How to Bypass Internet Censorship: Eastern Digital Resources Imprints
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About this ebook
The first edition of this book was created in 2008 by a group of Net Geeks who were concerned about the encroachments on Internet freedom they saw in certain areas of the world. Little did we dream then that we would see the day in just a few years that the United States would become the epicenter of encroachment on FREE SPEECH and FREE EXPRESSION. But as we enter 2021 the doors are closing fast in ways we never imagined. The Internet was created to be open and as a marketplace of ideas, but sadly the largest providers and governments are now squelching those freedoms. We developed this book with an eye to helping people in Iran, Pakistan, China, North Korea and such and the book has been translated into Arabic, Vietnamese, Spanish, Russian, Burmese (Myanmar), Persian (Farsi) and Chinese.
It's NOW time to update the book and publish it in as many languages as possible before the dissemination of this information becomes much more difficult. I was involved early on in the publication of "How to Bypass Internet Censorship" and published the first edition on Amazon in 2009. Now we have totally rewritten this manual, updating the WWW links, adding new procedures, clarifying others, and adding new topics:
• Freedomfone
• Airtime for Broadcasters
• Open Translation Tools
• Guide to Independent Video Hosting
• Tech Tools for Activism
• Basic Internet Security
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Book preview
How to Bypass Internet Censorship - Floss Manual Contributors
How to Bypass
Internet Censorship
3rd Edition
By
Contributors of Floss Manuals
3rd Edition editor John C. Rigdon
How to Bypass Internet Censorship
3rd Edition
By Contributors of Floss Manuals
3rd Edition editor John C. Rigdon
1st Printing – JAN 2021 1/0/0/0/KN
Paperback ISBN:
© Copyright 2021. Eastern Digital Resources. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the express written consent of the copyright holder.
Published by:
Eastern Digital Resources
31 Bramblewood Drive SW
Cartersville, GA 30120
http://www.researchonline.net
EMAIL: Sales@Researchonline.net
Tel. (678) 739-9177
Contents
Introduction
More information in more places than ever imagined
Not everyone wants to let the whole world in
Who is filtering or blocking the Internet?
Filtering leads to monitoring
When is it censorship?
Who exactly is blocking my access to the Internet?
What methods exist to bypass filtering?
What are the risks of using circumvention tools?
About This Manual
How and by whom this book was written
1. Register
2. Contribute!
3. Chat
4. Mailing List
Quickstart
Circumvention
Security and anonymity
There are many variations
Access most blocked Web sites without extra software
Access all blocked Web sites and platforms
Bypass the filters and stay anonymous on the Web
Channel all your Internet traffic through a secure tunnel
Hotspot Shield
How the Net Works
Building the Internet
Standards for connecting devices
Standards for identifying devices on the network
Domain names and IP addresses
Protocols for sending information through the network
The Web
Following your information on the Internet - the journey
Connecting to the Internet
Browse to the Web site
Why This Matters
Ports and Protocols
The layered networking model
Using Ports
Cryptography
Censorship and the Net
Who controls the Internet?
Government involvement
Why would governments control the net?
Am I being blocked or filtered?
Geographic context
Personal context
How censorship works
Technical measures against end-users
URL filtering
DNS filtering and spoofing
IP filtering
Traffic shaping
Port blocking
Internet shutdown
Attacks on publishers
Legal restrictions
Denial of service
Domain deregistration
Server takedown
Intimidation of users
Surveillance
Social Techniques
Stealing and destroying communications equipment
Circumvention and Safety
Some security best-practices
Safer access to social networking sites
How can you access your social networking platform when it is filtered?
Safer use of shared computers
Potential advantages of shared computers
General risks of shared computers
Shared computers and censorship
Best practices for security and circumvention
Confidentiality and HTTPS
What is HTTPS?
Examples of sites that offer HTTPS
HTTPS and SSL
Using HTTPS in addition to circumvention technology
Tips for using HTTPS
Risks when not using HTTPS
Risks when using HTTPS
Certificate warnings
Mixed content
Redirection to insecure HTTP version of a site
Networks and firewalls blocking HTTPS
Using HTTPS from an insecure computer
Vulnerability of HTTPS certificate system
Simple Tricks
Using HTTPS
Using alternate domain names or URLs
Using third-party sites
Cached Pages
RSS Aggregators
Translators
Low-Bandwidth Filters
Web archive
Using e-mail services
Accessing Web pages through e-mail
Web2mail
EmailTheWeb
RSS to e-mail
FoE
Sabznameh
Using Web mail to share documents
Advantages and Risks
Get Creative
Use alternative ISPs
Mobile networks
Don't use the Internet
Use either very old or very new technology
Alternative uses for Web services
Any communication channel could be a circumvention channel
Web Proxies
How can I find a Web proxy?
