How to help Russians Bypass Government Censorship & Access Facebook and Twitter
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Bypassing Russia's censorship firewall depends all on how they have it setup and working. Since I don't know, I'm going to offer a variety of suggestions.
Please also note, I'm going to be focusing on configuration instructions for Windows PCs. So, if you are on a Mac or Linux machine, you can still uses these services, but you'll have to figure out how to install it yourself.
The first method the Russian government might to use is to block the site at the DNS (Domain name System). The is essentially the internet's phone book, and it translates the text domain names into IP addresses that can be accessed.
Here are some DNS servers that might be useful;
Cloudflare - 1.1.1.1 & 1.0.0.1
Google - 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4
Quad9DNS - 9.9.9.9 & 149.112.112.112
OpenDNSHelp - 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220
Comodo - 8.26.56.26 & 8.20.247.20
NextDNS - You can sign up for a free account at https://nextdns.io/ and they over DNS-over-HTTPS, DNS-over-TLS, and IPv4/IPv6 options for you to pick from. Their configuration selection has a lot of very cool and handy options. Since they are geocentric, they will give you a DNS server that is close to your location in whatever part of the world. Supposedly unregistered users can use dns.nextdns.io as their DNS server, but I don't know where you would put that.
UncensoredDNS - 91.239.100.100 & 89.233.43.71 as suggested to me by @dreves on Twitter
Verisign Public DNS - 64.6.64.6 & 64.6.65.6
OpenNIC - OpenNIC runs a variety of geolocated servers. So visit https://servers.opennic.org/ and click the country code at the top that's at or closest to your location. It may only give you one DNS IP to use.
Alternate DNS - 76.76.19.19 & 76.223.122.150 - has a built in adblocker
Cyberghost - 38.132.106.139 & 194.187.251.67 - Cyberghost is a paid VPN service but offers access to their DNS servers to all
FreeDNS - 45.33.97.5 & 37.235.1.177 - "FreeDNS offers servers in the US, Austria, Germany, and Singapore."
SafeServe - 198.54.117.10 & 198.54.117.11
SafeDNS - 195.46.39.39 & 195.46.39.40 - blocks malware
You might have noticed I didn't include AdGuard DNS. Well frankly, AdGuard DNS is too strict to use and can very open break your browsing experience and you have no other choice than to turn it off. I also didn't include Yandex DNS, as it is a Russian provider.
How do I change my DNS server IP address (two methods)?
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To change your DNS server, head to Settings > Wi-Fi, long-press the network you're connected to, and tap “Modify Network”. To change DNS settings, tap the “IP settings” box and change it to “Static” instead of the default DHCP. Depending on your device, you may need to check an “Advanced” box to see this setting.
You can also open Control Panel. Since Microsoft has made it increasingly harder to find and access the Control Panel, simply click Start, go to Run and type "control panel" (without the quotes), next go under Network and Sharing Center. Click on "Change adapter settings" at the top right. Find your network in the list, right click on it and go to "Properties". In the list, find "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)" Select it and choose properties. At the bottom, choose the selection that says "Use the following DNS server addresses" and enter the DNS server IP you want and click okay, and bam, you're on their DNS server. You can also change your IPv6 DNS (which I recommend you do along with IPv4), by going to "Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)", then just follow the same instructions as above. I neglected to look up any of the IPv6 servers by the DNS servers because I originally posted it on Twitter and had limited room to type. However, you can Google/Startpage/DuckDuckGo the name of the services I listed above and see if they have a listing for the IPv6 addresses, copy and paste them into the same place you did in the IPv4 setting - making sure to always put the first line of the DNS server first and the backup one second. Click ok, and you can close out of Control Panel and now you have access to both their IPv6 & IPv4 DNS servers. This is beneficial because IPv4 is an older protocol and can often disconnect or not load, whereas IPv6 is a lot more stable, faster, and secure.
They can also install a service called DNSCrypt along that uses end to end encryption (E2E) and connects to random, anonymous servers all over the world, and constantly rotates which server you're using, so it's hard for you to be tracked .
https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy/wiki/Anonymized-DNS
This can be a bit tricky to setup, so here is what I did. They have an installation guide on the right side of the screen, located here: https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy/wiki/Installation
I choose to try YogaDNS as I have never been able to get the standard DNSCrypt client to work properly. You can download YogaDNS from https://yogadns.com/. Install the software and then open it. You can go under the configuration drop down menu and choose "First Start Wizard" and it should walk you through the project.
Otherwise, click on DNS servers, highlight them all then click the button that says "Check". That will check which servers are online (green) or offline (red). Once it's done, you want to select ALL the green servers in the list and Click "Ad". If you're not getting very many or any green servers, click the Server Pool button and see if there is a DNSCrypt that's localized to your area or any other random ones. Then do the same check and add the green servers. I'm not sure how often it swaps DNS server, but it's frequent, they're anonymized and uses E2E. So it will be very difficult if not impossible for Russia to block this service, unless they had there agents go through every single list and place a block on all the green servers. I just noticed you can also go under the Configuration Drop Down menu and select If you want to use the Anonymized DNS option, you will want to select "Import servers from the web, test and select." YogaDNS can be run as a service, so it's running in the background and you never have to deal with it. The YogaDNS folder under C:\Program Files (x86)\YogaDNS will have the main YogaDNS.exe you've been using to set the service up, and a file called "Yoga DNS Service Manager" just double click on that and run it and forget. The only other thing you have to do is remove YogaDNS.exe from starting with Windows,
It's extremely the Russian government will be aware of this project, and to block it they would have to go through and block every green (running server). But, this is such a niche project and not many people know about it I think this is an ideal solution.
