gHacks technology news » freedom http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:24:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Stop the Big Brother State http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/10/stop-the-big-brother-state/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/10/stop-the-big-brother-state/#comments Sat, 10 Mar 2007 07:31:07 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/10/stop-the-big-brother-state/ The Big Brother State is a short educational film created at the German university of Augsburg which tries to provide a different view of certain laws that are supposed to protect our freedom for the sake of our rights and privacy. Do we really need more observation at public places, trusted computing, biometric passports and network traffic monitoring. Who is able to tell that that no misuse will ever happen with the collected data ?

The movie uses animations and a dramatic voice to display possible consequences for everyone. Definitely worth to see.

I think Goethe put it nicely by saying “None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.” All of these mechanisms provide a false sense of security. What good does it do if all network traffic is monitored when terrorists use encryption, one use computers, meet in person, meet in another country, send letters, use codes only they know ?

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/03/10/stop-the-big-brother-state/feed/ 4 Internet Censorship 101 – DNS Server Filtering http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/20/internet-censorship-101-dns-server-filtering/ http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/20/internet-censorship-101-dns-server-filtering/#comments Wed, 20 Dec 2006 13:55:59 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/20/internet-censorship-101-dns-server-filtering/ I decided to start a Internet Censorship 101 series of articles that takes a look at and explains the various methods of censorship on the internet and possible solutions to this situation for the user who tries to access information that are blocked / censored. I’m going to start with a relatively weak form of censorship called DNS Filtering.

Whenever you try to access a website you type its url into the address bar. The url is then send to the DNS server who looks up the IP for that website and sends it back to your browser to be able to make the connection to the website. To censor one would simply return no IP or a different IP that redirects to another website. (something like, no no, this is no website that you should visit, bla bla)

This means that the website that you want to access exists of course but the information on the dns server was changed to prevent access. There are two options that let you access the website. The first would be to simply enter the IP address of the website that you want to visit instead of the url. You can use scripts that are freely available on the internet to lookup the IP of an url.

This method is only working if there is only one url that is using that IP. You are out of luck if many websites are hosted on the same server. The second method which is reliable and working for all occasions helps us in this case.

If you change the DNS server that your computer is using to lookup the IP you will receive the correct result. Let us say that you life in China and that China banned access to Wikipedia. Instead of using a Chinese DNS server you use one from the United States which has the information that you need to access Wikipedia.

OpenDNS, a free service, would be one alternative as would be the following list which I have taken from freerk.com

  • dns2.de.net – 194.246.96.49 (Frankfurt, Germany)
  • ns1.de.eu.orsn.net – 217.146.139.5 (Hildesheim, Germany)
  • resolver.netteam.de – 193.155.207.61 (Alfter-Impekoven, Germany)
  • sunic.sunet.se – 192.36.125.2 (Stockholm, Sweden)
  • master.ns.dns.be – 193.109.126.140 (Leuven, Belgium)
  • ns1.lu.eu.orsn.net – 195.206.104.98 (Belvaux, Luxembourg)
  • merapi.switch.ch – 130.59.211.10 (Zurich, Switzerland)
  • prades.cesca.es – 192.94.163.152 (Barcelona, Spain)
  • michael.vatican.va – 212.77.0.2 (Vatican City, Italy)
  • dns.inria.fr – 193.51.208.13 (Nice, France)
  • ns0.ja.net – 128.86.1.20 (London, UK)
  • nic.aix.gr – 195.130.89.210 (Athens, Greece)
  • ns.ati.tn – 193.95.66.10 (Tunis, Tunisia)
  • ns1.relcom.ru – 193.125.152.3 (Moscow, Russia)
  • trantor.umd.edu – 128.8.10.14 (College Park, MD, USA)
  • ns1.berkeley.edu – 128.32.136.9 (Berkeley, CA, USA)
  • merle.cira.ca – 64.26.149.98 (Ottawa, Canada)
  • ns2.dns.br – 200.19.119.99 (Sao Paulo, Brasil)
  • ns2.gisc.cl – 200.10.237.14 (Santiago, Chile)
  • ns.uvg.edu.gt – 168.234.68.2 (Guatemala, Guatemala)
  • ns1.retina.ar – 200.10.202.3 (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
  • ns.unam.mx – 132.248.253.1 (Mexico City, Mexico)
  • ns.wide.ad.jp – 203.178.136.63 (Osaka, Japan)
  • ns.twnic.net – 192.83.166.11 (Taipei, Taiwan)
  • ns3.dns.net.nz – 203.97.8.250 (Wellington, New Zealand)
  • box2.aunic.net – 203.202.150.20 (Melbourne, Australia)

Changing the DNS Server is a matter of minutes. It depends on the operating system that you are using. In Windows XP you open the control panel and click on network connections. You right-click your connection and select Properties from the context menu.

Select the Internet Protocol (TCP / IP) and click on Properties in that menu. Click on use the following DNS server addresses and enter a preferred and alternate DNS server into the fields. Make sure you enter the IPs. Apply and close the menu and restart your computer. Once that is done you are using the new DNS server which should bypass the censorship.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/20/internet-censorship-101-dns-server-filtering/feed/ 4 How to bypass Internet Censorship http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/19/how-to-bypass-internet-censorship/ http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/19/how-to-bypass-internet-censorship/#comments Tue, 19 Dec 2006 20:08:07 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/19/how-to-bypass-internet-censorship/ If you are looking for a comprehensive, and I mean really really comprehensive, guide on bypassing internet censorship you might want to take a look at the excellent guide written by Freerk. The guide is divided into two parts; The first analyzes different methods to censor information on the internet and the second part describes different ways to bypass censorship.

It describes methods to censor websites like blocking url’s via the DNS server that for instance the German government likes to use which can be easily countered by using the IP or an DNS server that does not block the website. So, for every action (censorship) you find the corresponding reaction (bypass). Excellent read for everyone whose country, company or institution has decided to block certain information.

Kinds of censorship described:

  • Blocked URL’s via the DNS-server
  • Forced proxy server / transparent proxy
  • Keyword filter
  • Blocked ports
  • Software on the client (child protection e.t.c)
  • Censorware on the server (inside of networks)
  • Whitelist
  • IP blocking on the routers

Ways to bypass Censorship:

  • Using a different ISP
  • Using a not censoring DNS-server
  • Using a non censoring proxy server
  • Using a Web-2-phone service
  • Using a webproxy
  • Get Webpages via eMail
  • Using steganography
  • Using a special proxy like peer-2-peer program
  • Special Services

Everything is explained in detail and links are provided where necessary. I have decided to pick out some of the more common methods to censor and bypass information in the coming days – stay tuned.

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