#rotatingproxy

With time, schools have adopted technological advancements, and the ability to block websites has come with it. The major reason of blocking websites in school is to keep their computers and data safe from cyber threats. Sometimes, websites are blocked to keep students from getting distracted from studying. It is also done to prevent users from opening illegal and unsafe websites.

For these reasons, schools have to use filters and firewalls on the network to block certain websites. Actually, the network administrator blocks specific ports to block online traffic. It may also be done by blacklisting specific websites either by IP address, domain name or both.

The types of websites a school usually blocks include gaming, torrent, obscene, music, social media and entertainment websites. Therefore, you are unlikely to open many popular websites on a school network. This includes Facebook, Wattpad, YouTube, Netflix, SoundCloud, Miniclip and many more.

However, in this technologically advanced era, there are many ways to bypass blocked websites at school. Read further to learn all the details on the most effective ways to unblock restricted sites at schools.

1. Using a Proxy Service

Whenever we talk about unblocking a blocked website, the word "proxy" comes to mind, but what is a proxy? A proxy is just a server that acts as a bridge between the internet and your device. A proxy works when the user sends connection requests to it. Then, the proxy either shows the content you have asked to see or checks its local cache. The cache is checked in order for the proxy to know it can show the desired content without forwarding the request to the internet.

A proxy is quite an efficient tool if you're using it to unblock sites. This is because it also masks your IP address while you're accessing your favorite websites at school. Since your IP address is hidden, you can easily get around firewalls on the network.

That being said, proxies are often pretty overcrowded, so it is natural for them to be slow usually. In addition to that, using proxies to unblock sites is a famous method. So you shouldn't be surprised if your school network has blocked access to proxy websites.

2. Using a VPN Service

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a service that, like a proxy, hides your true IP address. However, it adds another protective layer on your online activities by encrypting your connections. With a service that changes your IP address every time you connect to its server, bypassing a network firewall becomes really easy.

Not only that, a VPN can lend you IP addresses of different regions. This is particularly helpful for users to get around regional restrictions as well.

Also, a good VPN service provides clients that can cross between platforms. Therefore, you can carry the installation files of your VPN in your pen-drive and easily install it on a school computer. You wouldn't have to download your VPN again at school, which could be tough in the presence of filters.

3. Using HTTPS

In schools, network administrators usually block websites on only the port 80 of HTTP. This means that they leave the port 443 of HTTPS unblocked and open. This gives students a chance to use HTTPS to access their favorite websites even if they're blocked.

In order to do that, they just have to type "s" after "http" in the website URL. For instance, if you wish to open Youtube, simply use the "https://youtube.com" URL instead of using the "http://youtube.com" URL. Basically, this makes the connection use the unblocked 443 HTTPS port.

Since you only need to add one letter in the URL, this is the simplest method in this list. However, an important thing to note about this method is that it only works for websites with safe connectivity.

4. Using the IP Address of the Website

Many times, network administrators of schools only use URLs to block websites, ignoring their IP addresses. If this is the case, the IP address of a blocked website can be used to access it. You only have to enter the IP address in the URL bar of your browser.

That being said, you need to know the IP address of the blocked website beforehand. You'd be happy to know that IP addresses of websites aren't difficult to find on the internet. For this, you just have to go to the Command Processor. In the prompt, you have to type "ping" followed by a single space and then type "www.websitename.com." For example, "ping www.google.com." After this, you must press Enter to get the IP address.

5. Using Portable Browsers

The term "Portable Browsers" is quite self explanatory; the term refers to browsers that you can carry around. To unblock websites at school using this method, you need a USB. On your USB, you have to install a portable browser.

With a portable browser, you can open your desired websites without getting a lot of interruption from the school computers and the school network. This particular method works well for blocked file transfers. An example of a portable browser is the Opera Portable.

An added benefit of portable browsers is that they can be combined with proxy to unblock websites. However, there's a catch to it. You have to know the proxy server addresses and relevant port numbers beforehand. For this, you can write them down in a notebook or on your phone. You will need this information to configure it on your portable browser at your school.

6. Set Up Browser Network Proxies

This method is effective if your school uses more than one proxy on its server. If this is the case, you can try and jump between those. This is done so that you can get access to the websites that your school has blocked.

In order to pull this off, you would only need to access the network options of your browser. Using those options, you would have to either disable the proxy or switch between the available proxies. It is possible that your desired website is blocked on one of the proxies only. In that case, this method would give you a chance to open that website on a different available proxy.

The use of proxies for web scraping, buying tickets and shopping online is a common practice nowadays. These proxies are the way out for people who use bots and crawlers to scrape web data, as to avoid getting noticed. Proxies come in handy to hide their identity i.e. IP addresses and locations.

But, as the proxies are getting sharper and efficient, these websites’ intelligence system is also working on the next level. They can detect and block proxies used by web scrapers and bots, efficaciously.

Firstly, have you ever wondered that you take extra protection, buy proxies and use them but why you still get banned? Why so? After all, you switch to the use of proxies to avoid getting banned, right?

