TFP is banned at my Panera Bread

[ASU2003]

Even at my Library the Sexuality section is censored. I don't go to the adult section when I'm on public wi-fi spots, so I'm not sure if they are blocked or not.

I was reading yesterday that 400,000 Iranians get around their countries filters, and people in China can use tis software to get to blocked websites...so why can't I figure out a way to get to TFP where ever I happen to be.
Background | Global Internet Freedom Consortium

Has anybody here ever used this or any software like it? I might be able to setup a proxy server at a friends place with always on Internet(but I would have to encrypt everything for it to be anonymous).

Is there any easy Linux OS that comes with this type of thing enabled by default? I also could use a Mac OS version if that exists. It appears that the software that the GIFC offers uses Windows or Wine(I never have good luck with Wine). Does anybody else run into any censorship problems when they are on-line? Are you paranoid enough to run something like this at home just to be sure 'The Man' isn't watching you?

[n0nsensical]

Yeah, you can always set up a proxy, or rent one, or use someone else's. There are free open proxies out there if you look around, otherwise you can pay a fee to a service like Anonymizer. There are tons of options. You could even use an Amazon EC2 instance for 10 cents an hour. There might even be a public image with a proxy server already set up. If you have your own webhost, you could set up something as simple as a PHP script to redirect your requests through it, if you don't have a whole server to setup a full-featured proxy like Squid. I might even setup a TFP-only proxy on my webhost, that you can use if you trust me. :P I wouldn't be too concerned about anonymity. It's not like using a proxy to bypass a web filter is illegal unless you specifically signed a contract otherwise, or that anyone would be watching you do so at a library. There is so much data flying around out there unless you're specifically being a nuisance to someone you don't have to worry about it. Of course, if you're using an encrypted proxy protocol it's pretty much anonymous by default (except the IP address of your proxy)

ed: you could also set up an SSH tunnel through a remote host that you have SSH access to, basically the same as a proxy but a little simpler to configure and potentially more (or less) secure.

[Lasereth]

Try Firefox Portable; depending on how it's blocked, you might be able to get around it.

[Hain]

The answer is Tor.

Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis.

Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol.

Tor doesn't magically encrypt all of your Internet activities, though. You should understand what Tor does and does not do for you.

Tor Browser Bundle for Windows with Firefox - Preset FirefoxPortable and Tor bundle

• Tor: anonymity online
• Tor: Overview
• Tor: Download
• Tor Browser Bundle

[ASU2003]

I tried Tor a while ago, and it didn't work so well.

I've been banned from TFP at the two easy places for me to get on-line, and my neighbor doesn't know how to operate a access point.

I'm currently looking to setup a remote desktop type thing (any suggestions for Mac or Linux)? VNC I believe is one I used a long time ago.

[Hain]

Do not use the products from Global Internet Freedom. Being curious, I wanted to test them out. They are sketchy at best and my antivirus finds them to be trojans at worst. Don't bother with them.

Please expand upon how Tor "didn't work so well." I used Tor quite frequently not too long ago and never had problems with casual browsing. Also, you never explained if you were using a public terminal or had your own laptop and were using their wireless.

Personal experience tells me that remote desktop software is not very practical for this application. You need a lot of bandwidth to transmit and receive the controlled terminal's desktop. Remember that you are polling the screen for changes, and it is sending those images to your terminal.

You mentioned that you could not use a proxy as you "would have to encrypt everything for it to be anonymous." Why? Are you sure that they ban content based on key words? If so, Tor still should work as it uses encrypted connections. My next suggestion is try using a home proxy server, like FreeProxy I suppose, and couple it with Hamachi. Hamachi is great because it creates private virtual networks securely--meaning the connections are encrypted. I used Hamachi to bypass my university's firewall, giving me unlimited access to my file server from anywhere. I know applications can use Hamachi in this respect, since I had an FTP and VNC run through it for my friends and myself.

References: Tor, FreeProxy, Hamachi   click to show 

Tor's Encrypted Connections - Tor: Overview

To create a private network pathway with Tor, the user's software or client incrementally builds a circuit of encrypted connections through relays on the network. The circuit is extended one hop at a time, and each relay along the way knows only which relay gave it data and which relay it is giving data to. No individual relay ever knows the complete path that a data packet has taken. The client negotiates a separate set of encryption keys for each hop along the circuit to ensure that each hop can't trace these connections as they pass through.

FreeProxy - :: Home

Hamachi - https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/vpn.asp

LogMeIn Hamachi is a VPN service that easily sets up in 10 minutes, and enables secure remote access to your business network, anywhere there's an Internet connection. It works with your existing firewall, and requires no additional configuration. Hamachi is the first networking application to deliver an unprecedented level of direct peer-to-peer connectivity. It is simple, secure, and cost-effective.

Hamachi security measures - https://secure.logmein.com/products/...i/security.asp

All Hamachi communications are encrypted and authenticated with industry-standard algorithms and protocols. Nobody will be able to see the data transmitted between two Hamachi peers. Not even us.

[Cynthetiq]

It's also blocked at BestBuy listed as a adult or sexually oriented site.

Can't do proxies, webmail, or a host of other things based on their proxy rules.

[yotta]

Tor is fairly slow. SSH on port 443 is often a way to get out of overzelous proxies. Don't fuck with stuff at work that's blocked though. If you can ssh somewhere, set up dynamic porf forwarding on it. It will allow you SSH client to act as a socks proxy.

[ASU2003]

Originally Posted by Hain

Please expand upon how Tor "didn't work so well." I used Tor quite frequently not too long ago and never had problems with casual browsing. Also, you never explained if you were using a public terminal or had your own laptop and were using their wireless.

Personal experience tells me that remote desktop software is not very practical for this application. You need a lot of bandwidth to transmit and receive the controlled terminal's desktop. Remember that you are polling the screen for changes, and it is sending those images to your terminal.

You mentioned that you could not use a proxy as you "would have to encrypt everything for it to be anonymous." Why? Are you sure that they ban content based on key words? If so, Tor still should work as it uses encrypted connections. My next suggestion is try using a home proxy server, like FreeProxy I suppose, and couple it with Hamachi. Hamachi is great because it creates private virtual networks securely--meaning the connections are encrypted. I used Hamachi to bypass my university's firewall, giving me unlimited access to my file server from anywhere. I know applications can use Hamachi in this respect, since I had an FTP and VNC run through it for my friends and myself.

I will hve to rsearch proxies and VNC more this week. But, I am looking to have a remote computer that can access the entire internet 24/7. Right now, this seems to be the easy solution to my delimma. Keep in mind that I won't be anywhere close to this computer and don't have internet access at home.

Tor didn't work because I probably in't set it up correctly. It was a few years ago and they might have changed a few things. But, I was unable to tell if my communications were going through Tor, or if I was just on the net with this program running and not doing anything.

Hamachi looks interesting, I will look into it for sure. I'm not really that paranoid, but using something that communicates on port 80, allows me to run programs even when I'm not at the public access point, hard to block, and is easy to setup is what I care about.

[Hain]

Originally Posted by ASU2003

Tor didn't work because I probably in't set it up correctly. It was a few years ago and they might have changed a few things.

The current releases of Tor are silly easy to use. The portable versions will run straight from a flash drive. You run the installer and it just extracts preconfigured programs (like Firefox Portable) to work through the Tor router.