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Siuling Zhang, a Long Island-based developer of the project, said that it had received 10,000 requests for the Freenet China software. Since the program is small enough to fit on a floppy disk, she said, it has undoubtedly been copied many times over.

Because any computer can communicate with any other computer on the Freenet network, the Chinese government would need access to each individual machine to censor the entire Freenet library. "So far we haven't heard anything about Freenet being blocked," Ms. Zhang said.

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Groups are also trying to create user-friendly versions of encryption technology. Digital steganography, the art of hiding one piece of information within another, has drawn more attention over the last year because of concern that terrorists could communicate by embedding text messages in graphics on the Internet. Until recently most security researchers have agreed that steganography is more glamorous in theory than in practice because it is hard to use.

But in July Hacktivismo released a program called Camera/Shy that makes steganography more accessible to ordinary users. The program rides atop Internet Explorer, automatically scanning images for hidden messages as the user browses through Web pages. The user needs to know the decryption key required to unravel the messages. It does not help users encrypt data, though tools for doing so are available for downloading on the Internet.

Hacktivismo members say that Camera/Shy has been downloaded an average of 300 times a day from the release site, sourceforge.net/projects/camerashy.

A shortage of funds prevents some promising technologies from being widely promoted. Dynaweb, an "anonymizing'' service that makes it hard for Chinese servers to identify users, was introduced six months ago by Dynamic Internet Technology and is available at dwang.orgdns.org. That site is more difficult for China to block because while its Web address remains the same, its numerical Internet Protocol address (which the government often uses to identify sites to block) changes regularly.

Dynaweb is seeking money from foundations to promote its service. "We actually hope we can have one full-time programmer to maintain it," said the 29-year-old Chinese immigrant who runs Dynamic Internet Technology and goes by the name Bill Dong.

If some members of Congress have their way, more money may soon be available for efforts to circumvent Internet censorship. Representative Christopher Cox, a California Republican and chairman of the House Policy Committee, has introduced legislation that would create a sister agency to the Voice of America called the Office of Global Internet Freedom. It would receive $50 million a year over the next two years.

"We want to organize and support our government-directed effort to defeat state-sponsored jamming of the Internet," Mr. Cox said.

Some remain wary of any alliance with the United States government. "The most effective strategies are always done on a grass-roots level," said Professor Deibert of the University of Toronto. "Anything that emanates from large bureaucratic organizations tends to be heavy-handed, misconceived and ill-planned."

But many politically minded technology specialists welcome the institutional support and money. "The government has lots of manpower and resources to put in," said Mr. Dong, the Dynaweb manager. "If you have two companies, it's nothing compared to resources the government has."