How to Transfer iPhone Text Messages to Android

Switching from an iPhone to an Android phone is not as difficult as you might think. The most tedious part is transferring all your personal stuff. We’ll show you how to move your iPhone SMS messages to Android, including iMessages.

Along with photos and videos, text messages are probably one of the things you care about the most when switching phones. Nobody wants to lose all of their conversations—some of which may be very important. The good news is you don’t have to. The first thing we need to do is prepare your iPhone to transfer text messages. To do that, we simply need to make sure you’re syncing your messages with iCloud.

  • First, open the “Settings” app.

Open the "Settings" app.

Tap your profile at the top of the screen.

Tap your profile.

Select “iCloud.”

Select "iCloud."

Scroll down and make sure “Messages” is toggled on.

Toggle on "Messages."

Transfer Text Messages from iPhone to Samsung Galaxy

Samsung offers an app called “Smart Switch” that you can use to move text messages (and other stuff) from your iPhone to a Galaxy phone. You’ll need the little USB-C to USB-A adapter that came with your Samsung phone. If you don’t have one, you can buy a cheap USB-C to USB-A adapter online.

First, open the “Smart Switch” app on your Galaxy phone—download here—and select “Recieve Data.”

Select "Receive Data."

Select “iPhone/iPad” as the source.

Tap "iPhone/iPad."

Plug the adapter into your Samsung phone and then connect it to your iPhone with the USB Lightning cable.

Connect the two phones.

Smart Switch will begin “Searching for Data to Transfer.” When it’s done, you’ll see a list of things you can transfer from your iPhone. Select “Messages” and anything else you might want and tap “Transfer.”

Choose "Messages" to transfer.

This process can take a while depending on what you’re transferring. You can select “Keep Screen On” to ensure it’s not interrupted.

"Keep Screen On."

After it’s done, you can tap “Next.”

Tap "Next."

The next screen will remind you to turn off iMessage on your iPhone to make sure you get all messages.

Turn off iMessage.

That’s all there is to it! You can skip through the next few screens and you’ll see all your conversations —including iMessage—from your iPhone in your default texting app.

Transfer Text Messages from iPhone to Google Pixel

Samsung Smart Switch is a great tool because you can use it at any time. Google Pixel phones don’t have that option. You can only transfer data from a secondary phone during the initial setup process. So if your Pixel is already set up, you’re stuck with putting your data in the hands of a third-party app or resetting your phone.

Regardless, we’ll show you how it’s done. Go through the Pixel setup process and connect to your mobile network or Wi-Fi. Tap “Next” when it asks if you want to copy apps and data.

Tap "Next."

The next screen will instruct you to turn on your iPhone and unlock the screen. Tap “Next.”

Tap "Next."

Now we’ll need the USB-C to USB-A adapter that came with your Pixel phone. If you don’t have one, you can find them for cheap online. Plug it into your Pixel and then connect it to your iPhone with the USB Lightning cable. Tap “Next.”

Tap "Next."

Sign in with your Google account to continue with the setup.

Sign in with Google account and tap "Next."

The next screen will ask what you want to copy from your iPhone. Select “Messages” and anything else you’d like, then tap “Copy.”

Select "Messages."

You’ll be given the option to “Continue” with setup or leave and finish it later. Tap “Continue.”

Tap "Continue."

Continue with setup until you get to the “Your Phone’s Almost Ready” screen. Tap “Done” to finish up.

Tap "Done."

The next screen will instruct you to turn off iMessage on your iPhone to ensure you don’t miss any messages.

Turn off iMessage.

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How to Use Google Password Manager on Android

A password manager is a great thing to use if you want to keep your passwords secure and easy to remember. Google’s Password Manager built-in to Chrome is a popular option and it works on Android too. While we don’t necessarily recommend everyone use their browser’s password manager, it’s better than nothing. Plus, Google’s password manager has gotten a lot better over the years. If you use it in Google Chrome on your computer, you should use it on Android, too.

Before we get started, we’ll need to make sure you have Google’s password manager set as your “Autofill” service on your Android device. This will ensure that the passwords you save will automatically generate when you need to log in to an app or website.

Swipe down once or twice (depending on your phone) from the top of the screen and tap the gear icon to open the Settings.

Tap the "Passwords & Accounts" section.

Now select whichever service is listed under “Autofill Service.” It may already be “Google.”

Select the service under "Autofill service."

Choose “Google” from the list if it’s not already selected.

Choose "Google."

