Feature Request: Add optional hosts blocking for nvidia telemetry & home calling

[rugabunda]

@W1zzard, now that telemetry and home calling is baked directly into their drivers, no removal of any of Nvidias telemetry files or registry entries prevents it; it has to be blocked by a firewall and or hosts file. Please consider adding an option to add the following entries.

The main culprits of current are:

activation.gfe.nvidia.com
events.gfe.nvidia.com
telemetry.gfe.nvidia.com

Thank you...

 

[W1zzard]

Are these relevant only with gfe installed or for the regular driver too?

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I dont have gfe installed, so my guess is its main/regular driver installed. I removed any telemetry connections from the firewall (tinywall). So maybe he is asking to have an option to manually remove from windows firewall assuming thats the only firewall.

 

[W1zzard]

I dont have gfe installed

Yet you still see connections to *.gfe.nvidia.com?

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Yet you still see connections to *.gfe.nvidia.com?

No once its blocked, it stays blocked. Now i have forgotten how to check where its trying to connect unless I unblock it.

Windows 10 has changed how their firewall allows apps thru from previous versions, more complicated it seems.

So this is what windows firewall looks like for me now, this is a 2 week old fresh install.


after seeing this the first time I tried to turn off the public 'allow' and windows created another one just for the public. I find this stupid as it allows telemetry from any software to be sent out without permissions.


And the whole reason I opted for a 2nd firewall program is cuz windows firewall is shit.

 

[W1zzard]

I've been monitoring my HTTP traffic with Fiddler for the last 40 hours or so, and didn't see any NVIDIA telemetry

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I've been monitoring my HTTP traffic with Fiddler for the last 40 hours or so, and didn't see any NVIDIA telemetry

it still wants to connect even if its not sending the data, check the task scheduler for it.

 

[W1zzard]

Don't have anything in scheduled tasks, where do you see that entry? Screenshot if possible

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I dont see them now, theres been a lot of changes to windows it seems. I distinctly remember disabling them before, they were right up top soon as you expand the task scheduler. Maybe they've been moved, idk, and maybe the tasks might be added with GFE install, which I wont do. IDK anymore.

 

[W1zzard]

GFE install

I don't have GFE installed either.

I'm just concerned that adding the "block hosts" feature will end up doing nothing

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Creating special firewall rules to block a process or program is better than trying to figure out which IPs/ports to block, and probably easier to do if done with powershell.

 

[W1zzard]

Without a repro case I won't even know which process to block

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Without a repro case I won't even know which process to block

from what I gathered, only those with the Nvidia logo/name or located in their folders, or you could look at the registry entries.

EDIT: @W1zzard found this pic in a search, this is how it used to look in the task scheduler, pic is from 2016 win10, i think with GFE installed, which reminded me that some tasks were not removed when GFE was uninstalled.

 

[R-T-B]

If nvcleanstall does not allow installing telemetry components, those entries will never get made, though.