Malaysia Today Blocked or Banned

***Alright, alright, I have a confession to make. I am an avid reader of Malaysia Today. The alternative Malaysia online news portal***

It seems that Malaysia Today is being blocked from access by our lovely broadband provider, Streamyx/TMNet. Anyone care to clarify this?

When I want to access Malaysia Today, I get this.

Not Found

Then I try to access it using a proxy, it works. So, I guess this is not the case where the connection is slow or technical problem but actually blocking Malaysia Today?

Using the proxy, I saw that on the Malaysia Today website, there is an alert that mentioned about the block by TMNet. Woh, this is a new low I would say.

Malaysia Today Blocked

So, even Malaysia Today says it is blocked by TMNet. Apparently they set up another link to direct to Malaysia Today website or maybe it is the whole thing copied over. Whatever it is, smart move. Adhering to the principle of not putting all your eggs in one basket aye?

Anyway, as stated in the screen shot, Malaysia Today can be accessed using the http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com/2008/ link.

Now, the question is, why is Malaysia Today blocked?

Is it because of the Permatang Pauh by-election that gathers so much hype now? Some dirty tricks? Hit below the belt?

Well, the final result of the Permatang Pauh By-Election as according to the Malaysia Today website are:

PARTI KEADILAN RAKYAT: 31,195

BARISAN NASIONAL: 15,524

MAJORITY:15,671

VOTER TURN-OUT: 81%

As expected, PKR wins. Congratulations.

Alright, now what?

Jeng Jeng Jeng.

***UPDATES***

Apparently someone from Malaysia Today leaves a comment on how to still view Malaysia Today by making some changes just in case the newly created link does not work. Quoted exactly:

In the event that MCMC decides to further implement a full blocking of websites or blogs not friendly to UMNO/BN, the followings can be used as an effective way to circumvent internet censorship:

1. Accessing a mirror site
2. Using a non-censoring DNS-server
3. Using a non-censoring proxy server


1. Access a mirror site
For instance, Malaysia Today can still be accessed at this moment at http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com . Using mirror sites may not be effective as they may start blocking these sites too.


2. Using a non-censoring DNS-server
Change your DNS to OpenDNS server 208.67.222.222 or 208.67.220.220 .

Click http://www.opendns.com for more info on how to set DNS.


3. Using a non-censoring proxy server

(i) Proxy Sites
More effectively, this blocking can be circumvented by surfing through a proxy sites, such as:
http://proxychina.org
http://proxy4china.com

There are many proxy sites available, just google for them.


(ii) Proxy Tunnelling Software
Another better and most effective way to circumvent internet censor is by using Ultrasurf. It is developed by the people against internet censorship in China. It enables users inside countries with heavy Internet censorship to visit any public web sites in the world safely and freely while it automatically searches the highest speed proxy servers in the background.

Download Ultrasurf software from:
http://www.ultrareach.com
http://www.wujie.net/downloads/ultrasurf/u.zip

Then extract the file and run, that's it.

If you are using browser other than IE, then you have to manually change your proxy IP address to 127.0.0.1 with port :9666 .


(iii) TOR and TOR based browsers
For those who are more IT savvy, they can try TOR. TOR based browsers are also available, such as xb Browser and OperaTor. But TOR solution tends to give slower internet surfing experience.


Say NO to internet censorship.

There, happy trying.