Sie sind auf Seite 1von 105

100+ Free Tools For You To Access Blocked Sites Young, Yang

Creative Commons - BY -- 2012

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my dear mother, who doesnt care about internet freedom, but only her children and grandchildren, so that I have time to write. This book is also dedicated to my dear motherland China, where there is GFW which blocks internet freedom, so that I have to write something about how to unblock blocked sites.

Acknowledgements

Among all those free anti-censorship tools mentioned in this book, none is created by myself, and I just test and share them and tell people how to use them. So, thanks to the authors who develop and share those free VPN, SSH, Proxy and/or any other anti-censorship tools.

Table of Contents Preface


My Internet Freedom Declaration

Chapter One
Free Online Proxies

Chapter Two
Free Proxy Softwares Part One: Best 8 Free Proxy Softwares Part Two: 3 Ways To Get Bridges For Tor Part Three: Three Must-have Softwares To Use The GAE Web Apps Part Four: How To Install And Use Hyk-proxy Part Five: How To Install And Use GAppProxy

Chapter Three
Free VPN Services Part One: Free PPTP VPN Services Part Two: Free VPN Softwares Part Three: How To Build A VPN Part Three Section One: How To Build A PPTP VPN Part Three Section Two: How To Build A L2TP VPN Part Three Section Three: How To Build An OpenVPN Part Four: How To Set Up VPN

Chapter Four
Free SSH Services Part One: Free SSH Tunnels Part Two: How To Create A SSH Tunnel Part Three: How To Connect To SSH Tunnel

Chapter Five
How To Access Blocked Sites With Google Reader

Chapter Six
How To Access Blocked Sites With The Hosts File

Chapter Seven
How To Access Blocked Sites Via IPv6

Chapter Eight
How To Check If A Site Is Blocked Part One: Check If A Site Is Blocked With Anti-censorship Tools Part Two: Check If A Site Is Blocked By Pinging It Part Three: Top 10 Websites For You To Check If A Site Is Blocked Part Four: Check If A Site Is Blocked In China With WebSitePulse Part Five: Top 10 Websites Blocked in China Part Six: Countries That Block Facebook

Subsequent
This Book Is Free

1 1 3 3 9 9 10 18 20 22 29 34 34 35 38 43 45 49 56 62 64 64 65 70 73 76 76 79 79 83 83 84 84 85 86 87 93 95 100 101 101

Preface
My Internet Freedom Declaration

Preface
My Internet Freedom Declaration
While there is no definition, someone declares five basic principles of Internet Freedom, which are Expression, Access, Openness, Innovation and Privacy. As a man living in China, I totally agree with those 5 principles and know how import internet freedom will be, since you might go to jail by a message you posted online, fail to visit Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other websites, get your website shut down because of one criticized post, and even find out that your private chat history were released to the police without any court document, so on and so forth.

Sounds horrible, right? But which were all happened in the Chinese internet world. Since 2007, I have fought against the GFW (great firewall) the biggest part of Internet Censorship in China, by testing free anti-censorship tools as many as possible and sharing them on my blogs, both Free Nuts and Jing Pin (in Chinese). Up till now, I have tested and introduced over 100 free anti-censorship tools, including VPN, Proxy, SSH and more, among which, some may be not available any more when you are reading this book, but luckily, there will be always some new tools, and I will keep an eye on them.

Preface
My Internet Freedom Declaration

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/talkradionews/4294790603/

Chapter One
Free Online Proxies

Chapter One
Free Online Proxies
The main advantage of online proxy websites (or web proxies) is that you don't need to install anything nor to make any configuration, just to look out those pop-up ads. If you can bear those ads, and want to get access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and/or any other websites that blocked in your area, or just want to be anonymous, then you can check out the following top 100 free online proxies:

1. Aniscartujo.com The Aniscartujo web proxy is workable for both computers and mobile phones. 2. Anonproxy.eu With Anonproxy.eu, you can encode URL/page and allow cookies.

Chapter One
Free Online Proxies

3. Btunnel.com The Btunnel.com web proxy is available for you to delete cookies, to remove scripts, and to hide referrers, but there will be a boring pop-up ad on the homepage. 4. Daveproxy.co.uk A UK web proxy which supports JavaScript well. 5. Dtunnel.com Nearly same as Btunnel.com. 6. Free-web-proxy.de This web proxy allows you to watch YouTube videos as well as to download them in MP4 files. 7. Fproxy.nl Nearly same as Anonproxy.eu. 8. Goodproxy.eu Goodproxy.eu is powered by Glype, but not available for you to visit the YouTube website. 9. Hidemyass.com The Hide My Ass web proxy is available for you to enable SSL security, to disable flash & Javascript, or to select encrypted URL obfuscation. 10. Kproxy.com Https protocol is supported and downloads are allowed by Kproxy.com. 11. Megaproxy.com/freesurf The Magaproxy free version is free of pop-up ads. 12. Peacefire.org/circumventor On the website, you will get one URL of a web proxy, if which is blocked, you can subscribe to its lists for more.

Chapter One
Free Online Proxies

13. Polysolve.com Nearly same as Btunnel.com. 14. Proxyweb.com.es The input box is between 2 large ad banners. 15. Safeforwork.net With SafeForWork.net, you can remove cookies/scripts, hide referrers and show entry form. 16. Shieldproxy.com This web proxy is very simple with just an address box in its homepage. 17. Smscut.com/onlinesonic Online Sonic will translate the languages of the target websites into French. 18. Surfagain.com Surfagain.com is available for you to watch YouTube videos. 19. Surfinweb.tk Surfinweb.tk is available for you to watch YouTube videos, too. 20. TryCatchMe.com The effect of TryCatchMe is nearly same as Daveproxy. 21. Vtunnel.com Nearly same as Btunnel.com. 22-41 Aproxy.org (20) The Aproxy.org website offers tens of links to different free online proxies, among which, the following 20 are the workable and best during my test: Dxyh.com

Chapter One
Free Online Proxies

Fubian.com Isityet.net Lovetogetby.com Ninjacloak.com Proxy-free.org Proxy4surf.info Proxypolice.com Proxyhasty.com Renewmyip.com Resellerzone.us Surfnewip.com Super-affiliate.in Theninjacloak.com Topbits.us Unblock-internet.ws Vvwa.com Vectroproxy.com Web4surf.com Web4proxy.org 42-60. Centurian.org (19) The Centurian.org website offers about 100 proxies, among which, the following 19 are the best and workable during my test: 0010site.info 00011site.info 7us.info Free-pro.info Iweb20.info Justbrowse.info Longbuluo.info Luispro.com Microxy.com Myservus.info Mywebproxy.net newsurf.info Proxy2free.net School-proxy.us Stripcomprox.info Unblockwebsite.org Usaproxies.com

