You may find that when you try to connect to certain websites using an internet connection that you are restricted from visiting the website. This could be a country-specific or website specific restrictions. There are also times when you need to hide your IP address when connecting to some online sources.

One of the most common network restrictions applied is in the workplace. A large number of companies will restrict their employees from surfing the web altogether if it is not a critical part of their job. That means only being able to use email, which is usually a connection to a local email server. In this case, there is usually little chance of bypassing the network restrictions and if caught could land you in trouble, so we would not advise this.  

Bypassing Restricted Websites

There are not many companies out there that restrict access to the World Wide Web simply because most jobs require that we have an internet connection. However, there are usually restrictions on social media sites such as Facebook as well as on some messaging apps. In most companies, all traffic that leaves the network must go through a router and then a firewall.

It is on these routers and firewalls where social media restrictions are placed. You can actually get around this using VPN software. Most of the time the firewalls and routers will not know which VPN services are out there, and as such, it is impossible to stop people connecting the internet via one of these servers.

What happens is that the VPN creates a secure connection to a server outside of the company network. All commands to surf the internet are then sent to the VPN server which will surf the net on behalf of the user and send the results back through the VPN tunnel. This could be Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media site. Although some companies are fighting this by adding local restrictions on some networked computers.

Bypassing Restricted Download Sites

In France, there is a well-known block in the country that prevents people from using certain download sites that infringe copyright laws. This is known as Hadopi. However, it is not as effective as one might think.

All someone in France needs to do is type in contourner hadopi, which means bypass Hadopi, and the results that show up in the search engine are several ways in which people can download software that will allow them to access these download sites using an encrypted VPN connection to another computer that is not in France.

Exactly the same principles apply as mentioned in the section above. The person that wants to initiate the download will use the VPN to mask their real IP address inside an encrypted virtual tunnel. The VPN server will then send the download packets through the VPN and directly to the download area on the person’s storage without any of this activity being leaked outside of the tunnel.

In France, the rise of VPN Hadopi has been rapid since the French government decided to clamp down on illegal streaming and download websites.

Bypass Country Restrictions

Country restrictions are known as geolocation restrictions. These are often applied to financial accounts, websites that do not want people accessing their content from outside the country the server is hosted, and there can be country specific bans on certain websites.

In China Facebook and Google are filtered as restricted websites, and so people use VPN software to access servers outside of China in order to get into Google or Facebook.

As for accessing websites that will only allow you to view their content if you inside the country the website’s target audience is in, all that is needed is VPN software. As long as the VPN provider has a server in the same country as the website the user wants to access, then the user can connect to this server and view the content on the geo-restricted website.

Paul Petersen