Next, go back to the previous “Passwords & Accounts” screen. You’ll see “Google” listed under “Passwords.” Tap it.

Select "Google."

This is the Google Password Manager. You can search through your saved passwords to edit the details or delete outdated ones. You’ll need to enter your security method to access any of the passwords.

Find and edit passwords.

At the top of the screen, you’ll see the “Password Checkup” tool. You can run this to see if any of your passwords should be improved for security.

Password Checkup tool.

Lastly, we’ll take a peek at the settings. Tap the gear icon in the top right corner.

Here’s where you can decide if you want Google to offer to save passwords when you enter them in apps and websites in Chrome. You can choose to automatically sign in to websites and get alerts when your passwords have been compromised.

Password Manager settings.

And if you want to use the Password Manager a lot, you can add a shortcut to the home screen.

Add it to the home screen.

That’s all there is to the Google Password Manager. It’s not the best or most secure password manager out there, but it’s probably the easiest to use if you’re a Chrome and Android user.

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How to Set Up Shadowsocks With Outline

Shadowsocks is a tool that uses the SOCKS5 proxy to reroute and disguise internet traffic and thus get past censorship blocks. It was developed initially by a Chinese programmer and is thus particularly useful in getting past the Great Firewall of China, though we’ve received reports you can use it for bypassing other regimes’ blocks, too.

However, if you’re looking to change your Netflix region or use BitTorrent, you’re much better off using a VPN. That’s something we explain in detail in our article comparing Shadowsocks vs. VPNs. The problem with Shadowsocks, though, is that it’s a bit tricky to set up, something we can hopefully help you with. There are several ways in which you can install Shadowsocks, but as many of them involve scripts cobbled together by enthusiasts, we like to use a program called Outline, which comes with a nice GUI and takes just a few minutes to set up.
  • How to Set Up Shadowsocks the Easy Way

Assuming you want to give Outline a shot, though, let’s get started with downloading the program. For this. For this, go to the Outline website and click on “get Outline.” The next page will show you download links for both the Manager and the Client, for now just install the Manager.

Outline Manager and Client

Once downloaded, open the program (for Linux you need to open the .AppImage file) and you’ll be met with a screen where you can choose the cloud service or server you’re using to route your traffic through. We’re using DigitalOcean for ours, but there are plenty of other options. DigitalOcean is the easiest option by far, though; you don’t even need to have a server ready.

Outline server options

In most cases, you’d have to set up your server beforehand, but using DigitalOcean all you need to do is link Outline to your account and the hard work is done for you. Just follow the on-screen prompts to authorize Outline to access your hosting account, all you need to do is choose a server location.

Server locations for Outline

If you’re in China, Singapore is probably your best bet, though Bengaluru in India is a good alternative; we went with Amsterdam. Whichever location you go with, just click “set up Outline” in the top right when you’re done and the program will get started. The setup process will take a few minutes.

Outline install screen

Once it’s done setting up, you’ll be greeted by Outline’s connection center, where you can set up connections—both your own as well as those of whomever you want to share the connection with—and track data usage. In the top right, you can also go to the settings screen to find information about the server as well as tweak functions to your liking. In our case, though, we want to hook up a device to the server, so we need to click on the icon next to “my access key.”

Outline's configuration screen

You’ll get a pop-up, just click “connect this device” and then make sure to copy the secure key in the next screen. After that, you’ll go to a third screen where you need to install the Outline Client. Just click “install outline” and the download will automatically start.

Outline Client installation

Once it’s downloaded, go to your downloads folder and open up the installer for the client. If it’s on the same device as the Outline Manager, the key will be automatically detected. Otherwise, you can enter it manually (in the image below, we’ve blanked part of the secure key.) Then hit “Add Server.”

Outline enter secure key

Then all you need to do to connect to your new Shadowsocks server is to hit “Connect.”

Outline client

You should now be able to access the internet through your new server. If you want to connect any other devices—including mobile devices, as Outline will work on Android and iOS as well—you should install the Outline Client on that device and enter the secure key. You can also create new secure keys if you want to spread security credentials around among friends and family, it’s up to you. Either way, you should now be able to browse the free internet.

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How to Change the Time on Windows 10

Manually Change the Time on Windows 10

If you’d like to manually specify your PC’s time, use the built-in Settings option to do that.

  • Start by launching Settings on your PC. Press the Windows+i keys and the app will open.
  • On the Settings window, choose “Time & Language.”

