Hello everyone,
Ankush here, back with another great post. This post is going to be very special. Suppose you created an account in Wall Street Journal, then just after a few words, it blocked your access to it and asked you to pay?
There are a variety of ways to bypass this paywall, let me discuss them in brief.
1. By Rerouting the Header’s Referrer-
Most of the pay to read platforms like to feature their articles on social media platforms. Such articles are usually free to read and compels the reader to sign up on their platform, and later after a few words or articles, they lock you behind a paywall. What if we can simulate that we have been referred from social media, even if you actually came via google search. Read on, this is possible.
2. By Spoofing our machine as a Google Crawler-
Google crawler is actually a bot that scans the articles to rank them in search results. Most sites want to comply with this. Surely, Crawler is lucky bot, but what if you had the magic spell which allows you to become one? Abra ca dabra and whoshhh, you are now the bot. I don't know about any such spells, but for sure, you can spoof the website as a google crawler. Read on, this is also possible.
3. By Disabling All Cookies-
Ever wondered, how websites like medium keeps a track of the number of articles you're reading? Simple, using cookies. Deleting them are useless, since most of the sites will be able to detect it. So, we have to make sure that they are disabled by default. So, sites would be thinking that you aren't reading any articles, even though you've been reading for years! This is also possible.
Now, you may be thinking, such tasks would require a lot of efforts. But hey, I am still here. Someone has already done the hard work of making it easier by automating the task. I am just here to introduce you with their projects so that you can thank them for their efforts. For me, a tip is enough!
As far as I know, there are 3 ways to do so, and unfortunately, 2 of them are chrome exclusive. But the 3rd one is universal, but with a catch. Read on to know more.
1. Get the Hover extension from here. The instructions to download is available on Github page. Here you only need a chromium based browser. However, hover requires some manual effort. You may need to check the above 3 ways to see which one works with the site you're testing on. Yet, it's amazing. However, the second one is fully automated, and more frequently updated.
2. Get the Bypass Paywall extension from here. Same as above, just a lot simpler. The above 2 extension also works on Quora. So, no more sign-ins.
3. Lastly the universal method. This works on all browsers, even the old IE. Go here, type the URL of the website and click on create outline. You're free. But, the only catch here is that you won't get the actual feeling of the website. As long as unfamiliarity is not an issue for you, you are free to use this method.
WOW- Word Of Warning- This post is only for educational purposes. This is just shown to show that this is possible. I am not responsible for any problems you face while trying to access any pay-to-read platform. If you can, please do support such platforms. I have no grudge with any such companies. I am not the owner of those projects. If you face any problem, just open an issue on Github, and the devs would be happy to solve them. Please don't comment regarding the technical problems you faced here.
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