This is because, the use of proxies though, can save you from getting traced by these extra-notorious sites. The problem is the way you are using these proxies, this can dump you right into trouble.

So, this article is intended to give you “7 ways to reduce the risk of getting your proxies blocked”. Following these ways will ensure the reduction in blocking and banning of proxies.

Let us start with some mistakes proxy users do that can block and ban proxies. Later, in this article, we will discuss the 7 ways to reduce the risk of getting your proxies blocked.

COMMON MISTAKES WHILE USING PROXY:

1)      Buying free or shared proxies

It is the common mistake proxy users do. There is a potential chance of getting flagged while browsing with free proxies. This is because being a free proxy- the makers don’t invest much into encryption. Unencrypted proxies may lead to easy detection and blocking

2)      Sending a huge number of requests to a website

It is another mistake users do that may lead to the detection and flagging of IP. Because websites think of it as a non-human activity i.e. bot use. Some websites have a highly restrictive and intelligent mechanism so when you use bots even with proxy (as it is a common practice) they can block you easily.

3)      Mismatching of IP of your location with time zone-

This mistake is also common and thus, will lead you to jam on your face.

4)      Using Javascript to fill in captchas

It is another activity that doesn’t sound like a real human to the websites you send requests to. Opt for Using keyboards and mouse while sending captcha is better.

These were some common mistakes that proxy server users do’ let us look into the prevention methods.

7 WAYS TO REDUCE THE RISK OF GETTING YOUR PROXIES BLOCKED:

Here is how you can utilize these 7 ways to reduce the risk of getting your proxy blocked

1)      USE ENCRYPTED PROXIES- IN THE FIRST PLACE:

Don’t use unencrypted proxies even though the connection is secure. The sharp SSL/TLS encryption of the websites can terminate the proxy right at the moment. The use of the SSL/TSL termination proxy can be used to penetrate these sites and do crawl there and extract the data.

2)      USER AGENT SPOOFING CAN HELP:

User-agent is a string of data in HTTP header that conveys your web browser, OS and the versions to the requested web server. It enables the requested server to compute the request you send and provide the appropriate services following it. i.e. (HTML layout etc.)

So, configure the user agent, it is called “user-agent spoofing”, to protect from getting flagged. Don’t go for empty user agents it will jam your face too. Configure user agents. Sending high volumes of requests with the same user agent can be problematic too. So, don’t do that.

3)      ALWAYS AUTOMATE THE BOTS TO CRAWL SLOWLY- CHANGE SPEEDS AND LIMIT THE REQUESTS:

Even though you use proxies with bots, these notorious websites keep a close eye on these suspicious activities and detect the bots. Sometimes bots send requests way too fast. That being the case, it is directly proportional to get flagged. The higher the number of requests per second the higher the chances of getting your proxies blocked. Because a human can't send multiple requests at a time. Hence, they caught you red-handed and block.

To cope with these sites' systems and fool them use the delaying function to control the crawling-speed. Also, limit the rate of requests so that these tips will keep your proxies secure and you can scrape and crawl without getting flagged.

4)      ROTATE IPs FREQUENTLY THROUGH USE OF ROTATING IPs:

Sending requests from a similar IP result in IP banning. But, to deal with this, getting a rotating proxy with a greater pool size having a higher number of IPs is the best solution. Also, set different IPs of bots always. Rotate IPs frequently. Rotating IPs are best for scraping online and give higher success rates. This is the key. After all, who wants to get stuck in the middle of the work? Follow this tip to prevent any bans in the future.

5)      DO NOT VIOLATE ANY WEBSITES TERMS OF SERVICE:

While scraping data or shopping online, don’t violate the website's Terms of Service. For example, if you are shopping online for tickets on Ticketmaster. The highest limit of adding tickets to the cart is set to 8 tickets/IP. Don’t add more than 8 in your cart/IP. You want more tickets to rotate the IP or use multiple proxies. So, respect the website terms of service while botting. It is another tip to get along with this.

6)      AVOID SENDING REQUESTS FROM UNSAFE/UNUSUAL GEO-LOCATIONS:

Using proxies with different IPs and locations is a common practice. Though, one mistake that can lead to getting banned is sending the request from unusual locations.

For example, you send a request to a server in a country from the IP of another country. There may be a risk that the traffic of that country's’ server doesn’t come from the country IP you are sending requests from. This creates a red alert ⚠ and the website will ban you.

So, while doing such activities always access websites from lower-risk locations. Also don’t mismatch the time zone and location of IP. It can cause issues and trouble you too.

7)      UNSYNC PATTERNS OF SENDING REQUEST BY BOTS:

It correlates with slowing down the speed of the bots and limiting them to send requests. If you also automate the bots to send requests in an unsynchronized manner, then the combination of these tips will create chaos for the websites. Then, you will be hard to detect. So that you can do your work and accomplish success easily.

CONCLUSION: