how to

BYPASS INTERNET

CENSORSHIP supplement for

proprietary software

  

Copyright: The Contributors (see back) Published: 18 Feb 2009 License: GPL Note: We offer no warranty if you follow this manual and something goes wrong. So be careful!

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HOW TO BYPASS INTERNET CENSORSHIP - SUPPLEMENT

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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 7

ABOUT THIS MANUAL ......................................................................................................... 9

TUTORIALS .................................................................................................................................. 11

1. Using Your-Freedom ..................................................................................................... 13

2. Using Freegate ................................................................................................................. 23

3. Using UltraSurf ................................................................................................................ 25

4. Using Hotspot Shield - Sesawe ................................................................................... 27

5. Hotspot Shield F.A.Q. ................................................................................................... 33

APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................ 37

AUTHORS ................................................................................................................................ 38 

  

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INTRODUCTION ABOUT THIS MANUAL

  

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ABOUT THIS MANUAL This manual is the supplement to the FlossManuals book "HOW TO BYPASS INTERNET CENSORSHIP".

"HOW TO BYPASS INTERNET CENSORSHIP", written in partnership with Sesawe, provides an introduction to the topic and explains some of the software and methods most often used for circumventing censorship.

This supplement proposes tutorials for Your-Freedom, Freegate, UltraSurf and HotSpot Shield - Sesawe. These proprietary software could not be documented in the context of the FlossManuals book, because of the philosophy of the Floss Manuals Foundation, whose mission is to create free documentation for free (in a "free speech", or open source sense) software.

However, the software presented in this supplement are free (in a "free beer", or gratis sense) and efficiently defeat Internet filtering, so it was thought they would be of interest to users in censored jurisdictions, in a field where diversity is a significant asset.

The writing of this book was supported by Sesawe

What is Sesawe?

Sesawe is an international consortium working to support uncensored access to the Internet. It includes software developers as well as organizations and individuals who share a belief in the need for an open Internet. They include academic research centers, think tanks, nonprofit organizations working on media issues and advocacy groups, as well as dozens of individuals who share these goals. Sesawe is not an organization, it is a gathering place to share information and related resources. Partner organizations are independently managed and financed, and responsible for their own activities.

   

Visit the website at: https://www.sesawe.net

  

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TUTORIALS 1. USING YOUR-FREEDOM 2. USING FREEGATE 3. USING ULTRASURF 4. USING HOTSPOT SHIELD - SESAWE 5. HOTSPOT SHIELD F.A.Q.

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1. USING YOUR-FREEDOM Your-Freedom is a commercial proxy tool that also offers a free (though slower) service.

The software is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS and connects you to a network of about 20 servers across three countries. Your Freedom also offers advanced services like OpenVPN and Socks, which makes it a relatively sophisticated tool to bypass Internet censorship.

To get started, register a free account on the Web site https://www.your-freedom.net/.

Click the "First visit? Click here to register" link below the two login fields.

On the next page, enter the required information. Only a username, password, and e-mail address are needed. Other information is optional.

You’ll see a message that your registration is almost complete and...

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Within a few seconds, you should receive an e-mail at the address you provided. Click the second link (the larger one) to confirm your registration.

When you see the "Thank you" screen, your account has been activated.

Download the Your-Freedom software from https://www.your-freedom.net/index.... or http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=.... If you already have Java installed on your PC, you can just download the 1MB "Windows installer" version.

(To check whether you have Java installed, click on "Start" and then "Run". In the field type "cmd" and click "OK". In the black window, type "java -version" and hit "Enter". If you see something like "java version 1.6" you have Java installed. If you get an error message like "command not found", you don’t have Java and need to download the 11MB "Windows full installer" version.)

Your-Freedom installation: Click the downloaded "yf-install_20080822-01.exe". The name may vary as new versions come out often.

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Click "next" in the first screen.

In the next screen you can choose if the program should be usable only for your Windows login (personal) or for all users of your PC (common). Then click "next".

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Choose the directory for installing Your-Freedom. Most users should accept the default selection. Click "next".

On the next screen of the installer you can alter the name which will be used in the program folder. You can leave the default untouched and click "next".

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Choose whether you want to create an icon on the desktop. Click on "next" again.

Here you can see a summary of the decisions you made. Confirm them by clicking "next" again, or go back if anything needs changing.

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Now the installation takes place. This may take a few minutes, depending on your PC.

Finally the installation is ready. Quit the installation program by clicking "Finish".

Your-Freedom will start automatically. When you later want to start it manually click on the Your-Freedom icon (the door) on your desktop.

When you first start Your-Freedom you need to configure it.

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Right after the first start you will see the configuration wizard. Click "next".

In the "Proxy Server" dialog the program will auto-detect the information of a proxy server you can use. Click "next".

