OK, so one thing that I hate about Indonesia is that in Indonesia, Imgur, Reddit, and Vimeo is BLOCKED for whatever reason. Actually, the previous ministry of telecommunication, Tifatul Sembiring did this s**t, for whatever reason, but the current ministry of telecommunication, Rudiantara still doesn't do anything right now.
I mean, Tifatul certainly deserves to die because of this. I know, he blocked it due to some NSFW contents in those sites, but why not just block the NSFW contents, instead of blocking the entire site? Why didn't he just block Reddit's /r/NSFW instead of blocking the entire Reddit? That's certainly the most stupid idea that a ministry has done. HE. IS. F**KING. STUPID. AS. F**K.
Note that Imgur is no longer blocked in certain ISPs, but I found out that Telkomsel recently blocked Imgur again yesterday (06/12/15). However, Indosat Ooredoo still doesn't, which is good. Tried to contact them, but they don't seem to give a f**k about it.
I think this kind of internet filtering is not really useful at all. It obviously annoys customers, and it's not effective, since most of the people would tryna find a way to circumvent it. It's actually designed for kids, "internet noobs", and computer illiterate people to prevent them from accessing those sites.
But don't worry, there's always a way to circumvent it, and here's how to do it.
For Windows[]
Method 1: Use Psiphon[]
The easiest way to circumvent it is to use Psiphon, but it slows down your internet speed a bit.
- Get Psiphon here .
- Open it
- Wait for a while
- Try to open Imgur, Reddit, or Vimeo. If it works, then it successfully creates an SSH conenction.
If you close the program, shut down the computer, or restart it, you need to reopen it to unblock it back.
Method 2: Use DNSCrypt[]
It's harder to use, doesn't work on all kinds of network connections, and doesn't work well in Windows 10, but it doesn't slow down your network speed.
- Get DNSCrypt here .
- Set your network connection's DNS to 127.0.0.1, or else it won't work. A tutorial of it can be found here , but make sure to change the preferred and alternate DNS server to 127.0.0.1.
- Unzip the file, right-click dnscrypt-winclient.exe, then click Properties.
- Click "Compatibility", then tick "Run this program as an administrator", then click OK.
- Open dnscrypt-winclient.exe
- Tick "Show hidden adapters", then tick all network devices available in the "Select network devices for use" box.
- Click "Install".
- Try to open Imgur, Reddit, or Vimeo. If it works, then it has successfully changes your DNS. If it doesn't, then your network device is probably incompatible with DNSCrypt.
After closing the app, shutting down the PC, or restarting it, it should still be able to unblock the sites. This happens because it runs some services on startup.
For Mac[]
There's no Psiphon for Mac yet, nor DNSCrypt with user interface, but you can use Bootcamp, run Windows, and do the above method.
For Android[]
- Get Psiphon for Android here .
- Open it.
- Wait for a while, then when it displays some ads (meaning that it has successfully run the VPN), try to open the blocked sites.
If the app crashes, stop the VPN, you shut down the phone, or restart it, you need to open it again.
For iOS[]
Unfortunately, I haven't found any way to unblock the sites for iOS devices yet (don't have an iOS device, sorry), but you can Google it.
Why standard DNS changing no longer works.[]
Since DNS changing is so easy, so that most of the people use it to circumvent it, ISPs in Indonesia have started to use transparent DNS proxy, and it basically intercepts all DNS lookup requests on port 53 (which is commonly used for DNS servers), and transparently proxy the results, forcing you to use their crappy DNS server. However, DNSCrypt is different: It only works when your network's DNS is set to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), and it uses any ports but port 53 as the DNS port, preventing its DNS lookup requests from being intercepted.
List of blocked popular sites in Indonesia[]
You should try to access these sites after unblocking, to ensure that everything's working.
- Imgur (blocked in Telkom, Telkomsel, 3, and some other ISPs, but not blocked in Indosat) UPDATE 4/1/2016: Imgur is inconsistently blocked in Telkomsel. Yesterday (3/1/16), it wasn't blocked anymore but today (4/1/16) it's blocked again. This already happened before, back in November, it was blocked for a few hours, but then it was unblocked at around 12pm. Looks like someone there tries to unblock the site if it's blocked when they check it, while the other person tries to keep blocking it if it's unblocked, which is really sad, because why don't just let it unblocked instead of continuously blocking and unblocking the site like an idiot?
- Reddit (blocked in ALL ISPs)
- Vimeo (blocked in ALL ISPs)
- 4chan (blocked in ALL ISPs)
- Vuclip (blocked in Telkomsel, and probably some other ISPs too)
- Mywapblog (blocked on 4/12/15, probably temporary, because they're trying to delete NSFW blogs, and I think it's temporarily blocked for some kinda safety precautions. Probably will be unblocked when they're done)
- Nerdist (blocked in Telkomsel, and probably some other ISPs too, but not blocked in Indosat)
- Urban Dictionary (blocked in XL, but not in Telkom, Telkomsel, Indosat, and other ISPs)
- Newgrounds (they do have NSFW contents)
- FanFiction (dunno why it's blocked, probably NSFW things going on there)
- Most of manga sites (they block it for whatever reason)
- Tyrande Whisperwind in WoWWiki, and probably Wowpedia too? (well, NSFW picture alert on the infobox. Blocked in Telkomsel, and probably some other ISPs too, but WoWWiki itself isn't blocked, just this page. This is how internet filtering should be, ONLY block the unsafe contents, not the entire site)
Misc.[]
These guys must read this blog (since they live in Indonesia, and this might be useful for them):
- Hunter Zombie999
- MNF 2004
- Anyone who stays or lives in Indonesia!
Hopefully, this wiki doesn't get blocked just because I posted this, but I don't think that this wiki be blocked because of this, since there's a Kaskus (a popular Indonesian forum) thread, explaining how to unblock sites too, and Kaskus doesn't get blocked because of this.
That's it guys. Have fun, and good luck!