Hurdling The Great (Fire) Wall of China
The personal computer has come a long way since the advent of the internet. Kids are writing virii from their bedrooms between episodes of of the OC downloaded from bittorrent and the recording industry are slowly resigning themselves to the fact that instead of fighting consumer trends toward more flexible technologies they ought to rethink their outdated business models.
Nonetheless the internet, whilst on the surface, seemingly an easy medium to censor with the likes of firewalls, netnanny software etc. Today’s technology lends even the most novice of computer users the means to circumvent even the most advanced attempts at censorship and control; and given time and sufficient demand new technogies will meet the same demise.
The Great Firewall of China is no exception. If you have ever lived in China you will know that surfing the net can often be a frustrating exersise. One day you are happily watching clips of monkeys masterbating on Youtube then the next day “NO YOUTUBE FOR YOU!” then there’s Wikipedia, blogspot and the list goes on. To make things worse the censorship can vary geographically and appears almost indiscriminate. Moreover if the Government deems said content to be so dangerous, usually this makes me want to look at it even more, at least once. (Take “Two Girls One Cup” for example, don’t EVER watch that clip.. consider yourself warned)
So what can we do to circumvent censorship in China to make our Internet surfing experiences moe enjoyable? How can we get the content we want without cursing Mao to hell and back.
I have an assignment to plaigerise by tomorrow and Wikipedia is blocked!
Never fear, Answers.com agregates a lot of good content, including Wikpedia and other encyclopedia and dictionay sources.
Proxy Servers!
Wikipedia defines a proxy server as:
a computer network service that allows clients to make indirect network connections to other network servicesProxy server, a computer network service that allows clients to make indirect network connections to other network services.
Web Proxies
Web sites that allow people to access other website through them. Sometimes a webproxy will encrypt the URL, strip cookies from the content among other things. Basically, to the censor you are simply accessing an innocuous site (which is feeding you the juicy content… by PROXY dumbass). The other advantage is that the site can’t see your real IP address, thus identifying your location ISP and be able to track your habits through the use of (mmmmm) Cookies.
Examples:
Proxy Servers and Proxy Lists
Sometimes its simply two painful typing URLs into web proxies all the time. If your surfing a lot of restricted content you will want to surf through a proxy all the time.
Firstly, you need to find a computer on the web to surf through. I think sometimes these are compromised machines, but thats not the point of this post. There are a lot of sites out there that list proxy servers and their relative benefits.. do some reading and choose one.
How do I use a proxy server?
There are a number of tools that you can use to utilise your new found proxy server. Remember a proxy server is like a younger schoolmate who you can peer pressure into doing your dirty work.
The best tools I have found are those that integrate into your browser. Ofcorse you are using Firefox to surf the Internet because IE users shouldn’t use computers at all. Firefox is a great browser that allows you to add all sorts of functionality to your browser though the use of Firefox Extensions.
Most browsers were written to use one proxy 100% of the time for all browsing. In this case you may only want to proxy sites you know are blocked to keep your good download speeds (if such things exist in China) for sites you know are free. Therefore you need a proxy management tool to chop and change between proxies. Take a look at the Firefox site, there are an abundance of tools to make your proxying experience as painless as possible.
The problem with these proxy servers is that you need to change them often, almost daily as they cease to work. Sites such as above update almost hourly.
The best option that seems to work the best, at least on my Ubuntu Linux system is TOR. I’m not going to post about this at all. But you can read all about it here.
That’s all for now. Happy surfing.
