I just found out an easy way to beat most web/content-filtering system (provided SSH traffic is not blocked). SSH is a good choice because it’s natively installed on most Linux and Mac system. Windows user can download a small software called Putty, which can run without being installed. SSH server also available on almost all Linux server as well as some Linux based routers. Here’s how to do it in Windows:

1. Download Putty ^[1] and Run
2. Type in the IP of Linux box or other SSH server you have access to and make sure the port is correct too
3. Under the tab “Connection –> SSH –> Tunnel” set a local source port *preferrably random number above 1024*
4. Under destination choose “Dynamic” and “Auto ^[2]“
5. Then click open
6. Open IE or Firefox and find the proxy configuartion
7. Set your localhost as the SOCKS proxy server and the port is the local source port you choose on Step 3
   NOTE: On Firefox choose SOCKS v5, and on IE include “localhost, 127.0.0.1″ as the addresses exempted by the proxy

That’s all needs to be done.

UPDATE:
For those who wants to use it with IM services like MSN, here’s what you need to do:

1. Goto Tools -> Options -> Connection
2. Click on Advanced Settings
3. On SOCKS type 127.0.0.1 and click Test