Phoenix Network Forums

Alright as a high school student, the computers we are allowed to use (at school) are very censored. Every second site we go to is blocked and we've figured out the only way to go around this firewall or program that seems to be blocking it is by using a gateway. At least I believe that's what they are called. It is in my understanding that when you type the URL you wish to visit in the gateway the web sites end up going through their servers that arn't blocked and then to you.

I'm still a bit unclear on how these things work and I was wondering if someone could explain to me the science of them. I would also like to make one of my own for that matter and if anyones up for the job could they show me how?

Thanks

EDIT: Sorry if it's in the wrong section wasn't to sure if it was spoce to go here, Programming or general webmastering.

I think it fits better in the General Webmastering forum.
Moved from Technology to General Webmastering.

There are programs out there that can block sites if they have content that is classed as restricted by the admin.
I'm too busy to find one, but google should help you out.
They won't give you any source though, you'll have google deep to get your hands on the code.

You can go around it if you connect to another gateway. you can set up a proxy server at home. then you can surf with the connection from home. or just find another proxy server to connect to!

Blake wrote:Every second site we go to is blocked and we've figured out the only way to go around this firewall or program that seems to be blocking it is by using a gateway.

Actually, they are called proxies and they might work depending how how smart the content filtering system is. The way a proxy works is that instead of going to your normal website, you go to the proxy. Then the proxy will go and get the web page and send it back to you. There are two different ways that this is done, but I'm only going to cover cgi proxies (http://anonymouse.org/), because that's probably the only kind you will be able to use. Unfortunatly cgi proxies tend to have a number of limitations that will keep you from doing things like logging into websites and such. That depends on who made it though, because that stuff is possible, it just requires some cleverness.

It's also important to understand how content filters work. When you make a request for a web page normally two things that happen, you make a request, and you get a response. That request has important information like what webpage you want to view, what your IP address is an some other things. Content filters will look at the url that you are requesting and if it finds a match on a blacklist it will block it. Proxies are usually a good way around this. A good filter will also look at the content that is returned to you, and if there are enough nasty words, it will block it. This can't be mitigated by a proxy unless the proxy does it's own filtering too (I've never seen a proxy do this, but it seems like a cool idea. I might try it some day). The only way to get around that is to use HTTPS which encrypts the contents of the message sent back to you. HTTPS works ok if the proxy supports it, and the school has not blocked it.

Finally, a few ending words. Make sure you trust your proxy, as they are getting access to all of your requests and the responses sent back to you and rest of the data that is sent back and forth. I'm pretty sure most proxies are good at not keeping track of that stuff, but I don't know. YMMV. Also you school has those paranoid policies for a reason, they have to make absolutely sure they can't get sued for allowing children to bypass them. I understand that the filtering is a pain for you, but if you try to circumvent it you could cause a lot of people a lot of problems (including you). So be prudent.

If you can use USB Flash pen drives, download Torpak from http://torpark.nfshost.com/

It is a standalone/non install Firefox with Tor built in, meaning it will automatically find proxies to go though and will encrypt data between you and the proxies. Should get you around the problem

Jop wrote:If you can use USB Flash pen drives, download Torpak from http://torpark.nfshost.com/

It is a standalone/non install Firefox with Tor built in, meaning it will automatically find proxies to go though and will encrypt data between you and the proxies. Should get you around the problem

dito!