Internet Blocks, the Great Firewall and VPNs

[roddy]

Chances are, as you say, some kind of temporary glitch. Traffic from China is down a bit, but it's holidays now so I'd guess that's why. Comparisons with Xinjiang are, shall we say, premature.

[liuzhou]

I'm glad you mentioned the holiday, Roddy. That is what made me suspicious.

I couldn't see some secret committee getting together on a public holiday to pull this off. They will be far too busy banqueting.

They usually pull these stunts before holidays.

It is feasible that some junior got drunk while having a laugh with his ancestors at the banquet and thought " Hey great-great-grandfather, I've got a great idea! Let's cut off the rest of the world! I know the password. 123456."

Tomorrow, most people will be back at work and someone with half a brain might say, "Looks like something's wrong here."

Or not.

[imron]

It is feasible that some junior got drunk while having a laugh with his ancestors at the banquet and thought " Hey great-great-grandfather, I've got a great idea! Let's cut off the rest of the world! I know the password. 123456."

Now you're just being ridiculous, I mean how could the password not have any 8s in it?

[liuzhou]

Now you're just being ridiculous, I mean how could the password not have any 8s in it?

Oh yes. How lax and silly of me. I apologise from the heart of my bottom.

Although, I'm told that the most common password in China is 11111111.

Eight ones.

[adrianlondon]

it could be that someone is trying, badly, to deal with this:

http://www.bbc.com/n...nology-17623939

The Anonymous hacking group claims to have defaced almost 500 websites in China. Targets hit in the mass defacement included government sites, its official agencies, trade groups and many others.

Or it could just be a coincidence of course.

[liuzhou]

There is definitely something weird going on.

Right now, at home using my China Telecom connection many foreign websites, including this one, are unobtainable without VPN. It hasn't changed since Wednesday evening.

This afternoon in my office using a China Unicom everything was open without VPN. Even Facebook and Twitter.

They are testing something or tweaking the other thing.

[liuzhou]

Slight update. As of about an hour ago, international access has been restored on China Telecom.

And FB and Twitter reblocked on Unicom.

Seems we are back to "normal" for now.

[waiguoren]

Fg has been almost completely useless for the past 1+ month. Has anyone else experienced this? More than half of the time it can't find a server, and the other half of the time it loses its connection within a matter of minutes. Switching to the "F通道" doesn't help. Updating to 7.29 didn't help either.

[liuzhou]

FG has been almost completely useless for the past 1+ month.

Yes. Since they updated to 7.28.

7.27 was working great. Unfortunately, downdating back to that also now makes no difference.

FG have done this before, though and come back.

[WestTexas]

can anyone PM me with some VPN recommendations? Or post some? I know there are already some in the thread but this is the sort of thing that tends to change a lot. I don't want to pay my 12 dollars or whatever and then not be able to use it. My freegate is not really consistent and I'm trying to get a blog up and running, so I need something reliable.

[roddy]

I think most will give you a decent length of free trial, no?

[OldDuck]

WestTexas,

I have used this one - http://vpnprivacy.co...-for-china.html

Worked good.

[luozhen]

Does anyone know of a way to download an OpenVPN for Android 4.0+ app without using Google Play? They don't allow me to download an app to my PC. I have a Chinese phone that doesn't allow Google Play and I don't want to root it.

[chaiknees]

Google Play uses the SIM card to check from which country you are. It has nothing to do with the phone itself. If you (or your friend / colleague) have an alternative foreign SIM card available, plug it into your phone and connect to the internet via Wifi. If you need to buy the app, you also need a foreign credit card.

You could also try some alternative app stores.

Or you could try to find the .apk via Google / Baidu.

[Pengyou]

I have read about some people "installing their vpn onto their router". Can someone tell me more about this? Are there any advantages? maybe speed? I have a desktop pc, a notebook pc, an android phone (now 2.3 but I will most likely replace it with a 4.0 phone this summer) an android tablet 2.3 and another anroid 4.x tablet....yes, in fact, I am a gadget freak Though I have so many gadgets I usually only use one at a time with the vpn to surf the web. If it is installed on the router, do i need to do something to every device that uses that router?

[OldDuck]

Yes, you can istall vpn onto your router and all your devices will work through vpn. The main advantage that you can use one vpn account for all your devices. I am not sure that this can influence the speed.

[banjo67xxx]

I used to use SSH tunnelling like Imron, but since I upgraded my routers in the UK and China I know use 2 methods.

 

1) When out and about using my cellphone I use VPN to my router in the UK

2) When at home I have a permanent VPN link between my routers and I configure my routing table to only route specific networks via VPN (such as the networks on which YouTube and TVCatchup servers are located).

 

I'm not sure if the wall has been built across IPv6 yet, so for now I'm tunnelling IPv6 via Hong Kong. If I notice a problem, then I'll need to change my IPv6 network address to be a subnet of my UK IPv6 network and route via VPN. I don't have £20,000 to spend on buying an ASN and my own private IPv6 address, so I can't use BGP routing, and am forced into the above "either-or" situation.

[imron]

Which routers are you using, and can you provide any more details on your setup?

[MoTzu]

Can anyone recommend a good vpn for use in china at the moment? I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread or just continue this one sorry.

I've been told by a few of the teachers that some have experienced their internet getting faster here with a vpn and some getting slower so to ask around before purchasing one.

 

Also are all vpn static ip or do I have to request that? My domain host only allows me to have command prompt shell access if I'm on a static, otherwise I'm forced to use their web based interface which is a pain because I use the domain as a shell for testing python scripts

[Edward Phie]

I want to ask what app should I use on my android to browse twitter, facebook, and youtube in china?