The Frigate extension is an analogue of the once popular anonymizers. It allows you to open blocked sites, for example, social media, at work or at school. The principle of bypassing the blocking is simple - the system administrator sets firewall, which filters out requests to specific websites. Frigate sends a request not directly to the resource, but through a special pad, allowing you to log into Vkontakte at work.
The extension is available for all popular browsers. In this article, I will describe in detail the nuances of installing and configuring the Frigate Chrome version.
Which version of Frigate should I choose?
On the official page of the plugin, two main versions of Frigate CDN and Frigate 3 are presented in the store Chrome extensions another one was found, Frigate Light. Also, the site has a version for residents of Ukraine, containing preset lists of portals blocked in the country (VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Yandex, etc.).
After installing all the announced versions of the extension in Chrome, we found out the following features:
- Frigate Light and CDN have an equally wide range of anonymity settings. The reason for the division into different versions remains unclear;
- Frigate 3 is easier to set up, but there is no way to change the server to access the Internet on the fly.
There are a huge variety of means of accessing sites through proxy servers. Before making your final installation decision, check out our review.
The third version is suitable for people “far” from the Internet and computer technology, due to ease of installation and minimum settings. If you need the entire arsenal, Frigate Light is your choice, and the further review will be based on it.
Downloading and installing Frigate in Google Chrome
Using the search in the Chrome store, you will find a dozen clones of the original plugin. Therefore, you should download it either from the official website or via the direct link below.
1. Follow the link – https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/frigate-light/, to the extension page in the Chrome store. Click Install.
2. To check if the installation is correct, open the "chrome://extensions/" page in the address bar and check if the extension icon appears in the upper right corner of the screen.
Don’t rush to rejoice; before you start using it, you should make a number of simple settings.
Basic plugin settings
An important feature of Frigate’s work is Activation of proxy servers occurs only when opening sites included in the list. Access to resources outside the list occurs without hiding the real IP address.
1. Click on the extension icon right click mouse and go to "Options".
2. Create own list sites. To do this, enter the name in the format shown in the figure. Click Add List.
3. Go to the created directory and specify the addresses of the resources that will be accessed using the application.
4. Return to the settings page and disable pop-up advertising (we are talking about advertising from the creators of the service, and not banners placed on website pages).
Are you sure you did everything right? I suggest you practice.
1. Check whether the extension is enabled; at this moment, its icon should not have the inscription “Off”.
2. Open the service - 2ip.ru. Your IP address, provider and country must change.
3. Changing the above data occurs by clicking on the country flag in the window located in the right corner of the monitor.
Congratulations, you have mastered the basic settings and management of the plugin and are ready to work independently.
Speed of embedded servers
One cannot ignore an important fact - most free anonymizers provide low speed Internet connections. This factor can significantly affect the loading time of pages; I won’t say anything about downloading files. Therefore, I conducted my own connection speed measurements.
The initial “Download” and “Ping” speeds look like this.
The test results are summarized in a table. Based on this data, you can choose the most comfortable server to work with.
*Data may vary depending on the time of day.
What to do if Frigate does not work
The principle of operation of the plugin is so simple that there is nothing to break. Below I will list the main breakdowns and the necessary actions to fix them.
- The site does not open, the timeout has expired. Check if your Internet is working, if so, change the access server in the extension;
- The site is blocked by the provider. Check if the plugin is activated. Perhaps the creators of the application have included this web resource in the stop list, in accordance with the requirements of Roskomnadzor;
- Nothing works at all. This is an extremely rare case - try using Frigate later or reinstall it.
The fact cannot be ignored - access to those blocked on the territory Russian Federation sites may be regarded as a violation of current legislation.
The friGate extension is designed to gain access to blocked sites. The friGate extension can be used to bypass site blocking, because without the use of special tools and resources, it will be impossible to open a blocked web page on the Internet.
At the moment, the number of blocked sites on the Internet is rapidly increasing. Therefore, users have to look for workarounds to overcome the prohibitions. What can you do if this is reality? There are many ways to circumvent the ban on visiting websites on the Internet. You can read about many methods on my website in the “Anonymity” section.
One of the popular ways to bypass site blocking on your computer is to use a browser add-on, in this case, the friGate extension (plugin). According to Frigate developers, when surfing the Internet using the extension, the speed of access to sites does not decrease, thanks to special algorithms.
The friGate extension differs from other extensions in the way it works: when the extension is enabled, all traffic does not go through a proxy server, like other extensions, but as usual. Only traffic to blocked sites that are on a special list passes through a proxy. You can independently add sites to your user list so that Frigate immediately opens these sites.
