It works together with DynaWeb, a P2P-like proxy network system.

FreeGate’s anti-censorship capability is further enhanced by a new, unique encryption and compression algorithm in the version of 6.33 and above.

It is a Windows application that runs on most Windows platforms from Windows 98 to Vista, as well as on Linux and MAC through http://www.winehq.org/.

How to install and get it work

You can download FreeGate freely from here. In order to start hiding your IP address just run the .exe file.
If you are browsing using Internet Explorer you don’t have to set up anything, you can start browsing anonymously. But, if you are using other browsers you have to manually set the internet connection settings to the following proxy 127.0.0.1:8580. If you don’t know how to do it you should read the following posts:

• Firefox – How To Hide Your IP While Browsing Using Firefox
• Google Chrome – How To Hide Your IP While Browsing Using Google Chrome
• Safari – How To Manually Mask Your IP Using Safari

Pros and Cons of using FreeGate

Pros

• It’s FREE!
• It hides your IP address
• It provides fast proxies
• There are more proxies/servers available than UltraSurf
• It requires no installation
• Single executable file
• Uses a unique encryption and compression algorithm to increase privacy
• Supports SOCKS
• Can be set up to delete browser history when existing (for Internet Explorer)
• The user interface is available in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Farsi/Persian, Spanish.

Cons

• It does not have a Hide/Show IP button. While FreeGate is running your IP is hidden. In order to show your real IP, you have to exit the program.
• The proxies are from the US only (you can not change the country or the proxy location)
• It does not automatically configure other browsers than Internet Explorer. But, for Firefox it provides an add-on.

To sum up, FreeGate is a great hide IP software that can be used to browse anonymously and unblock sites. The only significant drawback of using it is that does not provide proxies from other countries than the US.

FreeGate Not Working Starting From 1/1/2009

In a comment to a post on FreeGate, Danov signals that FreeGate it does not work starting from 1st of January 2009.

starting from 1/1/2009 freegate only open free for China , but the rest of the world is NOT !!!! i tried to use it today and its only open there official site & google ONLY !! i think this is BAD.

I have tried to use FreeGate and indeed it is not working.

FreeGate not working anymore

Here is the error I get:

———————————————————–

ERROR

The requested URL could not be retrieved while trying to

retrieve the URL: dit-inc.us/swprompt.php
The following error was encountered:

• Connection to 38.101.236.62 Failed

The system returned:

(111) Connection refused

The remote host or network may be down. Please try the request again.

Update: FreeGate Is Not Free Anymore

FreeGate was, in the last years, one of the leading anti-censorship services worldwide. Starting from 1st of January 2009, FreeGate is not free anymore for users outside China. The main reason is the huge number of users and the lack of human, hardware and bandwidth resources.

Dynamic Internet Technology, the creator, and sustainer of FreeGate motivates the decision:

Our service was originally targeted to users from China, a regime with the
most advanced Internet censorship that affect most people. However, users
from other censorship countries, including Iran, Vietnam and Saudi Arab, have
found our service extremely useful to them too. Moreover, many web surfers
from non-censorship countries, such as the U.S., are using our service to
stay anonymous online. This leads to an explosive growth of the user
population.

And they ask for financial support

We need your help. We hope to help global users to surf the net safely and
securely, without the fear of being monitored or traced. To achieve this
with an ever-growing user base, we need to seek additional funding. If you
find our service useful, please think if you can find any funding sources
for us, such as a non-profit organization, a corporation, or a
foundation.

From 1st of January, users outside China will have to pay for being able to use FreeGate. At least, for now, I could not find how it works: it is a monthly/annual subscription, one-time fee, etc. Probably in the next days, we will find out more information.

Are you using FreeGate? Post a comment and let us know what you think about it!

Happy surfing!

P.S. If FreeGate does not work for you, then check a VPN service like ExpressVPN, NordVPN, HideMyAss VPN, ibVPN,  and PureVPN.