On the “Date & Time” page that opens, make sure both “Set Time Automatically” and “Set Time Zone Automatically” options are disabled.

Disable automatic time and time zone options.

Beneath “Set the Date and Time Manually,” click “Change.”

You’ll see a “Change Date and Time” window. Here, click the current date and time options and set them to your choice. When that’s done, at the bottom, click “Change.”

Your PC now uses your newly-specified time, and you’re all set.

Set the Time to Update Automatically on Windows 10

If you don’t wish to use the manually-specified time on your PC, you can get Windows 10 to automatically adjust the clock. Your PC syncs with Microsoft’s time servers to fetch the current time for your region.

This feature should be enabled by default, but you or another user may have disabled it in the past. To enable it again, first, open Settings by pressing Windows+i. On the Settings window, click “Time & Language.”

On the “Date & Time” page, turn on both “Set Time Automatically” and “Set Time Zone Automatically” options.

Activate the automatic time and time zone options.

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How to Fix “Page Fault in Nonpaged Area” on Windows

Some Blue Screens of Death (BSODs) are difficult or impossible to diagnose and fix, whereas others are pretty straightforward. Luckily, a Page Fault BSOD is often fixable.

  • What Causes PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA?

When your computer is performing tasks, it is constantly loading programs and files in and out of your computer’s Random Access Memory, more commonly called RAM. If your Windows PC runs out of RAM, or a program or file is inactive for a long time, Windows will start moving things from RAM to your hard drive or SSD instead. Those ‘things’ are stored in the Page File.

If something interferes with reading or writing to the page file (pagefile.sys)—or directly with your RAM itself—there is a good chance you’ll get a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

There are a handful of things that can cause the issue:

  • A faulty driver or system service
  • A corrupted hard drive or solid-state drive (SSD)
  • Malfunctioning Antivirus Software
  • Faulty Memory (RAM, Cache, or VRAM)

Diagnosing the Problem

Generally speaking, your first troubleshooting steps should always focus on anything that recently changed on your PC. Did you just update a driver, a program, or Windows? Did you install new hardware? If you did — start there. Roll back the driver you updated, remove the program, or try uninstalling the latest Windows update. If you installed new hardware, remove it and see if the issue persists.

If you aren’t sure what recently changed, you need to do a bit more digging.

When you get this BSOD, it often displays what was running at the time that things went wrong on the “What Failed” line.

An example of a BSOD specifying what caused the crash.

If your BSOD displays something there, start by Googling it. It’ll probably be enough to point you in the right direction. For example, if the thing that failed returns results for NVIDIA, you should definitely start by reinstalling or rolling back your graphics drivers.

  • General Troubleshooting

If the BSOD doesn’t give you any clue what the problem might be, and you aren’t sure what updated recently, the problem becomes more challenging to solve. Here are a few things you can try. Some of them might help you figure out what the problem is, while others might fix it.

  • Remove New Hardware

If you recently installed new hardware and your computer suddenly started experiencing BSODs, you should definitely try removing the new hardware first. While you’re at it, make sure your other components are seated properly. It is possible that something got bumped during the installation.

  • Check the Event Viewer

The Event Viewer is exactly what it sounds like — it lets you view important events that affect your PC. Events are sorted into a few different categories, like “Windows logs” and “Applications and Service Logs,” for example. They’re also sorted by severity: Information, Warning, and Error. There is a lot of information packed into Event Viewer, so it is probably worth reading a bit about what it is and how it works before you dive straight in.

In all likelihood, some error that causes a BSOD will be found under Windows Logs > System.

Go to the "System" tab, and look for any errors that precede the BSOD.

Check through the “Details” tab. Try to narrow your results to things that happened at the same time as the BSOD. Click the Start button, type “apps and features” into the search bar, and then hit Enter or click “Open.” (You an also head to Settings > Apps > Apps & Features to find this window.)

Note: The search result will be “Apps & Features,” not “Apps and Features,” but who wants to type an ampersand (the “and” sign) unless they need to?

By default, the list of programs is sorted alphabetically, but we need to change it so that they’re sorted by install date. Click the label “Name” next to “Sort By” and change it to “Install Date.”

If you spot any drivers that have been updated since you noticed the BSODs started, try installing an older version, or reinstalling the current one.

  • Disable Your Antivirus

Even the best antivirus software sometimes makes mistakes. It isn’t likely, but it is possible that your antivirus is somehow interfering with reading from or writing to the paging file somehow, thereby causing the BSOD.