Main characteristics of the friGate extension:
- unblocking sites
- traffic encryption
- speeding up access to sites
- change IP address
Thanks to its operating algorithm, the friGate extension itself determines the accessibility of the site. Therefore, if the site has not been blocked (the extension has a special list of blocked sites on the Internet), access to the site is carried out without using a proxy.
friGate, to bypass site blocking, works only with sites included in a special list. Other blocked sites that are not on the list will not open. In order to access such sites, these sites will need to be added to the list of supported sites.
The friGate extension can be installed in your browser from the official website. Extension available for browsers Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera.
frigate website
The extension is also available for installation in the Chrome and Firefox stores. friGate can be installed on their computer by users of browsers based on Google Chrome (Yandex Browser, Amigo, Chromium, etc.) and Mozilla Firefox (Pale Moon, Cyberfox, Waterfox, etc.).
To install friGate for the Opera browser, install the extension directly from the developer's website in the Opera browser, or install the extension from the Chrome store using this method. After downloading, agree to install the friGate CDN extension in the Opera browser.
The friGate extension for Yandex Browser can be installed in the browser directly from the Chrome Internet Store.
After installing the extension in the browser, you will see the extension icon, with which you can find out the operating status of this extension.
In this image, you can see the statuses of the Frigate extension in different situations.
Thus, based on the image of the extension icon, you can understand the state of work with sites on the Internet.
When you go to a site that is blocked and has been included in the list, a window will appear under the extension icon with a message stating that this site is on the friGate list. Here is the flag of the country on behalf of which, using a proxy, you enter this blocked site. After clicking on the flag, you can change the country through which you enter the site.
friGate settings
The extension settings differ in Firefox and Chrome browsers. More convenient and advanced settings are available in the version of the extension for the Google Chrome browser. You can enter the friGate CDN extension settings by right-clicking on the extension icon, in context menu You will need to select the “Options” item.
In the settings you can configure the following extension parameters:
- Setting up a list of sites
- Proxy settings
- Anonymity
- Alert Settings
- Additional settings
- Advertising settings
In the site list settings, you will see that a global friGate list has already been created, which includes a number of sites. You can create your own custom list, or multiple lists if you prefer.
To add a new list, enter the name of the list in the appropriate field, and then click on the “Add List” button. Next, click on the created list to add sites that are blocked to this list.
In the appropriate field, enter a domain name of this type: “site.com” (without quotes). For those sites that have subdomains, it would be better to enter a domain name like this: “*.site.com”. Next, you will need to select a mode for the extension to work: “proxy always enabled”, or “analytical algorithm”.
If you use an analytical algorithm, then in addition you will need to enter the URL address of the site page for verification. If you know for sure that a given site is blocked (for example, many torrent trackers are blocked “forever”), then it makes sense to immediately select the “proxy always on” mode.
In this image you can see that I have added two sites to the list. I specifically selected sites that are accessible by IP address only to users from the USA and several other countries.
By default, “Proxy Settings” uses friGate’s own free proxy servers. You can add your own proxy to the settings. To do this, enter the IP address of the proxy, and the port number separated by a colon, something like this: “125.39.17.91:3128”.
You can enable anonymity in the Frigate extension. Anonymity is recommended to be used only in cases of extreme necessity. In this case, you will need to set public DNS in the network card settings Google servers: 8.8.8.8 (main) and 8.8.4.4 (alternate).
In Advanced Settings, you can enable Google's PageSpeed optimization to speed up access to sites. This mode only works when traffic passes through a proxy.
Along with the Frigate extension, “Yandex.Market Advisor” is installed (developers also need to live on something). You can disable this feature in the Advertising Settings section.
After completing the settings, you can visit the necessary resources on the Internet, bypass site blocking when help friGate CDN.
If you suddenly find that the site you need has become unavailable due to blocking, you can add this site to the friGate list in order to bypass the blocking of this site using the extension.
Bypassing website blocking while surfing the Internet is a very controversial issue, since access to resources can be limited both by their owners and at the highest government level. Nevertheless, now you can visit any site, whether it is blocked or not, quite simply, using special tools for this. One of these is the friGate extension. Many users, however, do not always want to install this particular add-on, but try to find some simpler analogue of friGate (universal or adapted to a specific web browser), since this plugin very often fails.
But let's start with the add-on itself. It is a special add-on that is installed in many well-known web browsers and works on the principles of VPN and anonymous proxy servers.
