Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights

While you could go hunting for a different version of the song that is not blocked on YouTube or a proxy server to bypass the restriction you may prefer an automated solution instead.

The Firefox extension ProxTube – Unblock YouTube does that. It currently works perfectly fine in Germany and the Netherlands and may be working in other countries as well according to some user comments.

When you open a video on YouTube that is blocked in your country you will see a loading indicator and the message that “ProxTube is unblocking this video now”.

The Firefox add-on reloads the video automatically so that it can be watched on YouTube just like any other video. The speed is really good which can sometimes be an issue with proxies.

It should also be mentioned that you stay on YouTube and can watch the blocked video on the site. This is unlike other solutions that redirect you to a third party site.

The extension adds an icon to Firefox’s Navigational Toolbar to enable or disable the functionality.

ProxTube is a handy add-on for YouTube addicts living in Germany or the Netherlands who want to watch blocked YouTube videos. The developer has promised better support for other countries in the near future.

Firefox users can download the latest version of the add-on from the official Mozilla Firefox add-on repository.

Sometimes you only need to access the contents of a site, but do not need to interact with it in other forms. This can be the case if you are researching a problem on the Internet, and the site that appears to have the solution posted is blocked on your computer.

You could now try the cached version if the search engine offers that to you, or hunt down for a working proxy to access the website.

Or, you could try the Text Mirror service which basically returns all textual contents of a web page to you.

All you need to do for that is to enter the website address into the page mirror form, check the I Accept TOS box and click Create.

It does not take long before a stripped down version of the page is presented to you on the Text Mirror website. Most formatting and style options are removed, which means that you cannot click on links (you actually do not see them at all) and that you do not see images or other media either.

You can change the font size and color scheme at the top which are remembered in future page look-ups. The biggest weakness of the service is that it does not display links at all, which can be problematic if the article that you have retrieved is divided onto multiple pages, or if you’d like to access a source cited in the article.

Text Mirror is a nice service to retrieve contents from single-article pages only. It is more likely that you can use the service under the radar for a longer time, as you do not retrieve that many files from the original site as you would with a proxy or direct access. That said, it is still likely that the service will get blocked in IT departments eventually. (via)

ChrisPC Free Anonymous Proxy is, as the name hints at, a free online proxy. It is based on the popular TOR, The Onion Router, project.

Why not use just TOR instead? Because this version is less complicated to use. All you need to do is to install the program first and run it afterwards. Please note that the installation includes an option to install an unrelated software program on your computer. Most users might not want to do this, considering that this additional application is not needed to operate the anonymous proxy.

The few configuration options are all displayed in the main application interface upon startup. Here it is possible to select a specific country that you want the proxy to be from. This can be used to access country specific websites or services.

A click on Connect to Proxy establishes the connection. The proxy can be used under Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google Chrome. Please note that you need to restart browsers that have been open before the proxy connection was established.

The biggest advanced of Free Anonymous Proxy is the ease of use. Just select a country, click connect and et voila, you are now using an anonymous proxy from that country. This method is superior to web proxies, as it works in all browser tabs right of the box. You can work in the browser as you normally would without worrying about proxy configuration at all.

ChrisPC Free Anonymous Proxy is a handy program for Windows users who need a reliable anonymous proxy. The TOR network has not been designed for entertainment and multimedia though, which is suggested by the developer of the application. That’s clearly a minus, as is the lack of information that TOR is used by the program.

The proxy itself is compatible with all versions of Windows from Windows 2000 to Windows 7. Interested users can download the latest version from the developer website.

I had several requirements: The extension should be dead easy to use, ideally with a click of a button. But web proxy use is not all about ease of use. The proxy should support popular websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Wikipedia. While the latter site should not pose a problem for most web proxies, the former might. Facebook and Twitter make use of https, and not every proxy supports those.

YouTube support on the other hand is something that you find rarely supported by proxies, mainly because of the bandwidth requirements of the streaming videos.

When you search for proxy in the Chrome web store, you end up with 39 items at the time of writing. Not all of those are web proxy extensions on the other hand. If you remove those that are not, you end up with less than a dozen proxy extensions.