Chapter One
Free Online Proxies

Vectrotunnel.com Xeronet-proxy.com 61-100. Proxymeup.com (40) There are over 50 workable web proxy tools on the proxymeup.com website, and the following 40 are the best up till now: 007007007.eu 123proxy.eu 2fastproxy.tk Aaaproxy.eu Awesomeproxy.eu Bypassme.in Crochetheart.com Devilproxy.eu Hideproxy.eu Homeproxy.com Healthycheapeating.com Iwebproxy.net Iunblock.in Myproxy2day.info Manghun.com Mydoggieneeds.com My-proxy.olympe.in Newenergytomorrow.info Newtattooonline.com Olympicproxy.net Ondrej.me Proxy000.eu Proxy007.eu Proxy-fre.com Proxytools.info Proxme.net Proxy4you.eu Proxyforfree.eu Proxy-ss.olympe.in Proxymonkey.org Proxy-best.com Rockvideo.cz Securewebproxy.net Spem.at

Chapter One
Free Online Proxies

Unblocker4u.com Usawebproxy.net Ultimateformalwear.com Websurf.in Workproxy.net Yellowproxy.net To use any of the above 100 free online proxies, you can enter the URL of a blocked site in the input box, and press the Enter key or click on the "Go" button, then you can unblock and visit the site. Among the above 100 free online proxies, some of them may be blocked in your area (such as China) when you see this e-book, but luckily, some of them will be still workable, too.

Chapter Two
Free Proxy Softwares

Chapter Two
Free Proxy Softwares
Although both are proxies, desktop softwares are different from online websites. While online proxies are full of ads, there are less or even no ads for proxy desktop softwares; while you can use online proxies directly, you need to download and install their clients before you can use those proxy softwares. Since most of the websites of those proxy softwares are blocked in China, it is a good idea to use a free online proxy web app to visit those websites and download the proxy softwares, if which websites are blocked in your area.

Chapter Two
Part One: Best 8 Free Proxy Softwares

Part One: Best 8 Free Proxy Softwares


While there are not so many proxy softwares as web proxies, you can check out the following best 8 anyway:

1. Freegate

The Freegate proxy software supports both English and Chinese languages, and works for Windows, Windows Mobile and Android mobiles. When Freegate runs, it will automatically open Dynaweb homepage in IE, which you can turn off in the settings. For any other browser, you can set the browser HTTP proxy to 127.0.0.1:8580.

2. UltraSurf

10

Chapter Two
Part One: Best 8 Free Proxy Softwares

The free proxy software UltraSurf also supports English and Chinese, and you can also download and run it without any installation on your Windows computer. When UltraSurf runs, it will automatically open Ultrareach homepage in IE, and of course you can turn it off in the settings. For any other browser, you can set the browser HTTP proxy to 127.0.0.1:9666.

3. GTunnel

11

Chapter Two
Part One: Best 8 Free Proxy Softwares

Workable for Windows, the GTunnel proxy software also supports Chinese and English languages. The most powerful feature of GTunnel is that you can access the proxy network with your GTalk or Skype account. When GTunnel runs, it will automatically open Garden Networks homepage in IE, if you like to use GTunnel on any other browser, just set the browser HTTP proxy to 127.0.0.1:8081.

4. Tor

12

Chapter Two
Part One: Best 8 Free Proxy Softwares

The free proxy software Tor supports a lot of languages, such as English, Chinese, French, and so on. For Windows, you can download the Tor Browser Bundle, which can be used directly without any installation, or you can download the Installation Bundle and install it. Besides, Tor is also available for Mac, Linux, Android and Nokia mobile phones. To run the Tor proxy software, just set the browser HTTP proxy to 127.0.0.1:8118, but most of the time, you also need to add some bridges.

5. GappProxy

13

Chapter Two
Part One: Best 8 Free Proxy Softwares

Workable for Windows and Linux, GappProxy is an http proxy software based on Google App Engine, and its instructions are written in Chinese. You can download the GappProxy windows client and run it without installation, but most of the time, you need to create a new FetchServer with Google App Engine and Python. To run GappProxy, you need to set the browser HTTP proxy to 127.0.0.1:8000.

6. Hyk-proxy

14

Chapter Two
Part One: Best 8 Free Proxy Softwares

The free proxy software Hyk-proxy is also built on Google App Engine and Java with Chinese instruction for Windows, Linux and Mac. You need to create a Google App Engine application to use the hyk-proxy client. To run Hyk-proxy, you need to set the browser HTTP proxy to 127.0.0.1:48100.

7. Your Freedom

15

Chapter Two
Part One: Best 8 Free Proxy Softwares

Create a free account on the Your Freedom website, download and install the suitable client for your computer system, change your browser HTTP proxy to 127.0.0.1:8080, then you can visit those blocked websites on your Windows or Mac. The configuration will take a few minutes, but automatically.

8. GPass

16

Chapter Two
Part One: Best 8 Free Proxy Softwares

You can download the GPass proxy software and run it on Windows without installation. The most powerful feature of GPass is that you can access the proxy network with Tor or Skype. You need to set the browser HTTP proxy to 127.0.0.1:8000. Bonus: When using any of the above 11 proxy desktop clients, you need to configure the browser's proxy settings, which process can be more easier with the following two extensions: AutoProxy ( For Firefox) Proxy Switchy (For Chrome) With each of the above 2 extensions, you can switch different free proxy softwares from one to another easily, no need to change the browser HTTP proxy address manually every time.

17

Chapter Two
Part Two: 3 Ways To Get Bridges For Tor

Part Two: 3 Ways To Get Bridges For Tor


As one of the best free proxy services, Tor is well-known for its security, but it is not so easy to use, as "most of the time, you also need to add some bridges". Bridges (short for Bridge relays) are Tor relays (such as "117.199.213.96:443") that aren't listed in the main directory. "Since there is no complete public list of them, even if your ISP is filtering connections to all the known Tor relays, they probably won't be able to block all the bridges. "

To use Bridges, you can go to Vidalia's Network settings page, and click "My ISP blocks connections to the Tor network", then add the bridges one by one at a time. So, how to get bridges for Tor? The following are three ways for your choice:

18

Chapter Two
Part Two: 3 Ways To Get Bridges For Tor

1. Via Vidalia Open the Tor client Vidalia, click the "Find Bridges Now" button and then there will be 3 bridges added automatically. 2. Via Web Visit the Tor's official bridge webpage, on which you can get three latest bridges. 3. Via Email For Google, Yahoo and MIT email users, you can send an email with "get bridges" subject to the official email address of Tor: bridges@torproject.org, then you will get three newest bridges at once. By the way, the more bridges you added, the more stable the Tor connection will be, but even though, you maybe still fail to get access to Tor, when your internet broadband speed is too slow or the censorship is too strong. In that case, you can check out some other anti-censorship tools.

