How to Access Facebook When it is Blocked in Office, School or Workplace

Written by Amit Banerjee on 13 Feb, 2010 Under Internet

You may be a working professional in a corporate environment and the sad thing is that Facebook is blocked at your office. So you can neither open your Facebook account at office nor you can chat with your Facebook buddies.

Recently, I was trying to access Facebook.com in my college using a Wi-Fi connection but the page never loaded. The same was true with Twitter and Orkut. The reason is that the majority of the social networking accounts are blocked in corporate offices, schools, workplace and educational institutions.

In such cases, you have to look for workarounds to open Facebook when it is blocked. Here are some options to consider.

Access Facebook.com Using IP Address

To open Facebook using an IP address has its advantages. Chances are that the administrator has blocked Facebook from the Windows host file. Following are the steps involved to open Facebook with an IP address:

1. Open the command prompt and type “Ping facebook.com”

Know the IP address of Facebook

2. You will see the IP address as shown in the above image. Just enter the IP address in the browser address bar and if you are lucky, Facebook may open.

Note: If you do not have administrative rights in the computer and you are unable to open command prompt for any reason, try to find the IP address of Facebook with this Online tool.

Online tool to know the IP address of facebook homepage

Access Facebook With Opera Mini Browser

If the above method doesn’t work you can use the web version of opera mini browser to open Facebook. Just open the Opera mini demo link in your browser and you can open Facebook homepage.

Open blocked websites using opera mini browser

Opera mini is meant to surf the web from mobile phones and it is a great way to access blocked websites. You can access the mobile version of Facebook from http://m.facebook.com.

Access Facebook Using Proxy Websites

Another workaround may be using proxy servers to open Facebook and other social networking accounts. But most likely common proxy websites are also blocked which makes the trick useless sometimes.

access facebook.com from a proxy website

Proxyheaven did the trick for me. Using proxyheaven I was able to open all of the social networking accounts e.g Facebook, Twitter, Orkut.

Update: Nilesh pointed out in the comments about the OpenDNS method to access blocked sites. You can read more about the trick here.

Do you know any special trick to open Facebook when it is blocked? Let us know via comments.

  1. Reader Comments

  2. Man you’ve forgotten the simplest of all methods !
    Use some other DNS server simple !
    I’ve done this in my comp lab itself !
    Their router blocks DNS requests from all except a few IPs.
    I changed the machine’s DNS server to opendns and it worked.

    February 14th, 2010
    • @Nilesh: Honestly I do not know about open-DNS method. Can you elaborate ?

      February 15th, 2010
  3. ANAJETLI

    EXCELLENT!!!! it worked for me

    March 10th, 2010
    • Thanks Anajteli for your comment. Which one of the above trick worked for you?

      March 10th, 2010
  4. None of the methods worked for me.

    March 23rd, 2010
    • It’s unlikely that these methods didn’t work for you. Can you tell us where did you actually faced the problem? Thanks for your comment.

      March 23rd, 2010
  5. blah

    Simple solution:

    Get back to work, stop fooling around on facebook and putting your computer at higher than normal risk for virii, and stop wasting the bandwidth you are not paying for.

    If you’re not capable of getting around a simple blocked website in 3 clicks, you probably aren’t capable of fixing your computer when it’s chock full of the trojans and vundo variants that you will inevitably get from browsing facebook.

    March 23rd, 2010
  6. SAQIB KHAN

    you people can try out
    green unblocker.com

    its great… and worked for me….

    April 13th, 2010
  7. Roberta

    I tried accessing facebook using the IP address method and it DID load the welcome page but when i try to log in it simply doesn’t and I get a screen saying “internet explorer cannot open the webpage, most likely causes…”

    anyone can help please?

    April 14th, 2010
    • @Roberta: Once you are logged in, paste the IP address in the browser address bar again and you will be fine.

      April 14th, 2010
  8. Rohit

    All the methods stated above will not work in corporate environments where the web-sense or other such security is present. Still in search of a method to by pass web- sense, will post as soon as I have any new info….cheers

    April 20th, 2010
  9. Raj

    If the admin is using some applications like safesquid, non of the above method will work.

    April 20th, 2010
  10. Simri

    Oh man, I’ve tried so many times like all things above as you answered to Rebeca that( Once you are logged in, paste the IP address in the browser address bar again and you will be fine.)but still doesn’t work. So,this must be like as Raj said that if the admin using safesquid,non of the above method will work. Do you have some more ways I may try? thank’s

    April 30th, 2010
    • Yes, Simri, If the admin is using any such software to block certain websites, then these procedures won’t work. We will let you know once we have found a better alternative . Thanks for your comment .

      April 30th, 2010
  11. Junaid Ali

    Hi , its just open front page of facebook. Kindly suggest how can we post comment on face. because we can just read comment but cannot reply on it

    May 10th, 2010
  12. shawn1011

    simple thing fella’s ….. use a vpn client

    May 10th, 2010
  13. Simri

    Hi guys,I’ve tried this one and it works.
    Browse to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc. In etc folder find the file name “host”, just open it in notepad. And you’ll see all the website that’s blocked by admin.
    just find the line below and delete:
    127.0.0.1 http://www.facebook.com
    127.0.0.1 https://login.facebook.com/login.php?login_attempt=1
    127.0.0.1 https://login.facebook.com
    127.0.0.1 login.facebook.com
    after delete them, just save it.
    (don’t forget to backup the original “host” file so you can save it back after you using the FB).
    OK guys, hopes it can help.

