walled garden app downloads

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Level 1

5 points

walled garden app downloads

Hello,

I am having trouble with an issue that is firewall related.

I have a wifi network that requires uses to login though an app from the app store. I would like to allow the user though the walled garden to download the app if necessary without granting the user full internet access.

I have allowed a few DNS names into the firewall, but that does not allow me to download the app.

I have run packet captures of an iPhone and iPad attempting to get to the app store servers, and it appears to be attempting to connect to many many many servers - too many to load each one individually into the firewall. I believe apple uses some DNS magic for redundancy an simplicity but I cannot seem to find the right combination to allow this.

Is there anyone else out there that has solved this problem? or if anyone knows a better place I could ask this question that would be great.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Panchito

Posted on Jan 23, 2013 9:00 AM

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Answer 1

etresoft

Level 8

46,888 points

Jan 23, 2013 2:08 PM in response to Panchito401

Just so you know, the term "walled garden" has a very specific, activist political meaning that I don't think you intended.

Have you considered allowing any *.apple.com address? That should do it.

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Answer 2

Panchito401 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 23, 2013 2:49 PM in response to etresoft

Thank you for the response!

Yes you are correct (sorry I am not a software guy so I dont run into it used that way at all).

I come from a networking background, specifically wireless and wifi. I hope I made that apparent.

I have allowed *.apple.com on all ports and it does not allow access to the software and sometimes the images for the app in the app store and icons do not load.

I have allowed all apple.com itunes.com subdomains and even a couple /16 subnets and this hasnt gotten me anywhere.

It seems to me that apple uses some kind of DNS redirection/proxying to get to their cloud which I can't possibly keep up with.

If anyone has any suggestions I would certainly love to try them.

Thanks!

//Panchito

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