In
a nutshell, alkasir is a program that works together with its website
(https://alkasir.com)
to allow users to circumvent (bypass) censorship of URLs. It is
predominantly used by persons in countries where there is censorship
of political content such as news, opinion articles, blog entries,
forum discussions, political videos, etc.
The development of
alkasir was motivated out of the desire to create a free
circumvention solution aimed at supporting freedom of expression and
access to information in countries suffering from political
oppression. That explains why alkasir, unlike other circumvention
programs, only allows the circumvention of some content based on a
clear and strict policy, which can be found here.
The software also has the ability to track censorship of reported URLs to periodically verify if they continue to be blocked or got unblocked. Such a function enables it to measure the trends of Internet filtering in a practical way.
Product Information
|
Name: Website: Current version: Earlier versions: Chief programmer: Contact: |
alkasir ® (registered trademark) 1.3 (version released January 4, 2012) 1.0 (released in May, 2009), 1.01 (released in June, 2009), 1.2.0 (released in June 2010) Walid AL-SAQAF |
Technical
Requirements
Minimum
hardware requirements
CPU:
Pentium class processor (133 MHz or higher).
Memory: 60MB or
greater.
Disk Space: 10MB.
Software requirements
Operating
system: Windows
XP or higher.
Framework:
Microsoft
.NET Framework 2.0 or higher; comes pre-installed in Windows Vista
and higher. For Windows XP, you can download it from here.
Installer:
Windows
Installer 3.1; comes pre-installed in Windows Vista and higher. For
Windows XP, you can download it from here.
Browser:
Internet
Explorer 5.0 or higher, Firefox Mozilla, or Google Chrome. It can
also work with other browsers, but will require configuring the proxy
settings manually.
Installation files: Installation files for alkasir's latest version plus the the prerequisite software (noted above) could all be obtained from https://alkasir.com/download.
Because there are several circumvention solutions out there, a frequent question that users ask is 'What makes your program different?' Well, here are the main differences:
1) Safer and more secure for day-to-day transactions
If you were using a conventional circumvention solution, then all your traffic goes through the proxy even if it were for non-blocked websites. For example, if you were accessing your web email (gmail, yahoo mail, etc.), your online bank account, or doing shopping online, all the data between you and those websites are needlessly -and perhaps dangerously- being channeled through a third party. If those circumvention programs intentionally store your IP address and personal information, that is even more of a concern, especially if the servers of those programs get compromised.
In contrast, alkasir only gets activated when you browse blocked websites. This means that when you other websites (web mail, online banks and shops), your data flows through directly as if alkasir is not there. For example, if your ISP blocks your access to twenty websites, alkasir's proxy gets activated only when you try to open one of those websites. All other websites are accessed directly through ISP connection. Hence, you are basically more secure as you know your data is not transported through any third party. Furthermore, alkasir has committed to not save the IP addresses of its users as an extra assurance.
2) Optimized for speed
Unlike those of conventional circumvention tools, alkasir's servers are quicker in response and transfer time because they are only activated for blocked websites. Furthermore, the servers are optimized to ensure that even if a request to a website on the server was sent by some sort of error, this request gets dropped at the server side of the circumvention process. Overall, this reduces the burden on alkasir's proxy servers as they will have plenty of time to serve a much larger number of users with fewer resources compared to conventional circumvention tools.
Apart from that, the fact that usually, most URLs reached through alkasir are predominantly textual and not graphical in nature (due to its policy), the strain on the proxy servers are reduced considerably, enabling users to enjoy seamless and fast access to blocked content.
3) Keeps you informed
One of the unique features of alkasir is its ability to keep you informed about which URLs are still blocked and which are not. The automatic ping/update built-in feature of alkasir makes allows it to track if any previously blocked URLs have been unblocked and removes it automatically from its database locally on the computer and on the database. Hence, it serves as a source of information about censorship.
4) Almost penetration-proof
alkasir is the first circumvention software that introduced its 'private proxy' setting, which basically grants users a specific configuration that ensures that remain connected even if any of the public proxies get blocked. This is the first step in an ambitious and rigorous process to minimize the chances of governments detecting and preventing alkasir's proxies from working.
5) Not for profit, but for freedom and knowledge
Finally, alkasir is a software developed for the promotion of freedom and knowledge and does that for free. The software does not require the display of advertisements, nor does it require subscription payments. The program's ability to track censorship of individual ISPs in every country of the world makes it a unique research tool to academically study the trends of censorship worldwide and hence, contributes to knowledge by presenting verifiable empirical data on censorship that is collected with the help of thousands of alkasir users around the globe.
Therefore,
by using alkasir, not only will you be able to access blocked
content, but you would be directly helping promote freedom and
knowledge.
alkasir is no holy grail and does have its limitations that could be summarized in the following:
1) alkasir circumvents some and not all blocked content
alkasir does not grant access to all blocked websites. Although we strongly believe in freedom of expression and access to information, we have decided to limit what alkasir could be used. We have ended up creating a strict yet clear policy that guides our decisions on whether to allow access to a specific website or not. The policy is not fixed so it is advised that users check it every once in a while for any changes. Some may consider this a restriction in its own right, but we simply view it as a regulating policy that would prevent the abuse of alkasir's servers. If users do not agree on this policy, they are welcome to send their comments and suggestions and we will be happy to provide suggestions for alternative software.
2) Takes time to load
Because alkasir updates its database and constantly checks for changes in the status of blocked URLs, it takes longer than other conventional circumvention programs to load. On average, it may take up to 30 seconds -and sometimes a minute- to load depending on your computer and connection speed.
3) Browser may occasionally need restarting
Some -and not all browsers- may need to be restarted or have their proxy configurations refreshed every time alkasir starts or updates its database with new blocked links. A method to eliminate the need to restart the browser is to use Firefox Mozilla with a plug-in, which which you could simply click a 'reload' button instead of restarting. We haven't received a lot of complaints on this, but we thought we should tell you about it any way.
4) Like any program, errors/problems may arise
Although version 1.3 of alkasir is a more reliable and stable version than earlier ones, but it still is prone to errors and problems. That is why we would love to get your feedback on any errors or shortcomings you have found.