If you can’t visit a website or use a streaming service, for example, they are most likely not available in your country. Sometimes companies and educational institutions also block access to certain resources or leave access only to necessary services and websites so that employees aren’t distracted from their work and students aren’t distracted from their studies.
However, you shouldn’t despair, because in most cases you can bypass such blocks and still go to your desired website. The most common way to do this is by using a VPN. But there are also other methods that you can easily use. So here’s how you can visit blocked websites in different ways.
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How to visit blocked websites using a VPN
VPN is probably the easiest and fastest way to visit a blocked website. Virtual Private Network not only replaces but also hides your real IP address when you visit websites. There are both paid VPN services and free ones. Free services are enough to access a blocked site. But if your goal is anonymity online, it is better to use paid services.
To work with a VPN, you need to download a special app on your mobile device. Here are the three most popular mobile VPNs:
- ExpressVPN
- Surfshark
- NordVPN
All three can be used either for free (with time and country restrictions) or on a paid basis (by purchasing a subscription plan). All you have to do is download the app, agree with the rules of the service, choose a country, and tap on the appropriate button to start. Often all VPNs work and are set up simply and about the same, so you don’t get lost in the settings.
Moreover, you can also install a VPN extension in your browser. After that, an icon will appear on the side, after clicking on it you can activate the VPN.
How to use a proxy to visit blocked websites
Proxy servers are another popular way to open a blocked site. Proxies come in many forms, anonymous and not so anonymous, paid and free. Paid ones will cost a few dollars a month. There are also free ones, but you may have problems with some of them.
In some cases, free proxies substitute website ads for their own. This is done to make money and is more of a concern to site owners. There’s nothing wrong with that for you, just keep it in mind.
Like a VPN, proxies hide your real IP address from a website, as well as a website’s IP address from your government, place of work, or university. Using a proxy requires no installation, which makes it ideal for circumventing restrictions at work, school, or the public library. Proxies are also able to unblock some pages with geographical restrictions, but this does not always work, especially with major streaming services.
However, proxies also have disadvantages. In some rare cases, there have been precedents of password interception. Therefore, you shouldn’t use public proxies to enter logins and passwords of social networks, e-mail services, etc.
The proxy works like this:
- Go to the proxy website. For example HideMyName.
- Choose a proxy and copy the address of the proxy server.
- Go to the browser network settings and enter the data.
In addition, your school or workplace may block proxy websites themselves. Fortunately, since the number of proxy websites on the Internet is enormous, you are likely to find one that’s not blacklisted.
How to use the Tor Browser to open blocked websites
Tor provides your privacy on the Internet through multi-level encryption and routing your network traffic through a distributed network run by volunteers around the world. The service is completely free to use. However, a serious disadvantage of using Tor can be called a decrease in connection speed.
If you want to visit blocked websites using Tor Browser – follow these steps:
- First of all, download and install Tor on your PC.
- Then launch it and click “Connect”.
- Finally, just enter the URL of the website you want to visit and press Enter.
That’s all you need to do. Tor also offers you to use a Google Search analog called DuckDuckGo. This search engine is designed specifically for anonymous search.
How to use DNS to bypass blocking
DNS won’t only allow you to access banned websites, it will also speed up your internet speed. As a rule, OpenDNS is the preferred DNS server. You can also use DNS from Google. A DNS gateway will allow you to access the Internet via OpenDNS, bypassing the DNS servers of your ISP.
Follow these steps to configure DNS:
- In the Control Panel, go to the “Network and Internet”.
- Then click on the “Network and Sharing Center” link.
- Click “Change adapter settings”.
- Right-click on your adapter and select “Properties”.
- After that, select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP / IPv4)” and click “Properties”.
- Select “Use the following DNS server addresses” and enter Google DNS or OpenDNS.
- Finally, click “OK” and save changes.
Now you can visit any blocked website.
Read Also:
- What is a Double VPN and what do you need to know
- How to fix Turbo VPN isn’t connecting
- Does using a VPN hide your IP address?
How to visit a blocked website using its IP address
The next way to bypass website blocking is to use the IP address instead of the URL (website name). Sometimes the site is blocked by adding the website name to a blacklist. In such cases, this method can help.
Each website on the network has its IP address. For more convenient surfing in the network instead of IP-addresses are used familiar names, such as facebook.com or google.com. Finding out the IP address of a blocked website is easy:
- Use the “Win + R” key combination to open the Run window.
- Type “cmd” and press Enter.
- In the command line type “ping [website address]”.
- The command will immediately return the IP access to the blocked website.
- Enter the IP address in the address bar of your browser and press Enter.
This method doesn’t always work, but it’s worth a try just in case.
