as seen in the Fall 2000 issue of 2600; props to ASM_dood
even though it's been published elsewhere, it's simple, elegant, and accessible,
so i felt it belonged on e2. So, without further ado:
Cyberpatrol, Websense, SurfWatch, NetNanny - we all know these pieces
of software either by reputation or having personally been blocked by one
of them while trying to surf the web during work, school, or at home.
I'm not certain that it need to be said that this software often classifies
web sites incorrectly or leans heavily towards one end of the political spectrum.
Having laid the groundwork, here is a way to defeat that URL blocker that
your parents, school, or corporation have put into place to keep you from
browsing what they deem to be "unacceptable."
Take the URL that you are being blocked from going to, such as http://www.2600.com
(which is defined as Hacking, Illegal, or Crime depending on the URL
filter)
Do an nslookup on the URL and you will get the IP address 207.99.30.230
which is just the dotted octet of its 32 bit number.
Take the individual octet and convert it to its binary equivalent:
207 = 11001111
99 = 01100011
30 = 00011110
230 = 11100110
If any of the numbers are less than eight digits, be sure to pad them out
with leading zeroes. Next, string the numbers together:
11001111011000110001111011100110
Plug them into your scientific calculator (or your HP ;) ) and convert to
its decimal equivalent.
In our case:
11001111011000110001111011100110 = 3479379686
So now you can just surf over to: http://3479379686 and, presto, you are now
at www.2600.com
I'm sure someone else can come up with a script to do the calculations instead
of someone having to do them by hand, but I don't have the time or inclination.