[Tech Tips] How to open Youtube in Pakistan without proxy?

Its been around 3 months since Youtube was banned in Pakistan, supposedly in the wake of the anti-Muslim film Innocence of Muslims. When the film's trailer got released a load of cavemen came bawling about on the street asking to block Youtube. The government, in its signatory response, decided to block access to Youtube for an indefinite period citing the presence of blasphemous content.

The radical conservatives whose actions catalyzed this extreme response, if researched, would make up only around 2-3% of Pakistan's internet populace. This goes on to show the disproportion of the government's response; shutting down access to the world's premier video sharing site where millions of Pakistanis used to watch educational and entertainment videos.

Well, this ban didn't only lead to negatives. There are some positives as well. The use of free internet proxies like Hotspot and Spotflux flourished in the country, effectively lending government's censorship drive rudderless. Also, local video sharing websites like Tune.pk sprang up much like how the ban on Facebook, back in 2010, lead to Muslim Facebook. However, these websites are an alternative at most, I don't think they will be able to keep up once Youtube is unbanned like MFB faded into obscurity once people had regained access to Facebook.

So, now let's get to the crux of the article, how to access Youtube without those slow and pesky proxy softwares. Hotspot for one, is hated, because they just bombard you with a hell load of ads meanwhile giving abysmal speeds. Spotflux is better, it is faster and doesn't have any weird advertisement windows popping up left and right. Still, nothing beats the convenience of circumventing the turning on proxy part for accessing Youtube - you don't have sit around waiting to connect to the proxy server!
I discovered this procedure by chance, it goes like this:


1) Right-click on the internet icon in the system icons portion of the taskbar. (highlighted in yellow)

2) Select Open Network and Sharing Center.
3) Select Local Area Network.

4) Click on the Properties button. Make sure you are the administrator of your computer before doing so.

5) Double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4 in the list.

6) Click on the Use the following DNS server addresses radio button, if not selected, and enter 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 in their respective fields. These are Google's own DNS servers. Press OK on this window and the one that was open before [the previous one would automatically come up one you press OK on the first one.].

7) Now the first part is done, in the second portion you will apply these DNS settings to your router. If you don't go through this step Youtube would open but not stream.
8) Open your router's setting page by typing your router's address in your browser window. I use PTCL's router which has the address 192.168.1.1. TP-Link routers have either the address 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1.

9) Once you have entered the address you will be prompted for the username and password. If you haven't changed it, although it is recommended that you do, the combination will be admin/admin for both PTCL and TP-Link routers.
10) (for PTCL router) Then select Advanced Setup followed by DNS and enter the DNS addresses again. Save and reboot the router from Mangement.

11) (for TP-Link router) Go to DHCP then select DHCP settings. Enter 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 in the primary and secondary DNS fields respectively. Save and then restart your router.

Finally access Youtube using the https:// protocol like https://www.youtube.com.
Remember the simple http protocol won't work!
Enjoy, do let me know in the comments below how this panned out for you!‎

Tweet