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Comment by vadansky | Hacker News Reader

If you absolutely have to use Windows (like me) is it possible to block all the telemetry at the router level, maybe somekind of hardware firewall? Do we have a list of IPs to blacklist?

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The endpoints used can be found here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/configure/...

I work at Microsoft, though have nothing to do with the development of Windows*

//edit: typo

I thought the telemetry stuff could avoid DNS lookups? I.e. even if you null out a certain host lookup, it'll use a direct IP?

Yes it could, according to reports from people. Separate device (firewall on router e.g.) will help though. Some low-level hacking could help as well, no guarantees and i didn't hear positive reports yet

You can try, but to be frank you can never be sure. The only 100% way to stop telemetry is to work disconnected from the Internet.

A slightly safer version of Windows is Enterprise LTSB but I don't think you can legally buy it as an individual.

You can't buy that for a home computer. It's only licensed for PLCs and other manufacturing or enterprise critical computers.

edit*: and it's extraordinarily expensive

I just added the above linked endpoints to my hosts file. Not sure how well that'll work.

Reports from earlier indicate that they don't use the hosts file (or purportedly even DNS) for OS processes like telemetry and update. You'd have to do it at a higher level.

You have to block using firewall. As hosts file is being bypassed. Plenty of malware modify hosts file.

Ahhh, it seems I should've read the entire comment thread. Thanks to both of you for the notification!

I've used this with success:

https://github.com/MichiMunich/Windows10-Privacy

Looks like it has been updated to include some additional functionality (like update control) since I last used it.

You may want to look into this “Reclaim Windows 10” Powershell Script:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13344318

Will blocking this shit on the firewall level break Windows Updates?

I've blocked as many telemetry domains as I can find as well as applied Blackbird and O&OSU10 and I still get minor updates and security updates (Defender included) fine.

I've deferred major upgrades at this point though because the last two hosed a few things on my system and reset a load of stuff I'm probably still in the process of finding out about.

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