Kalema Lawrence
Did you know that you can get free Internet and get connected to blocked websites by just installing a Mobile Application on you phone. This is none other than Psiphon Pro Android Mobile Application. It is currently trending in countries where the connectivity to some web portals is restricted such as China where google and all its products are banned, Ethiopia where Social Media Sites are being taxed among others. Here is what you need to know about this amazing free mobile data service provider.
What is Psiphon App?
Psiphon is a free and open-source Internet censorship circumvention tool that uses a combination of secure communication and obfuscation technologies. These include Virtual Private Network (VPN), Secure Socket Shell (SSH) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP) Proxy. In other words, it is a centrally managed, geographically diverse network of thousands of proxy servers, using a performance-oriented, single hop architecture to provide you with uncensored access to Internet content..
It’s Origin
The original concept for Psiphon (1.0) was developed by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, building upon previous generations of web proxy software systems, such as the ‘Safe Web’ and ‘Anonymizer’ systems. In 2012, Psiphon, Inc. began development of a mobile version of Psiphon 3 for use with phones running Android.
Its original development was envisioned for an easy-to-use and lightweight Internet proxy, designed to be installed and operated by individual computer users who would then host private connections for friends and family in countries where the Internet is censored.
Is it safe to use psiphon?
According to Research conducted by the Ugandan Buzz Technology team, the app if very safe to use. This is because your phone is connected through the ports like VPN 1723 & SSH 22 which are not monitored.
However, when you send or receive large amounts of data for example through downloads, your service provider might wonder where all the data is going and trace it to your MAC address. So, if you want to remain under the curtains, you should avoid using a lot of data but for browsing anonymously, its totally safe.
The other reason is that since it employs VPN technologies, it should work fine for you since VPN slingshots your data through the company’s servers and so, whenever anyone tries to track you down, he is addressed to the servers of the company, not to you.
Psiphon servers won’t also collect your personal information, they don’t need payments so you don’t have to enter or worry about your credit card either, there is no sign up and your Email Id is also secure.
It’s Use and Usage
Psiphon is an open source app and it is multi purpose, its usage is quite easy and simple and you aren’t going to face any difficulty while using it for the first time.
It serves the purpose of free internet provider, you just need to install the app and configure it and you are ready to use the free internet without paying a single shilling.
Psiphon also secures your internet connection by working as a VPN and it’s totally free as you won’t need to purchase any premium subscription for using the VPN feature.
It unblocks banned websites. Several websites are banned in a number of countries such as all Google and Facebook products in China, but with Psiphon, you can connect to any website after installing and configuring it correctly.
How does it work?
This is the first question that runs across the minds of those that have used it. Let’s first see how to get connected to it. Psiphon automatically starts connecting when you run it. While it is connecting, a spinning icon is displayed. You may select one of the following tunnel modes: VPN (L2TP over IPSec), SSH, or SSH+ (SSH plus obfuscation, a randomized layer on top of SSH to avoid protocol fingerprinting).
Connection to the Psiphon server is established when the green icon is displayed. In VPN mode, all of your traffic automatically tunnels through Psiphon.
In SSH and SSH+ modes, Psiphon automatically sets the phone’s system proxy settings, so network traffic for applications that respect these settings will be tunneled through Psiphon. These settings are respected by default by all major web browsers.
Furthermore, in SSH and SSH+ modes, Psiphon offers a split tunnel option where international traffic is tunneled through the proxy and domestic traffic is not.
When you close the program, Psiphon automatically disconnects. You can also click on the icon to toggle the connection
