How to unblock porn sites: All working methods in 2024

Accessing porn websites might be a complicated thing. In such countries as China, Philippines, India, Thailand, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and others, watching porn is illegal, and, naturally, all websites with adult content are blocked. However, you can face problems accessing porn even in countries where the government doesn't prohibit it. Network owners block porn to prevent access to it at places where watching such content is unacceptable. Porn is often blocked in hotels to save bandwidth and reduce bills from internet providers.

Here are methods that are commonly used to block access to websites:

• DNS-based blocking. DNS-based blocking disrupts the domain name resolution process when a user's device searches for an IP address of a website by its domain name. As a result, the website doesn’t give the IP address in response to the browser request and the user can’t get access to the website.
• URL- and DPI-based blocking. Blocking by IP address and deep packet inspection blocking are used to restrict access when a browser establishes connection to a server or requests content from it.
• Search results blocking. All popular search engines have some kind of ‘Safe search’ option, when all ambiguous search results, including porn, are filtered out.

Content-blocking techniques can be used at different levels:

• National level. All traffic that enters or leaves the country potentially can be blocked via national gateways or firewalls.
• ISP level. Telecommunications carriers, including mobile carriers, may install specialized software and hardware equipment to censor certain types of web content.
• Local network level. Network owners may use filtering software to prevent access to certain websites.
• Endpoint level. Specialized software may be installed directly on users' devices or even be a part of their operating systems. This is commonly used in home and work networks, usually for security or parental control reasons.

Best porn website unblocking techniques

Undoubtedly, using VPN is the most effective and reliable way to unblock porn. But there are also other methods, which have their own advantages and shortcomings. Let’s review them.

Get access with a VPN

Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is definitely one of the most convenient ways to unblock porn regardless how it was blocked.

Let’s compare browsing with and without VPN to clarify how VPN can help to unblock porn sites. When you go online without a VPN, your ISP, router, network owner, and anyone who has access to your traffic can know (and partially block) the websites you visit. Besides that, the websites themselves can be configured to perform IP-based blocking, usually to prevent access from certain countries.

A VPN is a technology that creates an encrypted connection between your device and a VPN server. It makes your traffic securely encrypted and no one can know what you are doing online. Thus, your browsing becomes more private and free. After your request reaches the VPN server your current IP address gets hidden behind the IP address of the VPN server and for the entire Internet, your online activity is associated with it. Which, in turn, helps you to bypass geo-restrictions.

One of the most common complaints about using a VPN is that it slows down connection speed. And to some extent this is true. When you use a VPN your data has to pass a longer way to reach the server and it naturally requires additional time. However, the used VPN protocol, quality of a VPN app and server load also affect the connection speed. Premium VPNs usually do their best to provide customers with high-quality service and minimize the impact. Free VPNs often don’t focus on that, but may still look tempting because they don’t require payments. For some users, it might be the main benefit. But be careful – free VPN service providers still need to cover costs and they successfully do it by selling users’ data. If you don’t want to put yourself at risk, avoid free VPNs.

How to choose a good VPN?

Here are some useful tips which can help you find the best VPN for your online needs:

1. VPN server locations. Choose a VPN provider with a wide list of VPN servers all over the world. So you can find the server location which suits you best.
2. The type of encryption standard. Nowadays AES-128 and AES-256 encryptions are the industry standards which work fast and guarantee strong protection.
3. Useful security features for additional protection. Premium VPNs usually provide some additional useful features. For example, Kill Switch cuts your internet connection if the VPN connection suddenly drops. So you can be sure you are always under protection.
4. Clear no-logging policy. It’s important that VPN providers log only minimum data, which is only needed for the smooth work of a VPN service and technical support.

Use the Tor browser to unblock porn

Tor it's a powerful browser, which looks almost like other popular browsers, but it works on completely different principles, providing users with high anonymity, privacy, and personal data protection.

Using Tor is completely free. Everyone can download it safely from the official website. There are versions for all popular platforms and devices. Also, the company has developed additional methods to get Tor for those users who can’t download it from the official website. It‘s GetTor service and official mirrors.

Let’s see how to unblock porn sites with the Tor browser. Tor browser encrypts all your traffic. This means that neither your ISP, nor anyone else between you and the Internet can see or interfere with what you are doing online. And particularly can’t prohibit accessing porn.

On other hand, as the traffic is routed through a chain of Tor nodes, websites and web services can’t see your real IP address and can’t geo-block you (though they might not be friendly to IPs associated with Tor nodes either).

The most important disadvantage of using Tor is that it significantly slows down your connection speed. That's why Tor doesn’t seem a perfect choice for circumventing porn blocking — it just will take forever to download content. Also, Tor traffic is closely monitored and even blocked by governments of some countries because only with Tor it’s possible to get access to the DarkNet, which is often associated with illegal activity.

Use a proxy server

Another way to unblock porn is to use a proxy server. It might be a cost-free solution, because it is not hard to find a free proxy (putting aside questions of stability and privacy). To unblock porn with this method you need manually set up a proxy server on the desktop or your phone.

When you use a proxy, your browser transmits your traffic through a proxy server in a different country and your visible IP address gets replaced with an IP address of the proxy server, which definitely helps to circumvent server-side geo-blocking.

