I don’t know why whenever I talk about Proxy, there’d be comments on how great Tor is. No doubt that Tor is good but it didn’t work that well for me. Reason is because whenever I visit a new link, it changes the proxy. It’s secured because I keep on hopping from proxy to proxy but it can get really frustrating when I get connected to a slow proxy. This problem makes my web browsing very unstable.

I’ve recently discovered a good and secure way that can possibly bypass any kind of firewalls and filters. It is useful for people who needs to access a website but it’s being blocked by your company or university firewall/web filter. Some countries like China and Iran where government has spent a lot of money on internet censorship. A lot of websites are blocked and inaccessible so that their people get filtered information. I am thankful that Malaysia doesn’t belong to one of those country where everything is blocked. (although some places has traffic shaping to block p2p and torrent)

What is so good about the software that I discovered is it’s fast, there is no need to scan for working proxy servers, and you can easily switch between 4 types of proxy surfing technology software.

It is a wonderful tool that enables users inside countries with heavy Internet censorship to visit any public web sites in the world safely and freely. It can hide your IP address during web surfing, encrypt your web communication, bypass network censorship and protects your privacy.

What you need is a Firefox browser. If you don’t have it, quickly download, install and use it because it’s the best web browser! Then you’ll install an extension or plugin that lets you easily switch to a different proxy surfing software. Let’s say if you want to use Proxy Software A, then you run Proxy Software A and select Firefox to use it. Now you understand the concept, here’s more detailed step by step information.

1. Make sure you have Firefox. If not, download Firefox here.

2. Run Firefox and download GProxy Toolbar add-on. If you don’t get software installation window like the image below, just drag the downloaded gproxy.xpi file to Firefox.
Install Gproxy Tool extension

3. Restart Firefox and you’ll see a new toolbar that looks like the image below. Click at the dropdown menu and you will see FreeGate, GPass, GTunnel and UltraSurf. All this 4 names are the free proxy surfing software. See how easy it is for you to switch between the 4 proxy software?
Firefox with Gproxy Toolbar extension

4. Next is you need to download FreeGate, GPass, GTunnel and UltraSurf. It is NOT a must to download all 4 software as you can only download the ones that you will be using. But I prefer to have them all in case either one doesn’t work.

a) FreeGate
Download FreeGate Proxy
- FreeGate from DynaWeb is only a small single executable file with the file size less than 140KB. There are a few proxy servers for you to use and by default it uses the fastest one. If the lowest ping proxy server is slow, you can easily change it by selecting the other proxy server using your mouse.

[ Download FreeGate ]

b) GPass
Download GPass Proxy
- There are 2 versions of GPass. The lite version is only 86KB while the full version is 1.2MB. The difference between full and lite is GPass Lite does not support streaming media and other advanced applications. You can use GPass on other application as well by simply drag and drop the it to GPass window. There are 3 servers for you to select and by default it selects the lowest ping response time.

[ Download GPass ]

c) GTunnel
Download Gtunnel Proxy
- GTunnel also has 3 proxy servers for you to use. There’s a nice small meter that shows you your download and upload traffic. Single executable file and it’s portable.

[ Download GTunnel ]

d) UltraSurf
Download UltraSurf Proxy
- Single executable and portable file. Only 138KB in size. Also able to select 3 proxy servers and by default the fastest one is preferred. A golden lock will appear at the bottom right hand side of your screen showing that you’re using UltraSurf. You can hide it from the options.

[ Download UltraSurf ]

5. Once you have Firefox with GProxy Toolbar installed and all 4 proxy software downloaded, try launching either one of the proxy software and then at select the software name from the toolbar.

You can now access websites like Orkut, FaceBook, MySpace, YouTube and many others even if it’s being blocked by firewalls or filters installed in your ISP, universities, corporate companies and even at home! By the way, these 4 proxy softwares doesn’t allow you to access porn sites. You’ll get the error message saying “Access control configuration prevents your request from being allowed at this time. Please contact your service provider if you feel this is incorrect.” If you have other proxy surfing software, you can add it to the GProxy Toolbar list. Just click Manage Proxies, Add, and enter the IP address and port that is being used by the software. Enjoy the freedom of web browsing!

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