How to bypass or open blocked Facebook in office, college, school

by Sudip Majhi

Facebook has become an integral part of our live, where many people spend countless minutes every year. There could be times when you might not open Facebook when blocked in office, school, or college because your system administrator has blocked it from the core. At such a moment, you can follow these methods to bypass blocked Facebook and open it on your office computer without any problem.

Almost all the internet users have Facebook accounts. However, if it is blocked in your office, college or school, you might have already tried some tricks to get on Facebook. If all your attempts were failed, don’t worry as this following list contains some of the best working methods to unblock and access Facebook in office, school, or any workplace.

How to open Facebook when blocked in office

Generally, you face this problem because the network admin blocks Facebook for the entire network. In most of the cases, the network admin or manager uses server-side blocking and that is the reason, why people fail to unblock Facebook from a network where it is blocked.

How to open Facebook when blocked in office

To open Facebook when blocked in office, follow these steps:

  1. Access Facebook by connecting to a mobile hotspot
  2. Use VPN app on Windows and macOS
  3. Use VPN extensions for browser to unblock Facebook
  4. Open blocked Facebook using proxy website
  5. Use TOR or Opera browser to access blocked sites
  6. End unnecessary tasks in Task Manager
  7. Disable active VPN and proxy to open Facebook in office
  8. Disable antivirus and firewall software
  9. Access Facebook by switching to Google DNS
  10. Unblock Facebook using IP address
  11. Access Facebook with secure proxy
  12. Check system Hosts file
  13. Try m.facebook.com to bypass blocked Facebook
  14. Use shortened URL to get on Facebook website at work
  15. Use Ultrasurf to unlock Facebook through secure channel
  16. Use Linux live disk

To learn more about these methods in detail, continue reading.

1. Access Facebook by connecting to a mobile hotspot

If you can connect to a secondary internet connection, this is possible to bypass Facebook blocking in your office. If your employer gave you a laptop, this is very easy to connect to a personal Wi-Fi network. However, if you are using a desktop computer, you need a USB cable to get USB tethering working. Before doing that, don’t forget to disable the current network. To do so, press Win+R, type ncpa.cpl, and hit the Enter button.

disable ethernet connection on windows 10

Next, you can right-click on the existing Ethernet connection, and select the Disable option.

2. Use VPN app on Windows and macOS

This is a very common technique used by many people to get on Facebook when blocked in workplace, school, college etc. Virtual Private Network allows you open blocked websites. It works smoothly when your network admin has blocked Facebook in the entire network. It doesn’t matter which technique he/she has used; you can certainly unblock blocked Facebook website. VPN lets you connect to a different server and then the server gets connected to Facebook server. In other words, your current network doesn’t need to connect to the Facebook server and that is how you can bypass Facebook access restriction in office, college, school, etc. Some of the best VPN apps service for 2021 are: ExpressVPN NordVPN CyberGhost You can any one of them on your Windows or Mac computer to unblock Facebook.

3. Use VPN extensions for browser to unblock Facebook

Sometimes a simple browser VPN extension can do the magic. If nothing is working so far, you should try out this method as well. There are tons of free and paid browser VPN apps such as Hola, Zenmate, etc. After installing one of them, turn it on and connect to a USA or UK based VPN server. Then, check if it solves the issue or not.

4. Open blocked Facebook using proxy website

Just like private or shared proxy, a proxy website can also be helpful if you want to open blocked Facebook website at work. It doesn’t matter whether you have a Windows computer or Mac, you can certainly use online proxy sites to unblock Facebook. An online proxy website can let you bypass all the system-wide restrictions involved your computer. How a proxy website works is pretty cool. If you have a little bit of knowledge about this, you might know that proxy and VPN work quite similarly. Just like VPN, a proxy website doesn’t let you connect to a website directly. Instead, it helps you connect to the proxy website’s server and that server will connect the Facebook server. Best free Facebook proxy sites 2021 are:

https://www.hidemyass.com/proxy
https://kproxy.com/
https://whoer.net/webproxy
https://www.proxysite.com/
https://hide.me/en/proxy
https://www.croxyproxy.com/
https://www.filterbypass.me/
https://www.vpnbook.com/webproxy/
https://www.megaproxy.com/freesurf/

5. Use TOR or Opera browser to access blocked sites

Tor browser is one of the most popular web browsers out there, which is being used by many people, who want to browse the internet anonymously. It doesn’t matter where you are, if you are using a compatible operating system, you can install Tor browser and browse the web through Tor server or network.

use vpn to open and unblock facebook in office The same browser can let you get on Facebook at work or office. The best thing is Tor browser is available for almost all the popular platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android etc. On the other hand, Opera browser introduced in-built VPN service, allowing users to browse the internet anonymously. It is recommended to check both browsers to bypass blocked Facebook in office.

