Guide
Unblock a website without installing a VPN
If a site is blocked where you are and the device will not let you install a VPN, open the site through a web proxy in your browser instead. TrickyBird is a web proxy: paste a link into the launch box on its home page, and the site opens in the same tab on one of our own addresses. You install nothing.
TrickyBird needs only the browser that is already there, whether on a work laptop, a library computer, a Chromebook or your phone. Before you trust a free web proxy with your browsing, ours included, read how to check one.
Unblock a specific site
Each site here has its own page because we tested it through the proxy ourselves. Paste any address into the launch box and it opens.
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Why a VPN app will not install on a managed computer
Locked‑down devices are locked down on purpose. A managed computer, such as a corporate laptop, runs under an IT policy that decides what may be installed on it. That policy usually refuses a new installer, and often a new browser extension too, and because a VPN needs one or the other, the install step stops the VPN before it ever reaches the network filter it was meant to get past.
A web proxy skips that step. TrickyBird is a website, and opening it takes the same permission as opening any other page.
How a web proxy works
TrickyBird fetches the site you asked for and rewrites the addresses inside the page before your browser gets it, so a link you follow on that page brings you back through TrickyBird. A small script that TrickyBird adds to the tab catches what the page loads after that, so a picture that appears as you scroll, or a video you start later, also goes through TrickyBird.
The site you opened, what it loads, and the pages you reach from it go through TrickyBird. Your other tabs and apps keep their normal connection.
What your network sees, and what the logs keep
Your network sees a connection to TrickyBird. Wherever TrickyBird has to carry the address of the site you open, it carries it encoded rather than spelled out. TrickyBird itself does reach the site, and its log records the site’s hostname. The site gets the request from TrickyBird rather than from you, so your IP address is not on that request. In your own tab, the TrickyBird toolbar prints the site’s address on purpose, so you can see where you are.
To run the service and stop abuse, TrickyBird keeps an access log: a shortened form of your IP address, the hostname of the site you connected to, and basic response details, kept for at most 48 hours. The log does not record the specific pages you open. Free use needs no account either, so there is no profile for any of it to attach to.
How to open a site, step by step
It takes 3 steps, all on the TrickyBird home page.
- Open the TrickyBird home page and find the launch box near the top.
- Paste the address of the site you want, or type a few words to search for it.
- Press Go. The site opens in the same tab, and the address bar shows one of our own addresses instead of the site’s; sometimes it is only numbers.
Is this legal?
Usually, yes. Reaching a public website that your network blocks is more a question of that network’s or your employer’s rules than of the law. Some countries restrict circumvention tools, so check the guide on proxies and the law and the policy of the network you are on. Do not use TrickyBird to get around paywalls, logins, or copyright protection, or for anything unlawful. This is general information, not legal advice.