How I Made an App to Bypass Discord and YouTube on macOS

Why this was needed

Since the fall of 2024, the situation with access to Discord and YouTube in Russia has become, to put it mildly, complicated. VPNs are an option, but:

• Paid services cost money and reduce speed

• Free ones leak data

• Not all work reliably

• Setting up a VPN for each device is a hassle

Moreover, providers block not at the IP level (which would be much worse), but at the DPI level — Deep Packet Inspection. This means they analyze network packets and, upon seeing a request to discord.com or youtube.com, drop the connection. This can be bypassed locally, without any servers — you just need to modify the packets correctly so that the DPI system "doesn't recognize" them.

There is a great project zapret by bol-van, which does exactly that. But there’s a catch — it’s a console tool with a lot of parameters and keys. Great for technical people. For others — the entry threshold is too high. And also...

Mac users left out

This was the main headache. Almost all existing GUI solutions for bypassing DPI work only on Windows. If you're on a Mac — you were offered either to fiddle around in the terminal with tpws or... buy a VPN. And there is a huge percentage of Mac users among IT professionals and creatives. They also need Discord for work and communication.

I decided to fix this.

What came out of it

UnblockPro is a desktop application that:

1. Works with one click. Literally. Click "Connect" — Discord and YouTube are up and running.

2. Automatically selects a bypass strategy. No need to know what your provider is and what DPI it uses. The application tests 15+ strategies and finds a working one.

3. Works on macOS. Intel, Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) — it doesn't matter. This is probably the only GUI application for bypassing DPI on a Mac.

4. Works on Windows. Full support with NSIS installer and portable version.

5. Not a VPN. Does not route traffic through third-party servers. Everything happens locally. Speed does not drop. Ping does not increase.

6. Open-source. All code is open. No telemetry, no backdoors.

GitHub: github.com/by-sonic/unblock-pro
Download: Releases

How it works under the hood

macOS: tpws + system SOCKS proxy

On Mac, tpws from the zapret project is used. This is a local SOCKS5 proxy that modifies the TCP packets passing through it.

Workflow scheme:

Browser → System SOCKS proxy (127.0.0.1:1080) → tpws → Internet
                                                       ↓
                                          Packet modification:
                                          • split-pos (splitting)
                                          • disorder (disruption of order)
                                          • hostcase (changing case)
                                          • tlsrec, oob, methodeol...

The application automatically:

• Launches tpws with the necessary parameters

• Configures the system SOCKS proxy via networksetup

• Checks the connection with a real request to Discord/YouTube

• If it doesn't work — tries the next strategy

• On shutdown or crash — resets proxy settings

Windows: winws + WinDivert

On Windows, the approach is different. winws.exe operates at the network driver level through WinDivert and intercepts packets "on the fly," without a proxy:

Browser → Windows network stack → WinDivert intercepts packets
                                       ↓
                          winws modifies packets:
                          • dpi-desync=multisplit
                          • dpi-desync=fake,fakedsplit
                          • dpi-desync-fooling=ts,badseq
                          → Packets go to the network

No proxy is needed, no system configuration is required. But administrator rights are necessary — WinDivert operates at the kernel level.

15 strategies for macOS, 9 for Windows

This is probably the most important part. Different providers use different DPI hardware. What works for Rostelecom may not work for MTS. And subsidiaries have their own specifics.

The strategies are based on the analysis of Flowseal/zapret-discord-youtube (22k+ stars) and our own testing. Here are examples for macOS:

On Windows, the strategies are different — they use multisplit, fake, fakedsplit, multidisorder with various parameters seqovl, fooling, and repeats.

The application cycles through them automatically. Usually, a working strategy is found within 10–30 seconds.

Technical details that had to be resolved

Problem 1: zapret binaries

The application needs tpws (macOS) or winws.exe (Windows). Including them in the package is a bad idea: zapret gets updated, binaries become outdated.

Solution: upon first launch, the application downloads the latest release of zapret from the GitHub API:

// Dynamically get the URL of the latest release
const response = await fetch(
  'https://api.github.com/repos/bol-van/zapret/releases/latest'
);
const release = await response.json();
const zipAsset = release.assets.find(a => a.name.match(/^zapret-.*\.zip$/));

Downloading with a progress bar, unpacking, checking — everything is automatic.

Problem 2: cygwin1.dll on Windows

winws.exe is built with a dependency on Cygwin. Simply copying the exe is not enough. You need cygwin1.dll, cygstdc++-6.dll, and other libraries.

Solution: copy all files from the winws.exe directory, not just the hardcoded list:

const dirFiles = fs.readdirSync(winwsDir);
for (const file of dirFiles) {
  if (file === 'winws.exe') continue;
  fs.copyFileSync(
    path.join(winwsDir, file),
    path.join(platformDir, file)
  );
}

Problem 3: Checking the functionality of the strategy

It is not enough to just run tpws — you need to ensure that the strategy actually works. I made a multi-step check:

1. Running tpws with a timeout

2. TCP check: is port 1080 listening

3. Setting the system proxy

4. Actual curl request through SOCKS to discord.com

5. If no response — try youtube.com and google.com

6. Retry on the first endpoint

Only after a successful check is the strategy considered working.

Problem 4: Cleanup on crash

If the application crashes and does not reset the system proxy — the user's internet will stop working. This is unacceptable.

Solution: triple insurance:

• before-quit — reset on normal exit

• On application startup — reset (in case of previous crash)

• process.on('exit') — last resort

Problem 5: macOS Gatekeeper

Apple blocks unsigned applications. A Developer ID certificate costs $99/year — not an option for a free open-source project.

Solution: clear instructions in README and during installation:

xattr -cr /Applications/UnblockPro.app

One command — and Gatekeeper retreats. The code is fully open — the user can verify that there is nothing suspicious inside.

Problem 6: Auto-update

If the user has already installed v1.0 — how to deliver updated strategies? We can't make them download again every time.

Solution: integration of electron-updater. When starting, the application checks GitHub Releases for a new version, downloads it in the background, and suggests restarting:

autoUpdater.on('update-downloaded', (info) => {
  // Show banner: "Update v1.2.0 is ready — Restart"
  sendUpdateStatus('downloaded', info.version);
});

The user sees a subtle banner and decides when to update.

Stack

Figures

• 15 bypass strategies for macOS

• 9 strategies for Windows

• 0 external servers — everything works locally

• ~10 sec average time to find a working strategy

• 0₽ — completely free and open-source

How to try

macOS

1. Download the ZIP from Releases

2. Unzip, drag to “Applications”

3. In the terminal: xattr -cr /Applications/UnblockPro.app

4. Launch and click “Connect”

Windows

1. Download the installer from Releases

2. Run it

3. Click “Connect”

What's next

• Linux support (already planned — tpws works natively on Linux)

• Whitelist/blacklist domains — bypass DPI only for needed sites

• Statistics — how much traffic has passed, which strategy works

• Custom strategies — for advanced users

In conclusion

I believe that access to communication tools is a basic need. Discord for many is a work chat, voice calls, community. YouTube is education, documentation, tutorials.

The project is fully open-source. If it was helpful to you — please give it a star on GitHub. If you found a bug or want to help — PRs are welcome.

GitHub: github.com/by-sonic/unblock-pro