Only one has passed all the tests.

HideMyAss Proxifier

This Chrome extension adds a button to the Chrome interface. If you press the button a form pops up. You can then enter a url manually or by pasting it into the form. That website is then opened via the web proxy in a new tab in the browser.

The proxy works with all kinds of websites. You can use it to watch videos on YouTube for instance. Even better, the proxy’s IP is located in the United States, which gives you access to contents that might be blocked in your country.

Not all contents are displayed on websites. While it is for instance possible to watch videos on YouTube, you do not see video thumbnails on the YouTube pages.

The concentration on one proxy has another possible disadvantage. If the proxy is blocked on your school, university, company or a public network, then you cannot benefit from the extension and proxy at all.

The HideMyAss Proxifier is available at the Chrome web story.

Verdict

If you are looking at the state of proxy extensions for Chrome, you will notice that there are few. Even worse, of those few only one works on all sites that I have tested the proxies on.

You still have alternatives, for instance by loading web proxy websites directly in your web browser, for instance from your bookmarks. That’s usually only one additional click compared to an extension.

Are you using proxies in the Chrome web browser? If so, which are you using?

1-Click Web Proxy is an extension for the Google Chrome web browser that can load any web page through a proxy in one click.

The extension places an icon in the Chrome address bar that, when clicked, loads the page again in a supported web proxy.

Does it work on all sites? Not really but it should work on the majority of sites, especially on all sites that do not use streaming or advanced technologies. The proxy server used supports https connections which means it works with sites like Twitter or Facebook as well. It is obviously up to the user to make use of the proxy this way, considering the risk involved. Normal web surfing on the other hand is fine and should not pose a security risk.

It would be handy if the website could be loaded through the proxy right away. That’s unfortunately not the case. Still, it can be used to load a website that is not loading properly for instance using the web proxy.

The web proxy used it passing.tk. My advise: Use the proxy for normal web surfing but not for accounts other sensitive tasks.

1-Click Web Proxy is available for direct installation at the official Google Chrome Extensions gallery

Update: 1-Click Web Proxy has been discontinued, it is no longer available at the Chrome Web Store. A viable alternatives are iProxy.

Proxy Checkers on the other hand can automate the process so that the proxies can be verified in a fraction of the site that a manual process would take.

The Free Web Proxy Checker has been specifically designed to test so called web proxies. A web proxy usually consists of a form on a website that a user can use to access another website from. This is different from standard proxy servers that need to be added to a program’s proxy settings before they can be used.

The web proxy checker has lots of settings of which most are not needed for basic verifications.

All that is basically needed is to paste a list of web proxy urls into the application’s interface. The program will test the proxies against the Gmail website to see if it is displayed correctly. This can be changed to any other website if necessary.

A click on the Start button will initiate the web proxy scan. Good proxies will be saved in the goodprox.txt file while bad proxies in the badprox.txt file.

Advanced users can tweak many different settings in the program from simultaneous threads over timeouts and retries to whitelist or blacklist specific countries, changing user agents and running a distribution web server.

Feature Overview of Free Web Proxy Checker

Check SOCKS4/SOCKS5/HTTP/HTTPS proxies with and without authentication.
Format of proxies with authentication: proxy_user:proxy_pass@proxy_host:proxy_port.
Format of proxies without authentication: proxy_host:proxy_port
Check for connect to the specified host:port.
Check for URL.
Load and combine proxies without checking.
Multithreaded.
Handle redirects.
Download proxy lists from the web.
Customizable User Agent.
Customizable HTTP Headers (Accept, Accept-Encoding).
Built-in proxy distribution web server.
Proxy country detection.
RBL (DNSBL) check.

Free Web Proxy Checker can be directly downloaded from the developer’s website

The web proxy checker is a lightweight tool for the Windows operating system that can check various proxy servers. The types that it can check are:

• SOCKS4
• SOCKS5
• HTTP
• HTTPS

The user who wants to check proxies can either load them from a text file or paste urls that point to proxies in the interface directly. The free web proxy checker will then parse the urls or text documents line by line and check the proxy servers against the rules configured by the user.

