More and more Internet connections are filtered and checked, both public wifi, in the office the networks of some national providers. The scandal disclosed by Edward Snowden on PRISM, the American program that spies on all the messages exchanged on the internet in the USA has shown a sensational fact but of which we are not surprised at all: we are all spied on the moment we turn on the computer.
In this article we see all the ways to get around the filters to avoid censorship and navigate without leaving traces of oneself, in order to mask one's own online identity .
Some of these methods may be limited by harder programs such as the big firewall in China or by limits imposed by network providers.
1) The easiest way to avoid filters and censorship and to visit sites that are blocked in a country is to Change DNS .
Only for some connections it is possible to change the DNS using foreign addresses.
In practice, traffic is forced to pass through servers that are not controlled by the country's authorities.
This method absolutely does not work for masquerading on the internet but it is only a way to browse sites blocked locally at the DNS level.
To learn more, you can read the guide on how to open obscured sites in Italy by changing DNS
In some cases it may be enough to use the innocent and free Google DNS servers to get around the national filters.
2) Tor
As written in another article, with Tor online privacy is guaranteed under certain conditions.
Tor works by encrypting the network and passing connections through random points that are almost impossible to trace.
In the end you can open any site with Tor without ever leaving a trace, masking the IP address and therefore the origin.
The main defect of Tor is a certain general slowness of navigation rather heavy.
The limitation of TOR is that, in order to function completely anonymously, it would be necessary to use a browser without plugins and without external extensions like Tor Browser.
See, in another article, the guide to navigate with TOR.
Note that Tor developers are fighting a tough battle with regimes that try to block it, such as Iran.
Tor is perhaps the only program that can still work even if standard VPNs, proxies, and SSH tunnels are not effective.
3) VPNs are virtual private networks that redirect all traffic from the computer.
In other words, if you are connected to a VPN located in Iceland, all network traffic is redirected to Iceland before going out on the internet, therefore the recipient of the connection that may be this website will see an access from Iceland.
All this happens through an encrypted connection that hides what happens below even if it doesn't hide itself.
Network providers, network operators, the government cannot see where you are surfing even if they know that you are using an encrypted VPN connection.
VPNs are also commonly used for work so they are generally not blocked even if some countries like China control them.
Free VPNs are generally limited but you can find a rather exhaustive list in the article on the best free VPNs
4) The Proxies
The proxy is a computer that stands between your PC and the site you want to visit so this website will think that the connection comes from the proxy and not from us.
The problem is that access to the proxy remains registered and their reliability cannot be guaranteed.
However, if you want to surf on a blocked site on the fly, it is a convenient, fast solution that does not require you to install anything.
Among the many proxies to surf anonymously on the internet is the well-known Hide My Ass.
5) SSH tunnel
SSH tunnels can function similarly to VPNs to pass traffic along a covered road, a tunnel.
Creating an SSH tunnel is not difficult but not very simple for everyone and requires some technical skills.
However, masking the IP may not be enough to cover your internet activities .
For each site that requires registration it is possible to create false but truthful and credible profiles using an online service capable of creating false and random personal data such as FakeNameGenerator to create a fake online identity .
A temporary and anonymous Email address or some service may also be required to send anonymous emails or encrypted and password protected emails.
