Accessing the Internet via e-mail is primary a service provided to users who have limited access to the Internet. With net penetration increasing all the time, the use of such a service has been in the decline for a number of years. However, considering the fact that censorship is functionally a limitation of Internet access to the end user, these services can be availed of to our benefit.

Internet access via e-mail can be used from any e-mail address. To retrieve a webpage (e.g. quillem.com/censorship, send an e-mail to an address listed below with the associated subject and / or body.

This page exists as a result of this story.

This document is a work in progress:

Common techniques used to defeat censors:

1. Using proxies: Proxies act as middlemen between you and the website that has been blocked. They can be used to retrieve the page on your behalf, thereby bypassing the censor. There are various kinds of proxies out there. The proxy guide has more information.
2. Using web caches: Search engines, proxy caches and archive sites quite frequently save copies of websites on their servers which can be retrieved in lieu of a censored site.

After the public exhibition of gross incompetence by the Indian government and ISPs alike, it is in everybody's interest to know how to bypass these ridiculous blanket bans.

The following is a general guide that will ideally allow you to visit said blocked sites. If you have any questions or comments, please use the fora.

It is recommended that you use Firefox to follow any steps outlined below. However, it should be reasonably straightforward to adapt them to other browsers as well.

What is a proxy?

A proxy (server) to put it simply, acts like a middleman and retrieves web pages on your behalf. For e.g. since the GOI and incompetent techs at ISPs all over India have decided to block blogs like mumbaihelp on blogspot, instead of asking your browser to retrieve the mumbaihelp page, you can ask your browser to ask the middleman (proxy) to get it for you. So, for all essential purposes, you are only accessing the middleman (who has not been censored) and not mumbaihelp.