How to Bypass Internet Censorship
Using psiphon 2
psiphon2 is a special kind of web proxy which works unlike other web proxies (like CGIProxy or PHProxy) with an authentication. To use psiphon2 you need the URL (address) and a account (username and password). This makes the use a little more difficult, but adds a lot of security.
How to get a psiphon2 account
To prevent and monitor the blocking of a psiphon2 node we work with a "web of trust", so you need an invitation from a user who already has a psiphon2 account.
Use an invitation link to register
Once you got an invitation link like "https://85.31.189.76/w.php?p=384BC" access that website with your favorite web browser (for example Firefox or Internet Explorer).
Accept the SSL error message
When you access the website for the first time you will see an error message because of the invalid SSL certificate. SSL certificates are used to guarantee the identity of a server. A SSL certificate signed by a large Certificate authority costs a lot of money, so it would be too expensive to buy such a certificate for every psiphon2 node. Nevertheless the connection is completely encrypted and you can safely confirm the error message.
SSL-Error with Internet Explorer 6
If you use Internet Explorer 6, the error message will look like this:
Please confirm the message with a click on "Yes".
SSL-Error with Internet Explorer 7
If you use Internet Explorer 7, the error message will look like this:
Please confirm it with a click on "Continue to this website (not recommended)."
SSL-Error with Firefox 3
If you use the Firefox 3 browser it is a little more complicated:
First click on "Or you can add an exception..."
Then on "Add Exception..."
Afterwards on "Get Certificate"
And finally "Confirm Security Exception".
Create your own account
Once you confirmed the security warning you will see a simple registration form:
Choose a language, leave the Invitation code as is and enter your email-address, a nick name and a password (two times the same). The email address will be used to send you a new psiphon2 node when this one gets blocked. We will never send spam to that address. The email-address and password you choose will be necessary to log in to the psiphon2 node later, so you have to remember them.
After a click on "Login" you will see a message confirming the successful creation of your account:
Use the psiphon2 node
To use the psiphon2 node you don't need the invitation link again, just remember (for example make a bookmark) the link displayed at the end of your registration, for example "https://85.31.189.76/001/". Access that URL with your browser (for example Internet Explorer or Firefox)
Now enter the email address and the password you used to register your psiphon2 account. You can also choose another language:
After the login you will see a white page with a small form on top. Enter the website you want to visit in that form, like "https://www.sesawe.net/" and click on "GO".
Now the website you want to visit will load and you can continue to surf the Internet freely. All the links on the website will be automatically rewritten so that they go through the psiphon2 node.
Invite others
Maybe you want to help your friends or family members to access websites freely with psiphon2.
To be able to invite other people your have to be a "Power user". To get that status, ask the user who invited you to grant it. You can see if you have a "Power user" account by looking in your Profile (log in to psiphon2 and click on "Profile"). If you see the links "Invite a user" and "Send invitations" in the menu on the left it means that you have "Power user" status.
There are two ways to invite other people:
Invite a user
Click on "Invite a user" in your psiphon2 profile page to generate a invitation code/link that you can communicate for example by normal email, instant messengers or telephone. First, choose the psiphon2 node for which you want so send an invitation for. It is very likely that you only have one node in the dropdown menu, so leave the default option. After a click on "Invite" you see a newly generated "Invitation link" you can send to your friends. If they have problems using it they can also try to use the "Invitation URL" and the "Invitation Code" manually.
Send invitations
Click on "Send invitations" in your psiphon2 profile to send one or more invitation links automatically through the psiphon2 node. The advantage of this method is that you stay anonymous, the receiver of the email invitation doesn't know who sent him the invitation.
First, choose the psiphon2 node for which you want so send an invitation for. It is very likely that you only have one node in the dropdown menu, so leave the default option. Then, enter a subject for the email the node will send. This can be something related like "Invitation to psiphon2" or something harmless and completely unrelated like "Praise the king!!". Then enter the email addresses which you want to receive an invitation. You can enter just one email address or many, one address per line. After a click on "Invite" you get the message "1 invitations queued" which means that the node sends out the emails in the next minutes.
Report a blocked website
Some website that use complicated technologies like streaming Video or AJAX may not work with psiphon2 out of the box. To fix it our developers have to know which websites are not working. If you find such a website you can report it easily by clicking on the "Broken Page" link close to the "GO" button of the top form:
On the next website you can enter some additional information in the "Description" field to make it easier for the developers to reproduce the error and fix it. With a click on "Submit" you send the message to our developers.
Use Psimail
Send messages
With psiphon2 it is possible to send internal messages to other psiphon2 users. To write a message enter in your psiphon2 profile and click on "Compose". In the first form enter the nickname of the user you want to send a message to. You can also enter the email address the other user used to register as psiphon2. Please note that it is not possible to send messages to normal email addresses which are not registered at psiphon2. Write your message in the textbox and click on "Send". You will then get the message "Message was sent".
Read Messages
To see if you received a new messages enter your psiphon2 profile. If you see a bold "Inbox (1)" in the menu on the left, you have new messages. The number in brackets stands for the number of new messages. After a click on the link you can read the messages:
You can check one or more messages and select one of the possible options: "Mark as Read", "Mark as Unread" or "Delete".
More resources
Psiphon2 FAQ at sesawe.net: https://www.sesawe.net/Psiphon-FAQ.html
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