Web Freer

Web Freer is a web browser with a proxy wired into it. Type an address, and instead of connecting to the site directly, the browser sends the request over an encrypted HTTPS link to a server operated by the service, which fetches the page and hands it back. The site sees that server’s address, not yours, and a network that blocks the site sees only an encrypted connection to somewhere else. Nothing has to be configured. Install it, open it, and every page goes through the proxy.

That is the whole product. Underneath sits the Chromium engine that most browsers share, so tabs, bookmarks, a choice of search engine and extensions all behave the way people expect. Web Freer was built for one situation, a school, office or country network that blocks sites you want to reach, and it delivers that with less effort than any setting a user could change by hand.

Two things weigh against it heavily, and they decide whether it belongs on a machine today. The browser is no longer updated, and the engine inside it is old enough that the security fixes current browsers receive weekly never arrive here.

Browsing through the proxy

Every request leaves through the encrypted proxy connection, so a blocked site opens as long as the proxy itself is not blocked, and the address a site records belongs to the proxy rather than to you. For a filtered network, that is usually enough to reach social sites, video sites and news that the filter stops. Speed depends on the proxy server’s distance and load, and pages load noticeably slower than in a direct connection, with video the first thing to stutter.

The protection is a proxy, not a tunnel. It hides the address from the sites you visit and hides the destination from the local network, and it does nothing for any other program on the computer. A chat client, a game or a mail program still connects directly. For the whole machine, Whoer VPN or another system-wide tunnel is the right shape of tool.

What the browser itself offers

The window is a plain Chromium browser. Tabs, an address bar that doubles as a search box, bookmarks, a downloads list and the usual keyboard shortcuts work as they do in the mainstream browsers.

The search engine can be changed, and extensions built for Chromium install, though an old engine may refuse newer ones. A start page carries a set of bookmarked sites.

The advertising that pays for the proxy

The Web Freer build also shows advertising, which is how the proxy servers are paid for, and an unofficial ad-stripped edition circulated for a time among users who disliked that. The ads are the trade for a proxy that asks for no account, and anyone who finds them too much has a dedicated anti-censorship client as a maintained alternative.

The age problem

Browsers are the most attacked software on a computer, and the engine here has not kept pace. Sites that rely on newer web standards may render incorrectly or refuse to load, and security holes fixed long ago in current browsers remain open in this one. Using an outdated browser on a hostile network, which is exactly where an unblocking tool gets used, is a real risk, and no proxy compensates for a vulnerability in the browser itself.

That makes the honest recommendation a narrow one. For getting past a filter to a known, trusted site in a hurry, it still works. For everyday browsing, logging into accounts or anything sensitive, a current browser such as Firefox with a proxy extension does the same job without the exposure.

Conclusion

Web Freer suits someone who needs to reach a blocked site right now on a filtered network and does not want to learn proxy settings. For that single job the built-in proxy still works, and the familiar interface asks nothing of the user.

It is not a browser to live in. The abandoned engine is a security liability, the ads are intrusive and the protection stops at the window’s edge. Use it for the occasional unblock, keep logins and sensitive work in a current browser, and treat a maintained circumvention tool as the long-term answer.