In the "Select Protocols" dialog you should keep the default values and proceed by clicking "next".

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Now the Your-Freedom configuration wizard will make several tests to find available servers and check your type of connection and filtering. This may take some minutes.

When the wizard is ready you see the "Found Freedom Servers" screen where you can choose one server and click "next" again.

Now enter your previously created account information. Click "next".

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When you see the "Congratulations!" screen the configuration wizard is ready. Click on "Save and Exit".

For additional security and better ways to bypass filters you should tweak the options by clicking on "configure" in the main Your-Freedom window and select the options shown in the screenshot below. Afterwards click "Save and Exit".

Now Your-Freedom is connected to a server and provides a local proxy that you can use with your favorite software like Internet Explorer or Firefox. To automatically configure them click on the "Application" tab in the main Your-Freedom window, select which software you want to use and click "OK". Your-Freedom will automatically configure that software so it connects over the encrypted Your-Freedom tunnel to the Internet.

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To make sure you are using Your-Freedom correctly go to the https://www.your-freedom.net/ website and check the "Your Footprint" section on the left. If the country detected is not where you are, you are successfully using the encrypted Your-Freedom tunnel to access the Internet.

Documentation from the website:

Your Freedom User Guide.pdf

Your Freedom User Guide-es.pdf in Spanish

HOW TO BYPASS INTERNET CENSORSHIP - SUPPLEMENT

2. USING FREEGATE Freegate is a proxy tool for Windows users that was initially developed by DIT-INC to bypass Intenet censorship in China and Iran.

You can download the software for free at http://us.dongtaiwang.com/home_en.php or at http://www.download.com/ - just search for "Freegate". The name of the executable file changes frequently and randomly to get around filters, and may look like a short series of letters and numbers(e.g. "fg677pa6.exe").

After you download the stand-alone file, double-click it to get started.

When you launch Freegate, you’ll see its main window (above), and Internet Explorer will open the page http://127.0.0.1:8580/loc/phome.php..., which will confirm that you are using Freegate correctly through an SSL-encrypted tunnel. The URL is the IP address of your own PC and only works when using Freegate.

If all has gone well, you can start browsing normally using the automatically-opened Internet Explorer window to get around Internet censorship.

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Under the "Settings" tab in Freegate, you can choose your interface language - English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Farsi and Spanish. Under "Status", you can track your upload/download traffic through the Freegate network. The "Server" tab allows you to pick from several severs, one of which may be faster than your current connection.

If you want to use another application with Freegate (for example, the Firefox browser or the Pidgin Instant Messaging client), you will have to configure them to use Freegate as a proxy server. The IP is 127.0.0.1, and the port is 8580.

HOW TO BYPASS INTERNET CENSORSHIP - SUPPLEMENT

3. USING ULTRASURF UltraSurf, from developer UltraReach Internet Corp, is a proxy tool designed to help Chinese Internet users to get around their censorship, but may work for users in other countries, as well.

You can download the free software (for Windows only), at http://www.ultrareach.com/, http://www.ultrareach.net/ or http://www.wujie.net/ (The latter page is in Chinese, but the download is still easy to find and in English). Once you finish downloading the file "u.zip" file, extract it by right-clicking the icon on your desktop and selecting "Extract here...". Finally, double-click the new "u" icon to start the application.

UltraSurf will automatically open Internet Explorer and display the UltraSurf search page http://ultra1/ultrasurf.htm. This is a special URL (without any Top-Level Domain name such as .com or .net) that only works on the UltraSurf network. If it works, you can be sure you are using UltraSurf correctly through an SSL-encrypted tunnel. You can now start browsing, using the instance of IE that UltraSurf launched.

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If you want to use another application with UltraSurf (for example the Firefox browser or the Pidgin Instant Messaging client), you have to configure them to use the UltraSurf client as a proxy server: The IP is 127.0.0.1 (your PC, also known as "localhost") and the port is 9666.

You can open the UltraSurf User Guide by clicking "Help" in the UltraSurf main window.

Info on Chinese UltraSurf (wujie):

http://www.internetfreedom.org/UltraSurf

Chinese user guide:

http://www.wujie.net/userguide.htm

HOW TO BYPASS INTERNET CENSORSHIP - SUPPLEMENT

4. USING HOTSPOT SHIELD - SESAWE Hotspot Shield Sesawe is a free (but commercial) VPN solution available only for Microsoft Windows, which can be used to access the Internet through a secure tunnel (over your normal, censored Internet connection) and so provides a very easy and secure tool to bypass Internet censorship.

To use it, first, download the software from the Sesawe website: Select the "Hotspot Shield Sesawe" link from the "Tools" section on the right, then click on download and save the file on your Desktop, for example. The filesize is about 3MB, so on a slow dialup connection the download can take 10-15 minutes. If the download is blocked, write a email to english AT sesawe DOT net and we will provide you an alternative download link or send you the file directly as an email attachment.

