When I lived in China, it really pissed me off that the government censored certain sites which it found offensive, particularly those which reported the news as the Party most certainly did NOT see it. I really wished then for a simple, cheap way to get around that information blockade.
More recently, my company has blocked access to The Dilbert Zone, and I worry that the Halbakery will somehow find its way onto the corporate NetNazis' radar.
I'd like to see a browser/server which could run from a home computer, or from a hosted web page. You'd set it up at an IP address that is accessible from your restricted location. Then, using your restricted browser, you'd type in the URL or IP where your software is waiting. Once you enter the username and password that you previously set up (you don't want everyone to be able to access this, and bog down your remote machine), you'd get a browser-in-a-browser.
Since your restricted browser (at work, or in a communist country, or at a public library with internet filtering) grants access to your remote browser (at home, or on a hosted web site), which is unrestricted, you'd be able to circumvent the net censors and view any web page.
This idea seems so simple that I'm sure it's got to be baked somewhere. If so, I apologize, and request the link. However, a few Googles didn't turn up anything like this.-- Guncrazy, Oct 28 2001 multiproxy.org: all http://www.multiproxy.org/all_proxy.htm [jutta, Oct 28 2001, last modified Jun 12 2007] Open Directory: Proxying and Filtering http://directory.go...ying_and_Filtering/ [jutta, Oct 28 2001, last modified Jun 12 2007] http://www.silentsurf.com please use the link button. [GusLacerda, Oct 28 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] PerfectTommy's link http://www.anonymizer.com/please use the link button. [yamahito, Sep 12 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004] It exists! http://www.phpclass...e/package/1155.htmlThis is what you're looking for. It's a set of PHP scripts that you install on a web server. All you need to do is connect to that web server and type in the address of the page you want to browse. It only works with simple pages, but it's better than nothing! [rodti, Mar 13 2009] offensivecomputing.net [c0nstructor, Jun 28 2010] This kind of software is called a "proxy server". (I guess the thing in the middle can be seen as both a server or a client, depending from which side you look -- but it has more similarity to a server because it doesn't have to do all those client things like rendering, managing bookmarks, etc.)
I can't off-hand name a proxy server that can be "locked" with a password in the way you describe, but I bet some can be restricted to accept connections only from a certain range of IP addresses.-- jutta, Oct 28 2001 F'dcompany.com once said that a sure sign your company is dying is that they start blocking things like Dilbert...-- StarChaser, Oct 28 2001 You should be able to use safeweb.com as a proxy of sorts.-- bristolz, Oct 28 2001 I appreciate the situation, but what's to stop your company from blocking access to the proxy service? Ultimately, if the network folks see a lot of traffic going to one site, and it's not a work-related site, they'll block it.
One way around this would be to have popular (and therefore frequently blocked) sites set up an e-mail service whereby they send content via e-mail attachments. E-mail can be blocked too, but source addresses can be spoofed so that it would be impossible to determine the source of the message.-- phoenix, Oct 28 2001 There are lots of proxies out there. It's hard to keep track of them all, especially with folks working hard at it. In the face of people determined to evade the system, content filtering by proxy is a lost cause.
In the workplace, this may not matter. "Your Honor, I didn't know we weren't allowed to read Dilbert on company time." "Perhaps the fact that you had to go to great lengths to evade the company's filtering proxy should have given you a clue?"-- egnor, Oct 28 2001 I tried multiproxy.org and silentsurf.com and *both* were blocked access! :-) Just goes to show how socialist my school is. I always knew it... everyone knows it... bah! I hate this place!
Les-- wannabehacker, Mar 21 2002 I'm all for it to the extent that the end user has first dibs on data mining of 'eir own behavior log.-- LoriZ, Mar 24 2002 The only major problem with what I've seen mentioned so far here is that it works on the basis that filtering only happens on destination IP-address.
Why not do it using a custom-built protocol, perhaps one that "encrypts" specially over http, then have a special client :-). Could be done, I suppose.-- pftqg, Apr 02 2002 // Why not do it using a custom-built protocol, perhaps one that "encrypts" specially over http, then have a special client :-). Could be done, I suppose. //
So maybe run XWindows on a linux box outside the corporate firewall, with the web browser running there? Just run an X client inside the corporate firewall and point it at the box outside. Content-based filtering would be very difficult to implement on the data stream as it passes through the firewall. Of course, the same administrators who block HTTP to certain sites are just as likely to block the X protocol altogether. But you might get lucky and go unnoticed.-- BigBrother, Apr 02 2002 <admin - link moved to link area> It's really popular and they do a lot of advertising. I'm suprised they aren't listed here.-- PerfectTommy, Jun 22 2002 My solution was to get a Treo, for wireless access to essential internet functions. They can't block the airwaves. (I mean they CAN, if the building is made of steel, but come on)-- robinism, Jun 22 2004 random, halfbakery