It is possible to check the proxy server against a url (the default is the Gmail url) or a host name and port with a ping always being performed in the beginning to sort out bad proxies immediately that do not respond positively.

The web proxy checker comes with extensive options from selecting random user agents, connection settings, detecting a proxy server’s country of origin or running a distribution web server to logging options and statistics. Some of the options are for advanced users only but users with little to no knowledge should be able to start their first proxy check in under five minutes with the default configuration.

Web Proxy Checker is available for download at the developer’s website. It is compatible with most versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system including Windows 7.

Privacy advocates have already expressed great concern as proxy servers are not only in use by individuals who want to protect their privacy but also by companies and even Internet Service Providers, sometimes without the knowledge of the end user. VPN (Virtual Private Network) would for example be classified as proxy servers under the new legislation. As is the popular Tor client that has been created specifically to counter censorship in the world. Several web browsers like Opera Mini or Opera 10 are also making use of proxy servers to compress data to decrease the time it takes to load websites.

The United States Sentencing Commission will vote on the new legislation on April 15. It is set to take effect on November 1 if is is passing the voting process. You can read up on the EFFs stance here

This has the advantage to be able to exactly configure websites that should be accessed with proxies enabled. Switching proxy servers on and off is therefor a thing of the past after the initial configuration has been completed. Users can subscribe to a preconfigured list of websites that should be accessed using a web proxy server and add their own websites in the list. It is currently not possible to assign web proxy servers to specific sites but this is mentioned as a feature to come on the developer’s homepage.

It is currently only possible to add websites to the Firefox add-on and select either a preconfigured web proxy server or add a custom proxy that should be used to access those websites.

The preconfiogured web proxy servers have not been working 100% perfectly at the time of testing. The prospect is however excellent. Definitely a Firefox add-on to look out for.

Finch tries to achieve a similar goal. The web service acts pretty much like a web proxy with the difference that bandwidth reduction and not anonymity is the top priority. Finch will not load CSS files, no images and no scripts. Stripping a website of most of its contents reduces its size tremendously. The size of the New York Times homepage is reduced by 94% when using Finch.

This method has some serious disadvantages though. Many websites become unusable. Finch does not support scripts which are required by some to function properly. Cookies are not supported as well which meaning logins won’t function properly as well.

Finch works best on static websites or those that function without scripts and cookies. Running the website through Finch will reduce the bandwidth that is transferred which means a speed gain and reduction of the monthly transfer rate. It’s on the other hand nothing for users who spend most of their time on social sites.

That is probably the same line of thought that the developer of Prime Proxies had when he created his website. The website publishes an up to date list of working web proxy servers which are checked regularly so that the chance of encountering a non working proxy server is slim.

Proxies are divided into three categories that are named after the proxy script that is being used on the proxy websites. The three main scripts are PHP Proxy, CGI Proxy and Glyph. Some proxy scripts work better on specific websites than others and it comes down to finding the web proxy server script that displays the favorite websites properly.

The Prime Proxies database contains a list of more than 2300 working and 5000 dead proxy servers. That should be enough for everyone to find a web proxy server that is working and not banned at the location that you are accessing the Internet.

Worldproxy (via Technospot) makes use of that by offering its visitors a country based proxy map. Currently only three countries are available: United States, Canada and Great Britain. The United States proxy is currently not working, the other two are working fine and it is probably just a glitch that the US proxy is not working right now.

Proxy selection by country is unfortunately the only new aspect of that proxy website. It does come with a toolbar that can be used to quickly switch between different country proxies but I normally do not install toolbars because they tend to take away screen space.

Users can suggest new countries which means that it is likely that other countries will be added to the map in future updates. The proxy obviously can be used for different things as well. It is for instance possible to check ads that are running on your website when a visitor of a certain country visits it.

How does a web proxy work ?