Compatibility issues with Web proxies
Security risks with Web proxies
Obfuscation is not encryption
Anonymity risks with Web proxies
Advertising, viruses and malware
Cookies and scripts
Helping others
Psiphon
The history of Psiphon
How can I get access to a Psiphon node?
Using a Psiphon open node
Creating an account
Inviting others
Send invitations
Create invitations
Reporting a broken Web site
SabzProxy
General information
How do I access SabzProxy?
How does it work?
Advanced options
Introduction to Firefox
Where to get Firefox
What is a Firefox add-on?
Noscript and Adblock
AdBlock Plus
Getting started with AdBlock Plus
Choosing a filter subscription
Creating personalized filters
Enabling and disabling AdBlock Plus for specific elements or Web sites
NoScript
Getting started with NoScript
NoScript notifications and adding Web sites to your whitelist
Marking content as untrusted
HTTPS Everywhere
Installation
Configuration
Usage
If networks block HTTPS
Adding support for additional sites in HTTPS Everywhere
Proxy Settings and FoxyProxy
Default Firefox proxy configuration
FoxyProxy
Installation
Configuration
Usage
Introduction
An important warning
Freegate
Simurgh
UltraSurf
VPN Services
VPN on Ubuntu
Hotspot Shield
Alkasir
Tor : The Onion Router
JonDo
Your-Freedom
Domains and DNS
Using alternative Domain Servers or Names
Alternative DNS Servers
Change your DNS settings in Windows
Change your DNS settings in Ubuntu
Edit your hosts file
Edit your hosts file in Windows Vista / 7
Edit your hosts file in Ubuntu
HTTP Proxies
Good proxies and bad proxies
Proxies that restrict access
Proxies for circumvention
Where to find an application proxy
HTTP Proxy settings
Mozilla Firefox
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Google Chrome
Pidgin instant messaging client
When you're done with the proxy
The Command Line
The basics
The command line can do much better
What do we mean by a command?
Ways to enter commands
Finding a terminal
Running an individual command
OpenVPN
General Information
Tips for setting up OpenVPN
Client
Server
Advantages and risks
SSH Tunnelling
Linux/Unix and MacOS command line (with OpenSSH)
Windows graphical user interface (with PuTTY)
Host key verification
Configuring applications to use the proxy
More options
scp: file copying
rsync: automated bulk transfers and backups
Making life easier when you use SSH often
SOCKS Proxies
Configuring your applications
Mozilla Firefox
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Configuring a SOCKS proxy for other applications
When you're done with the proxy
DNS leaks
Researching and Documenting Censorship
Research censorship knowledge databases
Reporting blocked sites using Herdict
Reporting blocked sites using Alkasir
Enabling remote access for others
Comparing notes
Packet sniffing
Dealing with Port Blocking
Testing for port blocking
Installing Web Proxies
Public and private Web proxies
Features of Web proxies
Installing SabzProxy
Setting up a Tor Relay
Risks of operating a Tor node (Tor relay)
What do I need to run a relay or a bridge relay?
Downloading Tor
Installing Tor on GNU/Linux
Installing Tor on Microsoft Windows
Configuring Tor to be a bridge
Sharing your bridge with friends
Risks of Operating a Proxy
Risks of operating a public proxy
Risks of operating a private proxy
Data retention laws might regulate proxy operation
Best Practices for Webmasters
Glossary
Ten things
Further Resources
Manuals and guides
Circumventing Internet censorship
Computer security advice for activists
Studies on Internet censorship
Organizations that work on documenting, fighting or circumventing Internet restrictions
Open Web proxies and application proxies
Circumvention solutions and service operators
A list of commercial VPN providers
Socksification software (to make non-proxy aware software work with a SOCKS proxy)
License
Authors
Authors
General Public License
Introduction
On 10 December 1948 , the adoption by the General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights launched a new era. Lebanese scholar Charles Habib Malik described it to the assembled delegates as follows:
Every member of the United Nations has solemnly pledged itself to achieve respect for and observance of human rights. But, precisely what these rights are we were never told before, either in the Charter or in any other national instrument. This is the first time the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms are spelled out authoritatively and in precise detail. I now know what my government pledged itself to promote, achieve, and observe. ... I can agitate against my government, and if she does not fulfill her pledge, I shall have and feel the moral support of the entire world.
One of the fundamental rights the Universal Declaration described, in Article 19, was the right to freedom of speech:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
When those words were written sixty years ago, no one imagined how the global phenomenon of the Internet would expand people's ability to seek, receive and impart information
, not only across borders but at amazing speeds and in forms that can be copied, edited, manipulated, recombined and shared with small or large audiences in ways fundamentally different than the communications media available in 1948.
