If you want to read a web page or watch a blocked video, there are several ways to bypass these restrictions.
These restrictions may exist for different reasons. A common problem is due to video licensing, which means it is only viewable in certain countries or regions. If an entire website is blocked, it may be because its owner does not comply with data protection regulations in your region.
Alternatively, some websites and services such as YouTube, Spotify, Facebook, TikTok and others are blocked because your work or school administrator does not want you to use them while you are supposed to be working or studying.
Some governments filter the Internet – China is an obvious example – but it could be that a web filter that was too strong blocked a website it shouldn’t have.
However, if you see a message telling you that the website you are trying to visit is potentially dangerous, it may contain malware or be trying to scam you. You shouldn’t ignore them, so don’t try to bypass these blocks.
As long as you are sure that the web page is safe and not going to scam you, you can try using the methods below to bypass blocks and filters. As always, we do not condone or encourage the use of these methods to illegally access content. Be careful and smart.
How to Access Blocked Websites with Google Translate
It sounds strange, but it’s a simple and effective way to bypass content filters in many situations. This “hack” won’t work for everyone, and it will not work to access region-blocked websites or videos. (For those, keep reading.)
But for school and professional filters, it can be surprisingly effective.
First, you need to know the URL of the website you want to visit. If you don’t know, Google it, right-click the link, and choose an option like “Copy link address.”
Now go to Translate.google.com and paste the URL you just copied, such as www.reddit.com, into the left pane. Choose a language, such as Spanish, and leave English as the language to translate to (assuming you speak English).
Click the link in the right pane and the site should load. If your IT administrator already knows this trick, they may have blocked Google Translate as well. If so, this method will not work.
But if it hasn’t been blocked, you can now browse the website almost normally: the links work, the videos should play, but you may not be able to download any files.
How to Access Blocked Websites Using a VPN
A VPN is one of the most popular and effective methods for bypassing regional blocks. In some cases, you won’t be able to download or install a VPN, such as at work or school. But if you’re using your own device that doesn’t have parental controls enabled, you can install a VPN app very easily.
A VPN routes your Internet connection through a server elsewhere in the world. All you have to do is select a location (like a country or city) in the VPN app and then you can browse the web as if you were physically in that location. You can find out how VPNs work, if you’re interested in the details.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Both free and paid VPNs will unblock websites. But we recommend opting for a paid VPN like NordVPN, especially if you want to watch movies or TV shows on Netflix (or another streaming service) that aren’t available in your country.
If you don’t want to pay, use these free VPNs. Just be aware that almost none will unblock streaming services and all have limits on the amount of data you can have each month.
For alternative paid VPNs, read our roundup of the best VPNs.
But on many devices, including phones, you can manually configure a VPN connection in the operating system settings. Since every device is different, this isn’t something we can cover in detail here, but you will need various details including the server address, your username, password, and some other information. This means that you must first create an account with your VPN provider of choice.
Access blocked websites with a proxy
Another way to bypass a block is to use a proxy service. Like a VPN, it routes your Internet connection through a server, but unlike a VPN, it tends to work only with specific applications (e.g. your web browser or a torrent application) rather than your entire connection . It also doesn’t encrypt all web traffic and typically only changes your IP address to make it appear like you’re in the region where the content is visible.
This may be fine if you just want to quickly visit a website or watch a video, but a proxy has some privacy and security drawbacks.
Proxies are often used to access region-locked content on Hulu, Netflix or BBC iPlayer. But they can also often be used to avoid content filters by bypassing them, hopefully allowing you to browse the web freely.
Many proxies are available as browser extensions, but this also means that they will only bypass blocked websites and web services. You can’t use a proxy to run the Spotify app if it’s blocked: you’ll have to use Spotify in your browser instead.
If you care about privacy, choose a proxy that uses HTTPS encryption.
There are free public proxies, but many have a bad reputation for collecting or selling user data, inserting ads into web pages, or removing encryption. This is why we recommend using a VPN. But if you only want to bypass a web filter occasionally or are unable to install a VPN app, this may be a good option.
HideMyAss is one of the most popular free proxies. Try to avoid using unknown proxies and only use reputable and reliable proxies. The same goes for VPN services because they can – potentially – see and record information about you and what you do on the web.
Access blocked websites with Tor
One of your other options is to use Tor, aka “The Onion Router”, to browse the web. Tor is the most well-known example of an “anonymous network” and uses layered encryption (hence the name) and a peer-to-peer network to resend your traffic, making it extremely difficult for anyone to trace any activity. up to you.
The Tor web browser is faster than before and you may not notice any slowdown depending on the speed of your Internet connection. This is the kind of compromise you might be willing to make to increase privacy, but it’s not necessarily worth it if all you want is to bypass a filter, especially if the slower speeds result in the buffered video.
Some also worry that it isn’t as secure as once thought, especially if the site you’re trying to browse doesn’t use SSL. And depending on how paranoia you are, you might worry that using Tor could put you on some sort of government watchlist, given its popularity with political dissidents and whistleblowers.
On the other hand, it’s completely free, and we recommend Tor over any free proxy or free VPN for long-term browsing (although a paid VPN service always wins and you can still use Tor with some VPNs. The added security and privacy is well worth any drop in connection speeds.
Beat Web Filters with Google Public DNS
The final method you can use to bypass web filters is to use different DNS servers than your regular ISP.
Every time you visit a website, your computer, phone, tablet, or whatever device you use performs a DNS lookup. This converts the friendly address (such as www.techadvisor.com) of the web page into the server’s IP address. Your browser can only display the web page once it knows the IP address.
If DNS-based web filtering is used on the network your device is connected to (whether a residential ISP or a work or school network), you may find that you cannot visit some websites.
But, by telling your device to use another unfiltered DNS such as Google’s, you can bypass these blocks.
Changing your device’s DNS settings varies by operating system, but it will be located somewhere in the network settings. And Google explains here how to use Google Public DNS.
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