goneforawhile.ch - Bypassing the Great Firewalls

Bypassing the Great Firewalls

In several countries, certain - by westerners often used - websites are blocked due to governmental censorship. Highly popular among travellers is blogspot.com which is used as a way to document their trips. Frustrating if the blog becomes silent due to the access restrictions in China or Iran... facebook.com or twitter.com are other very popular websites that often are restricted.
As we have met many people with this problem, here a way to get around the restrictions and use your favorite website again. In case this step-by-step process is not clear enough (or also in case you like it...), please leave a comment below!

To do this, you need:

USB Memory Stick
1 copy of the latest version of the software 'Tor Portable', to be downloaded from e.g. sourceforge.net/projects/portabletor/files/portabletor
1 copy of the latest version of the software 'Firefox Portable', to be downloaded from e.g. portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

Then the work starts:

plug in the USB Memory Stick into the PC, wait until the stick is properly recognised.
Doubleclick the downloaded Tor-'.exe' file and follow the usual installation wizard. Make sure that Tor is installed to the Memory Stick an not onto the PC's harddrive
Doubleclick the downloaded Firefox-'.exe' file and follow the usual installation wizard. Make sure that Firefox Portable is installed to the Memory Stick an not onto the PC's harddrive
Start TorPortable by doubleclicking the tor.exe file that has been installed to the Memory Stick. A window will open and a progress bar will show how the TorPortable connects to the Tor network. This might take a minute or so, patience!
Start FirefoxPortable by doubleclicking the firefox.exe file that has been installed to the Memory Stick. It can take a short while before a browser window opens up.
You should now be able to surf normally by using FirefoxPortable. On the other hand, TorPortable has opened the gate to the censorship-free world. We now have to connect FirefoxPortable with Tor to get you all set.
In FirefoxPortable, go to the tab 'Tools', then 'Add-Ons'. A window opens up, usually (depending on the version) you should see at bottom-right side a link 'Get Extensions'. A website will be loaded in FirefoxPortable. On this website, search for 'FoxyProxy', and click in the appearing result on 'Add to Firefox'. The extension will be downloaded and you will be told to restart FirefoxPortable. Do so!
Once again, go in FirefoxPortable to the tab 'Tools', then 'Add-Ons'. Select in the appearing list 'FoxyProxy', then 'Preferences'.
Make sure that the 'Mode' list is set to 'Use proxies based on their pre-defined patterns and priorities'.
In the tab 'Global Settings', make sure the flag 'Use SOCKS proxy for DNS lookups' is selected.
In the first tab 'Proxies', click on the 'Add new Proxy' button.
In the appearing window, select the tab 'General' and give your proxy configuration the name of your choice, e.g. 'Tor China'. Make sure the flag 'enabled' is set.
In the tab 'Proxy Details', select 'Manual Proxy Configuration' and write in the field 'Host or IP Address' the IP address '127.0.0.1'. In the field 'Port', write '9050'. Select the 'SOCKS Proxy' Flag,
In the tab 'URL Pattern', click the 'Add new Pattern' button. Then add your patterns. Make sure that the flag 'Inclusion/Exclusion' is set to 'Whitelist' and the flag 'enabled' is selected in every pattern.
- in the case of blogspot.com add '*blogspot.com*' and in case you want to edit your blog as well, add also '*blogger.com*'.
- for facebook.com, add the 3 patterns '*facebook.com*', '*fbcdn.net*' and '*amgdgt.com*'
- Add any other pattern if needed.
Close all the open windows by clicking the respective OK buttons.
Now try to open the desired website (in the case here 'www.blogspot.com') in FirefoxPortable, it may be that you have to try it two or three times, but then it should work.
From now on you will be able to insert the Memory Stick into any PC , start TorPortable, then start FirefoxPortable and surf to any site desired. If you discover a site blocked, just add its address into the patterns-list and you should be fine.

» 5 Comments

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1Comment
at Tuesday, 29 September 2009 07:56by Willu

.. or just use one of the many web proxies in the world which grabs the content for you and display it in its frame. Not yet approved ...

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