19

Chapter Two
Part Three: Three Must-have Softwares To Use The GAE Web Apps

Part Three: Three Must-have Softwares To Use The GAE Web Apps
GAE (Google App Engine) is a Google product for you to create web applications and run them on Google's infrastructure. For free account, you can create up to 10 applications, use up to 500 MB storage, have an efficient app serving around 5 million page views a month, and outsource the maintenance to Google, that's why GAE are so popular with many related applications around the world.

My favorite two GAE applications are GAppProxy and HYK-Proxy, both of them are proxy servers, which are used to get access to the websites (such as Twitter) or their applications blocked in China. Although the formal instructions of GAppProxy and HYK-Proxy are both in Chinese, to make it easier, I am going to introduce each of them separately with more details. Before introduction, let's prepare below three must-have and nice softwares: 1. Google App Engine client The Google App Engine client is mainly used to upload your application data to your GAE account. There are two versions of Google App Engine client: Google App Engine SDK for Python Google App Engine SDK for Java You need to download the correct version for your applications. For example, if you are using GAppProxy, you will need to download the Google App Engine SDK for Python package; and if you are using HYK-Proxy, then you will need to download the Google App Engine SDK for Java package. By the way, make sure the Python version you are going to download is suite for your computer operation system. 2. Python Obviously, if you download the GAE for Python, you will also need to download and install a Python client usually, you can just download the latest version. By the way, the Python website is also blocked in China, if you have access trouble, try online proxy websites, VPN or proxy servers.

20

Chapter Two
Part Three: Three Must-have Softwares To Use The GAE Web Apps

3. Java For the Java version of Google App Engine, you just need go to the Java website and download its software. With the above three softwares on hand, GAppProxy and HYK-Proxy will be easy to install and use.

21

Chapter Two
Part Four: How To Install And Use Hyk-proxy

Part Four: How To Install And Use Hyk-proxy


As a GAE web application, Hyk-proxy is powerful for you to get access those websites blocked in China or some other countries. As mentioned before, you need three softwares to use any GAE web app, and below are the detailed steps for how to install and use Hyk-proxy:

I. How to install Hyk-proxy


To install Hyk-proxy is easy, just a few steps: Step 1. To create a GAE application

Sign in your GAE account and add an application ID which is available.

22

Chapter Two
Part Four: How To Install And Use Hyk-proxy

Step 2. To download Java and Google App Engine SDK for Java If you haven't gotten these two softwares on hand as mentioned before, you can download Java on its official website, and download Google App Engine SDK for Java from Google Code. Step 3. To download Hyk-proxy server and Hyk-proxy client

You can download Hyk-proxy server and Hyk-proxy client on the Hyk-proxy Downloads webpage. Step 4. To extract and install the download files Extract the zip files you download and install the Java client. Step 5. Deploy Task Open the install.bat file in the hyk-proxy-server folder, define the location of the Google App Engine SDK for Java folder, then you will see a window like below:

23

Chapter Two
Part Four: How To Install And Use Hyk-proxy

The AppID should be the GAE application ID you have created, the AppLocation should be the location of the War folder in the Hyk-proxy server directory, and the Email and Password should be same as your GAE's. Click the Deploy button when all information is correct, if everything is going on well, you will see "Success" in the column of Tasks execute Details. Step 6. To add GAE application ID to Hyk-proxy client

24

Chapter Two
Part Four: How To Install And Use Hyk-proxy

Open the startgui.bat file in the bin folder of the Hyk-proxy client directory, click the Config button on the pop-up window, add your GAE application ID as AppId, and remember to click the Apply button. You can add more than one AppId.

II. How to Use Hyk-proxy


When the AppId is added, you can just click the Start button, and the Hyk-proxy will run like below:

25

Chapter Two
Part Four: How To Install And Use Hyk-proxy

But the Hyk-proxy will not work when your GAE application ID is blocked, in that case, you can try below two ways: 1. To connect Hyk-proxy with GTalk

26

Chapter Two
Part Four: How To Install And Use Hyk-proxy

On the Connection configuration, enable XMPP, add your Gmail address and password as an XMPP account, then you can connect Hyk-proxy with GTalk. Of course, you can also connect Hyk-proxy with other XMPP accounts. 2. To connect Hyk-proxy with http proxy If you are running other proxy softwares on your computer, you can also Enable Http Proxy and add the server port, such as below: 127.0.0.1: 8580

This http proxy is for Freegate, and you can see how to set the port from the above image. When the connection is workable, configure your browser's http proxy to below address:

27

Chapter Two
Part Four: How To Install And Use Hyk-proxy

127.0.0.1: 48100

For Firefox browser, the setting will be as below image:

For other browsers, the http proxy settings may be a little different.

28

Chapter Two
Part Five: How To Install And Use GAppProxy

Part Five: How To Install And Use GAppProxy


Besides Hyk-proxy, GAppProxy is also a great proxy tool based upon GAE, and it is also easy to install and use. The latest version of GAppProxy is 2.0.0, which was updated two days ago, and below are the easy tutorials for how to install and use it:

I. How to install GAppProxy


The installation of GAppProxy is quite easy, just 5 steps: Step 1. To create a GAE application

Same as Hyk-proxy, log in your GAE account and create an available application ID, such as

29

Chapter Two
Part Five: How To Install And Use GAppProxy

"freenutsdotorg" used for this post. Step 2. To download and install Python and Google App Engine SDK for Python If you haven't gotten these two softwares on hand as mentioned before, you can download Python on its official website, and download Google App Engine SDK for Python from Google Code. After that, install both of them. Step 3. To download and extract GAppProxy clients and fetchserver

On the Downloads page, there are two versions of GAppProxy clients, one is "localproxy-2.0.0.zip" for any operation system with Python installation, and the other is "localproxy-2.0.0-win.zip" for Windows operation system only. And there is only one version of fetchserver, "fetchserver-2.0.0.zip". After downloads, extract the zip files. Step 4. To edit the app.yaml file

30

Chapter Two
Part Five: How To Install And Use GAppProxy

Open the "app.yaml" file in the fetchserver folder, and change the application name "your_application_name" to your new GAE application ID, such as "freenutsdotorg", then save the file. Step 5. To upload fetchserver Open the CMD file, and use below commands to upload the fetchserver folder and its files to your GAE account: appcfg.py update fetchserver-2.0.0

For example, if the location of the fetchserver folder is as below: D:\gappproxy\fetchserver-2.0.0

The commands to upload it to GAE will be like those in below image:

During the process, you will need to enter your Gmail username (visible) and password (invisible), and when the process finished, you will see something like that in below image:

II. How to Use GAppProxy


After installation, the usage of GAppProxy will be very easy. 1. How to use GAppProxy with localproxy-2.0.0

31

Chapter Two
Part Five: How To Install And Use GAppProxy

If you have download the "localproxy-2.0.0.zip", open the proxy.conf file of the extracted folder, and change the last sentence: #fetch_server = http://your-fetch-server.appspot.com/fetch.py

to below sentence: fetch_server = http://freenutsdotorg.appspot.com/fetch.py

Remember to remove the "#" symbol and replace "freenutsdotorg" with your GAE application ID. Then, open the "proxy.py" file, and change your browser http proxy to below address: 127.0.0.1: 8000

You can refer to Hyk-proxy for how to set the http proxy on Firefox browser. After this, you are able to use GAppProxy to visit any blocked websites.