A network bans a website either by its IP, its name or part of its name. A web proxy makes only shows its own address to the network and not the actual destination of the user. The admin of the network will think everything is fine and you are free to reach the site that is banned. The only thing that might happen is that the admin is banning the web proxy as well, but this is not a big deal either. Hundreds of web proxies exist, just switch to a new one and you are ready to visit the banned site again.

Setup your own Web Proxy Server:

Let us assume that all proxy websites have been banned in your network, you can´t find a single web proxy that is still working. Your best choice is to create your own web proxy at an address that only you know. All you need is the php web proxy proxy and some webspace with php to upload it to. Search Google for free webspace php and you should find some hosts that allow you to use php and upload your web proxy to them.

You can alternatively use a cgi web proxy which needs a webspace with cgi enabled.
Web Proxy List:

Please not that the list does not display if the webproxy is able to handle scripts, I did not find a reliable way to make a test for all languages out there, therefor this has not been added to the list. I also removed websites that loaded slowly, displayed errors or forced you to click on an ad before you could use the service.

It is most likely that the name “proxy” might have been banned as well, try using web proxies that do not have proxy i their url, this might help.

Free Web Proxy List

• 75i
• Anonymouse
• Back Fox
• Browse at School
• Bypass browser
• Cecid
• Cgi Proxy
• Conceal Me
• Dark Proxy
• Dave Proxy
• Dejacey
• Direct Proxy
• Dtunnel
• Dzzt
• Famous 5
• Fly Proxy
• Free Proxy
• Free Proxy Server
• Fsurf
• Ghost Click
• Hide and go surf
• Hide your Info
• Hujiko
• Iam new guy
• Idoxy
• Let me By
• Lin Fox
• Mr. Proxy
• Neo Proxy
• Net Sack
• Peoples Proxy
• Pr0xy
• Proxy 77
• Proxy Anon
• Proxy Hero
• Proxy Lord
• Proxy Mod
• Proxy Prince
• Proxy Snow
• Proxy Surf
• Proxytastic
• Prxxy
• Pure Privacy
• Radio Farda
• Safe for Work
• Safe Hazard
• Safe Surfer
• School Bypasser
• SD9
• Secret Browse
• Smart Proxy
• Student Proxy
• Stupid Censorship
• Surf Anon
• Surf Nameless
• The web tunnel
• TNT Proxy
• Traceless
• Unblock This
• Unbloxy
• Unipeak
• Url Encoded
• Virtual Browser
• VPN Tunnel
• Wkccp
• World Wide Proxy
• Wootage
• Work Browse
• World Want
• XXX Proxy
• Your Proxy

If none of the above work in your special case try my last resort, blockstop. It utilities the coral cdn network and uses a different method to access sites.

Sites that update their web proxy lists daily:

http://proxy.org/
http://www.centurian.org/
http://www.azproxies.com/
http://www.publicproxyservers.com/

If you think a proxy server is missing in the list let us know in the comments.

There is no way I can tell if this actually works in your case or if your clever admin managed to add the following two urls to the list of blocked websites. Both seem to be services for mobile phones and PDAs which means that the screen output does not look pretty but is fully functional. Most graphics are missing as well. The first one can be reached at http://www.google.com/xhtml , the second at http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://

You have to append the url for the second service after the http:// for example ..n?u=http://www.ghacks.net/

Both services append the url and the search results to the url which means that google.com is again working as a proxy. Let me know if this works out for your.

Another method would still be to setup your own proxy server, which means more work but a good chance that you are able to surf your beloved sites again. You could also try and setup a normal http proxy in your browsers settings if those are not disabled from your systems administrator.

An extensive list of web proxies can be found by following the link to my latest post about web proxies.

The proxy sites are all not working anymore. This is often the case with proxy sites as most tend to come and go rather quickly. There are only a few popular services that manage to stay on top of the game over the years.

Some of those proxy sites include the following services:

Proxify – A free web proxy based on CGI Proxy. It supports SSL sites, can remove cookies, scripts and ads.

Hide My Ass – Another popular and long standing proxy service. It can be used for anonymous surfing and other activities. It displays ads on the proxified pages.

