Blogspot blocked by ISP's in India ????

I was trying to check on my blogs since Friday morning, but somehow I wasn't getting through. Initially thought it was a temporary glitch, but by Saturday morning there was no improvement. Was travelling that day & the next and today whole day, I still couldn't connect. I had written to the powers that be at the blogspot help on saturday itself, but have still not got a response from them.

Spoke to a couple of friends who said that they weren't facing any problems, so I thought it was a wierd bug in MY system. Turns out the bug is a bee in some ministry's bonnet, who has ordered that blogspot, geocities & typepad be blocked by ISP's.
Some of the ISP's that have blocked blogger are at this location

A group of Indian Bloggers who have all been hit by this blockade are grouping together & looking for solutions here

Bypassing the ban

For sites blocked by domain names

• Using google translate, e.g., if the blog is "blogyouwanttoread.blogspot.com", then use

http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=blogyouwanttoread.blogspot.com

For Blogspot

• http://pkblogs.com:
  Enter your blog name there and you're in business. Or directly use a URL of the form
  http://www.pkblogs.com/blogyouwanttoread
  For example, http://www.pkblogs.com/mumbaihelp will let you see http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com
• Anniyalogam where you can draw just the text of the blog.
• Use bloglines to find an RSS Feed to the blog.

Using proxy server for any blocked site

One way to visit a blocked site is through another site, generally called a proxy site. Some such sites and the info on how to use them are given below.

• www.boreproxy.com

In this specfic case go to site: www.boreproxy.com

On that page below the link for favourites you will find an edit box. Put the shortcut of the site you want to access in this edit box eg. http://xyz.blogspot.com

Press Enter and voila! you have access:)

• www.hidemyass.com

Use www.hidemyass.com and then type in the site you wish to access.

• http://www.shysurfer.com

Use http://www.shysurfer.com. It allows you to not just surf, but also make posts.

• Using http://www.daveproxy.co.uk also works

Got all this neat info on the Bloggers group & http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/Bypassing_The_Ban

First time I have had to use a proxy server to access what I write. Makes me feel like I'm some kind of dirty criminal or terrorist disloyal to my country.

Much as I love my country, the politicians are slowly making it difficult for us to keep doing so.

First they take 1/3 of our salary in taxes & then they don't give us basic infrastructure (case in points floods 2 weeks back) non-adequate security (bomb blasts last week) and now they take away my stress release mechanism & window to the world (blogspot being banned this week) what are they gonna do to me next week ? Throw me in Jail ?

Neha has sone a much better job of blogging about this

I'm just tired, sleepy & cranky, so I shall sign off here.