32

Chapter Two
Part Five: How To Install And Use GAppProxy

2. How to use GAppProxy with localproxy-2.0.0-win The GAppProxy client localproxy-2.0.0-win is for Windows system only, and the usage is nearly same as localproxy-2.0.0. You just need to change the fetch_server name and remove the "#" symbol, then run the "proxy.exe" and set your browser's http proxy to 127.0.0.1: 8000. That's all about how to install and use GAppProxy, hope you enjoy it and get access any blocked websites with it.

33

Chapter Three
Free VPN Services

Chapter Three
Free VPN Services

While proxy can be taken as a carrier, who helps delivery your message to another person, VPN (Virtual Private Network) will be like the person's office staff, who also helps you delivery your message to that person. While proxy only works for the application you assign to, and basically the browsers only, VPN will works for your entire device, whether browsers, email clients, app stores or any other application that connects to the internet. While you need to set the browser HTTP proxy addresses to use a proxy service, you don't need to do that with VPN services. So, generally speaking, VPN is safer than Proxy. Image Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network

34

Chapter Three
Part One: Free PPTP VPN Services

Part One: Free PPTP VPN Services


As one of the methods to implement VPN, PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) is very easy to build and use. But hosting is expensive, so that there are not so many free PPTP VPN services, among which, the following 3 are the best up till now: 1. Tsunagarumon

On the Tsunagarumon application page, enter your email address, check to agree the service terms, and click on the red button, double-check your email address, and if it is correct, click on the next red button. After that, go to your email box, open the email from Tsunagarumon, and click the link it offers, then you will get your free VPN account information via email. 2. Super Free VPN

35

Chapter Three
Part One: Free PPTP VPN Services

On the Super Free VPN homepage of the website, you can get all the information of the free PPTP VPN account instantly. While the server and username are fixed, the password will be changed every 8 hours. But the way, since the Super Free VPN website is blocked in China, you maybe need to change the server from "superfreevpn.com" to the following IP address: 69.60.121.29

3. Free VPN Servers

36

Chapter Three
Part One: Free PPTP VPN Services

Visiting the Free VPN Servers account webpage, move the slider from left to right, and click on the "Get VPN Info" button to unlock the VPN information. By the way, the password will be changed every 30 minutes, but you can still use the old password if the VPN is running during the change process. Among the above 3 free VPN services, Tsunagarumon is my favorite, which one is yours?

37

Chapter Three
Part Two: Free VPN Softwares

Part Two: Free VPN Softwares


Different from PPTP VPN Services, desktop VPN softwares require downloading and installation. Most VPN softwares are not free, but luckily, you can check out the following best 5 free ones:

1. SecurityKiss

The VPN software SecurityKiss works for Windows only, but brings you 300MB of data transfer per day for free. No registration is required, you can just download and install the SecurityKiss software, then run and connect it. If the connection fails, you can try to select another VPN server.

2. ProXPN

38

Chapter Three
Part Two: Free VPN Softwares

The VPN software ProXPN is workable for Windows and Mac computers. Create a ProXPN account, download, install and run the software, then you can connect the VPN service with your username and password, but there will be a ProXPN landing page before you can visit the site you intend to.

3. Private Tunnel

39

Chapter Three
Part Two: Free VPN Softwares

Private Tunnel is a OpenVPN service, workable on Windows and Mac. You can create an account, download the OpenVPN Connect package, choose to connect the San Jose, CA (US), London (UK) or Zurich (CH) server, then you can use the Private Tunnel service, but only 100 MB free traffic.

4. Hotspot Shield

40

Chapter Three
Part Two: Free VPN Softwares

With English, French, Chinese and some other languages support, Hotspot Shield offers a free VPN solution with unlimited bandwidth for Windows and Mac. Just download and install the software, then you can run and connect the VPN service, but there will be ads on the top of the webpages you visit.

5. ExpatShield

41

Chapter Three
Part Two: Free VPN Softwares

Like Hotspot Shield, ExpatShield is also a free VPN software offers unlimited bandwidth with ads and supports multiple languages. But ExpatShield is only workable for Windows computer system. Among the above 5 free VPN softwares, I prefer to use SecurityKiss and ProXPN, how about you? Which ones are your favorite?

42

Chapter Three
Part Three: How To Build A VPN

Part Three: How To Build A VPN


Want to build your own VPN instead to use others', whether free or not? If you've already had a VPS, cloud computing or dedicated server, and the Terminal application of Mac, or the Putty tool for Windows, you can start to build VPN services, whether PPTP, L2TP or OpenVPN types.

The following will show you how to build a PPTP, L2TP and OpenVPN on a VPS based on the Mac Terminal application in 3 separate posts. First of all, run your Terminal, and enter the following command: ssh root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Just replace "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" with your VPS' IP, such as "178.18.17.212". Then you will see the following message: Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? Enter "yes" and press the "Return" key, then, enter your password and press the "Return" key. P.S.: If you've rebuilt your VPS, you may meet the following error: Host key verification failed. In that case, enter the following command at first:

43

Chapter Three
Part Three: How To Build A VPN

ssh-keygen -R xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Remember to replace "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" with your VPS' IP address. After that, you can start to build your own VPN.

44

Chapter Three
Part Three Section One: How To Build A PPTP VPN

Part Three Section One: How To Build A PPTP VPN

After connecting to your server via SSH, you can build your own PPTP VPN with the following 8 steps: 1. Install PPTPD Install the PPTPD package with the following command: apt-get install pptpd

2. Edit the VPN interface IP addresses Open the pptpd.conf file with the following code: nano /etc/pptpd.conf

Press the Enter key, find and uncomment the following 2 lines:

45

Chapter Three
Part Three Section One: How To Build A PPTP VPN

#localip 192.168.0.1 #remoteip 192.168.0.234-238,192.168.0.245

3. Edit DNS addresses Enter the following command: nano /etc/ppp/pptpd-options

Find the following codes: #ms-dns 10.0.0.1 #ms-dns 10.0.0.2

And change them to the following ones: ms-dns 8.8.8.8 ms-dns 8.8.4.4

4. Add VPN accounts Enter the following command: nano /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

Press the Return key and enter the following information:

46

Chapter Three
Part Three Section One: How To Build A PPTP VPN

username pptpd password *

For example: freenuts pptpd 123456 *

5. Forward IPv4 Enter the following command: nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Press the Return key, find and uncomment the following line: #net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

6. Apply the forward Your forward change won't be active immediately, and you need to apply it with the following commend: sysctl -p

If everything is correct, then you can see the following result: net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

47

Chapter Three
Part Three Section One: How To Build A PPTP VPN

7. Allow the routing Copy and paste the following command: iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

Press the Return key to run the command. 8. Restart PPTPD Copy and paste the following command: /etc/init.d/pptpd restart

Press the Return key, then you can use your PPTP VPN with the username and password you've set before.

