By the start of 21st century Iran faced a huge outpouring in Internet usage, and with over 20 million users she has presently the second highest fraction of its population online in the Middle East, after Israel. When introduced in Iran, the services by the ISPs were comparatively open. Many users took a plunge into the deep and diverse possibilities and used it as a gateway to evade the severe press laws.
The restriction was implemented by the government in the wake of riots and uprisings the elections of the Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami; the fifth president of Iran (from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005).It is believed that the government considers restricting the internet access can prevent Internet protests and clashes. Following that attempts have been thwarted to visit the sites chiefly those carrying particulars of the fierce protests.
But in the wake this restraint, a lot of popular social networking websites have also been blocked leaving people away from their loved ones. To restrict Internet access, Iran uses SmartFilter content-control software developed by San Jose based Secure Computing. Using it they have developed their own filtering hardware and software. Moreover, Iran is also alleged to be using an electronic surveillance system provided by NSN (Nokia Siemens Network). After elections of 2009 security was tightened and many popular social networking sites like Facebook, twitter and flickr were blocked and the traffic reduced to a minimal.
VPN For Iran
To bypass internet security in Iran, the best possibility to opt for is a VPN (virtual private network) which redirects your whole traffic via an off shore server and provides the user with total unrestricted access. VPN allows the user to commit transactions anywhere and everywhere you want. What a VPN does is that it masks the IP of your computer with a dummy IP from another country so that it looks like you are accessing the website from another source. Similarly it also provides users with security over every transaction i.e. it encrypts the files in such a way that decoding by a hacker may take a lot of time. Along with a VPN there are many other options like fake IPs and Virtual IP addresses.
Best VPN Service Providers For Iran
Note: This top 5 list of VPN Providers are rated and ranked in the TOP 5 List because of the quantity of servers they offer in different countries, outstanding quality of customer support, VPN features, protocols supported, experience and consumer reviews.
| Rank | Provider | Starting Price | Visit Provider Site |
| 1 | ExpressVPN | $6.67 /Month | Visit Provider Site |
| 2 | Hidemyass | $11.52 /Month | Visit Provider Site |
| 3 | IPvanish | $10.00/Month | Visit Provider Site |
| 4 | StrongVPN | $21/ 3 Months | Visit Provider Site |
| 5 | VyprVPN | $14.95/Month | Visit Provider Site |