use of proxy....illegal..??

By Ashu
Bhubaneshwar, India
March 1, 2013 8:03am CST
i am a hostel boarder(one who lives in a hostel) and studying in a college. we guys have been provided with a free internet facility through a wi-fi connection(wireless internet through the use of a router) with unlimited internet usage. using this facility and surfing through few websites i found that we aren't allowed to access few sites , so we started using proxy server..software like hot-spot shield or spot-flux..just wanted to know whether doing this is kinda illegal or what..?? cause i don't think by doing this thing we harming anyone..or if we're..how..??
5 responses
• South Africa
24 Mar 13
No it's not illigal its called freedom. And if you not sure don't do it
@topffer (42156)
• France
6 Mar 13
Hotspot shield and spotflux are VPNs, not proxies. Using a VPN or a proxy is not forbidden by laws, but it can be against the internal rules of your college. Anyways, you have to know that a VPN encrypts your surfing and that your college cannot know that you are using it to bypass its firewall.
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
6 Mar 13
back in college, we have always found a good proxy that would allow us to open friendster before. haha =) the thing was that our school blocked these websites( friendster, emails, etc) because it is against their policies and that they would not want us downloading stuffs from the internet and cause or put viruses in the schools' network. So i guess the place where you are at is only using the blocking of sites as a precaution. Of course using proxies are not illegal, i think they serve a more meaningful purpose, used by people to test environments, etc. Some though try to mask their location by using a proxy that would say you are from a location that is not true. =) Just be careful though, as there are moderators or admins now that can identify and even the proxy server main link can be blocked.
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
6 Mar 13
back in college, we have always found a good proxy that would allow us to open friendster before. haha =) the thing was that our school blocked these websites( friendster, emails, etc) because it is against their policies and that they would not want us downloading stuffs from the internet and cause or put viruses in the schools' network. So i guess the place where you are at is only using the blocking of sites as a precaution. Of course using proxies are not illegal, i think they serve a more meaningful purpose, used by people to test environments, etc. Some though try to mask their location by using a proxy that would say you are from a location that is not true. =) Just be careful though, as there are moderators or admins now that can identify and even the proxy server main link can be blocked.
• United States
2 Mar 13
They may have simply blocked the sites due to the content. I dont think that its a crime unless where you live its a crime to go around the blocking of the internet I would not be any worse than if you were to find your parents adult magazines and sit and look at them. They hide the material that they feel may not be appropiate. I know that in the schools where I live they can not access some webpages due to what is on them. Being a school I know its their job to protect their students. Being that you are a student I would have to guess that they are thinking its their job to keep you away from questionable material online. If your worried about getting into trouble then I would not do it. Chances are if you worry that your going to get into trouble doing what your doing then its because you knew that it was wrong in the first place.