48

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Two: How To Build A L2TP VPN

Part Three Section Two: How To Build A L2TP VPN

To build an L2TP/IPSec VPN, you can follow the following 6 steps: 1. Install OpenSwan Enter the following command lines one by one: aptitude install build-essential

aptitude install libgmp3-dev gawk flex bison

wget http://www.openswan.org/download/openswan-2.6.35.tar.gz

tar xzvf openswan-2.6.35.tar.gz

49

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Two: How To Build A L2TP VPN

cd openswan-2.6.35

make programs

make install

Remember to press the "Return" key when entering any one of the above lines. By the way, 2.6.35 is the latest version during my test, and you can check the OpenSwan website to see if there is a new version later, if yes, you can use it instead. 2. Edit IPSec Firstly, open the ipsec.conf file with the following command: vi /etc/ipsec.conf

Delete all the existing contents, and paste the following ones: version 2.0 config setup nat_traversal=yes virtual_private=%v4:10.0.0.0/8,%v4:192.168.0.0/16,%v4:172.16.0.0 /12,%v4:25.0.0.0/8,%v6:fd00::/8,%v6:fe80::/10 oe=off protostack=netkey conn %default

50

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Two: How To Build A L2TP VPN

forceencaps=yes conn L2TP-PSK-NAT rightsubnet=vhost:%priv also=L2TP-PSK-noNAT conn L2TP-PSK-noNAT authby=secret pfs=no auto=add keyingtries=3 rekey=no ikelifetime=8h keylife=1h type=transport left=YOUR.VPS.IP.ADDRESS leftprotoport=17/1701 right=%any rightprotoport=17/%any

Remember to change YOUR.VPS.IP.ADDRESS to your VPS IP address, such as 178.18.17.30 for this tutorial. Secondly, open the ipsec.secrets file with the following code: vi /etc/ipsec.secrets

And insert the following content: YOUR.VPS.IP.ADDRESS %any: PSK "YourSharedSecret"

For example: 178.18.17.30 %any: PSK "123456abcdef"

51

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Two: How To Build A L2TP VPN

Thirdly, enter the following command lines one by one: for each in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/* do echo 0 > $each/accept_redirects echo 0 > $each/send_redirects done

Remember to press the "Return" key after every command line. Fourthly, restart IPSEC with the following command: service ipsec restart

3. Install L2TP Go back to the root directory, and install the L2TP package with the following command line: aptitude install xl2tpd

After installation, open the conf file with the following code: vi /etc/xl2tpd/xl2tpd.conf

Delete all the existing content and paste the following one: [global]

52

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Two: How To Build A L2TP VPN

; listen-addr = 192.168.1.98 [lns default] ip range = 10.1.1.2-10.1.1.255 local ip = 10.1.1.1 require chap = yes refuse pap = yes require authentication = yes name = LinuxVPNserver ppp debug = yes pppoptfile = /etc/ppp/options.xl2tpd length bit = yes

4. Set up xl2tpd Enter the following command: vi /etc/ppp/options.xl2tpd

Then insert the following codes: require-mschap-v2 ms-dns 8.8.8.8 ms-dns 8.8.4.4 asyncmap 0 auth crtscts lock hide-password modem debug name l2tpd proxyarp lcp-echo-interval 30 lcp-echo-failure 4

53

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Two: How To Build A L2TP VPN

After that, open the chap-secrets file: vi /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

And insert the following content: username l2tpd password *

For example: freenuts l2tpd 123456 *

Then, restart L2TP: service xl2tpd restart

5. IP forward Enter the following command: vi /etc/sysctl.conf

Press the "Return" key, find the line of "#net.ipv4.ip_forward=1" and uncomment it. After that, enter the following command:

54

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Two: How To Build A L2TP VPN

sysctl -p

Press the "Return" key, then you will only see "net.ipv4.ip_forward=1" as the result if everything is right. After that, enter the following command: iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.1.1.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

6. For reboot Now, you can connect your L2TP/IPSec VPN, but if you reboot your VPS, your forwarding settings will be gone, to avoid this, you can enter the following command: vi /etc/rc.local

Press the "Return" key and paste the following contents before the "exit 0" line: for each in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/* do echo 0 > $each/accept_redirects echo 0 > $each/send_redirects done iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.1.1.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE /etc/init.d/ipsec restart

Save it, then you are done.

55

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Three: How To Build An OpenVPN

Part Three Section Three: How To Build An OpenVPN

It is also easy to build an OpenVPN with the following 9 steps: 1. Install OpenVPN Enter the following command to install OpenVPN: apt-get install openvpn

2. Move easy-rsa into the correct place Enter the following command: cp -R /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/easy-rsa /etc/openvpn

56

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Three: How To Build An OpenVPN

Press the "Return" key, then you can move the easy-rsa folder to the OpenVPN directory. 3. Generate keys Enter the following commands one by one: cd /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/2.0 . ./vars ./clean-all ./build-ca ./build-key-server server ./build-key client ./build-dh

Remember to press the "Return" key at each line, and answer "yes" to all "yes/no" questions: 4. Apply iptables rules Enter the following command: vi /etc/sysctl.conf

Press the "Return" key, find the line of "#net.ipv4.ip_forward=1" and uncomment it. After that, enter the following code: sysctl -p

57

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Three: How To Build An OpenVPN

Then you will see the following message as a result: net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Then create iptables rules with the following command: iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j SNAT --to 178.18.17.142

Remember to replace "178.18.17.142" with the actual IP address of your server. 5. Create the VPS OpenVPN configuration file Enter the following command: # vi /etc/openvpn/server.conf

And paste the following contents: port 1194 proto udp dev tun ca /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/2.0/keys/ca.crt cert /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/2.0/keys/server.crt key /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/2.0/keys/server.key dh /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/2.0/keys/dh1024.pem server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0 ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt push "redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp" push "dhcp-option DNS 8.8.8.8" push "dhcp-option DNS 8.8.4.4" client-to-client duplicate-cn keepalive 10 120

58

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Three: How To Build An OpenVPN

comp-lzo user nobody group nogroup persist-key persist-tun status openvpn-status.log log /var/log/openvpn.log verb 3

6. Start OpenVPN You can start OpenVPN with the following command: # /etc/init.d/openvpn start

7. Create the PC OpenVPN configuration file Enter the following command: vi /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/2.0/keys/client.conf

And insert the following contents: client dev tun proto udp remote 178.18.17.142 1194 resolv-retry infinite nobind persist-key persist-tun ca ca.crt cert client.crt

59

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Three: How To Build An OpenVPN

key client.key comp-lzo verb 3 redirect-gateway script-security 2

Remember to replace "178.18.17.142" with your own VPS' IP address. 8. For reboot In order to redo the above iptables settings when you reboot your VPS, you can enter the following command: vi /etc/rc.local

And insert the following contents above the line of "exit 0" : iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j SNAT --to 178.18.17.142 openvpn /etc/openvpn/server.conf

Remember to replace "178.18.17.142" with the actual IP address of your VPS. 9. Download some things to your PC You need to download the following 4 files to your local PC: client.conf ca.crt client.crt client.key To do so, you can use Fetch (for Mac), WinSCP (for Windows) or some other SFTP software.