Those two proxy sites are just two examples. You can also head over to proxy list sites that offer up to date proxy site listings. Here are again two examples of general proxy sites that link to hundreds of existing web proxies.

The first site is proxy.org, a long standing web proxy directory. It lists at the time of writing more than two thousand web proxies conveniently stored in a web form on the main page.

The other site that you can use for regularly updated proxy lists is proxysites.net which also offers a nice listing of free proxy sites.

Using a web based proxy is the easiest and fastest way to surf temporarily anonymously. Still, its not really comfortable and many web proxies don´t support all types of scripts. Nevertheless a good choice if you want a quick result. You can take a look at my web proxy list for January 2006 or this newer web proxy list if you are looking for anonymous ones.

The second option involves scanning for http proxies and adding them to your browsers network settings. This means more work and knowledge on the clients site but most of the time better and more permanent results. You still should check if the proxy is still anonymous from time to time.

Last but not least there is Tor, a free software product by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation). Using Tor means that your connection is routed to several secure encrypted Tor servers, making it almost impossible for the target site to find out about you.

Maybe it´s a good start to explain why someone would need a web proxy ( or a proxy ). Some countries, for example china, Iran and Germany, ban certain websites and you can´t view them using your normal internet connection. A proxy on the other hand could be able to display the website correctly and you receive all the information you want to access.

Another possible scenario is that your school or company blocks sites like eBay or your mail account and you desperately need to access it. A web proxy could help in this case too.

A third and final example would be that you don´t want to show your real ip to a website that you are visiting. You work for company A and use the companies internet connection to browse the website of company B, it´s sometimes better to not reveal where you come from.

You can also watch and download videos from Google Video if you are using a web proxy from a country that is allowed to view and download them.

Lets start with the list. I decided to display the following information:

Name: pretty obvious, isn´t it ?
Anonymous: If the proxy spills your ip or not.
Popups: Normal Advertisement is not that annoying, but popup ads are.

Please not that the list does not display if the web proxy is able to handle scripts, I did not find a reliable way to make a test for all languages out there, therefor this has not been added to the list. I also removed websites that loaded slowly, displayed errors or forced you to click on an ad before you could use the service.

Web Proxy List January 2006

The proxylist is divided into the following categories: Secure means its possible to use a SSL with this web proxy, normal means no SSL but does not spill your ip of course. The others are pretty self explanatory, if you have questions feel free to ask and I will answer them asap.

I will compile a new list each month, check back regularly if you are looking for additional webproxies. Feel free to add proxies that you know of in the comments, they will be included with the next update

Secure (Https):

Http Web Proxy List:

ipzap.com
pbkill.com
poxy.us.to
proxy.computersteroids.com
shadowclick.com
sneakysurf.com
www.clickcop.com
www.hidemyass.com
www.proxyweb.net
www.secure-tunnel.com
www.the-cloak.com
www.thestrongestlinks.com
urlencoded.com
www.vtunnel.com

No Input box by default:

heshan18.com
www.dongtaiwang.com

With ads:

cgi-proxy.net
freeproxy.us
proxy.pureprivacy.com
proxify.co.uk
proxify.com
proxify.net
proxify.org
proxify.us
proxy.anonypost.com
proxy.cecid.com
proxy.mywebtunnel.com
worldwideproxy.com
www.boredatschool.net
www.browseatwork.com
www.easyproxy.org
www.freeproxyserver.net
www.goproxing.com
www.handsoffmycomputer.com
www.myfreeproxy.be
www.nomorelimits.net
www.proxy-surf.com
www.proxychoice.com
www.proxifree.com
www.proxymouse.com
www.spysurfing.com
www.usbm.de
www.xanproxy.be
www.yourfreeproxy.com

Update: We have removed all non-working proxy servers from the list. Keep in mind that most web proxies come and go quickly, and that there are only a handful of reliable services that have been there for years.

I suggest you visit the Proxy.org which offers up to date proxy listings. The developers maintain the list and remove non-working proxies whenever they stop working. Feel free to leave a comment with your favorite web proxy server so that we can add it to the list.