by Dave Kimble at www.peakoil.org.au
Our Federal Government is currently trialling an internet censorship system
that requires ISPs to look at all their clients' web browsing requests
and block any involving web-sites with "illegal content".
They say illegal content refers to child pornography,
but the blacklist is kept private and could easily be extended
to cover jihadist web sites, anarchists, revolutionaries
and even opinions critical of the Government,
or whatever it is they don't like.
Fortunately there are some relatively easy ways to get around this,
using encryption to get past your ISP's filters (tunneling).
VPN Servers
One way is to use the Virtual Private Network system built into Windows
to create an encrypted connection from your computer
via your ISP in the usual way,
to a VPN server somewhere where the web request is unencrypted
and sent on its way "in the clear".
The response (usually a web page ) is sent to the VPN server
which then encrypts it and sends it to you.
Your software then unencrypts it and displays the web page in the usual way.
Although your ISP handles the traffic,
it can't censor it because it can't tell what it is, because it is encrypted.
The web site itself doesn't get to see your IP Address
(it only sees the IP address of the VPN server)
so it cannot track you or identify you.
There is an excellent step-by-step guide to setting up a VPN tunnel in Win XP at :
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=64926
The only snag is the people running the VPN servers charge for the service,
see www.hotspotvpn.com ( and many others) for pricing.
You can get a cheap 1 day service to try it out.
It works perfectly, although the extra distance the data has to travel
must make the web server seem less responsive.
Quite usable though.
The Your-Freedom Client
An alternative way that avoids M$ software is to use a "Your-Freedom Client".
Download the free client software from www.your-freedom.net/index.php?id=3
and install it.
It is a Java application and needs Java Run-time Environment v6.
You probably have this already, but if not its a free download too, from :
www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
Any operating system that supports JRE6 ( including Windows XP+, Linux, Mac )
can run this application.
First time, use the Configuration Wizard to find you a suitable "freedom server",
for example "https://ems21.your-freedom.de:443" is physically in Singapore.
Instead of it encrypting the whole connection's traffic, regardless of what it is,
this treats web traffic (HTTP and HTTPS) seperately from email, chat, P2P, etc.
You need to tweak your web browser's settings to use the y-f client as the web/HTTP proxy :
FireFox.v3 > Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Settings > HTTP Proxy = 127.0.0.1, Port=8080
or IE7 > Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings > Advanced > as above
The Firefox add-on xyzProxy gives you a button to toggle the proxy on and off.
If you have the Firefox add-on FireFTP, encrypted FTP traffic works automatically,
although its probably pointless if you are FTPing to your ISP-hosted web-space.
www.your-freedom.net kindly offer a free limited service,
max 64Kbps upload and download and limited time sessions, which is fine for light use,
and they have various paid services from ~AU$49 / year for 256 Kbps of bandwidth.
Dave Kimble 18 March 2009
www.PeakOil.org.au Home pageDK's Home page
You can support my not-for-profit causes by making a
donation
by secure on-line transaction. Thank you.