How To Get Around School Blocks

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Zipp425 New Member

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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
  
  Install Torbutton — This allows you to turn the use of Tor on and off with the click of a button.
  
  Restart Firefox
  
  Click the thing that says "tor is disabled" in the bottom right of your Firefox window.
  
  Tor is now enabled, enjoy the freedom. Yes it is kinda slow so only use it when you need it.
  
  Internet Explorer
  
  Its not very easy to use Tor with Internet Explorer, I suggest that you get Firefox if you want your life to be easier.
  
  Click Tools->Internet Options
  
  Click the Connections tab
  
  Click LAN settings
  
  Check the box that says "Use a proxy server for your LAN"
  
  In the Address box, type localhost then in the port box type 8118
  
  Check the box that says "Bypass proxy server for local addresses"
  
  Click OK, and then click OK again.
  
  Restart Internet Explorer
  
  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 Executive Team

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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].
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.
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 New Member

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

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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.
QuwenQ Member

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Or, let's try this amazing idea:
JUST DO SCHOOLWORK.
Zipp425 New Member

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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 New Member

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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.]
I love my country in this aspect.
If one is blocked, we try another. There is noone to say what we should or not. they just block what they think its unappropriated to university. So we use proxies. Noone to check what we are doing... hoho even the admins use them since they want to use msn and other stuff
Jigzo New Member

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Nice thanks,
these are the only proxies that work at my skool if we ever go on one we have to quickly delete our history as the idiot tecnition always checks everyones internet cache and history! hes dumb
Glitchy New Member

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I found a 4th way. (You can add this to your post if you want.)
Go to "Run..." then type "cmd".

ORClick on "My Computer", click on "C" (or whatever is the main drive). Click on "WINDOWS" folder. Click on "system32". Look for "cmd". It should be Command Prompt. Now, type in "Ping x". X is the website. If you were doing www.Nintendo.com, then type in "www.nintendo.com". Press Enter then it should display some stuff. Where it says "Ping statistics for...". There should be a number. Type that into the address bar of the browser. Without the www or anything. It should work.
Zipp425 New Member

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Glitchy, this is using the IP of the website to access it, similar to the third way I listed.
schoolwork kills my brain.
Sharky Community Paragon Community Support

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Stilles New Member

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Everyone was using that to get on myspace around the middle of last year.
Principal threated to lock whoever's account who used it.

No account = fail all classes that require comp.
Sohail Active Member

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Okay i know your an account manager but i think that is spam. Anyway, the tutorial is great - i bookmarked the page too .
shaunak New Member

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Back in school, we had win 98 running. Which happens to be the most secure OS on the planet. All we had to do was reboot into DOS and delete *.pwd [I think the extention was pwd... have forgotten now]
Bang... all passwords cleared....... Students RULE!
We had quite a few paper leaks and freak incidents befor the scool finally shifted to Win Xp.

Ah... fun times.

Last edited: Nov 17, 2007
chewett New Member

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well at my school we were using proxies and then like the whole year got banned and the teachers had to give access back as they cant ban a whole year