https://www.torproject.org/

https://www.opera.com/

6. End unnecessary tasks in Task Manager

Many network administrators use different employee monitor apps on Windows, Mac, Linux or whatever operating system your workplace or school is using. Although an average employee monitor doesn’t let the admin hide the app icon, most of the similar tools can be hidden in the background. access blocked facebook in office You may not be able to find the app unless you check the system minutely. For example, HT Employee Monitor is a very popular tool and you can keep it running in the background without leaving any footprint. However, it does leave a stamp in the Task Manager. Having said that, if your network admin is using such software to block access of websites at work or school, you can search for the suspicious task in the Task Manager. Windows has a very well organized and feature-rich Task Manager that you can use to find out whether any app is running in the background or not. If you find something unusual, you can kill that process and check whether you can open blocked sites on your computer or not.

7. Disable active VPN and proxy to open Facebook in office

At times, the system administrator uses VPN and custom proxy servers to deal with the outgoing traffic – hence, the blocking on your computer. Therefore, if you turn off the enabled VPN and proxy settings, you would be able open Facebook in office. Considering that you are using a Windows 10 computer, press Win+I to open Windows Settings > go to Network & Internet > VPN. Check if there is any VPN profile added or not. If yes, you have to delete it. Similarly, switch to the Proxy tab, and make sire the Use a proxy server button is turned off. bypass blocked facebook in office If not, toggle the corresponding button and restart your computer.

8. Disable antivirus and firewall software

Network administrators use different antivirus as well as firewall programs at work and school. There are many such tools those can block the access to Facebook or some other sites. Therefore, this is always very beneficial to check whether a third-party antivirus or firewall program is running in the background or not. If any such app is running, do terminate it temporarily and check if you can unblock Facebook or not. If you can, do not re-open it until or unless you need that urgently.

9. Access Facebook by switching to Google DNS

DNS of Domain Name System is the most crucial part of any website. For your information, DNS helps the website admin to map the domain with the server. That is the reason, why every website has a unique IP address unless or until some websites are hosted on a shared server. Keeping them aside, many network admins block the website from host and that is the reason, why you can’t access Facebook.com in office. However, if you use a different DNS than your ISP, there is a chance to access Facebook at your workplace or college. In this method, you are about to know how to change DNS server in Windows and Mac so that you can unblock the Facebook website. switch to google dns To change DNS server in Windows 10/8/7, you need to follow these steps: Open Network Connections. For that, press Win + R, type ncpa.cpl and hit the Enter button. Right-click on your current connection (Ethernet/Wi-Fi) > Properties. Double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Select the Use the following DNS server addresses option and enter these:

Preferred DNS server: 8.8.8.8 
Alternate DNS server: 8.8.4.4

Click OK to save changes. Restart your computer and open blocked Facebook. For your information, the aforementioned method teaches you how to open Facebook when it is blocked by server.

10. Unblock Facebook using IP address

This is a little tweak you can use to bypass Facebook blocking in office or college and get on Facebook within moments. Most of the network administrators use either facebook.com or www.facebook.com while blocking the social networking site. In case you do not know, every website is connected to a server and every server has an IP address, which is near to equiponderant to the actual website. Therefore, you can follow these steps to find out Facebook IP address and unblock Facebook website using IP address. If you are using Windows 10/8/7, open Command Prompt by pressing Win+R, and type

ping www.facebook.com -t

ping facebook.com to get ip address If you are using Mac/Linux, you need to open Terminal and type

ping www.facebook.com

After entering the command, you should start getting some replies with the IP address of Facebook. Generally, it shows an IPv4 address. You can copy this IP address, and paste it in the address bar of your browser. If you are in luck, you can access Facebook from your office or school or college. This particular method has some drawbacks and those are: First, the IP address gets redirected to facebook.com. That means, it may not work all the time and under all the conditions. It depends on the network admin and how he/she has blocked a website. If website redirection is possible during the blocking, you will be able to open Facebook using this method. Second, you always have to use that command to find out the latest IP address of Facebook server. Facebook is not bound to only one server and that is the reason it gets changed over time. Third, there are some system administrators, who block the Command Prompt in Windows 10/8/7 or Terminal in Mac or Linux. If you are unable to open Command Prompt or Terminal in your system, you can use some web tools to find out the IP address of any website.

http://www.hcidata.info/host2ip.cgi

You can visit those websites and enter facebook.com to get the IP address. After obtaining it, enter the IP address in address bar and hit the Enter/Return button.

