How to Access Blocked Websites Securely

As a digital nomad, I do spend a lot of time online and I do manage various social media accounts. It’s important for me not only to have a secured internet connection but as well as access to all of these sites. Unfortunately though, in some countries, some websites that I use are blocked.

One of those websites that I frequently use is Facebook and unfortunately it’s blocked in China and Vietnam. I’m not sure if it’s also blocked in other countries too. Facebook is just one of the websites that are blocked in these countries. I’m sure there’s a long list of other websites blocked as well.

Photo Credits: Door Knob Visual DensityIn some of the hostels I’ve stayed in Hanoi, I never had problems accessing Facebook using their computers but if I try to use my own laptop then I won’t be able to access. They already had installed perhaps their own web proxies or using a VPN service. These are the two common ways of accessing blocked websites.

Web Proxies

In my previous life as a call center employee, social networking websites are blocked and access to those websites is not allowed in the office. A lot of my techie friends use to go around this by using web proxies. Web proxies enable you to connect to the websites regardless if it’s blocked in your network. Unfortunately, those web proxies sites got eventually blocked too and we then scrambled again online using other ‘working’ web proxies.

A VPN enables you to connect to the internet as if you’re using a private network thus removing the limits set by your public connection. Aside from enabling you to browse even the blocked websites, it also minimizes the risks of using a public wifi and protects you from possible hackers, malwares and more.

Next time, you try to access a blocked website. Use a VPN service to make sure that you’re accessing these blocked websites securely. There are numerous free VPN service providers (and there are paid VPN access too) that you can find online. And one of the most downloaded free VPN client online is Hotspot Shield, go check it out.