How to Unblock Websites at School, Work, Home or Anywhere

Internet censorship has grown drastically over the past few years with countries like China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran taking the lead over others in blocking sources of free unbiased information. China is known to have even forced Google to filter its search results. Government censorship is not the only reason why websites are blocked. Some network administrators also prevent users from accessing certain websites which they believe are of no use in places such as schools and sometimes, even offices. In such times, you may need to access a website that is blocked. This article explains how.

Which websites are most commonly Blocked?

The most commonly blocked websites include websites about pop culture, health, medicine, women, religion and politics. Social websites are also often blocked and include the likes of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Quora!, Pinterest, Instagram, MySpace, Reddit, Digg, Hulu, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Blogger (Blogspot), Bebo, Flickr, Yahoo! Messenger, Typepad, Technorati, StumbleUpon and Delicious. Sites like Google News, Wikipedia, Wikileaks and eBay! are also blocked at certain places.

Access Blocked Websites at School, Work or Anywhere

There are many genuine reasons for which you might want to visit blocked websites at your school or office. Given below are the ways you can use to regain access to the blocked website you wish to visit.

1. Cache method: Most search engines maintain a cache of web pages indexed by them. You can search for a website on Google , Yahoo! or Bing and click on the cached link that is given next to the result. To load the web pages more quickly, you can visit the text-only version. Since the website is provided from the search engine's servers, it can be used to overcome IP address and URL based filtering.

2. Using Google Web Light: For users browsing on a slow mobile internet connection, Google Web Light removes all CSS styling and JavaScript to present a stripped down version of the web page from Google's own servers. As the content is provided from Google's servers, the blocking software feels that you are visiting Google, whereas in reality, you are viewing the blocked website. Go to google web light. To visit the website of your choice, just replace the URL with the address of the website. Despite being designed for mobile devices with slow internet connection, Google Web Light can be accessed from your computer as well.
3. Access blocked websites with Google Translate. You can use translation service from Google to visit blocked websites. To do so, enter a language different from the website's language in the 'From' field and English in the "To" field. You can also use this method to bypass software that block websites on the basis of specific keyword mentions. Just translate the URL you wish to visit in a different language to overcome the keyword block.

4. Create a 2 layered unblocker: Go to Google Translate, open any proxy website inside it and then use that proxy website to access your blocked website. In this way, you can achieve two layered website unblocking.

5. Use RSS Readers for accessing restricted blogs: All blogs syndicate their content via RSS feeds which you can subscribe to in web based RSS readers like Feedly to access blocked content.

6. To access a blocked website, you can enter its IP address instead of the URL in your browser's address bar. This can bypass most basic forms of website blocks. Although if the blocking software maps the IP address to the website domain, the website will still remain blocked. You can find the IP address of any website by pinging the website domain name in the Command Prompt in Windows (Terminal in other operating systems) and noting its IP address. Execute ping www.uftricks.blogspot.com in the Command Prompt to ping www.uftrick.blogspot.com.

7. Use IP Address to Decimal conversion: If you cannot access your blocked website by entering its IP address, you can enter the decimal equivalent of the URL's IP address to get access to it. Search Google for IP to Decimal + IP Address of the banned website and Google will convert it into decimal. Enter that into your browser's address bar and see if the blocked website opens.

8. Nyud.net: To unblock blocked websites, just add nyud.net to their URL. For example, if this blog  is blocked, you can visit it by going to www.tweakandtrick.com.nyud.net.

9. Opera Mini Simulator: Opera Mini, the mobile browser for users with a slow internet connection, can be installed on your computer. You can use this PC version to visit blocked websites as Opera Mini accesses content from Opera's servers instead of accessing it from the servers on which the website is hosted. Most websites will load through this method, although the quality of the results obtained may not be that good for JavaScript heavy websites.

10. TOR: TOR or The Onion Router is a free software that protects the privacy and security of its users by channeling data through multiple nodes so as to prevent the original data from being unscrambled. Although browsing through TOR is a bit slow, it is one of the most effective ways of bypassing restricted websites and protecting your privacy.

11. Proxy websites: There are many proxy websites (anonymizers) which open blocked websites on their servers and present the data to you. This hides the address of the website you are trying to visit from your internet service provider. Few popular free ones include Anonymouse and KProxy.

12. VPN software: VPN or Virtual Private Network software can be described as a tunnel under the public network that offers more anonymity than proxy websites as it also encrypts the data transferred by the blocked website thus, offering complete anonymity. Although most VPN software are available as paid software only, HotSpotShield is a popular free alternative.

13. IP hiding software: Sometimes, websites block users on a particular IP address from visiting themselves. In such cases, free IP hiding software like UltraSurf can be used to visit them. While free software offer very less features as compared to paid ones, they are still effective for overcoming most common blocks.

14. Changing DNS servers: A common way of blocking websites is preventing DNS servers from giving the locations of the blocked website's servers. In such a scenario, changing your DNS servers to those of OpenDNS or Google DNS will be your best option to get over the block. As an additional advantage, this can also increase your internet speed.