After a successful download, locate the downloaded file on your Desktop and

start the installation with a double click:

You will see a welcome screen, where you have to click on "next":

On the next screen you have to accept the License Agreement with a click on "I Agree":

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Now you see a window informing you about additional software which can be installed optionally. Click on "Next >" again.

On the next screen you can uncheck the option to install the optional Hotspot Shield Community Toolbar. The Toolbar is not needed to use the Hotspot Shield VPN.

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You can now choose the location on your hard drive where Hotspot Shield should be installed to. In most cases you can leave the default values unchanged and proceed with a click on "Install".

You may get several warnings from Windows telling you that the software didn’t pass the Windows Logo Testing and it would be better to stop the installation. This is a common error message for every driver installation where the creator of the software didn’t want to spend a lot of time and money for the official certification from Microsoft. You can safely proceed by clicking on "Continue Anyway".

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Afterwards you see a "Installation Complete" screen where you have to click on "Next >" again.

On the last screen of the installation routine you can select or deselect the option to launch Hotspot Shield directly after a click on "Finish".

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You can now delete the setup file (like "HSS-1.12-install-sesawe-216-conduit.exe") on your Desktop. To start the Hotspot Shield software manually click on the "Hotspot Shield Launch" icon on your Desktop:

After launching Hotspot Shield a browser window with a status page is opened where you can see the different stages of the connection, like "Authentication" or "Checking for updates". When you see a green "Connected" everything is fine and you will be redirected to a blank page so you can start surfing on websites or using every other software (Instant Messenger, eMail, Games and so on) without any further configuration to access the Internet uncensored.

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To reach the status page again, make a right click on the shield icon in your tasklist and select "Properties".

As long as you see a green shield in the taskbar, you are connected to the VPN and surfing over the secure tunnel. To quit make a right click on the icon and choose "Exit". Now you can continue surfing on your normal (filtered) Internet connection.

Problems If you have more questions or connection problems please refer to the Hotspot Shield FAQ on sesawe.net or use the support form to ask our support team.

To make it easier to help, you can include following information in your message: The status message you see when you make a right click on the icon in the tasbar and select "Properties" The log file of Hotspot Shield, which you can reach by making a right click on the Hotspot Shield icon in the taskbar, select "Properties", on the status page select "Report a connection problem" and than "Show log file".

HOW TO BYPASS INTERNET CENSORSHIP - SUPPLEMENT

5. HOTSPOT SHIELD F.A.Q.

What is Hotspot Shield?

HS is a (free) commercial product created to enable internet users to access the internet through an intermediate server (managed by HS’s owner), thus enabling them to evade content-filtering mechanisms (thus avoiding censorship), to gain security for information online between the user’s computer and the HS servers, and to assure anonymity of access to internet resources.

Who owns Hotspot Shield?

Hotspot Shield was developed and is owned by AnchorFree.

AnchorFree was founded in early 2005 by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, who wanted to put users in control of their own data online, and to significantly impact user privacy on the Internet.

AnchorFree’s servers are spread around the world to best service its users from 175 countries.

Why is Hotspot Shield free?

AnchorFree’s business model is based on selling advertisements. Thus, HS users see relatively unobtrusive ads upon launch and each time they change domain names. In essence, AnchorFree’s advertisers are paying the cost of creating and maintaining a proxy server network to serve users (you) who need HS’s services.

What makes Hotspot Shield special?

HS is like the free (usually also ad-based) browser proxy services you can find via any web search, but with some important pluses:

HS uses a sophisticated discovery system to unfailingly find and open a path to the content you want to access; because HS is a VPN (virtual private network), it proxies to the HS server all your internet usage (not just browsing, like browser proxies or UltraSurf);

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HS encrypts all your communications, so your government’s surveillance software can’t even see what sites you’re accessing, let alone see your traffic; and because HS is revenue-generating for its owner, it is supported by massive bandwidth, which makes it relatively fast (1mbps per user).

How can I get access to Hotspot Shield?

Download the 3-megabyte installer; or, send an e-mail and the installer will be e-mailed back to you as an attachment. Then run the installer and let it install and launch itself automatically. (Feel free to share the installer with friends.)

How do I use Hotspot Shield?

Start -> All Programs -> Hotspot Shield -> Hotspot Shield Launch. When HS icon (a little shield with a moon sliver on it) in your system tray is yellow, HS is trying to connect; when it’s green, you’re connected and ready to go—you can use your computer as you normally would, and all your internet traffic will be routed through AnchorFree’s VPN servers in uncensored countries. To stop but not unload HS, right-click on the and select Disconnect (the system tray icon turns red); to restart it, select Connect.

