The manic urge to tend your virtual farm on Facebook might be ebbing, thanks to those 10 consecutive hours online reaching saturation point, but it can still be irritating to not be in real-time sync with the world while stuck in that 4ftx4ft office cubicle or college computer lab. Imagine all those enticing status updates, celeb tweets and Gmail chat messages competing with your staid company website and official email id. Well, don’t get all depressed on us or be surprised if your geeky friend is happily surfing all those restricted websites while you are crying foul. Scaling that office firewall is actually quite easy but don’t blame us if you get into trouble!

What

A proxy website is one that lets you access another website that has been blocked. It routes your request for a blocked website.

The process

To the user the process is the same. Just type, say, www.faceoxy.com , instead of www.facebook.com to open the Facebook homepage. What actually happens is that the proxy either locates the website in its cached memory or relays your request to get the website for you from the Internet. Hence, you can access the site of your choice without your office getting wise. To the systems guys it looks like you browsed a completely different website.

Pros

Apart from the biggest positive of allowing you to take a break in between long hours of work, they have one great, no-mischief use. On public computers, using proxy sites to access social networks is often safer than logging on to the originals. Tiny software often record the keys you press, making it easier for other users to retrieve personal data if they so desire. Using proxy sites then makes more sense as they make tracking you online more difficult.

How to

Simply open any search engine and key in your query for proxy sites for the particular website you want to visit. You will immediately have an exhaustive list. Choose from the list and see if you can access the blocked sites.

Tips

Often any website that has the word proxy in its name is automatically blocked. Don’t be disheartened, just keep searching, as new proxy sites keep coming up every day. There will be at least one not blocked that does not use the word proxy.

Better yet, search at home and have your URL ready beforehand so that you don’t have to search in office.

Also ensure you change the proxy site you use every couple of days to prevent it from being detected.

Statutory Warning

Risks are same as those of giving proxy in class. Remember, if you are caught you will not be able to escape into the virtual world to avoid punishment. And yes, please don’t pull this stunt if in China.

What about the web world do you want to read in t2? tell t2@abpmail.com

COMPILED BY MADHURIMA CHATTERJEE