Open Source
LANShield
Stop apps on your phone from poking around your home network
This comes straight from LANShield’s own GitHub page — it’s free. Need help installing? →
What it looks like
About this app
Plenty of apps quietly scan the network you are connected to, looking for printers, TVs, speakers and anything else sitting on your Wi-Fi. Most of them have no reason to. LANShield lets you decide which apps may reach the local network at all, and shows you which ones have been trying.
Set a default of block or allow, treat the apps you installed differently from the system ones, then make exceptions app by app. DNS and multicast traffic can be handled on their own, since they happen constantly and usually do not need blocking. A log records every connection, including which app made it, where it went, how long it lasted and how much data moved, and you can export the lot to a file. A separate scan shows which apps are sitting there listening for incoming connections.
It uses Android's built-in VPN slot to do this, so no root is needed, but Android only allows one VPN at a time and LANShield will take that slot. It controls local network traffic only, so it is not a general internet firewall. The app comes from the DistriNet research group at KU Leuven in Belgium.
From the app’s home page
- See the codeHow it’s made — every line is public
- WebsiteThe app’s own home page
- Questions & commentsTalk with the people who make it
- Report a problemTell the makers something is broken
- All versionsOlder downloads and what changed
- LicenseThe rules for using and sharing it
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