The environment we live at present has a lot of restrictions placed on internet users. Restrictions are placed in the organization where one works in and goes up to the government placing restrictions on the content that one would be able to view. A detailed study on the Internet censorship issue and the benefits of a VPN service are provided in this article.

Internet Censorship

People who travel across the globe for leisure or business would not be able to view their favorite TV shows, videos, movies, and websites and perform financial transactions on their personal bank account located in their own location. Now, what prevents the occurrence of these is Geographic restrictions and Internet Censorship. Around 20 to 30 percent of the world’s internet viewing people get affected due to this. The countries which have placed rigid Internet censorship restrictions include China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran. All these 4 countries seem to have multiple censorship restrictions placed on websites, which prevent a user from viewing their desired websites.

The other side of the spectrum would include the countries that have no restrictions on the Internet viewing experience of their citizens and those include Bahrain, Cuba, Vietnam, Belarus, Syria, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Internet censorship is one of the common practices which are being practiced in Educational Institutions for a very long time. Even public Wi-Fi networks block access to certain nude websites and other high risk websites. Most of the users would have questions on how a government or an educational institution would place restrictions on the websites that can be accessed. The next part of this article would provide the answer for that particular query.

Internet Censorship Techniques

Internet Protocol Address Blockage

This is one of the well known and popular Internet Censorship techniques. Every single internet user would have a personalized IP address from which they would be accessing the internet. This particular address would remain the same throughout. Based on the IP address of the individual, the website that the person is trying to access would be blocked. IP address would provide information on the location of the user. If the present location of the internet user is China, he or she would possess an IP address that would state their location to be somewhere in China and all the websites restricted in the country cannot be viewed by the person.

One of the most popular techniques to bypass this type of blockage is by making use of proxies. Proxies are nothing but servers which would enable the user to view the blocked websites. There are a lot of proxies available online and one can choose their services to bypass IP address blockage.

DNS filtering and Redirection

DNS filtering and Redirection is very popular in countries like Norway, Denmark etc. and these countries make use of this particular technique to block IP addresses. Domain Name Server is probably the best technique. DNS such as Google Public DNS would provide the user with the facility to watch the websites which would be blocked for them otherwise.

URL Filtering

URL filtering would not be used by major countries to block websites, but would be utilized by organizations, educational institutions etc. The level of blockage is very less and so the user would be able to bypass the same quite easily and that is the reason why it is used in smaller scale. Easy way to bypass this particular blockage is by using a VPN service.

Static Packet Filtering

Packet filtering is nothing but a firewall which would act as a network to control access on the website. All the data packets incoming and outgoing from a network are monitored and the blockage would be based on that. As with a URL filtering, even a Packet Filtering technique can be bypassed by using a VPN service.

TCP connection resets

TCP connection would be blocked by a filter, and as a result of this, subsequent connections would also be blocked. This method can be used to block certain websites and even specific users. In order to block websites and users, the blocker should try to route the network traffic through the block. Bypassing this particular blockage is quite simple, the user can change the firewall settings of their router and would enable them to view blocked websites.

The above mentioned internet censorship techniques are few of the most well-known and implemented data blockage tools being utilized all over the world to block certain contents from being accessed within a particular region. The best solution for regaining access to blocked websites would be the usage of VPN servers.

VPN Service Providers

A VPN service provider would provide a list of servers from which one would be able to access their websites. The servers possessed by the provider would have IP addresses which would hide the original IP address of the person. Major Websites which have geographic restrictions or country specific internet censorship placed on them would be blocked based on the IP address of the viewer mostly. The website would track their visitors based on their location and if they are bound to be from the territory where the access to the particular website is blocked, the user would not be able to view the content.

Now to bypass this particular act, VPN servers would be located in different countries and the person who wishes to access the content that is specific to the US should opt for a VPN service provider that has numerous servers operating in the US. The user can sign up for their services and can link to the servers. For example, a person trying to access the content of US from China, would have an US IP address which would hide their original IP address and this would make the website think that, the visitor is trying to access the content from the US and by means of this, one would be able to view uninterrupted videos, movies, TV shows etc.

Another prominent benefit of a VPN service is that, the user would be able to access their websites with utmost security and anonymity. All the financial transactions, file transfers and data transfers that happen over the web would be protected by the encrypted tunnel based network system possessed by the VPN servers. This would provide the user with high level of protection from potential threats from hackers, frauds etc. Apart from the protection and anonymity factor, the speed with which the person would be able to access the websites of their choice would be very high. Higher latency, download speed and upload speed would be received by the user. This would ensure unlimited access to videos, TV shows, movies, live sporting and other events etc. Uninterrupted service can be experienced by the user. Unlimited bandwidth capability would also ensure High Definition video watching experience.

Conclusion

VPN is the best solution to bypass Internet Censorship and geographic restrictions and gain unlimited access for all the websites, videos, live TV shows, sporting events and other popular web services. VPN service would act be an attractive option for business professionals and travelers who have no other choice other than going to different countries, but still would want to be in touch with their favorite shows and websites.

Rank	Provider	Starting Price	MoneyBack	Visit Website
	ExpressVPN	$6.67/month	30 Days
2	VyprVPN	$14.95/month	7 Days
3	IPVanish	$10.00/month	7 Days
4	Hidemyass	$6.55/month	30 Days
5	StrongVPN	$21/ 3 Months	7 Days