The simplest way to check if your antivirus is the problem is to disable it temporarily. If the crashes stop, you’ve found the culprit.

Fixing the issue is a bit harder. If your antivirus is at fault, it is probably a result of access protection or real-time threat detection. You’ll need to add exceptions to both for the Windows paging file. How exactly you do that depends on what antivirus software you’re using. You’ll need to consult the documentation for your specific software to find out the details.

Alternatively, you could remove your third-party antivirus completely and let Microsoft Defender take over. Microsoft Defender struggled for a while, but it has been as good as any third-party option for a few years now.

  • Run a Memory (RAM) Test

Modern computer components are phenomenally complex, and like all things, they do sometimes break. Your RAM is no exception. Luckily, there are some tests you can run to determine if your RAM is faulty.

If your RAM is faulty, it is almost definitely the cause of the BSOD. There isn’t much you can do to fix faulty RAM. You can try cleaning the contacts and re-seating it, but it probably won’t help. You’ll have to replace it. The good news is that RAM isn’t particularly expensive, and it is widely available.

Swapping out RAM on a desktop PC is pretty easy and doesn’t take more than a few minutes. Laptops are a different story — they’re much more difficult to open up and work on, and in some cases the RAM is permanently attached to the motherboard. If your laptop does have RAM that is permanently attached, you’ll need to get it serviced by the manufacturer or a professional.

  • Run Chkdsk

Your RAM isn’t the only physical component that could be at fault — it could also be your hard drive or SSD. Sometimes corruption occurs because of a software fault, other times it occurs because of a hardware problem. Windows comes packaged with a tool designed specifically to diagnose and repair issues with hard drives or SSDs: the Check Disk Utility.

Check Disk, usually referred to ask Chkdsk, can repair some basic problems, and help mitigate more severe ones. If there is a problem with the file system, or there is a corrupted sector due to a software fault, it can probably fix it completely. If your hard drive has a corrupted sector due to physical damage, the most it can do is prevent it from being used in the future.

Corrupted sectors or problems with the file system can cause BSODs; running Chkdsk may fix the problem completely. Like with most computer parts, there is basically nothing you can do to repair a failing hard drive or SSD, you just have to replace it. If you find that your drive is failing, be sure to back up any important information that you might have saved on it. A hard drive can completely fail at any time and leave you unable to recover important files.

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How to Set Up Voice Access on Windows 11

Voice controls are everywhere now. They’re ubiquitous in TVs, smartphones, and cars, and they’re increasingly common in household appliances. Windows 11 also includes the ability to control your computer with your voice. All you need is a microphone and some practice. Here’s how to set up Windows Speech Recognition.

  • How to Set Up Voice Access

Windows 11, like Windows 10, includes voice control as an accessibility feature. Windows Speech Recognition isn’t enabled by default, so that’s where we’ll start.

Click the Start button and type “Settings” into the search bar, and then click “Open” or hit Enter. Alternatively, you can click the small gear icon in the new Start Menu.

Look at the left-hand side of the Settings window, and click “Accessibility.” It will be near the bottom of the list.

Scroll down until you reach a section titled “Interaction,” and then click “Speech.”

Click the switch next to “Windows Speech Recognition.”

You’ll get a popup that will walk you through some configuration options. There are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Use the best microphone you can reasonably afford. Voice recognition and natural language processing are not perfect, and trying to get it working well with distorted, muddy audio will be difficult.
  • If you need speech recognition to work as well as possible, especially in situations where it is the primary means of controlling your Windows 11 PC, you should provide it with documents to review.
  • How to Improve Your Results

You can provide the voice recognition software with more samples of your voice if you’re not getting the results you want. That option has not been moved into the new Settings app yet — it is still buried in the Control Panel. Click the Start button, type “speech recognition” into the search bar, look for the search result with “Control Panel” displayed under it, and then click “Open.”

Note: The application “Windows Speech Recognition” might be your top result when you search “speech recognition,” so make sure you click the right option.

Search "speech recognition," and make sure that you select the Control Panel option.

Click “Train Your Computer to Better Understand You” and follow all of the instructions. Remember to speak clearly, but in a way that is comfortable for you.

The process will probably take a few minutes. The more data you provide to the speech recognition model, the more accurate it will be when interpreting your instructions. You can train the model multiple times, and each time you do, it should improve the accuracy.

It is also important to learn the correct syntax when issuing commands your computer. While computers are much more proficient at interpreting instructions than they used to be, it still helps to be as precise as possible. Microsoft’s website has extensive documentation that details exactly what commands Windows Speech Recognition is programmed to recognize and how to utilize them.

