by users while using other Internet blocking applications before developing and implementing the Netguard application.

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The picture above shows that I have restricted the application from accessing the Internet through the mobile data

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The picture above shows that I have restricted the application from accessing the Internet through a WiFi connection

There are other options within the Netguard application such as

• Block WiFi,
• Block mobile,
• Allow WiFi when the screen is on,
• Allow mobile when the screen is on,
• Block roaming.

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Block WiFi feature

The block WiFi is a feature which provides me with an option to restrict my applications from internet access when I am connected to a WiFi network.

The beauty behind the block WiFi feature can be seen when you're trying to minimize data consumption. I don't have a router or a hotspot device, so anytime I'm connected to a WiFi network, I restrict my applications from accessing the Internet since its someone data.

The Netguard application provides a manual way of restricting applications from accessing the Internet but using the block WiFi feature automatically block all applications so that you don't get to do it manually

Block mobile feature

The block mobile feature works more like that of the block WiFi feature. The difference is that you are only restricting applications from accessing your mobile data.

Before I knew of the block mobile feature, I was using the manual way which was hectic due to the fact that my android device contains a lot of applications.

Using the block mobile feature helped me a lot, and since then I can easily restrict all my applications from accessing my mobile data automatically.

Allow WiFi when the screen is on feature

Allow WiFi when the screen is on is an extraordinary feature which I'm yet to see on Netguard alternatives. I was intrigued when I saw this feature because I know for sure that most times I sleep off while browsing the Internet through a WiFi network.

Allow WiFi when the screen is on feature is really helpful because it restricts applications from accessing the Internet when your device screen turns off.

Allow mobile when the screen is on feature

Since I started using the Netguard application, the allow mobile when the screen is on feature has been on. I know that most times when I'm back from work, I tried to glance through so many blogs and during this process I might eventually sleep off.

Your mobile applications accessing the internet can be devastating especially when your mobile data is running low. With the help of the Allow mobile when the screen is on, you'll be assured that your applications are not draining your mobile data unnecessarily.

Block roaming feature

Though I have not used the block roaming feature, I have an idea of what it does.

The block roaming feature is built to restrict your mobile applications from accessing an internet connection while you're out of the country.

Conclusion

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Since mobile applications are designed to use the internet connection while running their background activities, the Netguard application will put you in control of your application access to the internet.

If you're running low on Internet bundle or you’re willing to streamline your data usage, I'll advise you use the Netguard application to shield some applications from accessing the Internet.

Repository:

https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard

Resources

Some of the images displayed in this article are screenshots taken from my smartphone, the pictures that were downloaded are sourced properly.

GitHub Account
https://github.com/abasifreke50