Bust blocks on your PC
PC and Macs naturally give you the most flexibility when it comes to bypassing blockades. All the options are available to you.
CHANGING YOUR DNS
If you’d just like to be able to access the sites that might be restricted by your ISP, the simplest thing to do is change your PC’s DNS server. All you need to do is find your computer’s DNS settings and enter a single number.
ON WINDOWS, JUST FOLLOW THESE STEPS:
Right click on the Start button and select ‘Network Connections’. Right click on your network adapter (whichever one you’re currently using, Ethernet or wireless) and select Properties. Find ‘Internet Protocol Version 4’ (TCP/ IPv4) in the list and left click on it to select it. Then click Properties. Switch the radio button to ‘Use the following DNS server addresses:’ and enter “8.8.8.8” in the preferred DNS server field and “8.8.4.4” in the alternative DNS server field. Click OK.
ON MAC OS, THE PROCESS IS THUS:
Click on the Apple button and select ‘System Preferences’. Click on Network. Click on the first item on the list (which is the network you’re currently connect to) to select it, then click on Advanced. Click on the DNS tab. Then click on the ‘+’ button under DNS servers to add a server. Add “8.8.8.8” and then add “8.8.4.4”. Click OK. Once applied, you should now have access to any sites blocked by your ISP.
USING A VPN
Although Windows and Mac both have VPN services built in, as a rule, it’s far, far easier just to download the app supplied by your VPN service provider. Just head to its website and look for the downloads page.
Each app is a little different, but in general, you have to enter your VPN account username and password and select a server. The location of the server will determine where you will appear to be coming from when you visit a site. To access a UK streaming site, for example, you would select a UK server. If all you want is to bypass your ISP’s block or maybe just general BitTorrenting, you can choose an Australian server for maximum speed.
There are some additional settings available in many VPN apps. A kill wwitch option stops your internet altogether if the VPN connection dies (normally it would just revert to non-VPN usage, which might expose you). Leak protection disables IPv6 while you’re connected to the VPN, which is a security measure against certain types of attacks. And some services also include an ad-blocker, stopping ads from certain websites as long as you’re connected.
USING TOR
Lots of people use Tor as an all-round privacy shield. Even a VPN doesn’t provide complete anonymity, since the VPN provider still knows what you’re up to — but Tor does. Using Tor will bypass nearly any kind of block, including DNS poisoning (with Tor, you don’t use DNS locally at all — it’s applied at what it called an exit node, which is a special kind of Tor node that takes data off Tor and puts it back on the regular internet for communication with a non-Tor site).
These days, it’s remarkably easy to use, as well. You just download the Tor browser and most of the technical stuff happens in the background.
Head to www.torproject.org. Click on the link to Tor Browser. Then download it for your language and platform.
The Tor browser is simply a modified version of Mozilla, tuned for maximum security and using the Tor network in the background. When you’ve downloaded and installed it, start it up. You’ll see an initial connection box. It shouldn’t take long to connect.
Once you’ve connected the Tor main page will appear. You can now just browse the internet as if you were using any other browser. As a check, you can head to
www.iplocation.net, which will tell you your current apparent IP address and geolocation. It should be different from your normal address, and the geolocation will show the location of whichever Tor exit node you’re using (which could be anywhere — it’s more or less random).
Using Tor to bypass specific geoblocks is possible, but it’s tricky and generally not that valuable since Tor is far too slow for most media streaming applications.
If you do want to use Tor to appear to be from a specific country, then you’ll have to edit the torcc file, a configuration file that’s kept in the directory where your Tor browser application is installed. In Windows, you can generally find the file in This PC/Desktop/Tor Browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Tor.
Open the torcc file up in Notepad. Then add two lines to the end of it: ExitNodes {countrycode} StrictNodes 1 Where ‘countrycode’ is the two-letter code representing the country you wish to appear to be from. You would use {us} for the United States; {uk} for Britain and {au} for Australia, for example. A full list of country codes can be found on the Tor Project site.
Save the file (remember it does not have a .txt extension) and next time your start the Tor browser you should appear to be from that country to sites you visit.
USING A PROXY
Using a web-based proxy to bypass site blocks is extremely easy. Just go to the website of your preferred web based proxy and type or paste the URL of the site you’d like to see in the URL field.
For example, if you wanted to visit The Pirate Bay, but your ISP is blocking it, you can go to filterbypass.me and type “thepiratebay.org” into the URL field. The Pirate Bay site will then load into a frame below the web proxy’s header box.
Setting up an HTTP or SOCKS proxy is a little more complicated. If you set one of these up, all your web traffic will be routed through the proxy, not just one site. You’ll need the proxy server IP address and port number to make it work.
IN WINDOWS 10, FOLLOW THESE STEPS:
Click on ‘Settings > Network & Internet’. On the left hand panel, the bottom entry is Proxy. Click on it. Under ‘Manual Proxy setup’ change the switch to ‘Use a proxy server’. (Automatic proxy setup is typically used when you’re supplied with an automatic setup script, which happens mostly in corporate environments). Enter the proxy IP address and port number in the fields. Check the box for ‘Don’t use the proxy server for local (intranet) addresses’, then click Save.
IN MAC OS, FOLLOW THESE STEPS:
Click on the Apple button and select System Preferences, then Network. Click on the first item on the list (which is the network you’re currently connect to) to select it, then click on Advanced. Click on the Proxy tab, then check the box next to the proxy type (typically HTTP or SOCKS). Enter the proxy host address and port. If it’s password protected, you’ll need to enter those here as well. Click OK.