In other words, FriGate is the most common anonymizer that is capable of changing the external IP of a computer when trying to access a blocked site (and only a blocked one, since the rest of the traffic goes as usual). Typically, such blocking is done at the regional level. For example, in Russia it may be impossible to open some torrent sites because they allegedly contain pirated content. In Ukraine, Russian news resources and TV channels are now being actively blocked. In China and North Korea, things are very bad with the Internet. These countries have a powerful firewall that blocks almost all social networks like Facebook and Twitter or even YouTube video hosting. Thus, in order to access a specific resource, the add-on must be activated, and the user's address will be determined as if he were in another country or even on the opposite side of the globe.
The simplest analogues of friGate
Based on the principles of operation of the extension in question, we can make a completely obvious conclusion that even the simplest anonymous proxy server can act as an alternative tool for bypassing the blocking. There are millions of such services on the Internet.
You can find both paid and free services, but the principle of their use remains the same. When entering such a site, the user usually simply enters the address of the requested resource, and the proxy server, independently or at the user's direction, changes the location of his terminal and external IP, sending a request for the resource on his own behalf, and upon receiving a response with access, redirects it to the browser to user computer terminal.
An analogue of friGate in the form of VPN and turbo mode
Some web browsers have additional features bypass the blocking. Allegedly, simply turning on the special Turbo mode allows you to visit an inaccessible resource. Sometimes this works, but for the most part you shouldn’t rely on it, since it is advisable to activate it in parallel with the VPN add-on to generally speed up the connection (the VPN client itself can sometimes reduce the speed of the browser for purely technical reasons).
But using the built-in VPN client, which, by and large, is also a kind of analogue of friGate, looks much more interesting. For example, in the Opera and Chrome browsers, you just need to go into the settings and activate the corresponding field. In the latest versions of Opera, the client icon is placed directly on the main panel to the left of the address bar, so control is done with one click, and the connection works automatically and very quickly.
But, since now we are talking about “pure” analogues of FriGate in the form of additional add-ons, we will consider them.
Yandex Browser
For the popular Russian browser, you can find quite a lot of similar add-ons in a special extension store. In addition to the fact that the friGate plugin itself is available in two versions, there is a lot more interesting.
One of the most popular and most practical, many users call an analogue of friGate for the Yandex browser called Hola. First of all, it is interesting because it is mainly focused on accessing blocked sites containing multimedia content (photos, videos, audio). But this add-on makes it possible not only to visit, say, prohibited web resources, but also to speed up the loading of sites as such. Some users reproach this extension for the fact that the country has to be selected manually, and not automatically, as FriGate does. But for FriGate you need to independently create lists of sites, and with Hola, for example, if you want to access American online radio, you can select the USA as the current location yourself.
Browser Mozilla Firefox
There are also many extensions created for this popular browser. Not to mention the fact that you can use the original add-on itself, which, however, causes difficulties during installation and configuration for many, as an alternative, the CDN service or the ZenMate add-on (analogous to friGate for Firefox) are perfect.
This tool can be used not only in Mozilla; it can be easily installed in other Chromium-based browsers. Reviews about this plugin say that the add-on slows down the browser somewhat, and to activate the extension you must use a verified address Email.
Chrome browser
You can also find and install an analogue of friGate for Chrome. Just look through the list of available extensions. However, most experts separately highlight the specialized online service Stealthy, which can be installed in the form of an adapted add-on in Chrome browsers, Opera and Firefox.
But it is in Chrome that this add-on works as stable as possible and is free. Despite the fact that you can find some kind of premium subscription in the add-on itself, most users have enough regular version. The only drawback is that when connecting, the user cannot select the desired country where the proxy server is located (and the plugin works through a proxy). You can also try plugins like Browsec or Data Compression Proxy, which are suitable for Yandex browsers and Firefox.
Edge and Internet Explorer browsers
Microsoft's "native" Edge browser, which appeared only in the tenth Windows versions, as well as its predecessor Internet Explorer, although it has a fairly high speed of access to sites, nevertheless, alas, it is completely unsuitable for Internet surfing in terms of bypassing all kinds of blocking. There is no mention of any available extensions from specialized stores or repositories. Therefore, the only solution to this problem is manual installation of third-party plugins.
And not all of them will work as expected. Therefore, many experts call installing a small additional utility called SafeIP (analogous to friGate for Edge and IE) one of the best options. The add-on encrypts traffic and hides the real IP through the use of a private proxy server and allows you to independently select the nearest location to speed up your Internet connection.
Opera browser
There are no less add-ons developed for this browser than for Chrome and Firefox. Naturally, you can use the plugins already described above, and the built-in VPN client, which shows a very high level of functionality (however, sometimes it limits access to unblocked sites, producing errors).