    May 18th, 2010
  14. Proxyheaven.cn worked fine. i have just checked.

    May 27th, 2010
  15. pls i need your help my network line is block from facebook, i cant even longin my acoount pls help me out…. inioluwa08@gmail.com

    May 27th, 2010
  16. Thanks for providing this information about IP address. However, I am unable to login after the home page getting open through IP address. pls help

    May 30th, 2010
  17. robby

    I have the same problem manish has. Using ip I can open the homepage but then I am unable to login. please help

    June 1st, 2010
    • @manish @Robby: If you can view the Facebook home page using the IP address method then be rest assured that the computer you are using hasn’t blocked facebook using professional website blocking software. You can check the Windows hosts file and remove the facebook entry from that file. Hope that helps

      June 1st, 2010
  18. robby

    @Amit Banerjee thank you but where do I find the windows host file? in which directory please?

    June 1st, 2010
    • @Robby: You will find the Windows host file at C > Windows > System32 > drivers > etc

      June 1st, 2010
  19. Through websense all IM chats were blocked, Some days i used JAVA application site to open chat, after 2 days they blocked that one also. Please provide some solution to open Gtalk

    June 1st, 2010
    • @Sridhar: Can you be more specific about which application is blocked? Is it the desktop Google talk or the web version [Gmail chat ] ?

      June 1st, 2010
  20. Both applications are blocked

    June 1st, 2010
  21. annika

    none of the above works in me … ;(

    June 2nd, 2010
  22. i try C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
    the host file there is no facebook their it show
    # Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
    #
    # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
    #
    # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
    # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
    # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
    # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
    # space.
    #
    # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
    # lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
    #
    # For example:
    #
    # 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
    # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

    # 271.0.0.1 localhost
    so what do i do nest

    June 2nd, 2010
    • Your host file is okay and it is not used to block Facebook. Do you have administrative privileges in the computer you are using ?

      June 2nd, 2010
  23. robby

    my host file looks exactly like fdagbemi’s and it is ok but i do not have administrative privileges on the computer i am using. how can i overcome this problem please?

    June 3rd, 2010
    • @Robby: Did you tried the proxy server trick to access Facebook?

      June 4th, 2010
  24. ahmed

    i tried the C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
    and it displayed the following:

    # Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
    #
    # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
    #
    # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
    # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
    # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
    # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
    # space.
    #
    # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
    # lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
    #
    # For example:
    #
    # 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
    # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

    # localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
    # 127.0.0.1 localhost
    # ::1 localhost
    and i have the privilege of a username and password of administrator :D ,,, so can u help me please Amit as i did use the ip trick but it display the facebook main page only and i didn’t log in and i need u to know the message displayed when accessing the facebook site is

    Forbidden:

    Access to the location: http://www.facebook.com/

    has been denied for the following reason:
    Policy prevents this page to be accessed

    please need ur help and support with many thanks

    June 10th, 2010
  25. ahmed

    i tried the C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
    and it displayed the following:

    # Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
    #
    # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
    #
    # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
    # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
    # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
    # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
    # space.

    # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
    # lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
    #
    # For example:
    #
    # 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
    # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

    # localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
    # 127.0.0.1 localhost
    # ::1 localhost
    and i have the privilege of a username and password of administrator :D ,,, so can u help me please Amit as i did use the ip trick but it display the facebook main page only and i didn’t log in and i need u to know the message displayed when accessing the facebook site is

    Forbidden:

    Access to the location: http://www.facebook.com/

    has been denied for the following reason:
    Policy prevents this page to be accessed

    please need ur help and support with many thanks

    June 10th, 2010
    • @ahmed: Which Operating System you are using ? Have you checked the parental controls ?

      June 10th, 2010
  26. tricks works but you just have to be creative a bit with the tricks and know that blocking of some of this social sites either by the school or corporate organization is for the benefit of the organization, you even come up with simple trick to do this things…

    June 15th, 2010
  27. chinmayshelke

    hAck hAck haCked

    best way to use any blocked website is to use proxy server
    http://www.proxin.us

    u shall never fail in this trick
    100% working
    reply me for more doubts
    on chinmayshelke@gmail.com

    June 18th, 2010
  28. chinmayshelke

    the all above tricks are just freakinn

    June 18th, 2010
  29. jamil

    try using http://www.kproxy.com to oppen facebook

    June 18th, 2010
  30. ambika

    hey, thanx amit… it worked

    June 19th, 2010
  31. lea

    haha none of the above works for me, i can open facebook, but they blocked the chattin. so how to unblocked them.

    June 23rd, 2010
  32. anosha

    ok, I read the whole comments. I amhaving same problem FB is blocked.I was using FB with secure connection “https” but I guess the administartor bloacked that too.as its unable to access anymore.I used a proxy, but it only open FB page for me I can’t comment or access any application. I want to use SL its one of FB chhating game. is there any way out!!!!!

    I sure need help :(:(

    June 29th, 2010
  33. anosha

    can any one help me … I need help

    June 29th, 2010
  34. selva

    hi friends,In our college they blocked using OpenDNS,None of the above tricks r working and even i don’t have Admin Rights.please Help me to access FB and orkut

    July 27th, 2010
    • @selva: Have you tried to access the mobile version of facebook ?

      July 27th, 2010
  35. hey…nice and simple trick….I tried it earlier….
    Thanks for sharing… :)

    July 29th, 2010

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