However, a proxy is not a silver bullet and it has its own drawbacks. For instance, proxies do not add an additional level of encryption, like VPNs and Tor do, so network equipment might keep seeing the domains you visit, and restrictions may stay in place.

Use web proxies or anonymizers

A web proxy is a web page through which a user can anonymously visit another website. Web proxies are easy to use because they don't require any additional settings, unlike proxy servers. All you need to unblock access to a porn website is to paste its address into the address box of an anonymizer. Given that an anonymizer provides HTTPS access and is not blocked in your network, you’ll probably circumvent even severe access restrictions.

Although the use of web proxies is convenient, they don't guarantee privacy to their users. Also, anonymizers are often blocked by governments or ISPs, along with porn sites. Another disadvantage is that anonymizers are usually full of pop-ups, pop-unders and other types of annoying ads. And finally, not all functionality is guaranteed to work smoothly when going this way.

Unblock porn with Google’s search engine cache

It is common for most search engines to cache websites’ content, and porn sites are no exception. So even without visiting the sites you can still get access to some of their pages. It will be some snapshots from the past, though, not actual copies, but talking about porn — who cares. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Go to the search engine, for example, Google.
2. Type in the search bar “cache:pornwebsitename.com”, where “pornwebsitename" is the name of the website you want to get access to.
3. Hit the search button and view the results.
   It might help you to watch porn, however, it doesn't unblock porn websites.

Use the Wayback Machine

The Wayback Machine is an internet archive service that stores old versions of websites so that they could be viewed later. It's an interesting experience to see how your favorite website looked several years ago. One can use Wayback Machine to get access to adult content from the past. Here is how to do it:

1. Go to the Web Archive official website.
2. Type URL of the required website in the search bar.
3. Select a date. On the calendar you’ll see the dates when your website snapshots were made. You can view only these snapshots.
4. After you pick the date you can explore an archived version of the website.

To summarize, you can use the Wayback Machine to unblock porn, or at least some of it, for free from anywhere in the world. But be prepared that the speed will be really slow. Besides, the Wayback Machine archives images, not videos.

Change your DNS server

The Domain Name System (DNS) maps the domain name people use to locate a website to the IP address that a computer uses to locate it. This allows you to access websites by domain names instead of IPs, which is obviously more comfortable.

However, it’s possible to monitor your DNS requests and block your access to porn. You may try replacing a DNS server in your system preferences, with DNS from Google or Cloudflare, and check if it helps to unblock Pornhub.

Here is an example of how to change the DNS server from the one assigned by your ISP to Google’s public DNS server on a Windows device:

1. Go to the Control Panel → Network → Internet and Network Connections.
2. Click the network you use. Select Properties.
3. Double-click Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4/IPv6). A new pop-up will open where you can modify the IP and DNS server addresses.
4. The current Google’s public DNS server IPv4 addresses are “8.8.8.8” and “8.8.4.4.”. IPv6 addresses are “2001:4860:4860::8888” and “2001:4860:4860::8844”. Enter the preferred and alternate DNS servers in the “Use the following DNS server addresses” section. You should always double-check your DNS server address.

That's it. You’ve changed your DNS server from the one assigned your ISP to Google’s Public DNS.

For some users, it might seem too complicated and time-consuming. Also, this method is not a hundred-percent solution. Unlike VPN, it does not encrypt your traffic, so if the network is monitored your browsing history will be recorded.

And here are similar instructions for macOS:

1. Click the Apple icon in the upper left corner → System Preferences → Network.
2. Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS.
3. Click Advanced → DNS.
4. Click + to enter the Google IP addresses. For IPv4 use “8.8.8.8” and/or “8.8.4.4”. For IPv6 use “2001:4860:4860::8888” and/or “2001:4860:4860::8844”.
5. Click OK → Apply.

FAQ

How to unblock porn?

There are different methods to unblock porn, which can vary in complexity and effectiveness. The most universal and user-friendly method is using VPN. Alternatively, you can try using the Tor browser. There are also a number of halfway solutions — changing a DNS server and using proxy servers or web proxies — which may not work. You can also try using the Wayback Machine and Google’s search engine cache to get access to archived copies of porn websites.

What is the easiest way to unblock porn?

Among different ways to unblock porn using a VPN service is the easiest and the most effective method. With a VPN you not only get access to your favorite content but also have strong protection for your privacy and anonymity.
If you’re looking for a reliable VPN service, try AdGuard VPN. Among its advantages are as follows: strong encryption, a wide list of VPN server locations, and clear no-logging policy.

How to unblock porn on a computer?

To unblock porn on a desktop you can use a VPN or the Tor browser. Furthermore, you can set up a proxy server or use a web proxy (also known as an anonymizer). Likewise, you might find some old content from your favorite website on the Wayback Machine archive and through Google’s search engine cache.

How to unblock porn on a phone?

The easiest way to unblock porn on your phone is to install a VPN app or the Tor browser. Also, you might set up a proxy server, but if it is too difficult you can use a web proxy (also known as an anonymizer). The next two ways can't help unblock porn websites, but with them, you might find some old content from your favorite websites. It's the Wayback Machine archive and Google’s search engine cache.