In principle, almost all users do not particularly recommend using some kind of friGate analogue for Opera, but advise simply turning on turbo mode and VPN in parallel. VPN management is done by pressing just one button, and connecting, encrypting traffic or changing location and IP are performed automatically without user intervention.
Mobile operating systems Android and iOS
Finally, let's see what analogue of friGate can be used for Android or Apple devices mobile systems iOS. Almost all of the above plugins, except for desktop versions, are also available in mobile versions, so there shouldn’t be any problems here.
On the other hand, if you look at highly specialized add-ons, you can recommend the Orweb browser for Android, and Onion for iOS. However, they are quite difficult to set up, and the option for Apple devices requires payment ($1 per year). But, if you want to bypass the blocking without installing an additional browser, you can use the TunnelBear applet. No matter how good it is, but set it up for correct operation It will be quite problematic for the average user, since after confirming the email during registration, you need to set up a VPN profile and activate it in the device settings. Besides, free version allows you to use only 500 MB of traffic monthly.
Much more simple option the analogue of friGate for Android looks like a kind of global Turbo VPN add-on, in which you don’t need to do anything special (it works independently and in installed browsers is not embedded, which allows you to protect other applets that use an Internet connection). You just need to launch the application, select a connection and use either a specific country, or use the line to select the fastest server. The only and unpleasant minus is the constantly appearing advertisements. But the application itself is absolutely free.
A few final words
That's all that concerns the most famous and most productive friGate analogues in brief. In principle, if problems arise with such add-ons (during installation or during operation), there is nothing easier than using a popular Tor browser, which is specifically focused on visiting blocked resources, and in its operation combines the functions of a VPN and an anonymous proxy.
However, most of the described add-ons should not cause any special problems. It is worth paying attention to the possibility of automating connection processes and independently selecting the desired location or proxy server. But in Opera browser, as is already clear from the above, such plugins do not need to be installed at all, since the built-in VPN client performs at a fairly high level, and if access errors occur, you should simply disable it and log in to the desired resource again.
The friGate extension was created to gain access to sites that have been blocked by your ISP or system administrator. Of course, many resources were blocked completely legally, but it happens that even the most harmless pages do not open. Some people can’t access social networks, while others suddenly lost access to their favorite site. Therefore users use different ways bypassing restrictions: use Tor Browser, built-in VPN in Opera, or anonymizers. But all these methods are very inferior to the friGate extension in their convenience. Always open special programs much more problematic than just installing special extension for the browser.
One of the best add-ons will be friGate. His work is very different from other analogues. There is no need to constantly enable and disable proxies - you just need to fill out a special list of resources that you cannot access. When the user visits them, the add-on will automatically enable the proxy. This is very convenient, because regular sites will open without going through the work of the add-on. In addition, there are many other advantages:
- The extension is easy to manage and can be disabled at any second.
- It's completely free.
- Good speed. The developers claim that due to the specific work, the speed is not lost.
- A convenient system implemented using a list of sites.
- If you have your own proxies, you can easily connect them.
How to install friGate on Google Chrome
Installing the extension does not require any special skills. Just write “friGate” in the search bar and as shown in the screenshot below. This whole procedure does not take more than five minutes.
After this, a small window will appear on the screen in which you need to confirm the action.
That's it, the add-on is now successfully installed and working. Wait a few seconds, and if everything is done correctly, it will open special page. It will say: “You have installed the friGate extension.”
That's it, the add-on is now successfully installed and working. If you can’t install the extension, try .
Setting up the friGate extension
Frigate, due to the nature of its work, itself checks access to the web page. If it is not blocked, then the proxy will not be used. The plugin works with resources only from its list, in which you need to add all blocked sites. By default, there will already be a fairly large list of resources (at the time of writing - 231). These are popular portals blocked by providers: various torrent trackers, bookmakers, online cinemas. By opening the first blocked portal from a huge list - 2ip, you can make sure that everything works perfectly.
If a resource has been blocked but is included in the list, then under the icon there will be a window with a message that this site is from the list. A special window will not appear on all pages in a row - only on resources from the list. Clicking on the country flag will change the proxy to another. This, however, is not always convenient, because to change the country you often need to click more than once. Even if there was a flag of the USA or another country in the window, sometimes the location for some reason showed Krasnoyarsk or St. Petersburg. To monitor the work of the plugin, pay attention to its icon - it often changes, depending on which web the user visits the page.
friGate settings
Settings options are slightly different in Firefox and Google Chrome browsers. In the latter they are more expanded. To access them, just right-click on the plugin icon in the panel and click on “Options”. All settings are divided into several points.
