How is this better than using Pi-hole to do the same? It can also run in an allow only mode as I understand.

Sounds interesting! The Pomodoro app I'm using for focus times has this feature built in (I wrote about it here: https://peterszasz.com/finding-focus-through-intention-and-a... ), but before finding that, I would've definitely tried this.

Improvement idea: Integrate with Apple Shortcuts, so the user could automate switching focus mode on and off, tied to changing Apple Focus mode.

This sounds awesome - I wish I could run it on my iphone, because otherwise it's not even gonna put a dent in my infinite capacity for slacking off....

Will this work when I'm connected to the company vpn? We have a private DNS zone set up for our private network, and this would probably mess up my DNS config. It would be awesome if it worked though!

Interesting approach... Initially I thought it was bit overkill but I found myself picking my phone when I have a site blocked on my laptop.

Happen more than I'm willing to admit, so I guess I will give a try

I usually edit my hosts file and point unwanted domains to localhost. This seems more elegant

AdGuardHome fills the same gap, doesn't it?

Yeap yeap - exactly what I needed! When on iOS?!??

I like this tool a lot and think it's superior to my own automation tools to generate giant host file blocklists. So, I'll be looking into switching to sinkzone. That said, my understanding is that applications can still make direct connections where an application connects using an IP address (without looking it up via DNS). I guess I use firewalls for that but haven't gotten around to adjusting anything from the defaults. Also could use a reverse proxy but haven't taken the time to set one of those up yet either. Does anyone have recommendations for a 'second step' on the network security path? Setup a PF router?

Looks really streamlined!

Currently, when I need to focus, I use a separate device configured to block everything except 2-3 domains I really need to minimize distractions. What really makes Sinkzone interesting is the scheduling with focus mode which can be incredible useful. My current firewall, OpenSnitch only lets you toggle all rules at once, so Sinkzone could be useful for allowing just the focus domains.

I think a useful feature to consider is having different profiles which would essentially be collections of domains to allow. So you could have "focus", but also "work" or "kids" as well allowing for more flexibility.

As I previously mentioned, I'm currently using OpenSnitch [1] as a system-level firewall that has a similar allowlist-only functionality. While the popups to allow/reject a connection initially disturb your workflow, after a short period of usage, you end up with a small collection of rules and you'll pretty much only see them again when browsing new websites. The advantage over DNS-level blocking is that you also get to block per process and not just device (or network). Since it uses eBPF, processes can't get around it by using a different DNS server or something. I'm really missing profiles and scheduling though, so I hope you can build a viable alternative to switch to!

[1]: https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch

No DoH support? The browser seems like the source of distractions.

I see it has a Windows installer. I might have to try that on my old Win7 Pro system.

I will likely move on to Win10 now that it is ending support later this year so I might try there too. Windows support is best consumed in small chunks so once they deep-six Win10 it will be ready for consumption since the only "updates" it is likely to get are those strictly related to protecting it from malware.

Years ago there was a software firewall called SyGate that allowed a user to block everything and then set allow rules as they needed so that the only applications that could get out were those explicitly allowed by the user. The internet was young and there were fewer bad actors so it was way ahead of its time on the consumer side. You could install the free version or pay for a premium version. It was bought out in the late 90's I think by Norton or one of those other big units (Symantec?) who used all the good parts in their own "improved" firewalls, for a lot of money though.

I like this idea of blocking everything except the things you know you need.

real devops pro contrarian move "what if I broke DNS so hard it actually made me better at my job"

expected it to work on browser as well. but can use /etc/hosts file instead of allowlist which could also work