Internet Blocks, the Great Firewall and VPNs

[Guest realmayo]

Earlier (when I posted) that site had bing.com and telegraph.co.uk as blocked. Now they're green-lighted again. Maybe just a blip over the weekend.

[889]

I've just checked my history and the sites I was accessing were www.bing.com/?mkt=zh-CN and cn.bing.com. No bing.cn. Sorry.

 

Keep in mind, too, that the firewall does not always seem to be uniformly applied across China.

[roddy]

New crackdown heralded. Sounds like maybe targeting domestic VPN providers rather than the overseas ones folk on here most likely use, but it's not going to be fun. 

 

This topic is kind of due for an update - if anyone wants to start a new one with a new poll...

[Prodigal Son]

I saw this news also. Please God, let this not be an effective block of VPNs in China.

[banjo67xxx]

I wonder if they call a home router configured with VPN login & DDNS and having a VPN tunnel to another home router in Europe a service provider. If they block me from using port 1723, I'll just have to hide it on port 80.

[imron]

From the Chinese:

 

工信部刚刚发布最新通知，要求各通信管理局要对本辖区内提供IDC、ISP、CDN业务的企业情况进行摸底调查，杜绝非法经营行为。未经电信主管部门批准，不得自行建立或租用专线（含虚拟专用网络VPN）等其他信道开展跨境经营活动。

 

So it looks like the regulation is only for businesses running these services.

[studychinese]

Its getting to the stage where I will have to set up some hacked firmware on my router, and tunnel into my router at home.

[banjo67xxx]

No need to hack the firmware just buy a router that has the features you need. You can do it as simply as buying your family in Europe/US etc a router that supports VPN, get them to create a username & password for you and register with a DDNS service that China doesn't block (alternatively buy a domain and register the IP yourself), then use that VPN login on your iPhone or Android phone in China. Your family's router won't appear on China's hitlist unless you do something really publicly stupid. 

[Angelina]

This is for businesses in China. 

[abcdefg]

Quote

Its getting to the stage where I will have to set up some hacked firmware on my router, and tunnel into my router at home.

 

I would re-phrase that: It's getting to the stage where I will have to say goodbye to the China Mainland entirely.

 

The internet blocks have already killed any attempts at doing on-line courses; I have abandoned those even though I used to love them. And the last few days my internet service has degraded to the extent that I can no longer listen to Chinesepod audio; it won't stream without many irritating pauses.

[studychinese]

Quote

The internet blocks have already killed any attempts at doing on-line courses; I have abandoned those even though I used to love them. And the last few days my internet service has degraded to the extent that I can no longer listen to Chinesepod audio; it won't stream without many irritating pauses.

 

Wow. OK, when I get my situation sorted then I will provide you with the details so you can tunnel in to my router in Australia.

[abcdefg]

Many thanks. That would be great.

[zander1]

If there was ever a full block on VPNs I think that would be the final straw for lots of foreigners living in China, the internet is just too integral to modern life to be stuck on China's poor attempt at it.

[Guangxi Shane]

What's the best VPN to use for China now? We're heading overland from Hong Kong to Guangzhou in about 2 weeks and are planning on spending 2 months in Mainland China. If we have to pay for a VPN, that's fine. It'll only be for two months. We just don't want to waste our money paying for something that doesn't work. Is ExpressVPN any good?

[Helios]

I personally use VyprVPN, and I'm happy with it. I know people who use ExpressVPN, and they are happy with it.

[banjo67xxx]

1 hour ago, Guangxi Shane said:

What's the best VPN to use for China now? Is ExpressVPN any good?

 

I did find a free VPN which works well in China (last used successfully Jan 2017). I won't mention the name here in case anyone's watching (I'll PM you). The service is free up to 500MB or 2GB if you advertise them on Twitter. They're not China specific, and in fact I used them just to switch my Google Play store from UK to Switzerland.

[Guangxi Shane]

Thanks all!

[hutong_denizen]

I wonder if any users of these forums are currently using either Hotspot Shield or VPN Unlimited with success in China? I found that both worked pretty well in Beijing a couple of years ago but I suspect the situation may have changed by now. Both are solid services that I use regularly at the moment in Europe.

 

The reason I ask is that there are currently attractive deals for lifetime memberships of both of these VPNs plus a few others (such as vpn.asia) available through stacksocial.com. Any pointers to one that is verified to work in China at the moment would be much appreciated.

[ChTTay]

Last I tried hotspot doesn't work. 

 

I remember that that was all the rage in 2009! 

[Guangxi Shane]

Ended up going with ExpressVPN, and aside from occasionally having to manually reset it, we're mostly happy. It works.