SSA and free proxy.

[Dogberry]

Joining in on the "CANNOT ACCESS USA SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION" from Thailand rant . No matter the time of day or whatever... So what I did was accessed a site called proxy4free.com. It's one of those sites that allow you to use their "search" window with out messing with VPN settings in your browser. I chose one, typed in https://www.ssa.gov/ and it was up in a flash. The site displayed the URL properly so yeah I was in the real thing. Go figure. I am a SS recipient and have an online account with the SSA. I did NOT access my account out of caution and ignorance. Are these sites malicious? If I'm in https mode is not my information being encrypted and beyond the ability of some server to intercept or decrypt? Sorry I don't know the jargon but I sure as xxxx don't want to be entering vital and private information "who knows where".

I don't really want to subscribe to a paid VPN service. I want SSA once a year. That's it.

If it is ill advised to use this type of free service does anybody have a phone number for the SSA office in Manila?

I may repost this part of my question in another forum here but as I am in my first year (my birthday is in August) with SSA I'm not sure of the yearly "yeah I'm still alive" check in requirements. Can this be done by phone, internet or surface mail only? Just wanna to be ahead of the curve. Thanks!

[Pib]

Cut and paste from the U.S. Embassy Bangkok website regarding federal benefits: Link

Social Security Adminstration

The Social Security Administration’s Regional Federal Benefits Office in Manila is the point of contact for cases reported from Thailand. Their contact information is:

Social Security Administration
US Embassy Manila
1201 Roxas Boulevard
Ermita, Manila 0930
Philippines
Tel: 632-301-2000
Fax: 632-708-9723 or 632-708-9714
Email: [email protected]

Some of these proxy servers can be doggy/data miners so you probably should research/google info on any proxy server you might decide to use.

Although I'm not drawing SSA yet I have had the same problem as you in the past in accessing the SSA website. I'm on True in Bangkok. I could only access it by changing from the normal True connection to using a True Proxy Server connection or using a VPN connection....had the same problem in trying to connect to the U.S. Embassy Bangkok ACS website to make an appointment. No amount of cache/cookie clearing or modem/router resetting helped...using a different DNS service like using the Google DNS didn't help either. Had this problem for about 6 months and then one day I noticed the problem had just gone away...I could connected to the SSA or Embassy websites with a normal connection...no proxy or VPN service needed. I just checked via a normal connection and could access the SSA webpage no problem with a normal connection.

Since you rarely access the SSA site and want some additional security for your connection TunnerlBear VPN service offers free VPN up to 500MB/month and 500MB/month of service is a good amount of internet surfing...hundreds of times more per month than you need to access the SSA sites even once month much less once a year. I have TunnelBear loaded as my backup VPN service in case my paid StrongVPN service ever goes down.

Downloading/installing the TunnelBear client software is a piece of cake...here's the link to their webpage: Link.

Edited June 17, 2014 by Pib

[Langsuan Man]

Here is a free web proxy that I have used in the past to access the US Social Security web site from Thailand

http://www.vpnbook.com/webproxy

Just copy and paste the SS website url into the box and it will take you right to the Social Security web site and then you can navigate from there

Since this is just a web proxy and not a VPN service your information is pretty safe since the SS site still shows up as https:

Just remember that you must log into the Social Security , gov site based upon the following listed hours:

Service Hours

My Social Security is available during the following service hours (Eastern Time)

Day

Service Hours

Monday - Friday

5:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.

Saturday

5:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.

Sunday

8:00 a.m. - 11:30 p.m.

Federal Holidays

Same hours as the day the holiday occurs

[Dogberry]

Thank you Gents... all is well in Thailand for this guy!