If you’re wondering exactly how precise Windows Speech Recognition can be, it might interest you do know that the vast majority of this article was written using voice-to-text after only a single training session. The only significant difficulty dictating this article with Windows Speech Recognition was capitalization, hyperlinks, and formatting.

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How to Zip and Unzip Files With Gzip on Linux

There are many file compression utilities, but the one you’re guaranteed to find on every Linux distribution is gzip. If you only learn to use one compression tool, it should be gzip .

Algorithms and Trees

The gzip data compression tool was written in the early 1990s, and it’s still found in every Linux distribution. There are other compression tools available, but no matter which Linux computer you find yourself needing to work on, you’ll find gzip on it. So if you know how to use gzip, you’re good to go without the need to install anything.

gzip is an implementation of the DEFLATE algorithm which was invented—and patented—by Phil Katz of PKZIP fame. The DEFLATE algorithm improved on earlier compression algorithms which all operated on variations of a theme. The data to be compressed is scanned, and unique strings are identified and added to a binary tree.

The unique strings are allocated a unique ID token by virtue of their position in the tree. The tokens are used to replace the strings in the data and, because the tokens are smaller than the data they replaced, the file is compressed. Substituting the tokens for the original strings re-inflates the data back to its uncompressed state.

The DEFLATE algorithm added the twist that the most frequently encountered strings were allocated the smallest tokens and the least frequently encountered strings were allocated larger ones. The DEFLATE algorithm also incorporated ideas from two earlier compression methods, Huffman coding and LZ77 compression.

At the time of writing, the DEFLATE algorithm is nearly three decades old. Three decades ago data storage costs were high and transmission speeds were slow. Data compression was vitally important.

4 Ways to Free Up Disk Space on Linux

Data storage is much cheaper today, and transmission speeds are orders of magnitude faster. But we have so much more data to store, and the world over people are accessing cloud storage and streaming services. Data compression is still vitally important, even if all you’re doing is shrinking something that you need to upload or transmit, or you’re trying to claw back some space on a local hard drive.

The gzip Command

The bigger a file is, the better the compression can be. This is because of two reasons. One is there will be many repeated, identical sequences of bytes throughout a large file. The second reason is the list of strings and tokens needs to be stored in the compressed file so that decompression can take place. With a very small file that overhead can wipe out the benefits of the compression. But even with a fairly small file, there’s likely to be some reduction in size.

Compressing a File

To compress a file, all you need to do is pass the name of the file to the gzip command. We’ll check the original size of the file, compress it, and then check the size of the compressed file.

ls -lh calc-sheet.ods
gzip calc-sheet.ods
ls -lh cal-*

Compressing a spreadsheet

The original file, a spreadsheet called “calc-sheet.ods” is 11 KB,  and the compressed file—also known as an archive file—is 9.3 KB. Note that the name of the archive file is the name of the original file with “.gz” appended to it.

The first use of the ls command targets a specific file, the spreadsheet. The second use of ls looks for all files beginning with “calc-” but it only finds the compressed file. That’s because, by default, gzip creates the archive file and deletes the original file.

That’s not an issue. If you need the original file you can retrieve it from the archive file. But if you prefer to retain the original file, you can use the -k (keep) option.

gzip -k calc-sheet.ods
ls -lh calc-sheet.*

Compressing a file and retaining the original file

This time the original ODS file is retained.

Decompressing a File

To decompress a GZ archive file, use the -d (decompress) option. This will extract the compressed file from the archive and decompress it so that it is indistinguishable from the original file.

ls calc-sheet.*
gzip -d calc-sheet.ods.gz
ls calc-sheet.*

Decompressing a file with gzip

This time, we can see that gzip has deleted the archive file after extracting the original file. To retain the archive file, we need to use the -k (keep) option again, as well as the -d (decompress) option.

ls calc-sheet.*
gzip -d calc-sheet.ods.gz
ls calc-sheet.*

Decompressing a file and retaining the archive file

This time, gzip doesn’t delete the archive file.

Decompressing and Overwriting

If you try to extract a file in a directory where the original file—or a different file with the same—exists,  gzip  will prompt you to choose to abandon the extraction or to overwrite the existing file.

gzip -d text-file.txt.gz

Overwrite prompt from gzip when the file in the archive already file exists in the directory

If you know in advance that you’re happy to have the file in the directory overwritten by the file from the archive, use the -f (force) option.

gzip -df text-file.txt.gz

Forcing overwriting of an existing file

The file is overwritten and you’re silently returned to the command line.