15. Edit your host files: Some malware and blocking software edit your host files and add a website's address in them to prevent you from visiting it. In such a scenario, you can edit your host file with Notepad by visiting “C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc” if C is your system drive. In Windows 10, Windows 8(.1), Windows 7, a warning from UAC might be displayed.

How to Improve Cyber Security

How to make your PC secure from all the threats in the online world and improve cyber security? Not sure? Then read on. Here is a list of things you should know to improve your online cyber security:-

1. Anti-virus : Probably one of the first thing which comes into one's mind when thinking about security. An anti-virus is an inevitable tool for the security of a PC. One can either choose a paid version of the anti-virus of his choice or opt for the equally effective free antivirus. Before choosing the anti-virus, it is necessary to check whether the anti-virus has resident protection or not. Resident Protection automatically detects viruses when they are loaded into the memory and takes the appropriate action thus saving a user from sitting hours in front of the PC scanning for viruses. It is important to check regularly for updates. Also do a quick scan (scanning Windows folder, Registry, Documents and recent downloads) at least once a week and a full scan at least once a month even if your PC appears fine.


2. Anti-spyware: A spyware is a program which collects private information and sends it to its programmer. Spywares are considered more dangerous than viruses as they steal private information like Windows registration number, bank account details, credit card's information, site logins, which can be used to harm a user in all possible ways. Login Accounts to social networks like Faceboo seem to be the prime target. Thus, it is necessary to have a good anti-spyware software with resident protection , registry monitoring and browser monitoring. Again it is the user's choice to either opt for a paid one or a free one. It is important to enable the automatic update function in the anti-spyware software and to do a quick scan of the PC once a week. It is also necessary do a full scan once every month for best results.

3. Firewall: A firewall prevents unauthorized or malicious applications from reaching a computer. A firewall is basically needed to protect a PC against Trojans, spyware, worms, hackers, hijackers and other known and unknown threats. However, a firewall must not be assumed an alternative to the anti-virus or anti-spyware software. Before choosing a firewall, the most important thing to keep in mind is the ease of use and the amount of customization possible. An often overlooked factor upon choosing a firewall is the amount of resources consumed by it. Keeping all these factors in mind, a good firewall software(free or paid) must be chosen. It is important to read the alerts displayed by it carefully, and select an appropriate action to do.



4. Anti-spam: Anti-spam software has become important because of the amount of spam messages received by internet users frequently. These spam messages are the most common cause of cyber crime. Installing one and using it is easy. So don't worry about how to use one. The only difficult thing is to be patient with it. Its performance will improve over time. You can download any of the free anti-spam available over the web or can opt for a paid version.

5. Windows Update: A very important aspect of PC security is updating Windows. It is necessary to enable Automatic Updates in Windows which help in getting the latest security fixes. Getting these updates will help Windows work better and make one's working more secure.

6. Backing Up: It is important to back up all your important data to have a copy of it whenever needed in case of a data loss due to malware.

How To Make Computer Secure

Here are some tips which will enable you to make your PC more secure.

Anti-virus

1. Never, ever turn off the resident protection of your antivirus even if it decreases performance. Upgrade if necessary.

2. Keep your virus definitions up-to-date. Use the automatic update feature of your anti-virus and try not to ignore the "Do you want to update now" message however often it might pop up.

3. Even if you update regularly and you have not seen any suspicious activity on your PC, do a deep scan at least once a month.

4. Always create an emergency boot disk and keep it in a safe place.

5. Run a deep scan in safe mode at least once every two months to kill viruses that would otherwise remain hidden.

Firewalls

1. If you are unsure about the alert displayed by your firewall, try searching it on the internet.

2. A firewall is a powerful tool that requires an understanding of how the program works and exactly what it is doing and whether it is secure or not. Reading the help files is extremely important in successful configuration of your firewall.

3. If you are running a third party firewall,be sure to turn off the Windows Firewall.

4. You can temporarily disable a firewall by right clicking the icon in the tray. This is handy when you know a site is one you can trust but your firewall is blocking it. But remember to re-enable it as soon as possible.

5. Read firewall notices carefully when they pop up so that you don't let a bad thing in or prevent good traffic.


Anti-Spyware

1. You should regularly check for updates. Enable the automatic update feature.

2. Remember to do a scan every now and then, or schedule scans if your program allows it. If you don't want to sit that long for scans to complete, use a single folder for all your downloads, then scan only that folder, Windows installation folder and the Registry. Alternately, you can do a quick scan if your program allows it.



Anti-Spam

1. Be patient with anti-spam software, it will get better over time.

2. Even if it looks that your anti-spam software is working great, periodically check the 'Spam' folder for good mail. None of the anti-spam software is perfect right now.

3. Don't give your anti-spam software too much rules, because it will not learn anything then. It is better if it learns on its own.