Internet Blocks, the Great Firewall and VPNs

[roddy]

Made some edits on this (ooh, the previous) page as something was triggering internet filters - I suspect it was Gato's link to the Free Gate site, but I removed lots of vowels from elsewhere too . . .

Seems to be working ok now anyway. If you're still having problems, let me know.

[thewamphyri]

Hello,

In Nanjing, and Frgate doesn't work for me?

Tested it before I left (Australia) and work then, so not working is a new thing (ie. on the 26th it worked in Australia, on the 28th in Nanjing, not so).

I have v2.8 (could not find the v7 one).

System is Win7 64.

Any ideas?

Troy

[liuzhou]

For the first time in years, FG is only working intermittently. At approximately 7 pm yesterday (27th Aug 2010) evening it crashed and has been unpredictable ever since. This applies to all recent versions. 

It worked fine again most of today until around 5:30 pm. It is unavailable at the moment.

Whether this is due to a fault at FG's end or is the result of an attack by the censors is, for now, unclear (although I suspect the latter).

Note:the functionality appears to differ in different provinces - a classic sign of censor interference.

[Holly]

Oh, crap. You're kidding. What's the next best free one to use?

[joshuawbb]

Interesting. I can confirm that the same is here in Xiamen, Fujian - tested all versions from 6.98 to 7.02, and even the extra few secondary applications the updates occasionally give you. I keep all my old versions because I find that sometimes if a new version stops, an older version usually works again. The error is a Windows prompt explaining that a problem has occurred and the software needs to close. That's different, since in the past the connection would just hang if it was blocked.

The guys behind it tend to be quite fast in sorting things out, so hopefully we'll have it back soon. Last National Day however, Freegate stopped for ages here. If you can't find anywhere to download new versions, go to VeryCD.com, grab the Easymule P2P software and do a custom search. I was surprised to find hundreds of downloads available including new versions (it's how I got 6.99, since Freegate only self-updated sporadically).

[liuzhou]

I'd wait till after the weekend and see what happens - though I'm not optimistic.

Alternative free ones - forget it.

Freegate is heavily funded (partly by the CIA). If they can't hold it together, some bunch of amateurs, however well intentioned isn't going to hack it. 

You have to go the VPN route.

[gato]

Lots of others are experiencing the same problem. See here

http://tieba.baidu.com/f?z=873364395&ct=335544320&lm=0&sc=0&rn=30&tn=baiduPostBrowser&word=%C0%EE%D2%E3&pn=0

A new beta of FG has been released. Try downloading it here (hit "点击这里下载"):

http://d.namipan.com/downfile/f_g703xb2.rar/84fab8663c14dab394348ab15fdd669c30e92c10d3531800

Sorry, had to use an ad-laden mainland filesharing site. Rapidshare doesn't have the free mass sharing option any more.

By the way, Google Docs seems to be blocked completely now. It used to be that only its HTTPS (encrypted) version was blocked.

Are they getting ready for Mr. Xi's big promotion, or what?

[Holly]

Sucktastic. So at this point, what would be my best move? I'm heading there on Wednesday...was really hoping to have access to Blogspot. I don't know where else to keep my frigging travel blog. <_<

[sleepy eyes]

Hey guys. I'm taking the plane to China in a few hours and all I downloaded so far was gato's beta Freegate. What is the VPN you've been mentioning? Where can I download it?

[TCcookie]

www.witopia.net , still working fine for me.

[roddy]

Cough Cough affiliate link cough cough - anyone signing up for Witopia and using that link earns me beer money. Other VPNs are of course available . . .

[sleepy eyes]

Thanks, guys. (: There is still time to download it before I'm off.

Oh, it's the paid service. Let's see once I'm there... I'll give Freegate a try first.

[Holly]

That stinks that you can only buy year-long plans, though...

[roddy]

Google 'VPN China' or similar, I'm sure there are monthly plans out there.

[liuzhou]

SurfBouncer does weekly and monthly and annual plans on their personal VPN. 

Anyone have any experience of using it?

[Holly]

Anyone have experience with VPN in China?

By the way, Freegate 7.03 Expert Beta was released... Check it out here. But now I'm not so sure I should be relying on Freegate. What bad timing!

[liuzhou]

 Gato already linked to FG 7.03 Beta.

I've been running it for two days and it seems stable at the moment. But then 7.02 was stable for a long time, as were previous versions.

I wouldn't rely solely on any one method. They can all be blocked - including VPN*s - at the whim of the censors. The more choices you have the better. 

*Paid for VPNs are less likely to be blocked.

[gato]

The fact that the FG team came out with fix within 24 hours of the latest GFW upgrade is quite impressive. So far the FG team has been to overcome everything that the Chinese government has thrown at them. The Chinese government spends billions of dollars on the GFW every year. The FG team is just a few people working on it part time. They receive some funding from Voice of America, but probably not a lot. Compared to the spending on the GFW, it's nothing.

You can read about the story behind FG here:

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/chinese-censors-internet-face-%E2%80%9Chacktivists%E2%80%9D-us

Chinese Censors of Internet Face “Hacktivists” in US

Geoffrey A. Fowler

The Wall Street Journal , 14 February 2006

Those who have access to a UNIX server can consider using SSH tunneling, which is virtually impossible to block, unless the government blocks all traffic with the outside world (which they did do in Xinjiang for a year after the riots there last year).

You can read more about SSH tunneling here:

http://www.applematters.com/article/using-ssh-secure-tunnels-for-the-common-man-part-i/

http://thedaneshproject.com/posts/ssh-tunneling-with-putty-linux/

[thewamphyri]

And many thanks to Gato, as that one seems to work - although it dislikes livejournal for some reason.. but never mind - that works within the GFW, go figure.

[liuzhou]

FG 7.03 Professional Edition has now been released (not beta, the real deal.) 

It's on the official site, but I am reluctant to link to it here.