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Danyll Wills

I am a regular reader of your column and wanted to know more about an article I read on internet browsing in certain countries.
 I read that you can install certain software that will allow browsers to get to websites that would normally be blocked by censors due to their content.
Please let me know how this is done and what is the software that can do this?


Name and address supplied
?

There are two schools of thought about internet access, and they centre on the word 'control'.
Leading the charge for total freedom and no control is the United States. Although many Americans want to be able to control what their children can see, and some companies are concerned with what employees can do during office hours, most Americans do not believe the government should be involved in determining what can be viewed by adults.
At the other end, there are nations in the Middle East and Asia that feel the need to be able to control what their citizens can view on the net. Some of this is motivated by religion, and some by politics. 
In the middle are Germany and Canada, which want some control. For Canadians, the emphasis is on blocking what it views as pornography, coming mainly from its large southern neighbour. Canada's laws are different from those in the US, so the government wants to block sites it considers pornographic. 
Germans have a history of battling neo-Nazi gangs since the end of the second world war. These groups are outlawed in Germany, and this has carried over to the internet, where such websites are also illegal. 
The internet was designed to withstand a nuclear attack, and  one of its  most important aspects  was that there should be no central control. Anything that is controlled at a specific location can be easily 'taken out' by compromising the centre. The net is almost organic in that it will find a way to get somewhere, no matter what barriers are erected. 
The easiest way to circumvent blocking is to use a Web proxy. There are many of them on the net and they make it possible to get to sites that may be blocked and, in some cases, visit sites without leaving any evidence of your activities. 
This does not necessarily mean you are a criminal, by the way. With the risk of websites sending spam, the idea of being anonymous becomes increasingly attractive.
It is not easy testing these in Hong Kong because we are free to access any site we want to, but I did test a few. It would probably be a good idea to try out a number of these sites. Some are a lot better than others. 
The site www.guardster.com allows you to access sites freely through its proxy or you can join and, for a yearly fee of US$20, get all sorts of perks, such as hiding your identity. The Guardster site will allow you to view and read anything on any site but you cannot access video or listen to sound. A bit of experimentation is required here. 
The Cloak, at www.the-cloak.com also offers anonymous surfing and uses encryption to prevent anyone from monitoring your movements.
You can find more information on web proxies at vms.process.com/~help/helpproxy.html.

Questions to Tech Talk will not be answered personally. E-mail Danyll Wills at tech.talk@scmp.com.



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