Free2Surf Proxy Blog

If you know anything about web-based proxy sites, you’ve probably heard of PHProxy and CGIProxy. These are the two main scripts that are the driving force behind thousands of free proxy sites. But there are more free web-based proxy scripts out there. I created a new page on Free2Surf Proxy Blog that gives a rundown of each one of these freely-available scripts. Read all about them here: Free Proxy Scripts: A Rundown

If you happen to encounter a proxy script that I failed to mention here, be sure to let me know!

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I’ve covered several methods of getting around school and work filters, but I haven’t mentioned one of the most obvious (and well known): web-based proxies. There are literally thousands of these sites out there. People grab a freely-available script (such as PHProxy or CGI Proxy) and upload it somewhere, do a little bit of customization (at least in some cases), and there you have it - Another proxy site. The reason there are so many web-based proxies out there is because they are constantly being blocked by network administrators, so there is a constant need for new ones. As long as people keep using these proxy sites (and they keep clicking the ads) they will keep appearing.

If you haven’t used a web-based proxy site before, it’s pretty straightforward: Simply locate the URL entry box on the site (sometimes it’s impossible to miss, other times it may be a bit hard to find amongst all the ads and other crap) and enter the address of the site you wish to visit, and press enter (or hit the ’submit’ or ‘go’ button, whatever it may be labeled as). If your school or workplace has sites like MySpace and Facebook blocked, these sites will allow you to access them, and that seems to be mainly what proxy webmasters market them as - ‘MySpace Unblockers’, or some variation of that. I don’t have an enormous list of free web-based proxy sites, because I don’t use them myself, and therefore I have no need for them. Anyway, here are some proxy sites for you to use.

• GoFish MySpace Proxy
• 911Surf MySpace Unblocker
• LetchaSurf MySpace Unblocker
• Proxaroo Filter ByPass
• SilverSurf Proxy Unblocker
• Ultimate MySpace Unblocker
• Diglet.org - Privacy at Work
• Glush Proxy
• SurfUnblocked.com
• Proggsey.info
• BrowseSneak.com

Some webmasters have decided to make entire networks of proxies, rather than just creating a handful of them. Examples of this are The Centurian Proxy Network, ProxyNetwork.cc, and of course Privax. These can be great for locating a proxy that works well for you, but on the downside, it’s just as easy for a network administrator to block one site as it is for them to block an entire network of sites. Proxy webmasters, feel free to post your proxies in the comments section of this post.

Want to make your own proxy? It has become ridiculously easy - There’s even a site out there that will install the script for you automatically (this one). I’ll be touching on all of the freely available proxy scripts in my next post, so stay tuned. Happy surfing!

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Today is the official deadline for compliance with the FCC’s new interpretation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). So what does that mean?

Cable modem companies, DSL providers, satellite internet companies, and even some universities all have until the end of today to ensure “the ability of law enforcement agencies to conduct electronic surveillance by requiring that telecommunications carriers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment modify and design their equipment, facilities, and services to ensure that they have the necessary surveillance capabilities.”

So in a nutshell, it is now much easier for the FBI to more-or-less ‘wiretap’ your internet connection. Internet service providers, as well as providers of VoIP services, must integrate into their networks and software the abaility for law enforcement to snoop on users of those services. Scary stuff. You can read more here.

My advice to you? Start using TOR, the onion router. And be a little more careful what you do and say online - Remember, things can easily be misinterpreted…

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I don’t know how many of you have had a friend or loved one over in Iraq, but they definitely rely quit heavily on the internet in order to stay in touch with friends and family. I had a friend over there for a year, and MySpace was pretty much the only way I kept in touch with him. I know for a fact that the majority of soldiers stationed over there use MySpace (or a similiar social networking site) in order to stay in touch with people. So for those that are still stationed over there, this article is definitely bad news.

According to a memo that was sent on Friday by the US Forces Korea commander, the Defense Department will soon begin blocking access to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its networks. This is a major step, and will impact soldiers significantly - Possibly more than the Defense Department understands. Fortunately, members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks, but Defense Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sites affected by this ban are YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, the social networking sites MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, and 1.fm, and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket. You can read the full article here.

I wonder how much trouble a member of the military would get into if they were caught using, say, a MySpace Unblocker site to access MySpace? Surely some soldiers are aware of proxy sites and how to use them… I hope that this move doesn’t affect our soldiers serving abroad too much, and that they are still able to stay connected to their family and friends.

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I recently had a chance to speak with Chad, the brains behind SweetProxies, a new proxy directory. What makes this site different from all the other ones out there? I feel that SweetProxies is a breath of fresh air in the “proxy community”, if you will, because it offers a new twist on the traditional directory/topsites model. Let’s see what the man behind the site has to say about it. Read the interview in it’s entirety after the break.

(more…)

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Next time you’re on MySpace, terrible pop music and 200 YouTube videos playing at the same time might not be your biggest concern. According to The Mercury News, three men were stabbed at a party that they had heard about on the popular social networking site.

The party took place at a home in Soquel Hills, California, and originally only about 20 people were expected to show up. But more and more people began to show up, and soon enough there were over 200 people there, most of whom had found out about the party on MySpace.

Just after midnight, three San Lorenzo Valley men were stabbed and taken to Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz.

Clive Boustred, who was throwing the party for his roommates birthday, said that he and his friend, who was turning 25, had posted party announcements on their MySpace pages.

Sheriff’s investigators say the use of cell phones and the Internet can cause parties like Boustred’s friends-only bash to balloon out of control.

Popular social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook can be great, but when the wrong people end up on there, problems like this can arise. How about from now on people stop showing up to random parties?

You can read the full story here.

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With all the controversy surrounding airport security over the past few years, you’d think that stuff like this wouldn’t continue to happen:

The U.S. agency responsible for securing the nation’s airports says it can’t find an external hard drive packed with the personal records of about 100,000 current and former employees. Authorities at the Transportation Security Administration noticed the drive missing late last week. “It is unclear at this stage whether the device is still within headquarters or was stolen,” the agency said. Assuming that the drive was in fact stolen — it went missing from what was called a “controlled area” at TSA headquarters in Washington D.C. — officials have asked the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service to investigate. Records of workers employed by the TSA from January 2002 until August 2005 were on the drive. The data included names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, payroll information, bank account numbers, and routing information for direct deposit of paychecks.

Talk about compromised security… It may be nothing more than a matter of someone ‘misplacing’ the drive, but in this day and age, you can never be too careful. You can read the full story here: TSA Hard Drive Missing

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Tor (The Onion Router) is free software that implements second-generation onion routing. What the heck is that, you ask? I know, a vegetable with wires coming out of it comes to mind.

According to Wikipedia, onion routing is a technique for anonymous communication over a computer network. It is based on David Chaum’s mix networks, though it includes a number of advances and modifications. Among these modifications is the concept of “routing onions”, which encode routing information in a set of encrypted layers.

So in a nutshell, Tor enables its users to communicate anonymously on the Internet. You can find a more detailed description of what it does here.

You shouldn’t have to compromise your security online everytime you want to view a website. Download Tor here, and start dodging traffic analysis today! The most practical application of Tor, in my opinion, is the Torbutton extension for Firefox.

As a side note, I find it interesting (and also a bit ironic) that Tor’s development was originally sponsored by the US Naval Research Laboratory.

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A new version of Surrogafier was released yesterday. Surrogafier version 1.0-rc2 comes with a long list of changes, including overall speed improvements and javascript parsing fixes. For those of you that don’t know, Surrogafier is an easy to install three tier web proxy written in PHP. Get the new version here.

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