Compressing Directory Trees

The -r (recursive) option causes gzip to compress the files in an entire directory tree. But the result might not be what you expect.

Here’s the directory tree we’re going to use in this example. The directories each contain a text file.

tree level1

Test directory tree structure

Let’s use gzip on the directory tree and see what happens.

gzip -r level1/
tree level1

Directory structure after running gzip on it

The result is gzip has created an archive file for each text file in the directory structure. It didn’t create an archive of the entire directory tree. In fact, gzip can only put a single file in an archive.

We can create an archive file that contains a directory tree and all of its files, but we need to bring another command into play. The tar program is used to create archives of many files, but it doesn’t have its own compression routines. But by using the appropriate options with tar, we can cause tar to push the archive file through gzip. That way we get a compressed archive file and a multi-file or multi-directory archive.

tar -czvf level1.tar.gz level1

The tar options are:

  • c: Create an archive.
  • z: Push the files through gzip.
  • v: Verbose mode. Print in the terminal window what tar is up to.
  • f level1.tar.gz: Filename to use for the archive file.

Output from tar working its way through the directory tree

This archives the directory tree structure and all files within the directory tree.

Getting Information About Archives

The -l (list) option provides some information about an archive file. It shows you the compressed and uncompressed sizes of the file in the archive, the compression ratio, and the name of the file.

gzip -l leve1.tar.gz
gzip -l text-file.txt.gz

Using the -l list option to see compression statistics for an archive

You can check the integrity of an archive file with the -t (test) option.

gzip -t level1.tar.gz

Testing an archive with the -t option

If all is well, you’re silently returned to the command line. No news is good news.

If the archive is corrupt or not an archive you’re told about it.

gzip -t not-an-archive.gz

Using the -t option to test a file that isn't an archive

Speed Versus Compression

You can choose to prioritize the speed of creation of the archive or the degree of compression. You do this by providing a number as an option, from -1 through top -9. The -1 option gives the fastest speed at the sacrifice of compression and -9 gives the highest compression at the sacrifice of speed.

Unless you provide one of these options, gzip uses -6.

gzip -1 calc-sheet.ods
ls -lh calc-sheet.ods.gz
gzip -9 calc-sheet.ods
ls -lh calc-sheet.ods.gz
gzip -6 calc-sheet.ods
ls -lh calc-sheet.ods.gz

Using gzip with different priorities for speed and compression

With a file as small as this, we didn’t see any significant difference in speed of execution, but there was a small difference in compression.

Interestingly, there is no difference between using level 9 compression and level 6 compression. You can only wring so much compression out of any given file and in this case, that limit was reached with level 6 compression. Cranking it up to 9 brought no further reduction in filesize. With bigger files, the difference between level 6 and level 9 would be more pronounced.

Compressed, Not Protected

Don’t mistake compression for encryption or any form of protection. Compressing a file doesn’t give it any security or enhanced privacy. Anyone with access to your file can use gzip to decompress it.

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What Is Shadowsocks, and How Does It Work?

A wooden figure blocking connections.

If you’re looking to escape internet censorship, one interesting option is something called Shadowsocks. Not only is its name intriguing, it also promises to get you past any blocks safely. Let’s see what this protocol can and cannot do.

What Is Shadowsocks?

Shadowsocks is a connection tool that lets you circumvent censorship. It’s used widely in China by people looking to tunnel under the Great Firewall—the digital barrier that keeps the Chinese internet “safe” from foreign influence—as it’s completely free, though you’ll need some tech know-how to set it up.

In fact, Shadowsocks is so good at getting past China’s blocks that there’s a good case to be made for it over another tool, virtual private networks (VPNs). Not only is using Shadowsocks free, it also hides traffic a little better than VPNs do. However, before we go into any more detail, let’s first go over where Shadowsocks comes from.

Who Developed Shadowsocks?

Shadowsocks was developed by a Chinese programmer only known as “clowwindy,” who put the initial commit (a version of a program or script) on GitHub in 2012. The protocol was a huge success and clowwindy kept working on it for several years, as well as developing a free VPN called ShadowVPN.

In 2015, however, Clowwindy left a message on a GitHub thread stating that the police had found him and had asked him to stop working on Shadowsocks and, presumably, ShadowVPN. He also was forced to delete the code on GitHub and he had “no choice but to obey.” He added that “I hope one day I’ll live in a country where I have freedom to write any code I like without fearing.”

