How To Browse The Web In China When Your Favorite Sites Are Blocked

If you want to see the differences between Google’s top level domains, try Google’s Image search from 2 different URLs:

images.google.com
images.google.cn

Type in the Search box: “Tian'anmen Square massacre” or “Tian An Men Square massacre”. Ironically, this translates to “Gate of Heavenly Peace”.

Convinced?

It is well known that in China, certain websites like BBC and CNN are blocked. But you can get around it by use of a Proxy Server.

What is a Proxy Server?

A Proxy Server services requests from clients by forwarding requests to other servers.

If you are computer “C”, and you want to access server “S” but it is blocked, point your client’s web browser to Proxy Server “P”.

So C -> P -> S

An example of such a site is www.kproxy.com (ignore the pop-up windows) but if you search the web for proxy servers, you can have a list of thousands. Some are even more specific on what services you want enabled or disabled, such as removing JavaScript, enabling cookies, or displaying images.

As long as your network connection’s ISP isn’t blocking the Proxy Server, you can get access to those sites. And some get creative by using another standard HTTP port 80. Ports 8080 or 8081 are the most common, so you would enter proxyserver.com:8080 for the URL.

Circumventor Proxy server

A Circumventor is a Proxy servers used for defeating blocking policies implemented by an organization or country when “censorship” blocks access to certain sites. Of course, having a known list of proxy servers beforehand would be really helpful if you are planning a trip to such countries with censorship.

Anonymizing Proxy server

On the other hand, if I was an employee and wanted to check out my competition without them tracking my IP address, then this is an example of an Anonymizing proxy server.

An Anonymizing Proxy server is the correct term for the purpose of anonymity and is an alternate way using your AOL dialup account. Besides, you want to take advantage of your high speed Internet connection, don’t you?

Reverse Proxy Server?

The reverse holds true with a reverse proxy server. Your corporate firewall may have a proxy server where everyone’s internal computer points to a central proxy server, and that server goes out and services requests.

Pros: it does speed up surfing for users, as it caches web site information and images from previously searched sites. It would also reduce the traffic, as the information is already stored and no need to go the destination site again. As well, the proxy server adds an additional level of security next to your corporate firewall.

Cons: your company can track every site you surf, and how long you stay on that particular site. Not good if you spend all day checking your hockey pool stats, or surfing questionable sites.

Open Proxies

Caution should be taken as Open Proxies are usually abused for sending spam or even hacking into your own machine. You have no idea what is on the server, including keystroke trackers to capture your keyboard input. So the next time you enter your user ID and password on one of these open proxies, think again.

I hope this sheds some light on ways to get around censorship.