Bypassing school/university website restriction

[pakopako]

I know this is an old thread, but thats how I roll.
Any newer ideas on how to surf sites like this where they restrict or track internet usage?
I remember reading about google os on a flashdrive... anyone try these things?

That part is tougher.

Your workstation at work goes through a central server, which logs that someone is sitting in that seat going online at high noon for y-minutes. Even if you reboot the machine or run a virtual machine, your online usage is tracked. If not the site you are going to, the company server at least tracks the amount of time you're spending trying to go "outside".

A smart team will restrict users from accessing as many proxy-sites and tunnels as they can find. Your best bet is to tether your smartphone to something not in the company. (Like the neighboring building's open WiFi.)

Or if you're really mean spirited you can do a whole lot more in your company system, like tricking it to think your computer is the boss' computer. But one misstep can raise red flags real fast.

[Hatta]

What I do is tunnel everything through SSH. All you have to do is execute 'ssh -D PORTNUM remote.host', then set a SOCKS proxy in Firefox to localhost:PORTNUM. Works great with Cygwin SSH. You can do it with Putty too if that's what you prefer.

There's also an about:config item to send DNS queries through the tunnel. Make sure you use that.

[BoringSupreez]

What I do is tunnel everything through SSH. All you have to do is execute 'ssh -D PORTNUM remote.host', then set a SOCKS proxy in Firefox to localhost:PORTNUM. Works great with Cygwin SSH. You can do it with Putty too if that's what you prefer.

There's also an about:config item to send DNS queries through the tunnel. Make sure you use that.

That sounded like when a nerdy character says something unintelligible, and then every one goes "in English, please?" So: in English, please?

[SpaceBooger]

What I do is tunnel everything through SSH. All you have to do is execute 'ssh -D PORTNUM remote.host', then set a SOCKS proxy in Firefox to localhost:PORTNUM. Works great with Cygwin SSH. You can do it with Putty too if that's what you prefer.

There's also an about:config item to send DNS queries through the tunnel. Make sure you use that.

That sounded like when a nerdy character says something unintelligible, and then every one goes "in English, please?" So: in English, please?

Yes. In English, please?
I have a feeling that since I have no idea what any of that means, then I probably won't be trying any of it.

[Hatta]

SSH is the Secure SHell. Every decent operating should come with SSH. Windows does not, but you can install it via Cygwin or use the graphical app Putty.

SSH creates a secure encrypted connection between two computers. Typically this connection is used for command line access to a remote computer, but it can be used for any arbitrary data. Web traffic is data, so you can send it through SSH.

In order to do that, you have to specify the -D option, and give it a port number. For the most part, any number between 1024 and 65335 will do. I like 40404. You also have to give it an ip address or domain name of an SSH server. This could be your router/firewall at home, a hosted ssh account from a provider like rsync.net, or any number of free unix shell accounts (just google).

So you end up with a command that looks like this:

Code: Select all

ssh -D 40404 example.com

Then all you have to do is go into Firefox's Tools->options->Advanced->Network->Settings and select "manual proxy configuration". Enter 'localhost' for the host name and '40404' for the port. All your web traffic is now encrypted and forwarded to your remote SSH server automatically.
Test it out by going to whatismyip.com, you'll see the ip of your SSH server.

In order to forward DNS requests as well, you'll have to go into about:config and set 'network.proxy.socks_remote_dns' to 'true'.

Once you've done this, no one on your local network can see anything you do in Firefox. It's all encrypted and sent off to another host first. It's really powerful actually, and not as hard as it sounds to set up.