60

Chapter Three
Part Three Section Three: How To Build An OpenVPN

When it is finished, go to the root of your user name, and move the 4 download files to your local OpenVPN configurations folder, then your own OpenVPN is ready.

61

Chapter Three
Part Four: How To Set Up VPN

Part Four: How To Set Up VPN


When getting a VPN service, whether free or not, how to use it on your computers, table computers or smart phones? For those desktop VPN software (such as SecurityKISS), you just need to install and run them according to their instructions, and for those VPN services without installation (such as PPTP), you can check out the Setup Instruction Pages of StrongVPN, which will show you how to set up PPTP, L2TP and OpenVPN Accounts on computers (including Windows, Mac OS, Linux, etc.), table computers (such as iPad), mobile phones (including iPhone, Android, WebOS, etc.) and nearly all the popular devices and systems, with videos or screenshots. The following are 3 key steps you should know during the setup process:

I. To find out the types of your VPN service


Make sure that if your VPN service is PPTP, L2TP/IPSec or OpenVPN.

II. To get the information which you need to set up VPN


When you get a PPTP or L2TP VPN service, you will need the following information to set it up: 1. The server address: host name (such as us6.macrovpn.com) or IP address (such as 74.86.150.154),

62

Chapter Three
Part Four: How To Set Up VPN

2. Your username, 3. Your password, 4. Your Shared Secret (for L2TP only). By the way, when the host name is blocked in your area, you can try to replace it with the IP address. And when you get an OpenVPN, besides the username and password, you will also need the following 4 files: client.conf ca.crt client.crt client.key

III. The key step to set up VPN


The most difficult step for VPN setup is to find out where to add your PPTP/L2TP VPN account information. For example, to set up PPTP VPN in Windows XP, you need to find the "Virtual Private Network connection" option according to the following path: Network Connections -> New Connection Wizard -> Connect to the network at my workplace -> Virtual Private Network connection

On the option page, enter your host name or IP address, and then you can connect the VPN with your username and password. For the step-by-step tutorials of how to set up VPN in your computer and mobile phone, you can check out the links of StrongVPN as mentioned in the beginning of this post.

63

Chapter Four
Free SSH Services

Chapter Four
Free SSH Services
In my opinion, SSH (Secure Shell) is a proxy server indeed, but safer. While proxy can be taken as a carrier who helps delivery your message to another person, SSH will be like to put the message in a locked box before passing it to the carrier, and only you have to key. Although it is easy to build a SSH tunnel, which will cost some money, since you need a VPS, cloud computing or dedicated server to do that, like what you need to build a VPN.

64

Chapter Four
Part One: Free SSH Tunnels

Part One: Free SSH Tunnels


Since it is expensive to build a SSH tunnel, there are not so many free ones. But luckily, you can find the following best 5 for reference anyway:

1. Alidage

On the Alidage homepage, you can enter your email address, and press the Enter key, the you can get your free SSH tunnel account via email. The password will be changed every one hour, then you will need to enter your email address again to get the new one. 2. Onlybird

65

Chapter Four
Part One: Free SSH Tunnels

The Onlybird website offers 2 different free SSH tunnel accounts, which you can see directly by clicking on the above link. By the way, the password will be changed every 4 hours, and the server port is 9999, instead of the default 22. 3. BlueSSH

66

Chapter Four
Part One: Free SSH Tunnels

BlueSSH offers one free SSH tunnel account, which you can see on the free account page. The server port is 80 or 443, and the password will be changed every half an hour. 4. Usassh

67

Chapter Four
Part One: Free SSH Tunnels

Usassh offers 2 free SSH severs, but the one with 22 port was not available now. And the other one with port 80 or 443 will update its password every o'clock. While the above 4 websites are all Chinese, the following one is English: 5. Tor VPN

68

Chapter Four
Part One: Free SSH Tunnels

On the Tor VPN website, you can sign up the Trial account and get a free SSH tunnel for one month, with up to 1 GB traffic. By the way, besides SSH, you can also have a free OpenVPN account. Among the above 4 free SSH tunnels, Tor VPN is blocked in China, but the other 4 are not, have fun!

69

Chapter Four
Part Two: How To Create A SSH Tunnel

Part Two: How To Create A SSH Tunnel


For most of the free SSH tunnels, their passwords will be reset every half an hour, 2 hours, 4 hours or some other time, which will be boring anyway. To avoid the issue, you can buy a paid SSH tunnel, or create your own one, which will be very easy if you've already has a VPS, cloud computing or dedicated server. The following will show you how to use your VPS to create a SSH tunnel:

Supposing that you've had a VPS, which IP is 94.249.184.93, then you can open your Terminal application and enter the following command line: ssh -N -D 7070 root@94.249.184.93

Remember to replace "94.249.184.93" with the IP address of your own VPS, and press the "Return" key, then enter your VPS account password, if nothing appear as a result, your SSH tunnel will be built successfully. By the way, if you have created a VPN in your VPS, you can still use your VPS as a SSH tunnel. But the above way is only available for you to use the SSH tunnel yourself, unless you want to share your whole VPS account with others. And to share a SSH tunnel account only with others, you can create a new and limited user instead of "root" by referring to the following 4 steps: 1. Log in your VPS root Open a Terminal window, and enter the following command: SSH root@94.249.184.93

70

Chapter Four
Part Two: How To Create A SSH Tunnel

Remember to replace "94.249.184.93" with your own VPS IP. 2. Create a group Enter the following command: groupadd internetfreedom

You can replace "internetfreedom" with any name you like. 3. Create a limited user useradd -d /home/freenutsdotcom -m -g internetfreedom -s /bin/false freenutsdotcom

The above command will create a new SSH user "freenutsdotcom" in the "internetfreedom" group, and who can't log in your VPS. 4. Create a password for the new user Enter the following command: passwd freenutsdotcom

You can enter any password (such as "123456") for the new user. Now, you can share the username and password with your friends, who can then use your VPS SSH with the following command: ssh -N -D 7070 freenutsdotcom@94.249.184.93

71

Chapter Four
Part Two: How To Create A SSH Tunnel

Remember to replace "freenutsdotcom" with the new user, and "94.249.184.93" with your own VPS IP.