Setting up a list of sites
As stated earlier, one list is already created by default. It cannot be deleted or renamed; you can only disable the proxy for any portal. In addition, you cannot add anything to it. If you need to access a page that is not in the first list, then you need to create your own. To do this, just fill in the “Name” field and click on “Add List”. It can be deleted, edited and filled out.
By clicking on the created folder, a window for adding user portals will open. Be careful, if the site has many subdomains that need access, then you need to specify “*.example.com”. This means that in addition to example.com, for example, games.example.com will open. Nearby are the operating modes: analytical and proxy always on. The second mode means that the site will always run with a proxy. Analytical, on the contrary, will check access to the resource. For example, if a provider mistakenly blocks a site, then he can later restore access to it again. Then the add-on will not work on it. If you are sure that access to the site will definitely not return, then it is better not to touch anything.
Other settings
FriGate uses free proxies from its database. But the user has the opportunity to use his own: just enter the IP address and port number (separated from the IP by a colon).
If Frigate cannot cope with the usual configuration, then it is recommended to enable anonymity mode.
For some domain zones the plugin will be automatically enabled. These are .onion, .coin, .emc, .lib, .bazar. Any of these domains can be disabled.
Since Frigate is completely free, developers are forced to make money from advertising. To disable it, you need to click on the “Do not show ads” checkbox.
In addition, you can remove the special window that appears on all sites from the list. But then it will be impossible to disable the plugin on individual pages.
Many users are aware of the activities of Roskomnadzor, which in recent years have intensified with even greater force, as a result of which many online resources with various entertainment material have become banned. In order to bypass these blocking and service restrictions, many programs and browser extensions have been written. One such extension is friGate for Firefox. Today we will talk about cases when an extension suddenly stops working in Mozilla Firefox.
friGate browser extension
Purpose of friGate
The direct purpose for which the friGate extension was developed is to replace your current IP address with a server address in another country. In order to visit a blocked resource that cannot be accessed with a real IP address. On the official page, its function is described as the ability to better cope with proxy server settings. In the program, you can configure your list of sites that need to be visited with a spoofed IP address, and you can also attach a separate proxy to each such site.
When you access a blocked site through the Firefox browser without an extension, you can only see a message that tells you that the resource is blocked.
Blocked site
But by installing the friGate extension, you can visit the resource bypassing various blocks and use it as if the block did not exist (if Frigate has not stopped working for you). The thing is that blocking any site only applies to Russian addresses (if the block is on Russian territory). Each IP address contains data about the location of the computer from which you access the site. But when you replace this address with the address of another country, the system recognizes you as a foreigner and allows you to access the resource.
Reasons why friGate stopped working
One of the simple reasons for a program not working is a short-term glitch on the servers to which you change your address. This happens for various technical reasons, you just have to wait until they are fixed. There are sites that cannot be accessed this way; blocking these sites provides similar login opportunities using similar programs, and with a complex procedure for screening out such hosts, it also blocks these attempts to visit the resource.
You could simply not include the site in the extension and when visiting the site you will see a standard window that warns that you are visiting a blocked resource. This happens because the extension does not “guess” that when visiting this site, the IP address needs to be changed. Another case when you just downloaded the program and immediately launched it for testing. If in this case your browser does not bypass the blocking when the friGate extension is enabled, then it means it is not configured correctly.
Fixing problems with the friGate extension
As we already said, it may happen that the extension may not be able to cope with a special lock and stop functioning. Sites can be blocked at the level of your provider, so even with the help of such programs it is almost impossible to do this. But in this situation there is a way out.
Reinstalling the Frigate extension
In some cases, the extension may not install correctly and therefore friGate stops working normally.
- Open the installed ones in your browser Firefox add-ons and remove friGate.
- To do this, click in the top bar of the browser - “Menu”, “Add-ons”, “Extensions” and click the delete button next to the extension.
- Enter the name here in the extension search and click “Install”.
It also happens that simply restarting programs eliminates some problems. If the extension doesn't work for some reason, try stopping it, then close the browser for a few minutes. Now launch your browser again and enable friGate.
You will not be able to install friGate if you have outdated version browser.
Incompatible browser version with friGate
As you may have guessed, for this you need to update to latest version your navigator. To do this in Firefox:
- Open your browser, click "Menu".
- Select Help at the bottom of the list.
- Open the About Firefox section.
- A window will open in which the check for current version your browser, after checking you will see the result - “The latest version is installed.”
Add a site to the friGate list to bypass blocking
If you have visited a blocked site that does not open, then you need to add it to the Frigate extension:
After these steps, friGate should work in Firefox without any glitches.