Bypassing blockages for dummies

The easiest ways to open blocked sites

On March 13, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation simultaneously blocked the websites of several online publications and Alexei Navalny’s blog, once again making RuNet users think that in the near future blocking will become routine for them.

TJournal tried the most popular means of bypassing blocking and found among them versions “for dummies” - in which everything works right away, without settings.

Turbo modes of browsers and Google Translate

There are widely known methods for opening blocked sites that do not require installing special applications or any settings. Many of them are not as effective as we would like.

For example, using the “turbo mode” in the Opera browser, it was possible to open Alexei Navalny’s blog, which was blocked by LiveJournal, without any problems, but it was not possible to access the site, access to which was limited by the provider.

At the same time, the traffic compression mode in mobile browsers Chrome and Opera showed its best performance. Blocked pages loaded quickly and without any distortion in appearance.

And the option of passing the site through Google Translator turned out to be ineffective. Neither Navalny’s blog nor the Rutor.org tracker opened.

Web services

In terms of convenience, web services that offer opening blocked sites through proxy servers do not differ much from each other. Most often, they only require you to copy the link into a line on your home page and make one click. However, they display the required page with its own header and work very slowly.

One of the best among them is ProxFree . It is easy to use and does not add its own advertising. Analogs include Proxyweb and Hide My Ass .

Smartphone applications

The most obvious and simplest solution for iPhone and iPad users turned out to be the Onion browser , which works through the Tor onion routing system (The Onion Router), the traffic in which is almost impossible to track. The only thing required from the user is $1 for the universal version for all Apple platforms.

In practice, Onion is an outwardly unremarkable browser that allows you to open any blocked sites. It is suitable as a closed tool that does not affect the operation of the rest of the system. For Android there is an analogue called Orweb .

If you want to bypass blocks without using a third-party browser, then you should try TunnelBear . This service is available on iOS, Android, PC and Mac and uses VPN technology.

It is noticeably more difficult to launch it on mobile platforms than Onion. On iOS, it first asks you to register, confirm your email, install a profile with VPN settings, enable its profile in iOS options, and only then start working.

But, unlike Onion, TunnelBear allows you to pretend to be a user from another country and use the services of, say, the Netflix service.

The main disadvantage of TunnelBear is the price. In the free version of the application, only 500 megabytes of traffic per month are available, and annual unlimited traffic will cost 979 rubles (and this is only the price for iOS devices). You can't call him friendly at all. On the other hand, it has versions for iOS, Android, PC and Mac: the last two are very easy to use.

Browser plugins

The most convenient and effective tool in this area turned out to be a plugin for Mozilla and Chrome called friGate . The authors of the extension specifically note that there is no loss of speed when using it. It really works “out of the box” and opens pages blocked by any known method, notifying the user of entering “forbidden territory” with just a change in the icon on the control panel.

The speed of friGate is ensured by the fact that it opens blocked sites from its own pre-compiled list. However, this is unlikely to become a problem for anyone: it is replenished as quickly as possible.

An offer from competitors called hola! proved to be noticeably worse. Firstly, you need to manually select the VPN of the desired country. Secondly, the plugin often turns the layout of blocked pages into a mess and looks untidy in itself. However, as the creators note, it is largely intended for viewing media content: to speed up the loading of streaming video, it uses the computers of other users with the plugin installed.

plugin The ZenMate easily opened sites blocked both at the LJ level and at the provider level. It slows down the browser somewhat, while promising “free, full traffic encryption,” and requires you to enter your email address to activate it.

Programs for Windows and Mac

Desktop blocking methods are most often either paid or difficult to use and therefore make no sense for “dummies”, for whom a small browser plugin is enough.

For example, the legendary Tor browser , which recently appeared in the TV series “House of Cards” as a means of contacting the “dark Internet,” easily overcomes any blocking. However, the speed of its operation makes us remember the days of modems connecting to the network through a telephone line.

A separate line worth mentioning is the Vemeo service , which, like TunnelBear, is present on all major platforms, but costs $3.95 per month, so it is difficult to recommend it for amateur use. The company is actively promoting itself as a service for accessing online cinemas Hulu and Netflix, and also cooperates with the domestic Turbofilm .

Iron

A “hard” way to bypass blocking is the Onion Pi portable proxy server, made on the basis of a Raspberry Pi computer. It passes all user traffic through the Tor system and distributes Wi-Fi. The device will cost about $100, but it is not so easy to find in Russia. You can also buy it for bitcoins.

My provider never got around to blocking RedTube,
Vadim Elistratov,
TJournal

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