The Onion Router (Tor)
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Tor is like a proxy or VPN on steroids. I'll let the Wikipedia introduction as it's hard to explain.
"Tor, short for The Onion Router, is free and open-source software for enabling anonymous communication. It directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer overlay network, consisting of more than six thousand relays, for concealing a user's location and usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis. Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace the Internet activity to the user. Tor's intended use is to protect the personal privacy of its users, as well as their freedom and ability to conduct confidential communication by keeping their Internet activities unmonitored."
Tor, like an onion, passes you through multiple layers of different IP addresses (3 to be specific) at a time and is constantly rotating you around.
There's three ways to use Tor.
* Install the Tor Browser https://www.torproject.org/download/ - it's basically a hardened version of Mozilla Firefox with the Tor network integrated. One of the first things you do when you open Tor, is to click on the shield icon in the upper right hand corner of the browser and it will say "Security Level". Click change. Put it on Safest. This will break a lot of websites, and you may want to switch to safer if your intentions are just to use to it to browse the clearnet. As Tor is also used to connect to the "dark" or "deep" web which you might have heard some rumors about, but it's nothing to fear. If you don't know of any of them and how to access them, just being on Tor won't throw you into some crazy weird websites with the fabled "Red Rooms" or any of that nonsense. You'll just be surfing the web as usual, but it will be a little slower.
* You can also download the Brave Browser. It's a very secure browser based on the Chromium/Blink engine. It has an option to go to "In private mode with TOR" where you can open a private browser window and be connected to Tor. It's not as safe as the Tor Project, but if your goal is just to bypass censorship, there's no issue. https://brave.com/
* Run Tor as a full network that all the traffic on your computer to the outbound internet will pass through. Here are some excellent instructions for installing & setting it up:
Got to torproject's page, download the Windows Expert Bundle.
When you open the .zip file, you will find a Tor folder.
Extract the folder to your system (may c drive).
Open CMD.exe (as Admin), navigate to the folder and than type
c:\Tor\tor.exe –-service install
Then your service is installed. :)
You can access the tor on 127.0.0.1:9050
If you want to setup your Browsers:
Open Internet options > Connections > LAN-SETTINGS
Check the Proxys server.
Click on Advanced add IP and PORT to Socks.
In the Bottom you can choose on what Domain endings the Tor should NOT listen too.
Hit Ok and you're done.
If you want command line tools to use the proxy, you could use url and route your request over your tor service by passing ip and port to curl connection.
Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68710861/how-to-install-and-run-the-tor-service-in-windows-windows-v-10 by Dwza
HOWEVER, keep in mind that this will make you part of the Tor network, and other users will be connecting to you as well to access the internet. Really, you're helping contribute to Tor's growth (as long as you keep it installed).
This can be a bit of a complex task to undertake if you're just trying to bypass government censorship, just get the Tor and/or Brave browsers.
Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
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Because of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, there are a number of VPNs that are giving away free service so you can bypass internet restrictions and keep your browsing private and free of snooping. Some of these are capped at certain bandwidth, but unless you're just sitting around downloading torrents, you should have plenty of VPN bandwidth to hold you over until this terrible crisis has ceased. Some of these, like WindScribe, have unlimited amounts of bandwidth, a good firewall, a very cool browser plugin so you can be connected to one server location in an browser and another location in a different browser. It's only $4/mo if you pay for a full year, so it's my recommended go to VPN. If you sign up through my referral link, I get 6 months free: https://tinyurl.com/WindScribe321 - but no pressure.
So here is a list of VPNs giving extra bandwidth, free service, etc. I don't know if they have it restricted only to Ukrainians, but now that the population of Russia has been censored, hopefully they can get access to these tools as well.
* ProtonVPN - https://protonvpn.com/ - from the people that brought you Protonmail, a free encrypted email provider, comes ProtonVPN. You can use it absolutely for free all the time. However, on the free plan you are restricted to "medium" speed.
ProtonVPN has committed to donating 10% of their revenue from new subscriptions - either for its VPN or ProtonMail accounts - to relief efforts in Ukraine. It also pledges support to affected journalists within the country.
* TunnelBear - TunnelBear is a simple VPN service, but for those in Ukraine, they are giving away 10GB for free. Source: https://twitter.com/theTunnelBear/status/1497277768819695624
* WindScribe VPN (!) - WindScribe is offering those 30GB free for anyone in Ukraine or Russia, they just have to use the code "PEACE" (w/o the quotes) at checkout. https://www.reddit.com/r/Windscribe/comments/t1h8ts/windscribes_stance_on_the_invasion_of_ukraine/
https://windscribe.com/yo/v8mo3r4h
🚨🚨🚨 * F-Secure FREEDOME VPN is offering completely free and unlimited service to anyone in Ukraine. https://www.f-secure.com/us-en/home/products/freedome
https://nitter.net/FSecure/status/1497248407303462960#m
A VPN is like digging a tunnel. You're essentially "tunneling" under the regular internet, which hides your IP address and other private information you don't want to connect too.
https://browsec.com/en/free-vpn
Also visit the EFF's (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Surveillance Self Defense Guides. It has a ton of great information on a wide variety of topics. https://ssd.eff.org/en
https://dns.quad9.net/dns-query
