Last updated: December 31, 2022
You you want to know if your internet connection is censored? At home, at work or abroad let's see how directly test your connection with the mobile application ooniprobe.
Launched by the developers of Tor, Ooniprobe offers three tests to take stock of the performance of your network and the possible censorship of your internet connection.
In France, apart from a few jihadist sites, censorship is discreet even if we also hunt down download sites.
In other countries, we do less in the lace with blocked news sites, instant messaging (VoiP) protocols, the Tor network, some proxy et VPN, etc. No need to leave the country to see his Internet connection manipulated. With this application, you will know if your company, your hotel or your library are blocking your internet connections.
All the data collected by ooniprobe is analyzed and gathered to draw up a global censorship record. These data are sometimes to be taken with a grain of salt, because some countries are more tested than others, by ignorance of the project or perhaps also a little because of the repression ...
How to use ooniprobe?
During the first launch, ooniprobe will offer you a little quiz to see if you have understood the dangers of the app.
The first question will ask you if you are aware that governments or your employer may be aware that you are using the app while the second will ask you if you know that your data can be published on the official website.
Fortunately, on the next page you can make sure to share your information and the results of your tests without giving out your IP (which does not make you 100% anonymous).
Then Ooniprobe offers you to run 3 tests :
- web-connectivity attempts to connect to several pre-registered sites in order to see if they are blocked and at what level: DNS or Deep Packet Inspection (detailed analysis of data packets to determine the protocol, etc.) To see the results, it Just click on the three horizontal bars and do Past Test. If you have any doubts about a site, the easiest way is to try connecting to it with Tor…
- HTTP Invalid Request Line, this involves detecting the use of proxies on certain sites to monitor connections or manipulate traffic. However, the results should be taken with a grain of salt, as some operators use proxies for caching and in no way to censor the web. If the answer is positive, take a look in the newspapers.
- Network Diagnostic Test Test, is used to measure the performance of your connection: speed, ping, lost packets, etc. Useful for spotting any speed reduction attempts from your operator.