What Happened to Clowwindy?

After this last message, it has remained quiet surrounding clowwindy. According to this blog post, after clowwindy had an “invitation to tea” (a term with about the same level of threat as the KGB’s infamous “friendly chat”), they briefly surfaced to show they were okay, and then faded away.

Thankfully, though, clowwindy’s work has not been relegated to the dustbin of history. Instead, a team of enthusiasts has carried on their work and kept working on Shadowsocks. At the time of writing in March 2022, it’s a powerful piece of communication technology that has gotten even better at getting past blocks.

How Does Shadowsocks Work?

Shadowsocks is interesting because it’s like a lot of other things, but just different enough that it deserves its own category. Technically, it’s just a proxy: it reroutes an internet connection through a third server, making it appear like you’re in a different location.

In a regular network connection, like the one you’re likely using now, you connect to your internet service provider’s server and then to the website you want to visit. If the authorities want to block a site, the internet service provider (ISP) is usually told to prevent access to its IP address. Using a proxy means you go from the ISP to an unblocked server and then to the site you want.

However, regular proxies are notoriously unsafe: there’s no good way to secure the connection, for one, and generally speaking, most sites can figure out quite easily that you’re using one. Shadowsocks, however, is based on a proxy protocol called SOCKS5 that secures the connection using an AEAD cipher—roughly along the same lines as an SSH tunnel.

Though AEAD ciphers are generally considered not quite as secure as the more common AES encryption (here’s one academic paper if you’d like to know more), they’re a big step up from regular proxies. They generally either use an HTTP-based protocol—pretty much just a rerouted unsecured connection—or an earlier SOCKS version which also isn’t encrypted. Using either one means you’re leaving yourself open to possible spying by, well, almost anybody.

Shadowsocks and VPNs

Reading the above, you may think that Shadowsocks sounds an awful lot like virtual private networks, which also reroute connections, but secure them as well. However, because Shadowsocks’ encryption is a little more lightweight, it doesn’t offer the same security as a VPN does.

However, the lighter encryption does mean that Shadowsocks can fly under the radar better than a VPN can. If they wanted to, an ISP could clearly identify VPN traffic, but a Shadowsocks connection is a lot harder to identify because it looks practically identical to a regular HTTPS connection.

Downsides to Shadowsocks

Because of these reasons, Shadowsocks is a great choice to dodge censorship blocks. However, it’s not perfect and there are some downsides, especially if compared to VPNs or even Tor.

For one, Shadowsocks requires a bit of setup and you need to understand a little how computers and connections work. VPNs generally just need to be installed and you’re good to go; using Shadowsocks means you need to sit down and read through the documentation and set up a server.

Depending on how you set it up, there’s a chance that Shadowsocks might take a good whack out of your internet speed. Any rerouting technology will reduce your speed, but some are worse than others. A good server will reduce the pain, but generally speaking, using Shadowsocks means a much slower connection. Also, unlike VPNs, you can’t use Shadowsocks to change your Netflix region or even to torrent files.

However, you could also argue that none of that matters: Shadowsocks was developed as a way to circumvent the blocks placed on free speech by a despotic regime and to do so for free. At that, it succeeds admirably and we recommend anybody looking to escape internet censorship at least look into it.

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How to Escape Internet Censorship

As you probably know, the internet isn’t free everywhere: in some countries, people are met with blocks when accessing sites the government doesn’t approve of. Thankfully, there are ways around these blocks, and you don’t even have to be particularly tech-savvy to use them.

Warning: We probably don’t need to tell you this, but if you’re in a country that limits freedom of expression enough to restrict the internet, you need to be very careful when circumventing any blocks. There could be electronic countermeasures in place or even physical ones. As has happened in Myanmar and Russia, police could stop you on the street to check your smartphone. Please, be careful and keep safe.

  • How Blocks Work

To block our site, you would somehow need to cut off access from your ISP to our IP address. That’s how Chinese censorship works: It simply blocks traffic to any IP addresses that have been flagged. These flags can be for any number of reasons, some are because sites have content considered subversive by the authorities, while others offer gambling or pornography.

The nature of the block also reveals how we can get around it: if your government (or even just your ISP) is blocking an IP address, all you need to do is to connect to another, non-blocked IP address and have it connect to the blocked IP address for you, forwarding the traffic through the unblocked IP address for any other sites you want to visit. There are several ways to do so, and we’ll go over a few options below.

