How to Unblock Websites on Chrome (5 Working Tips)

Suppose you are trying to access a site via the Chrome browser, but the latter can’t establish a successful connection or is simply refusing to do so in the first place. If that’s ever happened to you, it could be due to that site being blocked.

Now there could be many different ways of putting this forward. Your ISP could block it or fall under restrictive IP addresses; hence, the local authorities might prevent you from accessing that site.

In some instances, the system administrator in the workplace, schools, and colleges might also block this site via a modification to the Host file. Likewise, Chrome might categorize a site as unsafe and wouldn’t allow you to access it. Sometimes, Windows Firewalls might also act along similar lines.

There could be a few other reasons, but those mentioned above are the most common. With that said, some handy workarounds exist to bypass these restrictions or unblock these websites on your Chrome browser.

Let’s check out each one of them —

Bypass Chrome Warning

Chrome checks every site, and if it finds it insecure or dangerous, it won’t allow you to visit it. You might instead be greeted with messages such as Your connection is not private, The site ahead contains harmful programs, etc.

However, if you are pretty sure that this site is secure, then you may click on the Advanced button option and then select the Proceed to website-name (unsafe) option.

While this is a temporary constraint put in place by Chrome, and you could easily bypass it, it is recommended that you don’t do so. It is because there is a high possibility of those sites being dangerous and could inject your PC with malware or carry out phishing activities.

Disable Windows Firewall

This built-in tool from Windows is known to block harmful network connections and does an excellent job of protecting your PC from network threats. However, in some instances, it may raise a false positive. If that is the case with you, you could consider temporarily disabling the Firewall.

Here are the steps to disable the Windows firewall:

1. Head over to the Start menu and search for Windows Defender Firewall.
2. Then click on Turn Windows Defender Firewall On or Off from the left menu bar.
   
3. Select Turn off Windows Defender Firewall under both the Public and Private network sections.
   
4. Once that is done, see if you can visit the site on the Chrome browser.

The above steps will disable the Firewall from performing its scan across the entire network, not just your concerned site. As a result, there could be a chance of your PC getting infected with malicious network programs. So it’s better to re-enable the Firewall as soon as you can access the site.

Remove sites from the Restricted List

We might also have added the site you are trying to access to the blocklist or the restricted list in Windows OS. You can verify the same and then remove it from the list.

Here are the steps to remove the site from the Restricted List in Internet options:

1. Head over to the Control Panel via the Start menu.
2. Change its View by a state to a Large icon and go to Internet Options.
   
3. Switch to the Security tab, select Restricted Sites tab, and click the Sites button.
   This will display the list of site URLs marked under Restricted sites.
4. Select the site, and hit the Remove button.
   
5. Once done, restart Chrome and check whether that site stands unblocked.

While this is true, quite a nifty workaround; however, you might not be allowed to carry out this task in an educational institution or professional workspaces due to the restrictions being put in place by the concerned departments.

Make Changes to the Host File

Sometimes, the network administrator could modify the host file and block the sites that don’t fall under their approved domains. They add the IPv4 loopback traffic (127.0.0.1) to the host file, followed by the desired URL. While this may sound a bit technical, bypassing this is quite an easy task, granted you have administrative rights.

1. If you have the required permission, then launch File Explorer on your PC.
2. Copy-paste the below location into its address bar and hit the Enter key.

   C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

3. You should see the Hosts file, right-click and select Open With > Notepad.
   
4. Now scroll to the end of the page if you find something like 127.0.0.1 www.example.com.
5. Remove that entire line with the website URL.
   For example, the below host file is blocking Facebook; to unblock it, we just had to delete the highlighted lines.
   
6. Once done, use the Ctrl + S shortcut to save the file.
7. Now restart your browser, and see if the website has been unblocked on Chrome.

If you can’t access the host file, then it’s because you don’t have system-level permissions. And this is one primary reason why most users aren’t able to carry out this tweak.

Use a VPN Service

While a VPN service started as a gateway to a secure connection, it is now being used in equal measures to access geo-restricted content. Upon connecting your device to a Virtual Private Network in another region, you could route your traffic via that VPN server. It will make your ISP believe that the data packets are coming from that VPN server; hence, you can easily access the blocked site.

There are quite a few VPN services that you could opt for. While most would require you to shell out some bucks, they offer an initial free trial.

So it’s better to check out their offerings in the trial run and then mold your purchase decision accordingly. Or you could also try out some VPN extensions as well.

Bottom Line

With this, we conclude this guide on unblocking Chrome websites. We have shared five different methods for the same. In my case, it turned out that the Windows Firewall was being overprotective and blocking one of the non-harmful trackers.

It resulted in the site’s inability to be loaded correctly in Chrome. Upon temporarily disabling the Firewall, I was able to re-access the site.

If your site is restricted due to local government, then you can always use the VPN service to access the site from a different country or region. It will also help in protecting your data privacy.

That said, do let us know in the comments which method spelled out success in your case.

FAQs

Now, let us go through the frequently asked questions regarding how to Unblock Websites on Chrome.

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