FREE BROWSING; THE GENESIS

Back then in 2007, if you manage to see Google on your phone then you will be so happy that your phone can browse even if it can’t go further than opening Google page. A lot of people had to depend on internet café for daily online activities, this was hectic. Something has to be done. A company sprang up from the east with an idea of using mobile phone as modem to access network /internet resources (CDMA phones). The idea opened eyes of some internet enthusiastic individuals; they started applying the idea of using phone as modem to other mobile network operator /ISP in Nigeria. This was able to provide good internet connection but at a very high cost; once the browser opens all the credit in the phone will be gone; this was disastrous. The rate at which users were charged was not defined by these network operators /ISP.  Anyway something has to be done to reduce this high cost. The quest to reduce this high cost lead to the discovery of the first free browsing software ever used publicly in Nigeria; Proxifier. Proxifier was not used alone.  The package included some other software and devices; PC suite of the phone intended to serve as modem (Nokia Pc suite, Sony-Ericson pc suite were mostly used later on Motorola joined the queue), Opera browser, USB cable /Bluetooth/infra-red for phone-to-PC connection.

Users of this package were able to access internet at zero cost but the pages were formatted for mobile phone (WAP). It only helped scholars that intended to use internet as their library; only few internet application supports WAP.  The problem of full uncensored internet was still unsolved.

The new era began with the introduction of an application for bypassing restrictive firewalls and filtering web proxy “Your-Freedom” in mid ‘08. The software has been in existence but its existence was not known to most Nigerians until the date above. The application has client and server version, the client is downloadable at Y-F website and it is updated regularly while the server version resides in their (YF team) server in several countries round the globe.  Mobile Phones were used as modem to make Connection to Mobile network operators/ISP. The freedom client has to be configured before use and this was a source of income to those who knew how to configure it. Back then UDP was the connection mode on port 53. Y-Freedom was the right application everyone was looking for. Y-F has packages that users can subscribe to unlike network operators in Nigeria (I still believe mobile operators in Nigeria learned to package their data bundles from your-freedom team lol). Y-F Team was generous enough to include a free package which can keep a user online for 18hrs/week.  Most Nigerian used only the free package and they were very happy with it.

The introduction of 3G modem and other broadband modem by network operators lead to stricter control measures on network resources. ISPs wants to make more money with little or nothing to offer but Y-F stood against that, then YF client became a firewall target. UDP connection gave up, the games changed, it became cat and mouse game; the struggle for supremacy.  Codes were constantly updated to beat the ISP. Y-F service was obstructed sometimes. 100% dependency on freedom as sole means of free browsing dropped, this gave room for more experiment and new software were discovered , they include

JAP/ JonDo

JAP was one of the software that was used and will still be used in Nigeria to bypass ISP firewall. JAP acts as a local proxy between the browser and the insecure Internet. All internet traffic is channeled directly to JAP.  To use JAP browser need to be manually configured with JAP proxy and port.

Ultra surf 9.5, 9.9

Ultra-surf has a lot in common with freegate, it is a product of Ultrareach Internet Corporation. Created for the same reason freegate was created and Nigerian used it for the purpose freegate was used. Currently Ultra surf is very popular pro-privacy, anti-censorship software, with millions of people using it to bypass firewalls and protect their identity online.

Web proxies

A lot of web proxies were used to bypass ISP firewall. Users of this method only need to configure the browser to one of the proxies and set their home page. that’s it.  Proxies included, concealme.com, daveproxy.co.uk, snoopblock.com,

Free gate 6.7, 6.8

Free gate, free anti-censorship software maintained by Bill Xia (Dynamic Internet Technology Inc.).  This application received funding from a US governmental agency and some other bodies. It is a Windows application that runs on most Windows platforms from Windows 98 to Vista, as well as on Linux and MAC.  In Nigeria, this application was used a access internet without data bundle/ subscription. It doesn’t need to be installed. Once connected it opens Dynaweb website via internet explorer. It served Nigerians well while it lasted.

http tunnel

Although http tunnel was not popular in Nigeria it was very useful for users behind restrictive firewalls in other parts of the world.

Pingfu Iris and  Pingfu UDP

This application uses different communication type for different application in the internet. The Pingfu  servers ensure user’s anonymity by hiding the IP from the application servers the user connects to. Internally the process is complex and complicated but externally the user only needs little or no configuration to get Pingu Iris /UDP running. This application suffered set back in Nigeria because it only allow few days trial and monthly subscription was between 5 – 10USD.

UltraVNC_1.0.8.2

Little is known about this application.

Vidalia-bundle /Tor

Tor was one of the most popular tunneling software ever used in Nigeria.  Nigerians still dreams Tor’s resurrection till today. Maybe it will happen, but really Tor was great.  The thing that made Tor a  great tunneling software was also the same thing that made it bad; Tor automatically changes to a closer and better proxy server in other to give the user a better and uninterrupted connection but as it moves from one server to the other IP changes. Hope you understand what I meant.

GPASS

GPass was not very popular but it helped most Nigerian especially when you have skype installed.

HSS-1.37-INSTALL-ANCHORFREE-76-CONDUIT

A lot of Nigerians said Hot spot shield was good but I never experienced its speed.

KEMULATOR_LITE_WIN32_RELEASE_098_200812042313

Kemulator came to light when free browsing in phone with opera mini and some other browser became popular in Nigeria.  With the help of kemulator users were able to run phone application in their PC, enjoying the same free internet they have in their mobile phone in their PC.

                    Current Free Browsing Applications   

YOUR-FREEDOM AND OPENVPN-2.1.1

It is still Y-freedom of the old, still making waves and still the best tunneling software ever used, still in use and will ever be use in Nigeria. Openvpn works with your-freedom.

For more information on Your-freedom current codes and configuration always visit this site. For your freedom packages, visit our Pay4Me page.

PRIVOXY

Good tunneling software, still used in Nigerian today. The application is very easy to setup. Double click to run and set up browser as follows

http =     localhost  port 8118                 and          https =   localhost port  8118

PROXOMITRON       

Proxomitron is an excellent filtering proxy for web browsers operating under MicroSoft Windows. It works in linux also but you have to wine it.

INDIAN WEB PROXY

Indian Web Proxy was one of the most popular tunneling scripts. It is PHP based web proxy. This script has server and client version. The user needs to host the server script on the computer that is permanently connected to internet. This script really served Nigerian but being a CGI script it lacked some things. And the need to have a hosting account made it more difficult for some people to use this tunneling script. This script is still in use in Nigeria today.

If you need specific information on Indian Web proxy hosting and configuration, contact us via email.

BURPSUITE_V1.3.03

Burpsuite is not that easy to setup, if you want to use this application, request for the configuration.

BROWSER ENCODER.XPI

This is an addon in Firefox that directly encodes your internet requests. It is still being used today. Browser Encoder has problem with https.

If you need deep information on any of this application discussed above please contact us via email /skype (pnet101) or post the information below.