https://pesarkhobeee.github.io/en/tags/censorship/ Recent content in Censorship on Project Documentation https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/147461?v=4 https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/147461?v=4 Hugo -- 0.164.0 en-US Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200 https://pesarkhobeee.github.io/en/posts/youtube-without-vpn-invidious-cloudflare-tunnel/ Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200 https://pesarkhobeee.github.io/en/posts/youtube-without-vpn-invidious-cloudflare-tunnel/ <p>YouTube is blocked in Iran, so most people there depend on VPNs that are slow, unstable, and often blocked themselves. If you live outside Iran and have a small computer at home, there is a nicer way: run <a href="https://github.com/iv-org/invidious">Invidious</a> (an open-source YouTube frontend) on your home connection and publish it through a <a href="https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/networks/connectors/cloudflare-tunnel/get-started/create-remote-tunnel/">Cloudflare Tunnel</a>.</p> <p>Your family just opens a normal website. No VPN, no app, no configuration on their side.</p> <h2 id="why-this-works">Why this works</h2> <ul> <li><strong>Your home IP is a residential IP.</strong> YouTube aggressively blocks requests coming from datacenters, so Invidious on a cheap VPS breaks all the time. From a home connection it just works.</li> <li><strong>Cloudflare Tunnel needs no open ports.</strong> A small connector (<code>cloudflared</code>) dials <em>out</em> from your home to Cloudflare, and Cloudflare routes your public domain to it. Your home IP stays hidden and your router stays untouched.</li> <li><strong>The blocked side never talks to YouTube.</strong> Visitors in Iran only talk to your domain on Cloudflare&rsquo;s network; your server fetches the videos.</li> </ul> <p>You need: a machine at home that runs Docker (an old laptop is perfect), a free Cloudflare account, and a domain added to Cloudflare.</p>