How to Bypass Internet Filters

Have you ever been at school and tried to get on Facebook or YouTube? If your school has a web filter, chances are that you didn’t succeed. Web filters are what businesses and schools use on their networks to make sure workers and students are using the Internet the way they are supposed to and aren’t “goofing off”. Filters supposedly utilize the Internet for the best interests of the students and the administrators. This statement is a load of b/s. At my school, my Tech Apps class can’t access sites to podcast projects, gain useful information through video tutorials, or even get audio tracks for sound editing projects. Filters are extremely infuriating and give me gas (joking). In this article, I will show you many ways to bypass the school or work filter and access your favorite websites for work or play. Depending on the filter that you are up against, some of these methods may or may not work. My school network uses Barracuda, a very advanced filter that is tougher to get by. Nevertheless, no matter what filter your school/work has, try all of these methods and you should be home free.

First, you should get familiar with command prompt (If you already know how to use command prompt, you can skip this paragraph). Before Windows, command prompt, or DOS was used to navigate files and edit them. You will use this tool to execute some of the methods in this article. To open cmd (command prompt), click Start then click Run and type cmd in the box. A black box should appear with information about your system and the filename of cmd. If you are at school or work, and you cannot bring up command prompt using this method, then the school network probably blocks command prompt because it lets you get by security measures. To bypass this, open Notepad and type in command.com. Once you have typed this, go to File then Save as. Once the window is up, name the file “document name”.bat. It doesn’t matter what you name the file, just make sure it says .bat at the end. Save the file in desktop by clicking the dropdown bar and selecting “Desktop” from the options. Then go to the main screen. There should be an icon there that has whatever you named the document with a little gear looking icon. Click on this and it should bring up command prompt!

WAYS TO BYPASS WEB FILTERS:

-Method 1: Get to any website through ip address. Open Command Prompt. Type: ping www.(website you want to go to).com, so for example if you want to get on myspace, type ping www.myspace.com. A bunch of numbers will show up, but pay no attention to them. Look at the end of the list and it should say,”ping statistics for 63.135.80.49″. This long number is the i.p. address to myspace.com. You get this number and type it into the address bar, and the website magically pops up! This method works with every website. This tricks the filters that use keywords to block sites. If your school uses a more advanced filter like mine, this may not work.

-Method 2: Use proxies. Proxy servers connect you with another computer to get by filters. There are many, many proxies, and most of them are blocked. If you can find a new, undiscovered proxy that your network administrator doesn’t know about, it should work. Using proxies are easy. Simply type the proxy server you have found(for example lidbox.info), and it will bring you to a page with a search bar in it. You then type the URL to the website you want, and wala! You are now at the desired website. Finding proxies are hard, but finding undiscovered proxies are near impossible. A good way to get new proxies is through an e-mail subscription. Websites, such as freedom network proxy, will let you subscribe to e-mails weekly, giving you new proxies. When searching for proxies, do not settle with old or well known proxies. Your best bet is the ones that are extremely hard to find.

-Method 3: Use translating websites. Translator websites fool administrators due to the assumption that they can only be used for educational purposes. WRONG! Sites such as Google Translate serve as a type of proxy that allow you to get on any website. When you get to Google Translate’s page, type the webpage URL into the box. Change the box to translate from Spanish to English, and since there probably wont be any spanish on the page, you simply go to the webpage, bypassing the school filters. This method sadly isn’t very effective with video game sites or Youtube. For some reason, Translate’s configuration won’t allow flash files to play. If you seek e-mail or blogging sites, such as myspace, yahoo, or facebook, this method should work just fine.

-Method 4: Use remote connection software. This is by far the most effective strategy going to all my fellow gamers out there. There have been many days that I have sat bored in a class where all assignments are finished and a good fix of online gaming would hit the spot. Tired of this dilemma, I searched for a way to remedy this problem. A new solution stood before me: remote desktop connection. Teamviewer is a godsend for bypassing school filters. Instead of going to the Internet through the school router, you access the Internet through your home or any other computer. Once you have downloaded Teamviewer on the unblocked computer at home or wherever else, start it up and copy down the identification number and password. They will allow you to access your computer from any other computer. Make sure that Teamviewer is running on your home computer when you attempt to connect. Save the program file of Teamviewer on a flash drive or CD. When you go to school/work, open the file on your memory device and start Teamviewer on the blocked computer. Enter the ID number and password you received from your home computer, and you should see your home desktop with all of the icons in the window. This is the same type of tool professionals use to give you remote assistance on your computer. If you go on the Internet in the window of your home computer, you will find that no websites are blocked, since you are using the Internet connection from home and not from school. This program works relatively well with online flash games, but I did get some lag with games like Left 4 Dead and Half-Life. This program actually moves the cursor of your computer at home, so it is sure to freak out your roommates when they glance at it (very hilarious). P.S: On that note, don’t be looking at something you wouldn’t want anyone around your computer to see, because they can watch what you are doing.

-Method 5: Use your cell phone as a modem. There are three requirements for this to work: A laptop, a cell phone with Internet access, and a cord to connect them. This is where it gets a little complicated. Depending on your cell phone service, there are different software versions to download onto your laptop to make it work. You configure the connection and it allows you to browse the Internet at fairly fast speeds. I have not tried this method, as my phone doesn’t have Internet access, but I’ve seen it done. It is up to you to research this one, because I have absolutely no idea how to configure the connection. A visit to your cell phone provider should clear up all questioning, though.

-Method 6: Just don’t do it. If the Internet is that important to you, access it before or after school. As much as I hate filters, you go to school to learn, not to tweet or whatever you want to do. As a fellow student, I personally share your frustration, but after all the work you put in to find a proxy or bypass, it is not long before it too is blocked. I find that it is much less effort and brain-rotting to read a book or even study for a test you waited till the last day to study for. As much as it hurts to admit, web filters are probably for our own good. Nevertheless, feel free to try these methods if you are in the mood for free Internet surfing.

-Enjoy