More information in more places than ever imagined
The unbelievable growth in the past several years of what is on the Internet and where it is available has the effect of making an unimaginably vast portion of human knowledge and activity suddenly present in unexpected places: a hospital in a remote mountain village, your 12-year-old's bedroom, the conference room where you are showing your closest colleagues the new product design that will put you ahead of the competition, your grandmother's house.
In all of these places, the possibility of connecting to the world opens up many wonderful opportunities for improving people's lives. When you contract a rare disease on vacation, the remote village hospital may save your life by sending your test results to a medical specialist in the capital, or even in another country; your 12-year-old can research her school project or make friends with kids in other countries; you can present your new product design simultaneously to top managers in offices around the world, who can help you improve it; your grandmother can send you her special apple pie recipe by e-mail in time for you to bake it for dessert tonight.
But the Internet does not contain only relevant and helpful educational information, friendship and apple pie. Like the world itself, it is vast, complex and often scary. It is just as available to people who are malicious, greedy, unscrupulous, dishonest or merely rude as it is to you and your 12-year-old child and your grandmother.
Not everyone wants to let the whole world in
With all of the best and worst of human nature reflected on the Internet and certain kinds of deception and harassment made much easier by the technology, it should not surprise anyone that the growth of the Internet has been paralleled by attempts to control how people use it. There are many different motivations for these attempts. The goals include:
Protecting children from material perceived as inappropriate, or limiting their contact with people who may harm them.
Reducing the barrage of unwanted commercial offers by e-mail or on the Web.
Controlling the size of the flow of data any one user is able to access at one time.
Preventing employees from sharing information that is viewed as the property of their employer, or from using their work time or an employer's technical resources for personal activities.
Restricting access to materials or online activities that are banned or regulated in a specific jurisdiction (for example a country or an organization like a school) such as explicit sexual or violent materials, drugs or alcohol, gambling and prostitution, and information about religious, political or other groups or ideas that are deemed to be dangerous.
Some of these concerns involve allowing people to control their own experience of the Internet (for instance, letting people use spam-filtering tools to prevent spam from being delivered to their own e-mail accounts), but others involve restricting how other people can use the Internet and what those other people can and can't access. The latter case causes significant conflicts and disagreements when the people whose access is restricted don't agree that the blocking is appropriate or in their interest.
Who is filtering or blocking the Internet?
The kinds of people and institutions who try to restrict the Internet use of specific people are as varied as their goals. They include parents, schools, commercial companies, operators of Internet cafés or Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and governments at different levels.
The extreme end of the spectrum of Internet control is when a national government attempts to restrict the ability of its entire population to use the Internet to access whole categories of information or to share information freely with the outside world. Research by the OpenNet Initiative (http://opennet.net) has documented the many ways that countries filter and block Internet access for their citizens. These include countries with pervasive filtering policies, who have been found to routinely block access to human rights organizations, news, blogs, and Web services that challenge the status quo or are deemed threatening or undesirable. Others block access to single categories of Internet content, or intermittently to specific websites or network services to coincide with strategic events, such as elections or public demonstrations. Even countries with generally strong protections for free speech sometimes try to limit or monitor Internet use in connection with suppressing pornography, so-called hate speech
, terrorism and other criminal activities, leaked military or diplomatic communications, or the infringement of copyright laws.
Filtering leads to monitoring
Any of these official or private groups may also use various techniques to monitor the Internet activity of people they are concerned about, to make sure that their attempts at restriction are working. This ranges from parents looking over their child's shoulder or looking at what sites were visited on the child's computer, to companies monitoring employees' e-mail, to law enforcement agencies demanding information from ISPs or even seizing the computer in your home looking for evidence that you have engaged in undesirable
activities.
When is it censorship?
Depending on who is restricting access to the Internet and/or monitoring its use, and the perspective of the person whose access is being restricted, nearly any of these goals and any of the methods used to achieve them may be seen as legitimate and necessary or as unacceptable censorship and a violation of fundamental human rights. A teenage boy whose school blocks access to his favorite online games or to social networking sites such as Facebook feels his personal freedom to be abridged just as much as someone whose government prevents him from reading an online newspaper about the political opposition.
Who exactly is blocking my access to the Internet?
Who is able to restrict access to the Internet on any given computer in any given country depends on who has the ability to control specific parts of the technical infrastructure. This control may be based on legally established relationships or requirements, or on the ability of governmental or other bodies to pressure those who have legal control over the technical infrastructure to comply with requests to block, filter or collect information. Many parts of the international infrastructure that supports the Internet are under the control of governments or government-controlled agencies, any of which may assert control, in accordance with local law or not.
