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TrickyBird

Reference site

Unblock Wikipedia without a VPN or a download

Wikipedia opens through TrickyBird even when the network you are on blocks it. Paste the address into the launch box, press Launch, and the article loads in the same browser tab on one of our own addresses, which carries the Wikipedia address inside it, encoded rather than spelled out.

The block usually lives on a network you do not run: an office firewall, a public Wi-Fi filter, in a few countries the ISP itself. The devices on those networks tend to be as closed as the network, with no way to run an installer, which is where advice that starts with an app ends. TrickyBird asks for none of that. It is a web page, so opening it takes the same permission as opening any other page.

Wikipedia is about as proxy-friendly as a large site gets, and what comes through is the whole article: the text, the infobox, the images, and the references at the bottom, which is usually why somebody needed it in the first place. Searching from inside the site works too, and it all renders at desktop and phone widths.

What to expect from Wikipedia

An article comes through whole, infobox, images and references included, and searching from inside the site works, at desktop and phone widths.

Is wikipedia.org blocked on your network?

The check asks wikipedia.org for one small file directly from your connection, not through TrickyBird, so your network can see that request like any direct visit.

One of our addresses, with the site’s encoded into it

The site loads in the tab you are already in, and this address will not always look the same, since sometimes it is only numbers.

How does TrickyBird open Wikipedia?

Your browser talks to TrickyBird, and TrickyBird talks to Wikipedia for you. It fetches the page, rewrites the HTML and CSS so every link, image, and stylesheet points back through its own address instead of wikipedia.org, and streams the result into your tab. A small script stays in the page and catches what you do next, a click into an article, a new search, a jump to another language, and routes those through the proxy too.

The result is that your browser does not connect to wikipedia.org; its requests go to one of our own addresses, and Wikipedia sees TrickyBird’s server connecting instead of your IP address. MediaWiki builds its pages on the server and puts no bot check in front of them, so there was nothing exotic to work around here.

What works on Wikipedia right now?

Reading, in one piece. An article arrives with its infobox, its images, and its references, so a citation you came to check is there to check. The search box and its results work as well, which means you can start from a half-remembered phrase rather than a link somebody sent you.

That covers what brings most people to this page: a source to verify, a topic to look up, an assignment that needs a reference the network will not serve. Articles render at desktop and phone widths, so a narrow screen shows the same page a monitor does.

Why is Wikipedia blocked in the first place?

For a free encyclopedia it gets filtered more often than you would guess. School districts and workplaces block it over bandwidth, or over a handful of specific articles, and the filter walls off the whole site rather than the pages it objects to. A few national ISPs filter it as well. The same category rules sweep up news sites, which is why the BBC is often unreachable on the same network.

TrickyBird’s job here is narrow. It reaches a public site your network blocks, keeps your IP address away from Wikipedia, and leaves your network with a connection to TrickyBird and no sight of which site you opened through it. It is not a tool for defeating a national censorship system, and it is not offered for use from a sanctioned region.

Questions

Why would a network block Wikipedia?

Usually a filter rule rather than the law. Networks block Wikipedia over bandwidth, or over a few specific articles, and end up walling off the whole site; a small number of national ISPs filter it too. Reaching a public site your own network blocks is generally a question of that network’s acceptable-use policy, so it is worth checking before you rely on it.

Can I search Wikipedia through TrickyBird, or only open links?

Both. The search box and its results render through the proxy, so you can start from a half-remembered phrase instead of a link somebody handed you. Clicking a result, or following references and interlanguage links inside an article, keeps working, because the script in the page routes each request back through TrickyBird. DuckDuckGo opens through TrickyBird too, if you would rather start from a general search.

Does it work on a phone or on a device where I cannot install apps?

Yes. TrickyBird needs a browser tab and nothing else: no admin rights and no software you have to install first. Paste the Wikipedia address and the encyclopedia loads in the tab you already have. Articles are checked at desktop and phone widths, so a managed laptop and a phone show the same page.

Does what I read on Wikipedia stay private?

Wikipedia sees TrickyBird’s server instead of your IP address, and your network sees TrickyBird instead of Wikipedia. Which articles you open is not recorded, and there is no account for a history to attach to. What the edge keeps is a shortened form of your IP address and the destination hostname, held for at most 48 hours.

Other sites people unblock

Open Wikipedia now

Press the button and the site opens in this tab. You do not need to install anything or create an account.