3 Great ways to get pass school filters

[Zipp425]

Hello everyone! I just finished writing a tutorial about how to get around the internet filters at school. Enjoy freedom! Unblock youtube

YouTube Blocked? Not Anymore.

As soon as I moved into the dorms, I noticed the filter. Important sites in my daily routine like YouTube, and other video sites were blocked by my university for a few reasons “first to protect students from inappropriate material. The other is because of our limited bandwidth. That bandwidth is used for academic purposes.” (Why BYU Blocked YouTube). So first off let me say, I understand their thinking, YouTube would take a lot of bandwidth and strain the network and the network is supposed to be used for academic purposes, but sometimes YouTube is necessary and sometimes even educational. So for all of those student out there that are suffering from the same problem, here are a few ways to evade the block.
Proxies

The simplest and most common way to get around school blocks is to use a proxy service. Since schools know about this problem, most proxy services are blocked. However, in most cases, they cannot block secured connections (proxies that use SSL, eg https://). Here is a list of good proxies that utilize SSL.
Good Proxies

• vTunnel — I use this one the most. It is practically built to help people access YouTube.
• bTunnel — If vTunnel is blocked, use this one, it is the same as vTunnel.
• proxy listing — If all those proxies are blocked, here is a list of more than 3,000 proxies, look for one that uses SSL, or just one that isn’t blocked.

How to use a proxy

Proxies are really easy to use, you go to the proxy website and then you put in the URL of the website you want to go to (e.g. http://youtube.com).
Virtual Private Network

A virtual private network, also known as a VPN is a way to connect to a network outside of your own. Generally this is used to gain access to a network, but in this case we will be using it to escape our filtered network. This is more complex than a proxy, but is guaranteed to work. One great open VPN is Tor. I’ll show you how to get and setup Tor, if you want to setup your own VPN, I suggest you use google.
Setting up Tor

1. Download Tor — This will probably be blocked, so use a proxy service listed above to access the download, or download it here for the pc, or here for the mac.
2. Install Tor — The installation process is pretty straight forward, just install it. Once it is installed, it is ready to go and will automatically start each time you start your computer (don’t worry, it won’t make your computer slow).
3. Make your browser use Tor — Depending on your browser this varies, I recommend using Firefox, since its the easiest.
   • Firefox
     1. Install Torbutton — This allows you to turn the use of Tor on and off with the click of a button.
     2. Restart Firefox
     3. Click the thing that says “tor is disabled” in the bottom right of your Firefox window.
     4. Tor is now enabled, enjoy the freedom. Yes it is kinda slow so only use it when you need it.
   • Internet Explorer
     1. Its not very easy to use Tor with Internet Explorer, I suggest that you get Firefox if you want your life to be easier.
     2. Click Tools->Internet Options
     3. Click the Connections tab
     4. Click LAN settings
     5. Check the box that says “Use a proxy server for your LAN”
     6. In the Address box, type localhost then in the port box type 8118
     7. Check the box that says “Bypass proxy server for local addresses”
     8. Click OK, and then click OK again.
     9. Restart Internet Explorer
     10. You will now be using the Tor network to access the internet. Its slow, so you are probably going to need to turn the proxy settings that we set on and off so that you can just use Tor when you really need to.

Tor is not speedy. You are going to want to use it only when you need it.
Use the IP Address

Not often, but sometimes, a block is only applied to just the name of the website and not the actual address of the website. This doesn’t work very often.
Connecting to the IP

1. Find the website’s IP Address — Just put in the website’s URL (e.g. http://youtube.com).
2. Put the IP Address (e.g. 208.65.153.253) into the address bar and try it out.

Wrap Up

So there you have it, three decent ways to connect to the content that you blocked from getting to. If anyone out there has found something that works good for them, feel free to leave a comment and let the rest of us in on the goods.

[GamingX]

Cool!!!

[QueenHawkeye]

Pretty cool, but my school doesn't allow you to install anything without administrative powers. Even the teachers here don't have that kind of power. Also, my school blocks ALL proxies & anything with the word forums [not forum though].

[Kamikaze_Hamster]

My school uses a modified version of Bess and uses EVERY blocked including the "Uncategorized" block. I hate the techies at my school they drive us all up the wall with there restrictions on the internet. My school has gone so far as to actually give you Wednesday school (after school detention for 2 hours). For playing any type of game. That is ridiculous, but I'm going to try these and see if a single one works hopefully I can use one and have some fun with fiber optic internet.

[taekwondokid42]

prx.xarus.net

the username and password are xarus.


I don't know of any blocking system that has blocked this yet. My teachers are really pissed at the kid who made it, but they won't do anything to him, because he has three lawsuits lined up that they know they couldn't defend.


I hope this helps!

[Zipp425]

prx.xarus.net

the username and password are xarus.


I don't know of any blocking system that has blocked this yet. My teachers are really pissed at the kid who made it, but they won't do anything to him, because he has three lawsuits lined up that they know they couldn't defend.


I hope this helps!

Cool, usually these little known proxies work well. Unfortunately, it doesnt work with Youtube because it limits scripts.

[arsonistx]

You do realize, nowadays you could get expelled from school for using proxies, if you are living in a big enough town with a big enough school.
I almost got expelled for it once, but now I'm home schooled, so it's all good. :D

[QuwenQ]

Or, let's try this amazing idea:
JUST DO SCHOOLWORK.

[Zipp425]

If you couldn't tell, I was mostly giving this advice to College students living in dorms where the school filters your internet access. I was fine with filters in highschool, but having to constantly live in a place were I can't access sites like youtube, is not fun.

[titch]

Some of you may want to use the following method....

[This may sound ridiculous, but it honestly works]
[Our school uses symantec for the filtering system]

When you first login to Windows, you enter your user name, then your password, and click login.

You then get the "Loading Personal Settings" "Applying Personal Settings" etc stages.

Unplug the ethernet cable that is connecting your computer to the network AS SOON as the "Applying Personal Settings" stage pops up. Wait for a while until it comes up with an error message, plug the cable back in, and press ok.

Thats it!

[You may also notice that some times when you do this any restrictions the school puts on your workstation such as not been able to access control panel are no longer present..... but you still cant change any settings.]