Filtering or blocking of parts of the Internet may be heavy-handed or very light, clearly defined or nearly invisible. Some countries openly admit to blocking and publish blocking criteria, as well as replacing blocked sites with explanatory messages. Other countries have no clear standards and sometimes rely on informal understandings and uncertainty to pressure ISPs to filter. In some places, filtering comes disguised as technical failures and governments don't openly take responsibility or confirm when blocking is deliberate. Different network operators even in the same country and subject to the same regulations may execute filtering in quite different ways out of caution, technical ignorance, or commercial competition.
At all levels of possible filtering, from individual to national, the technical difficulties of blocking precisely what is viewed as undesirable may have unexpected and often ridiculous consequences. Family-friendly
filters meant to block sexual materials prevent access to useful health information. Attempts to block spam may filter out important business correspondence. Attempts to block access to specific news sites may also cut off educational resources.
What methods exist to bypass filtering?
Just as many individuals , corporations and governments see the Internet as a source of dangerous information that must be controlled, there are many individuals and groups who are working hard to ensure that the Internet, and the information on it, is freely available to everyone who wants it. These people have as many different motivations as those seeking to control the Internet. However, for someone whose Internet access is restricted and who wants to do something about it, it may not matter whether the tools were developed by someone who wanted to chat with a girlfriend, write a political manifesto, or send spam.
There is a vast amount of energy, from commercial, non-profit and volunteer groups, devoted to creating tools and techniques to bypass Internet censorship, resulting in a number of methods to bypass Internet filters. Collectively, these are called circumvention methods, and can range from simple work-arounds, protected pathways, to complex computer programs. However, they nearly all work in approximately the same manner. They instruct your Web browser to take a detour through an intermediary computer, called a proxy, that:
is located somewhere that is not subject to Internet censorship
has not been blocked from your location
knows how to fetch and return content for users like you.
01circumvention_a.png02circumvention_b.pngWhat are the risks of using circumvention tools?
Only you, the person who hopes to bypass restrictions on your Internet access, can decide whether there are significant risks involved in accessing the information you want; and only you can decide whether the benefits outweigh the risks. There may be no law specifically banning the information you want or the act of accessing it. On the other hand, the lack of legal sanctions does not mean you are not risking other consequences, such as harassment, losing your job, or worse.
The following chapters discuss how the Internet works, describe various forms of online censorship, and elaborate on a number of tools and techniques that might help you circumvent these barriers to free expression. The overarching issue of digital privacy and security is considered throughout the book, which begins by covering the basics, then addresses a few advanced topics before closing with a brief section intended for webmasters and computer specialists who want to help others bypass Internet censorship.
About This Manual
This manual, 'Bypassing Internet Censorship', provides an introduction to the topic and explains some of the software and methods most often used for circumventing censorship. There is some information on avoiding surveillance and other means of detection while bypassing censorship, however this is a large topic in itself so we have only addressed it where it coincides directly with issues of circumvention.
A full discussion of techniques for maintaining anonymity and preventing detection of content or activities is beyond the scope of this book.
How and by whom this book was written
The first version of this manual featured content that had been largely written at a Book Sprint that took place in November 2008 in the beautiful hills of Upper New York State in the USA. Eight people worked together over an intensive five-day period to produce the book.
The updated version of this manual that you are currently reading was compiled in the context of a second Book Sprint held near Berlin, Germany, in early 2011. This time, 11 people worked together over an intensive five-day period.
This book is a living document of course and is available online for free, where you can also edit it and improve it.
In addition to the material written during the two Book Sprints, material has been contributed from previous publications. These include contributions from:
Ronald Deibert
Ethan Zuckerman
Roger Dingledine
Nart Villeneuve
Steven Murdoch
Ross Anderson
Freerk Ohling
Frontline Defenders
Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, Jillian York, Robert Faris, and John Palfrey from The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
These writers kindly agreed to let us use their material within a GPL licensed environment.
This manual has been written within FLOSS Manuals. To improve this manual follow these steps:
1. Register
Register at FLOSS Manuals : http://booki.flossmanuals.net/
2. Contribute!
Select the manual ( http://booki.flossmanuals.net/bypassing-censorship/edit/ ) and a chapter to work on.
If you need to ask us questions about how to contribute then join the chat room listed below and ask us! We look forward to your contribution!
For more information on using FLOSS Manuals you may also wish to read our manual:
http://en.flossmanuals.net/FLOSSManuals
3. Chat
It's a good idea to talk with us so we can co-ordinate all contributions. We have a chat room for this using Internet Relay Chat (IRC). If you know how to use IRC you can connect to the following:
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