Newbies Guide
This will eventually grow into a FAQ - contributions welcome.
How do they block you?
Here are some usual scenarios; pick the one which matches your situation, and go to the section devoted to that:
- You are in the UAE - go here
- You are in KSA - go here
- You are in Kuwait, using QualityNet ISP - go here
- You know your web browser accesses are censored and you just want to get it working properly, but don't know any more than this - go do the tests.
- You think you know how the censoring is working - go do the tests anyway.
- You've done the tests, and you've tried the things mentioned below (or you don't know how to do them). If you still need help email the test results to me at wayne@nym.alias.net. If you want to help me keep my list of blocked/open ports up to date, include the country the tests were run in. Be aware that including IP addresses tells me where you are, but please try to include these unless you are paranoid (like me!) or unless you're sure they are not relevant.
Censored and port blocked
Your web accesses are being censored and access to other proxies is being blocked by port filtering.
You need to do one of the following (in order of increasing preference, but decreasing ease):
- use a CGI proxy from my list.
- find a proxy to use which is currently working and is listening on an unblocked port on my list and in the links here.
- set up your own 'proxy' on an external account. Look here and here.
Network Appliance
Your web access is not blocked in the usual way. Your web accesses with no proxy specified (port 80), are being examined 'on the wire' and redirected to a censoring/cacheing system. Use of any public proxy not listening on port 80 will enable you to bypass this. Try one from the public proxies available and configure your browser to suit.
How do I make my own proxy?
You need to get an account outside the country (see my page).
You should get some practice with the Unix shell (use bash). For example learn to use cd, ls, pwd etc. (use man for information about these)
You need to learn how to download files into this account (use lynx).
You need to learn how to decompress this file (use tar xvf file or tar zxvf file)
You need to learn how to edit text files (vi is the best, but there are other easier ones to use); ed might appeal to some.
Then you need to follow my recipes, AND provide feedback if something breaks, or if I need to be more descriptive somewhere.
How do I do it?
Take a look at Aseef's page describing a newbies setup problems and solutions.
How do I set up the Alstone proxy?
Alstone is a proxy written by Craig which runs on your computer and encodes URLs your browser requests in such a way as to avoid the censorship. Easy and convenient to use once you have set it up.
See Alstone - Aseef's Alstone detailed description of setup and use of this proxy.