72

Chapter Four
Part Three: How To Connect To SSH Tunnel

Part Three: How To Connect To SSH Tunnel


When getting a free SSH tunnel, how to connect to it? For Windows, you can install the "Tunnelier" software, and for Mac OS X, you can use "SSH Tunnel Manager", and of course, there will be some other softwares for you to do that. No matter which software you are using, you possibly will need to enter the following 4 elements of your SSH tunnel account: Server: such as "s4.alidage.org" Username: such as "guest" Password: such as "guest29080212737358" Port: such as "22" as default. The above example values are all for one of the Alidage.org SSH tunnel accounts, as what you can see from the following screenshot of SSH Tunnel Manager:

By the way, when using SSH Tunnel Manager, you will need to "Enable SOCKS4 proxy" and set the port as "7070". Besides to use those softwares mentioned before, you can also connect to your SSH tunnel with the following

73

Chapter Four
Part Three: How To Connect To SSH Tunnel

one command line: SSH -N -D 7070 guest@s4.alidage.org

For Windows, you can install the "Putty" software to run the above command, and for Mac OS X, you can open the Terminal application and enter the above commend directly. And if you are not using Alidage's SSH tunnel, remember to replace "s4.alidage.org" with your SSH server, and replace "guest" with its username. And if the SSH tunnel is still available, then you can enter the password and connect to it successfully, as what you can see from the following image:

The above command line is for the default port 22, if your SSH server's port is 80 or something else, then you will need to add "-p 'port'" in the command line, such as: SSH -N -p 80 -D 7070 guest@s4.alidage.org

When the connection is successful, you can open your browser and set the SOCKS Proxy Sever IP address to 127.0.0.1 with port 7070. For Chrome browser, you can find the settings page via the following path: Preference > Show advanced settings > Network > Change Proxy Settings

74

Chapter Four
Part Three: How To Connect To SSH Tunnel

Such as what you can see from the following image:

The above configuration will be also workable for Safari, and for Firefox, the configuration will be nearly the same, and you can find the proxy settings page via the following path: Preference > Advanced > Network > Settings

75

Chapter Five
How To Access Blocked Sites With Google Reader

Chapter Five
How To Access Blocked Sites With Google Reader
As you may know that Google Reader is available for you to subscribe to the RSS feeds of websites, but do you know that it is also a good way for you to bypass the internet censorship and access blocked sites? The following will show you how to get access to a blocked site with Google Reader in 2 steps: 1. Subscribe to the RSS feed If the blocked site offers a RSS feed, you can subscribe to it directly with Google Reader:

And if not, you can visit the Page2RSS website, enter the URL of the site to generate its RSS feed:

76

Chapter Five
How To Access Blocked Sites With Google Reader

After that, copy the URL of the RSS feed and subscribe to it in your Google Reader. 2. Enable the secure browsing For the RSS feed of a blocked site, you may fail to read it on Google Reader as default, such as what you can see from the following image:

To solve the problem, you can just add "https://" at the beginning of the URL, such as what you can see from the following image:

77

Chapter Five
How To Access Blocked Sites With Google Reader

Cool, right? By the way, Google Reader is only available for you to read the RSS feed of a blocked site, and if you want to leave a comment, to post a tweet, to share on Facebook or to do some other interactions, you can check out VPN, Proxy, SSH or some other free anti-censorship tools.

78

Chapter Six
How To Access Blocked Sites With The Hosts File

Chapter Six
How To Access Blocked Sites With The Hosts File
To unblocked a blocked site (such as Facebook), you can check out VPN, SSH, Proxy and some other free anti-censorship tools as mentioned before. In fact, you can even unblocked blocked sites without any third-party tools, but just by changing the hosts file on your own computer. The following will show you how to change the Hosts file and unblocked the Facebook site in 3 steps: Step 1. Find the IP addresses

For Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and some other big sites, each of them usually has more than one IP address, so, how to find out all the IP addresses of a site?

79

Chapter Six
How To Access Blocked Sites With The Hosts File

You can visit the CacheCheck page of OpenDNS, enter the domain of the site (such as facebook.com), and click on the "Check this domain" button, then you can see the site's IP addresses from all over the world. Step 2. Find one unblocked IP

Among all the IP addresses of the site, some of them may be blocked in your area, while the others are not, so how to figure them out? The most easy way is to ping them on your computers. For Windows, you can open the Command Prompt (cmd.exe), and for Mac OS, you can open the Terminal application, then enter the following command: ping 66.220.152.16

The above "66.220.152.16" is one of Facebook's IP addresses, remember to change it to the one you are going to ping. If there is a "timeout" error in the result, then the IP address is blocked in your area, if not, then you are lucky to add it to the hosts file. Step 3. Edit the hosts file

80

Chapter Six
How To Access Blocked Sites With The Hosts File

The hosts file is something like a DNS system, so we can locate the blocked site's domains to its unblocked IP addresses and then bypass the internet censorship. For Windows, you can find the hosts file in the following address: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

And for Mac OS, you can find and open the hosts file by entering the following command on the Terminal application: sudo vi /private/etc/hosts

When the hosts file is opened, you can add the blocked site's unblocked IP addresses with domains in the end of the file. Take Facebook for example, you can enter the following 2 lines: 66.220.152.16 facebook.com 66.220.152.16 www.facebook.com

81

Chapter Six
How To Access Blocked Sites With The Hosts File

Besides, you can also add more sub-domains (such as developers.facebook.com) with their unblocked IP addresses if any. After that, save the hosts file, then you can visit the Facebook site directly without any anti-censorship tools, but, you need to use "HTTPS" instead of "HTTP" in the URL, which means that you need to visit the facebook via the following URL: https://facebook.com

or https://www.facebook.com

A piece of cake, right? But, if all the IP addresses of a site are blocked in your area (for example, all the Twitter IP addresses are blocked in China), you can't unblocked it by changing the hosts file.

82

Chapter Seven
How To Access Blocked Sites Via IPv6

Chapter Seven
How To Access Blocked Sites Via IPv6
If your broadband supports IPv6 access, then you can visit those IPv6 sites directly, if not, you can do that indirectly with some third-party tools, such as gogoCLIENT. After registration and installation, you can connect Gogo6 and access Google, Twitter, YouTube and some other blocked sites with IPv6 addresses by the following 3 ways: 1. To add .sixxs.org in the end of their domains, like Google.com.sixxs.org for example. 2. To configure an automatic proxy URL in your browser. 3. To edit the hosts file by adding the IPv6 addresses of those blocked sites. For Windows user, you can find the hosts file in the following address: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

For Max OS user, you can find and open the hosts file by entering the following command line on the Terminal application: sudo vi /private/etc/hosts

And you can find out some IPv6 addresses of Google, YouTube, Twitter as well as some other popular blocked sites here (Chinese). Or you can find any website's IPv6 addresses via the IPv6 Test web app. By the way, gogoCLIENT is only available for Windows, and what is more, you need to send a request to download it now.