11. Access Facebook with secure proxy

Many times, the network admin blocks websites using Firewall. That means no matter what, your computer’s firewall won’t bypass that incoming or outgoing connection directly. Having said that, you can use an online proxy website that may help you bypass the firewall restriction on your computer and let you open Facebook without any problem. A proxy works like a VPN or Virtual Private Network. The advantage of using a proxy is you do not have to download any software or browser plugin. You just need to enter a few things in your system to get it running. However, you need to find a secure proxy site that is compatible with your system. There are many companies, which provide a proxy for your work. The most important thing you should keep in mind is you should purchase a private proxy. The main difference between shared proxy and private proxy is you do not have to share your proxy with anybody else while using private proxy. On the other hand, when a proxy is being shared between many people, that is called shared proxy. This is always beneficial to use a private proxy rather than a shared proxy. Although the price of a private proxy is comparatively higher than shared proxy, it worth your money.

12. Check system Hosts file

It doesn’t matter which operating system you are using in your computer; you can certainly block website using Hosts file. A Hosts file is such a system file that can manage your incoming and outgoing connections. It can be responsible for the website blocking in your office or educational institution. This is very easy to open the Hosts file on Windows and Mac. To open Windows Hosts file, you can follow these steps: Search for Notepad in the Taskbar search box and select Run as administrator. Press Ctrl+O and enter this path:

C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\

Double-click on the Hosts file to open it in Notepad. open notepad as administrator on windows 10 To open Mac Hosts file, you need to follow these steps: Open Terminal. Press Cmd + Space and search for “terminal”.

Type this- sudo nano /etc/hosts

Hit the Return button. Enter your password and press the Return button. You can find and open the Hosts file. After opening the Hosts file on either Windows or Mac, you need to find whether there is an entry related to Facebook or not. If you can find anything related to Facebook, you have to select and delete it. After that, check if you can open blocked Facebook in your office, school or not.

13. Try m.facebook.com to bypass blocked Facebook

The mobile version of is equally handy when you need to access Facebook when blocked in office or workplace or school. Facebook has a dedicated mobile version of their website and the URL is this:

https://m.facebook.com

You can try to open this website instead of Facebook.com. Many people claimed that this trick has been working without any problem. However, it may not work if the site admin has blocked Facebook through firewall since most of the firewall software blocks the domain like this:

*.facebook.com

That means no matter what you add in front of Facebook.com, it will keep blocking everything. Nonetheless, you can open Facebook if the administrator hasn’t used server side blocking of firewall.

14. Use shortened URL to get on Facebook website at work

Shortened URL can be a very good solution of this problem. In case you do not know about short URL, you should read on. Many times you can find some URLs like – bit.ly/abcd. These are shortened URL. You can convert any URL to short URL so that you can share it with anyone without revealing the actual domain name. You can utilize the same method to get around blocked Facebook website at work or school or anywhere else. This is very easy to convert a regular URL to a shortened URL as there are many web apps those can let you do that. The most popular and useful URL shortener is Bitly, which is free and you can use it from any device. Just head over to the https://bitly.com and enter the URL of Facebook. After getting things done, you should find a dedicated and unique short URL on your screen. Following that, you can paste the shortened URL in your browser’s address bar and hit the Enter button.

15. Use Ultrasurf to unlock Facebook through secure channel

Ultrasurf is not a browser. It is a secure tunnel that allows users to access any website through an encrypted network. It works with various browsers including Google Chrome. You need to download the file, extract it and verify the digital signature. The best thing is Ultrasurf is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

16. Use Linux live disk

In many high security zones, this is not possible to bypass the network barrier in any way. No matter what you do, you end up wasting your precious time. In that situations, you can rely on only one thing – live disk of Ubuntu. If you do not know about Ubuntu, you can read on. Ubuntu is a Linux based operating system, which can let you bypass all the restrictions of your current operating system used at your workplace or educational institute. However, you need to create an Ubuntu live disk, which takes hardly a few couple of minutes. To get started, you need to opt for ‘Try Ubuntu’ option. After following a few screen instructions, you end up with Ubuntu user interface.

How do I get around Facebook blocked at work?

To get around Facebook blocked at work, you need to use a VPN app, TOR browser, check System Host file, etc. If the administrator has blocked Facebook using the System Host file, you need to remove all the content from that file, which are related to Facebook.com.

How do I unblock Facebook from work computer?

To unblock Facebook from work computer, you need to try a proxy service or VPN app, close all the unnecessary tasks using Task Manager, install VPN extension in browser and so on. Apart from that, using a live CD of Linux distribution can let you access Facebook when blocked in office.

Wrap up: Bypass blocked Facebook in office

These are some of the best methods and ways to bypass blocked Facebook in office. It is suggested to go through all these aforementioned steps to know which method works for you. Hopefully, you can open and access Facebook using one of the ways.

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