Accessing websites without any restrictions is like a paradise. You can almost do anything you want legally if there are no restrictions in your network. In fact, accessing a website should be a privilege rather than authorized to individuals to have access to the world wide web.
But it’s just not that easy..
In most cases, there are valid reasons why some websites are filtered. This can be because of parental issue, government implementations or even an organization rules and regulations. Each has reasons behind which proved to be valid and reasonable in many ways:
- For Parental Control – Parents normally add restrictions in a network to limit what their children can visit. This includes accessing online casino websites, dating sites, adults sites or anything that could affect the mind of children are likely to be prohibited from accessing.
- For Government Implementations – For general information, Government normally blocks adult sites or file distribution sites for downloads because it’s just illegal.
- For Private Network – Limiting accessible websites in a local network is natural to reduce distractions which easily diverts the attention of an individual to something else. This includes schools, public or private offices.
While some have strong security implementations, there are some methods you can implement on how you can successfully unblock websites. Some of these methods do not require technical knowledge, some may require but it’s pretty straightforward.
What types of Websites that get blocked?
This actually depends on your location and decision of your government or network administrators. As long as the website show potential threat, distractions to people or if it violates copyright law, then it’s more likely to get blocked.
In fact, in September 2012, countries like China, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, and Turkmenistan have banned Youtube. Also, China, Iran, North Korea, and a few more countries have banned access to Facebook.
While blocking websites is entirely a decision of some individuals, here are online reasons why websites get blocked:
- Online bullying of public personalities such as religious leaders, political personalities or even media personalities
- Copyright violations
- Bandwidth limitations
- Can cause of habitual distractions
Some reasons may be the personal or national interest, these probably are for the best of individuals located in areas with limited access to websites.
5 Ways You Can do to Unblock Websites
You don’t need to become a computer geek in order to unblock websites. There are simple yet effective methods you can follow without consulting to an I.T professional or begging your network administrator to allow your computer to access blocked websites.
- Use a Web Proxy
- Use a Browser Tool
- Use a VPN
- Use TOR
- Change your IP
Use a Web Proxy
Web proxy will probably the best thing will come to your mind because it’s free and no technical installation or configuration required to modify in your network to access a blocked website.
A web proxy works best if you just need to read online documents for research but may not work well if you need to load videos or access your social networking accounts.
There are a lot of web proxy sites available for you to try, listed below are the common sites:
- Whoer.net
- Proxysite.com
- Proxy.toolur.com
- Hide.me/proxy
- Hidester.com/proxy
The only feature I don’t like in Web proxy is you can see in the frame the website you are using to access a website which may be annoying for some people.
Use Google Chrome Browser Extensions
If you have been doing your research, you have probably come across browser extension or plugins. Fortunately, virtual private networks (VPN) like AnonymoX are kind enough to create plugin extensions that will mask your identity online through a browser without any configuration required.
However, the problem with this little tool is your proxies are limited. That means, when all your proxies get detected, you will have look for another extension to replace your old tool.
If download is blocked in your network, you can try a different approach.
Use a Proxy Address
This requires a little understanding of computers. Before you can change your IP, you will need to find working proxy addresses which are available online. Just search free proxy or proxy address and you should see a list of results with a lot of proxy address you can try on.
You normally will choose the one with the 8080 port proxy as that is used for HTTP requests.
Note: Due to the popularity of these proxies address, some have been banned or have been disabled. If you happen to come across one, move on to find a new one.
Purchase a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
If web proxy, proxy address or browser extension don’t work and help you access blocked websites, you might have to increase your level of anonymity online.
It’s natural if those methods above don’t work for you due to a high level of security but even if they sometimes work, their days are about to last.
With Virtual Private Networks (VPN) your connection is ultimately secured because the data transfer from your computer to the world wide web is not directly because you are in a secured network.
Here is what you can do when you use VPN:
- Hide your browsing activity to your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
- Unblock Website
- Secure Access to your Home or Office network remotely
- Bypass Internet Censorship
- Download files
Use TOR browser
If you only need to access websites or download files or whatever requests via HTTP, TOR browser is probably what you have in mind.
TOR browser is not your usual browser. It can access the deep web, you can unblock websites and you can protect your privacy online with a strong level of protection.
When you are in TOR, your original location is not disclosed and your public IP will constantly change as part of your security, making you almost untraceable.
Conclusion
Unblocking a website does not mean you are involved in illegal activities. This does not mean you have a bad intention and this does not mean you have a criminal plan to implement.