Is Hotspot Shield Mac- and/or Linux-compatible?

There is a Mac version of the client available for download or by e-mail. There is no Linux-compatible version of HS—sorry.

With what browsers is Hotspot Shield compatible?

HS has been tested with Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera. It should be compatible with all browsers.

Does Hotspot Shield pass all content?

Yes, HS tunnels all content—all browser content (including streaming media, Flash, uploads, scripts, everything) as well as all other internet traffic (e-mail, instant messaging, voice-over-IP, ftp—everything).

What should I use Hotspot Shield for?

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HS is provided to enable censored netizens to access otherwise-blocked internet resources. It can be used simply for accessing filtered content; it can also be used to enhance privacy - for instance, when posting content (e.g. to your blog) - because all HS access is encrypted

Are there any disadvantages to using Hotspot Shield?

Yes: use of any proxy server, including HS, slows down internet use (so you may not want to use a proxy server for accessing unblocked content); how much slower proxy server use is compared to non-proxied internet use depends on your preexisting internet access speed - the slower your direct access is, the less a proxy server affects your speed; to operate, the HS client needs to be installed (not just run, e.g. off a USB thumbdrive), so you probably can’t download / install / use it on most cybercafés’ workstations. HS’s ads can be slightly distracting; if you want to avoid ads, you can get the same service from other companies such as IAPS, Witopia, HotSpotVPN, or VPNTunnel by paying a monthly fee of about USD10 (assuming you have a credit card or PayPal account). Has Hotspot Shield ever been blocked? No. The number of paths HS can use to penetrate filtration mechanisms is too many for any censor to enumerate and block.

Does AnchorFree keep track of me?

The process required to get and use Hotspot Shield doesn’t require you to give anyone any personal information (i.e. no registration or signup). When you use Hotspot Shield, AnchorFree keeps track of what country you’re in and which ads you’ve seen, in order to not bore you with the same ad repeatedly. As with all proxy solutions, your internet packets are passing through the provider’s servers, so you have to trust that AnchorFree is not snooping on your traffic. AnchorFree is in fact not looking at your traffic—the only guarantee you have of this is that AnchorFree is currently the single largest provider of individual VPN services in the world, so the over three million uses served last month are satisfied. AnchorFree’s logs count what content HS users have seen (to enable HS to market its service to advertisers), but that information is not retained in a manner which can be tracked to individual users, so AnchorFree cannot ever tell anyone what you have seen (because it doesn’t have that information), even if a court were to order it to be disclosed (which has never happened).

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Can my ISP or international internet gateway see that I’m circumventing? Probably not. Hotspot Shield traffic carries no “signature” which would enable filters to identify it as anything other than normal encrypted traffic like what’s is generated by any e-commerce site. If the authorities have identified HS’s VPN servers, then they could notice who’s trying to connect to those servers, but prior experience shows that when censors do identify proxy servers, they block them (rather than track their use). Since literally millions of people circumvent censorship, governments seem to realize that tracking down individual users is realistically impossible.

Is using Hotspot Shield dangerous or illegal?

As far as is known to Sesawe, circumvention per se is not illegal anywhere in the world, and no netizen has ever been punished for using circumvention technology (proxies)—whether HS or any other. After all, use of circumvention tools can be legitimately justified as a step internet users take to preserve privacy (e.g. against hackers). However: most countries define as illegal the possession or consumption of certain kinds of content (e.g. that which is inconsistent with government-approved religious or cultural norms);

governments which try to prevent their citizens from exercising freedom of access to information and freedom of expression have been known to punish people who they can identify as having posted online content critical of the authorities, so if you do post critical content, use an encrypted proxy like HS, and you may want to avoid putting online information which can be used to trace your posting to you; if your contract with your ISP explicitly prohibits circumvention, your contract with your internet provider could be terminated if you’re caught using HS. As far as is known, this has never happened; and authoritarian governments are not known for their adherence to the rule of law, so if they want to get you, they can always use some vague clause like “threatening national security.”

What if Hotspot Shield doesn’t work, or I have some other problem or question?

Pose your question through the support form in the Support section and Sesawe will respond.

HOW TO BYPASS INTERNET CENSORSHIP - SUPPLEMENT

APPENDICES AUTHORS

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AUTHORS

Using Your-Freedom © Freerk Ohling 2008, 2009 Modifications: Zorrino Zorrino 2008, 2009

Using Freegate © Freerk Ohling 2008, 2009 Modifications: Zorrino Zorrino 2008, 2009

Using UltraSurf © Freerk Ohling 2008, 2009 Modifications: Zorrino Zorrino 2008, 2009

Using Hotspot Shield - Sesawe © Freerk Ohling 2008, 2009 Modifications: Zorrino Zorrino 2008, 2009

Hotspot Shield F.A.Q. © IpsoFacto 2009

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