Websites can be blocked at three levels: Computer level, Network level or theISP/Governmental level. Some DNS services, such as Open DNS, too provide options to block certain types of websites for different users sharing the computer. Then, there are some software other than the built-in “Restricted Websites” in Internet Options that help in blocking a website. We’ll not be talking about how to block a website. Rather, we’ll focus on how to access a website that is restricted on your workstation by network admins and ISPs (Internet Service Provider).
Access Restricted Websites
The article is an expansion to our other article on what to do when a website does not open. Some of the tips may be repeated in this article. So if you find that your are unable to open or access some websites, here are a few things you may want to try out.
Is The Website Down?
You may not be able to access a particular website due to some sort of outage. Go toDownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com or IsItDownRightNow.com and type in the website URL to know if the website is running or down for others too.
Access Website Blocked On a Computer
There are different options to access a website and they depend on the mode used to block the site. For example, Open DNS employs category system and if you wish to go to a category that your parents have chosen to block it for you, it will provide a notification.
HTTP and HTTPS
The first thing to try is to add or remove an “s” to the “http” preceding the website URL. For example, typing in https://www.facebook.com may open it for you because only “http://www.facebook.com” was blocked. Likewise if it was “https” blocked, you can try “http” only to see if you can access the website. The term “https” represents a secure connection while the “http” is the unencrypted version of the website URL.
Internet Options – Restricted Websites & Content Advisor
If toggling between http and https does not help, check the error message you are getting when trying to access. If it says “Due to Restrictions On This Account”, it could be a Family Safety Software. Not much can be done in this case except to try portable browsers that do not need to be installed and offer proxy as well. We’ll get to that in a while.
If there is no account related message, probably the site has been blocked using Internet Options. Go to Internet Options in Control Panel and on the Security tab, click on Restricted Websites in the Internet Security Zone, and then on the button labeled “Sites” (See image below). Check if the URL of the website you wish to access is listed there. If yes, select the URL and click on Remove. You’ll be prompted for confirmation. That done, the website should open without any problems on any of your browsers.
There is yet another method to block certain types of websites from opening – using the same Internet Options dialog box. Click on the Content tab. Based upon your version of Windows, you might see “Content Advisor” or “Family Safety” button. This option is used to restrict certain types of websites from opening for different users. That means, you can use the option to block websites at user level. If you know the password, you can click the button and change settings. If not, you will have to ask permissions from your parents or network admin. Here too, you can use a portable browser to bypass restrictions.
Using A Portable Proxy Browser To Access Restricted Websites
You can download a portable browser that doubles up as a proxy such as KProxy. This product has both portable and installation type versions. The best thing about the website browser is that it offers online browsing without actually typing the website address in the main URL bar. Instead, you type the URL in the text box given in the middle of KProxy website.
Using A Different DNS
When some website is banned in an area, it is the ISP blocking traffic to and from that website.Changing DNS settings from your ISP to something different might help you access the site. For example, you can change your DNS to Google Public DNS. To change DNS, right click network icon in taskbar and select Open Network and Sharing. In the Window that appears, double click on your network. It will bring up a dialog box and there you can change the DNS under IPv4.
Use a Proxy To Access Restricted Websites
You may use proxy websites or programs to access websites blocked in your area. One such proxy is UltraSurf. This was specifically designed to allow population of a certain country to access social networking sites. There are some websites who let you easily access and open blocked websites.OpenBlockedWebsite.com and HideMyAss.com are two such websites you may want to check out. They act as free web anonymizers that aim to unblock blocked websites and offer free anonymous web surfing.
These are some methods that will help you access websites restricted on your home network, corporate LANs, or the ones banned in your country.
If you have any idea or tip to share, please use the comments box below.
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