83

Chapter Eight
How To Check If A Site Is Blocked

Chapter Eight
How To Check If A Site Is Blocked
When you can visit site A, but not site B on a same browser with a same device at a same time, then site B must be down or blocked in your area. So, how to tell if a site is blocked or not? You can check out the following 3 ways: 1. To visit it with anti-censorship tools, 2. To ping it with command lines, 3. To test it with third-party apps. And to check out if a site is blocked in China, you can use the WebSitePulse service, which will tell you if a site is blocked in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou or Hong Kong.

84

Chapter Eight
Part One: Check If A Site Is Blocked With Anti-censorship Tools

Part One: Check If A Site Is Blocked With Anti-censorship Tools

Enter the URL of the site you want to test into the address bar of your Chrome, IE, Firefox or any other browser, If you can open it with VPN, SSH, Proxy or any other anti-censorship tools, but can't without any of them, then the site must be blocked in your area. And if not, then the site must be down.

85

Chapter Eight
Part Two: Check If A Site Is Blocked By Pinging It

Part Two: Check If A Site Is Blocked By Pinging It

For Windows, you can open the Command Prompt (cmd.exe), and for Mac OS, you can open the Terminal application, then enter the following command: ping twitter.com

Remember to change the above "twitter.com" to the site you are going to ping. If there are all "timeout" errors in the result, then the site is blocked in your area or its server is down, so how to figure it out? You can run a VPN and ping the site again, if there are no or few errors, the site is blocked, and if there are still all "timeout" errors, then the site is down.

86

Chapter Eight
Part Three: Top 10 Websites For You To Check If A Site Is Blocked

Part Three: Top 10 Websites For You To Check If A Site Is Blocked


Besides to visit with anti-censorship tools and to ping it, you can also check out if a site is blocked or not with some third-party web apps directly. Among which, the following 10 are the best to tell you if a site is blocked or down:

1. Just Ping

The Just Ping website will ping the domain you enter from 50 locations around the world, unless there is no "Okey" in the result, your site is blocked in that location where the result is "Packets lost (100%)". But the results are different every time I checked, so that you'd better check more than one time.

2. Watch Mouse

87

Chapter Eight
Part Three: Top 10 Websites For You To Check If A Site Is Blocked

Watch Mouse can ping your site from 30 stations worldwide, and tell you if the site is down or blocked in the same way as Just Ping does.

3. HostTracker

88

Chapter Eight
Part Three: Top 10 Websites For You To Check If A Site Is Blocked

The HostTracker website is down now, but during yesterday's test, it can check any site you enter from tens of different locations around the world. While the above 3 websites will show you from where they check your site, the following 7 won't, but their results are also correct during my test:

4. Down For Everyone Or Just Me

On the Down For Everyone Or Just Me website, enter any domain you want to check, then you can see if the domain's site is down for everyone or just you.

5. IsUp.Me

89

Chapter Eight
Part Three: Top 10 Websites For You To Check If A Site Is Blocked

IsUp.Me is another version of Down For Everyone Or Just Me, everything are same, except the domain.

6. Down Or Not

Enter a site's domain, press the Return key, then Down Or Not will show you if the site is down or not. And you can also pick up a site listed to check if it is down or blocked.

7. Down Or Is It Just Me

90

Chapter Eight
Part Three: Top 10 Websites For You To Check If A Site Is Blocked

On the Down Or Is It Just Me website, you can see if a site is really down or not by entering its domain.

8. Checksite.Us

Enter the domain of the site you want to check, then Checksite.Us will show you if they can access the site.

9. Up Or Down

91

Chapter Eight
Part Three: Top 10 Websites For You To Check If A Site Is Blocked

The design of the Up Or Down website is simple, you enter a site, then it will show you if it is up or down.

10. DOJ.me

As the name, DOJ.me (short for Down Or Just Me) will show you if the site you want to check is down or not. If a site is up according to the above 10 websites, but you can't visit it, then the site is blocked in your area.

92

Chapter Eight
Part Four: Check If A Site Is Blocked In China With WebSitePulse

Part Four: Check If A Site Is Blocked In China With WebSitePulse


The previous 3 ways mentioned are certainly available for you to check if a site is blocked in China or not. Besides, you can also check out the WebSitePulse website, which offers a test tool Website Test behind the Great Firewall of China for you to check if your site is blocked in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou or Hong Kong.

With the test tool, you can enter your site's domain, choose one of the supported Chinese locations as mentioned before, select Seattle (USA), Munich (Germany) or Brisbane (Australia) as a foreign test location, and click the "Perform Test" button, then you can get the result page, such as what you can see from the following screenshot:

93

Chapter Eight
Part Four: Check If A Site Is Blocked In China With WebSitePulse

On the result page, if there is a red "Failed" message on the left and a green "OK" on the right, then your site is blocked in the Chinese location you choose; and if there is no red message, then your site is not blocked in that location.

94

Chapter Eight
Part Five: Top 10 Websites Blocked in China

Part Five: Top 10 Websites Blocked in China


God knows how many sites are blocked in China, whether those big ones like Facebook, or those small ones like Jingpin, any site can be blocked here, for no written reasons. Listed below are 10 most popular websites blocked in China:

1. Facebook

2. Twitter

95

Chapter Eight
Part Five: Top 10 Websites Blocked in China

3. YouTube

4. Blogger

5. Technorati

96

Chapter Eight
Part Five: Top 10 Websites Blocked in China

6. Dailymotion

7. Picasa

97

Chapter Eight
Part Five: Top 10 Websites Blocked in China

8. Plurk

9. Hellotxt

98

Chapter Eight
Part Five: Top 10 Websites Blocked in China

10. Dropbox

What do you feel like when seeing the above 10 images? I feel mad and unhappy, since there is something that prevents me to access the most popular websites in the world, and I have no idea why those websites are blocked, since our governments never say why they blocked them.

99

Chapter Eight
Part Six: Countries That Block Facebook

Part Six: Countries That Block Facebook


Does your country or area block Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and/or any other public websites as China? You can figure it out by following the tips mentioned in Chapter Eight, and according to Wikipedia, there are 6 countries that block Facebook: 1. Bangladesh 2. China 3. Iran 4. Pakistan 5. Uzbekistan 6. Vietnam Besides the above 6 countries, Syria is also mentioned, but according to Hillary Clinton's speech at George Washington University on February 15, 2011, Syria just unblocked Facebook a few days ago, so Wikipedia is a little out the date. As a user in China, it's painful to play with Facebook since you have to use some VPN services or other anti-censorship tools to get access to the website, which will take much more time than usual. Even though, I keep login with Facebook often if not everyday, since the internet freedom is so amazing, the friends are so kind. Hope the countries that block Facebook will be less and less until zero in the near future, such as 2012, the best time I think.

100

Subsequent
This Book Is Free

Subsequent
This Book Is Free
Most contents of this book are from my FreeNuts.com blog, which focus on interesting and free web apps. As all those anti-censorship tools mentioned in this book, this book is and will be always free, you can read and download it on the FreeNuts.org site.

101
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen