Are there certain websites such as Facebook and Twitter that you are unable to access from your computer? Duh, you're in China. There are tons websites that are blocked But, there is a solution on how to visit blocked sites in China, and it's not by asking, "Pretty, please…". So read on.
Though tricks like using the IP address instead of the URL work in places like Vietnam and other countries that aren't that serious about Internet censorship, it's not going to work in China. In the past, sometimes, you would be able to visit blocked sites by changing URLs such as www.moumoumou.com the IP address of the site. You can try it again if you like – When on a local computer, using the ping domain.com command returns the IP address. Put this in the address bar and it might just give you access to the blocked site – but probably not.
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In most cases, the URL that you are trying to access will be banned. Actually, China's been known to ban whole lists of URLs just because they woke up on the wrong side of the bed. But you can try converting them to a shorter URL which will help you bypass the settings. There are short URL services available which can help with this. Again, I haven't had much luck with this.
You can even use Google cache. If you are not bothered that the content isn't latest on a website, you can do a Google search for that particular website. Clicking on the cached link underneath the search results can help you access the blocked site. However, Google and China aren't on the best of terms, and a lot of Google Tools are blocked. Plus, Facebook has been blocked for almost 4 years now, so old sites like this aren't going to get unblocked like this
Another technique I read about the other day is using an online translation tool. Sometimes if you translate sites into lesser known languages that version of the site won't be blocked. However, understanding what's on the site will be a problem.
Another technique that most people have been successful in using is the use of IP anonymizer. You may have heard of proxies, web based proxies, rolling proxies, anonymous proxies, open proxies, or stuff like this. In this technique, you have to access a third party site which redirects your request to the required server. Though open proxies are famous for being free, most of them have been shut down in China. There is one particular service that seems to be doing well, which is SecuriTales. It's a paid service, but I've tried it myself, and it's a very quick way to visit blocked sites in China. There's no setup required, and it'll only cost you $6 a month (36 RMB).
Get their FREE trial HERE
The most secure and guaranteed way is through a VPN service. I won't go into the whole "which VPN is the best to visit blocked sites in China" speech, but, I will tell you that VPNs are very handy. I leave mine on all the time. Most sites will have unlimited bandwidth, or limitations that only affect people that download billions of movies every month. Proxies can be annoying because you have to open up the secure browser each time you want to unblock stuff, and they don't work on software running on your computer or apps running on your phone.
Check out the top 5 VPNs in China (My review), or browse the sites for other stats on VPN services that operate in China.
Spending eight hours in school or at work can be boring. Sometimes, we all feel the need to do something different and kill some time. With smart phones, laptops, mini laptops, Internet at work and school, this is pretty easy. However, bosses and teachers have different ideas of what we should be doing on company/school time, and firewalls are put in place to block these sites. The same rules apply to areas of the world that block social networking or political sites in the name of "protecting the country's best interests" – ie China, Vietnam, Iran, Egypt, and more.
More common that software based proxies are actually web based proxy. A web based proxy can be used to unblock sites at work, school, or at home. These require no installation and therefore can't really be called "software". Web based proxies have been used from a very long time and the main purpose they serve is to protect the privacy of the user or bypass firewalls. People who don’t want others or a third party to find out their IP address or their location or browsing history through packet sniffing or tracking cookies often make use of proxies to protect their IP information. Web based proxies also work to bypass firewalls put in place by your ISP..jpg)
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These days, controlled access and Internet filtering is the new trend. More and more schools and organizations are implementing filters in their computer systems so that students and employees do not get access to certain sites. In countries like China, most social networking and blogging sites are blocked. There are many reasons governments and Internet Service Providers block certain websites in their countries and there are equal.gif)
Lets start with something easy – web based proxies. This is a great way to access blocked websites because it's quick and simple. These can be paid or free, and are just a web page with a place to type your blocked URL. The proxy takes off your IP data and makes the site request for you, so any firewall that's blocking you from the site will think it's the proxy's IP making the request, not you. A simple case of hidden identity..jpg)
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You can sign up for a virtual private network service over the Internet, and though you might have to install some software, there's not hardware, and you can get started almost instantly. VPNs do a better job of hiding your real IP and replacing it with a virtual IP..png)
Hide My Ass
12VPN
StrongVPN
VPNs with Main Domain Blocked
Setup of PandaPow is super simple. I wouldn’t say it’s “one click” setup like in their advert, but setup is limited to clicking a few buttons. There’s no unzipping of files, no moving of this or that. Just find the “OK” button and it’s pretty much automatic from there. Simplicity seems to be part of their niche, and their site is easy to navigate, and doesn’t confuse you with bits about 128 bit encryption SSTP vs OpenVPN and all that other internet stuff no one understands anyway.
The Problem
Web Based Proxies
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I've kept up on lots of the VPN services that unblock sites in China, and even those are a bit shaky – it seems that what works in Guangdong doesn't necessarily work in Xinjiang. But that's another story.
At my job it's a totally different story. When I check my Gmail (or attempt to, per say) on the computer at the office, I get about a 5 percent success rate, if that counts for anything at all. All of the time I've got to use HTML mode, and most of the time I can't even get Google to search properly. They are using a Chinese version of Internet Explorer – may IE 6 or 7 I'm not sure. It's miserable. The good news is that I've got to check out Bing and Yahoo sometimes – an I've found out that my site is pretty much invisible on those search engines – bummer. It must be because they censor their search results, because a lot of the articles I've written over the years are also unavailable.
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