What Is Cisco Umbrella

Not sure if this is the correct forum. When searching for research papers on certain disorders that involve the use of prescription opiates Cisco Umbrella will sometimes block it due to illicit drug content and will not allow me to access the publications I need. i.e., I was searching for treatments for neuroleptic-induced akathisia and one of the treatments is the use of hydrocodone or clonazepam and Sinemet CR. It was blocked due to the drug content. What the heck is this Cisco Umbrella and how did it get on my PC. I Googled it and the results I got said that and it is installed by an administrator. This is my personal PC and I am the administrator with full privileges. I cannot find it on my PC anywhere. I looked in the Programs and Program x86  as well as the Programs and Features. I even tried Command Prompt and Power Shell but came up as not found. Any ideas? It is really hindering my research for my bachelor in Neuropharmacology.

Edited by hamluis, 11 August 2023 - 03:32 AM.
Moved from Web Browsing to Networking - Hamluis.

PianoMan, if you are connecting to a corporate network then you really should contact their support team and ask them for help with this issue. If you are not then do this for me:

Open a Command Prompt window then  type ipconfig /all

Locate the section that applies to your connection type (Ethernet or wireless), right click in the window, choose "Mark", select the relevant text, press Enter to copy it, then past it here into your next reply and I may be able to suggest a fix.

You probably won't be able to find Cisco Umbrella on your PC as it sounds like it's implemented into the router that manages and maintains the local network you're PC is connecting with.

Cisco Umbrella, is also known as OpenDNS. For several years OpenDNS was its own public DNS service that included features/filters/content management for users. Cisco bought up OpenDNS back in 2015.

The odds are the router has been reconfigured to use Cisco Umbrella DNS servers:

IPv4

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

IPv6

2620:119:35::35
2620:119:53::53

But checking the router options are just for your own validation. You need access to log into the Cisco Umbrella account to actually give your PC exceptions. If you don't have permissions to the CU account, you need to contact the IT department/admin to allow your PC the necessary exceptions through the existing restrictions in place.

.................................it sounds like it's implemented into the router.............The odds are the router has been reconfigured to use Cisco Umbrella DNS servers...

Yes, my understanding of Cisco Umbrella is that it uses DNS to implement the blocking that the OP describes.

Because the OP is using his own computer with Administrator permissions then a simple tweak should bypass those restrictions. I've a feeling though that the OP may have abandoned this thread already so there's no point in me revealing what that tweak is.

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner. Old  age! This is my personal PC which is not on any network. I am the Admin with full permissions  and I know I did not implement the Cisco Umbrella as I had never heard of it. I did find that it replaces the old OpenDNS with which I am familiar. I had Frontier install two Eero range extenders, one in the house and one for my workshop. That seems to be the source of the problem. If that is not it, then I will get back to you for ways to fix it. Give me a day or two and I'll let you know. Thanks for all the replies and again my apologies. 

For a quick fix, without changing router settings, you could try enabling DoH (DNS over https) which should theoretically bypass Cisco Umpbrella, and the DNS filtering/DNS cache poisoning it performs.

Plain English: It might work

If this is a situation where you have control with your local network's router and your own PC, and you can't recall just why Cisco Umbrella/OpenDNS is implemented, all you need to do is step up and fix the situation outright. Set the DNS options in both your router and your PC back to their defaults, reboot both, and that will clear Cisco Umbrella's oversight.

Or set your home network to use a third-party, public DNS service instead of Frontier's DNS service. Google provides a relatively quick public DNS:

iPv4

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
IPv6
2001:4860:4860::8888
2001:4860:4860::8844

I prefer to use Quad9, a public DNS based in Switzerland and focuses on user privacy and security:

IPv4
9.9.9.9
149.112.112.112
IPv6
2620:fe::fe

Another popular third-party DNS resolver is from Cloudfare, a major corporation that provides numerous backend, big-iron networking services. They also tout a focus on user privacy and security:

IPv4
1.1.1.1
1.0.0.1
IPv6
2606:4700:4700::1111
2606:4700:4700::1001

(Google's DNS can claim to be secure, relatively of course, but not necessarily also be private)

2620:fe::9

I know I'm a little behind on my responses. I have 2 classic cars that we are restoring so that takes up most of my time. I need the extra income. Anyway, the problem is  the Eero that Frontier installed. when I plug directly into my PC nothing is being blocked so far. I've put it through it's paces and I'm able to access all PubMed subjects as far as I can tell at this point. But I will print all of your responses and check the router settings. IN response to the above, some research papers on PubMed, the paid version, it blocks some "Due to Illicit drug content". As I stated in another reply,  the disorder I'm researching involves  a number of possible treatments to control symptoms that involve the use of hydrocodone, a benzodiazapine, oxycodone, etc,. some of them are blocked but not all. The disorder is Neuroleptic-induce Akathisia which is a movement disorder, if you are interested in such things.

    I have separate problem that one of you may have a possible fix for. The LAN socket on my PC is not functioning. When I go through the Eero it works just fine, but oi I plug in directly from the router it only works inttermitantly, mostly not. I have an Associate in electronics from DeVry from many years ago, so pretty much know how most the components work and how they should look. look. As best as I can tell with a mulimeter on continuity (Ohms setting) it seems to be functioning, but I only have limited access to the innerards of the socket assembly. Any sggestions on that? I may need to post on another forum topic. Thanks for all of the replies. I will keep them for future reference. They are very interseting, as I have an overly inquisitive mind. I'm forever googling the hows and whys of anything that catches my attention, and your resonses fit the bill on that.  

Curiosity is the great teacher.

You're certain that Ethernet jack is dying? Here are a few things I'd check:

Hardware

- Does the Ethernet LED on your router that corresponds to the connection from that PC light up? What colour? Solid? Blinking?

- If your router model has the feature, you could check the connections list screen to see if it detects it as being continuously connected.

- Is your router/modem port good? Have you tried connecting your PC's Ethernet cable to another port?

- Are you certain the Ethernet cable is good? I know it's hard to test continuity of that with a DMM, since you can't really get DMM probes inside the jack.

Software

Are you sure Windows has good, up-to-date drivers (preferably not via Windows update) for it?

Edited by Shplad, 14 August 2023 - 10:36 AM.

I'm sorry that I am not resonding to all questions adequatly. As I stated in one of me relies, the main site I am using is PubMed which where most all researcher post file the results of their findings. It is far more comprehensive than what NIH has.That is good for an overview of medical subjects but are not able to handle all the research papers submitted from all over the world. Many medical studies are conducted in the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, Germany and France, for instance.

But anyway, I have no idea what all the Linux is about as I have not been able to explore that subject due to lack of time. Please dumb it down for me. My programming studies were in Fortran and COBOL. Don't rmrmber any of it- if you don't use it you lose it.

I'm trying to resond as best I can. Soc Sec doesn't pay much so having to work in my classic auto shop it kinda wears out an old 75 YO. But thanks for allo the replies. I printed out all the suggestions, but when I try to access my router using 192.168.4.1, which is listed in ipconfig, the stupid Eero blocks it. Tells me I'm not allowed to access that site. It has caused me too any problems since I've had it, so will call Frontier yet again and !!really!! complain, but respectfully so.

Edited by PianoMan55, 14 August 2023 - 12:50 PM.