Some people do not have the luxury of accessing any website they want. It may be that your job’s network administrator forbids you from going to YouTube, or it may be that your government prohibits you from watching the news it doesn’t like.Â
Accessing blocked sites is possible regardless of the situation.
Here’s how to bypass blocked sites using a few of the best methods. Each method has its pros and cons, so no one way will always work for everyone. There are, however, advantages and disadvantages to each. Let’s start.
Proxies
Proxy services are the first method, a lightweight tool that reroutes your internet connection and gives you a fake IP address. The rerouting method is an effective way to fool the block into letting you through, the basis of all the other techniques we’ll discuss.
Proxy servers, however, are pretty limited tools. You can use them at school or at work to unblock YouTube, but otherwise, you may not be successful. They can even get you into trouble if used in countries like China that restrict internet activity.
Virtual Private Networks
Virtual private networks are much better options. It’s similar to how proxies work in that they reroute your connection and spoof your IP, but VPNs are better because they encrypt your connection, making it harder for others to spy on you.
You can watch what streaming services are available in another region with a VPN, regardless of whether you’re trying to get past Chinese internet censorship. In addition to cracking blocks, they protect you against snoops and our privacy tools.
However, the best ones, like ExpressVPN, cost a lot and the best ones are expensive. Even good free VPNs such as PrivadoVPN limit your usage in several ways, making them unnecessary. Therefore, VPNs are not a good option if you lack the money or are unwilling to spend it.
Shadowsocks
A third option is to use Shadowsocks, which can also serve as a proxy by tunneling under the Great Firewall of China. Unlike representatives, Shadowsocks encrypts connections, but not in the same way as VPNs. Its primary purposes are to unblock and hide traffic; torrenting, for example, is not a recommended use.
With Outline, it’s easy to set up Shadowsocks if that’s what you need. With just 20 minutes of setup, you can crack any block, and it includes everything, including setting up a server. With DigitalOcean, the only thing that costs money is the server.
Tor
Our penultimate option may be an exciting option for anyone without money, namely using The Onion Router. In addition to being a handy tool for accessing blocked sites, Tor can also spoof your IP, similar to VPNs, so that you can access the dark web and illicit goods offered there.
Your connection is bounced between different so-called nodes, run by volunteers, each with their IP address. Consequently, it is complicated to track you, and since the nodes aren’t commercially owned makes your IP seem more “real.”