  • Proxies: Not Recommended

If diverting your connection in the way we described above sounds like something you’ve heard before, you’re probably already familiar with proxies. These little apps—usually simply accessed through a website—will reroute your connection through an IP address so as to make you appear in that location rather than your own.

Proxies are great for passing a regional block on YouTube or something similarly innocuous. However, for something a little more serious like passing a censorship block, using a proxy is a very bad idea indeed. The connection usually isn’t secured in any way and you can very easily be tracked—claims from proxy providers notwithstanding. Whatever you do, don’t use a proxy to get past blocks.

  • Shadowsocks

There is, however, one exception to the “no-proxies” rule, namely a protocol called Shadowsocks. Though it also doesn’t protect the connection the same as other proxies, it’s less easy to detect than one thanks to it disguising itself. Where a regular proxy can easily be detected by most blocks, Shadowsocks is a HTTPS connection, thus tricking the detection system.

Shadowsocks was developed by a Chinese programmer and it’s widely used there to get past the Great Firewall. There’s no question it works. However, if you’re having any trouble with it or you’re worried about active searches for proxy traffic, you may want to escalate your block-busting by using a VPN.

  • Virtual Private Networks

Virtual private networks are powerful, though slightly overhyped security tools that can help you evade censorship blocks and remain safe while doing so—on paper, at least. VPNs not only reroute your connection, they’ll also encrypt it through a so-called VPN tunnel, which prevents anybody from seeing what you’re doing.

We have a full article on how VPNs work if you’re interested.

For most people, most of the time, VPNs are the best way to get around censorship blocks, but they come with some downsides. The biggest is probably that they cost money, even the cheapest ones out there will set you back $5 to $10 per month, which is more than some people can afford.

The other issue is that you can’t always be sure whether the VPN you have is a good one: the marketing madness surrounding them rises in pitch every few months, it seems. We’ve made a selection of the best VPNs that we feel offer the best value; Mullvad is probably the best choice if you need a cost-effective solution that gets past any censorship blocks, while VyprVPN claims to have a special protocol that can go unnoticed by authorities.

  • ExpressVPN
  • SurfShark
  • Windscribe
  • ProtonVPN
Hide.me
  • ExpressVPN
  • Private Internet Access
  • NordVPN
  • CyberGhost
Best VPN for China
  • VyprVPN
  • Mullvad VPN

As we alluded to above, VPNs aren’t bulletproof—for one, police could simply check your phone for VPN software—as well as being possibly too expensive. One method of bypassing censorship that is harder to detect, as well as being free, is to create an SSH tunnel to a trusted server outside of your country and access the internet through that.

The downside is that you need some tech-savviness to set up an SSH tunnel. We have a full guide on how to use SSH tunneling that will get you on your way, though. If you have the equipment and knowledge necessary, this may be the best option yet.

Other Methods

Besides the methods above, there are other ways to get around blocks, but these usually require some more specialized technical knowledge or some extra setup, as is the case with changing your DNS server or using Tor. Decentralized VPNs are another promising technology. However, as these services are still in their infancy, we wouldn’t quite risk using them yet.

How to Browse Anonymously With Tor

However, to repeat our earlier point, there is an inherent risk when getting around government blocks. Torrenters who get caught risk a fine, but some repressive governments may have a much worse penalty for you if you’re caught circumventing censorship. If unsure, it could be better to not take the risk and wait for better days. Whatever you decide, we hope you stay safe and those better days come soon.
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How to Clear Your Browser History on Oculus Quest 2

First, open Oculus Browser on your Quest 1 or 2 headset (these instructions work for both models). You’ll find the browser in your app library.

Click "Browser" in your Oculus app library.

In the Oculus Browser window, select the menu button (three dots) in the upper-right corner.

In the Oculus Browser, click the three-dots menu button in the upper-right corner of the window.

In the menu that appears on the side of the window, select “Clear Browsing Data.”

In Oculus Browser, select "Clear Browsing Data."

After that, a small “Clear Data” window will open. If necessary, place a checkmark beside “Browsing History” (and any other items you want to clear), then click the “Clear Data” button.

In Oculus Browser, check "Browsing History" and select "Clear Data."

The Oculus Browser will clear the browsing data you selected. You can repeat this process any time you like. In the future, if you don’t want you clear your browsing data manually after every Oculus Browser session, you can use Private Mode by clicking the browser menu and selecting “Enter Private Mode.” Private Mode will prevent the browser from keeping track of your browsing history.

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