Review on Witopia and other "Anti-Wall" apps

[imron]

What OS are you running?

[woofs]

Windows Vista.

[imron]

If you downloaded from the link provided by gato above, it is compressed using the rar format. You will need to download something like WinRAR in order to be able to decompress the file.

[venture160]

FYI if you have a google android phone, there are now plug-ins for the OpenVPN protocol, which means I now run all my mobile internet connections over the Witopia VPN. I am using China Unicom 3G though as it can get slow over a GPRS connection.

Also, if you don't want to pay for a VPN, there is now a fully workable TOR plug-in for android as well.

Android to me is the best mobile platform for anyone living in China given the 互联网管制

[imron]

iPhones can also connect to VPNs. Never used the functionality myself, just saying it can be done.

[venture160]

Unless you have a corporate VPN using the IPSec protocol, the other protocol used by the iPhone or PPTP VPN is blocked in China. Most paid VPN services use PPTP VPN or OpenVPN. OpenVPN is not blocked in China thus the only option, and now that it works on Android, a really good choice for people living in China.

[pazu]

Kind of surprise that when I google Witopia, i found this forum again.

I tried Witopia for a day and decided to get a refund, it's just too slow, it depends on your luck if you can go to Facebook or Twitter...

I think it's unreliable.

Perhaps you get better connection in other parts of China, but here in Tibet, I think StrongVPN.com seems to be better. No software is needed, but you will need to change the DNS to access Facebook (change it once only).

I'm still in the testing period (6 more days to go), so I will decide if I want to use this.

[muyongshi]

What platform are you running witopia on? Also, if you pay attention to where it is connecting that helps because some are are faster than others. I usually hit reconnect a lot till I get to a port that typically has a good speed to it.

[liuzhou]

Freegate released a new version (6.89) last week. It is blocked already.

[gato]

If FG is blocked in the normal mode, you can usually make it work by entering a known functioning proxy. For example, try entering 125.240.55.130 port 8080 in the proxy address. See the attached pictures for where to enter the proxy address.

I saw this described on FG's support bbs, and it works. I'm not exactly sure why you'd need FG if you have another working proxy. I think the idea is "kick start" FG with the proxy (i.e. let it tunnel through the firewall) and then have the normal FG circuitry take over.

I was able to find working proxy with the LotusProxy software, which I think might be produced by the same group of people who made FG.

[gato]

The proxy method I described above doesn't seem to work, anymore.

The latest version of FG

6.94 (January, 2010)

http://rapidshare.com/files/336989517/fg694p.rar

It's working at the moment, though may not be as consistent as it was before the latest surge in blocking.

Edited January 18, 2010 at 02:37 AM by gato

[adrianlondon]

I'm a bit late with this as I only just noticed, but in order to try and counter the fact half the students at BNU spend their entire life downloading torrents, BNU network admins blocked every port.

I was using VPN while there (actually for work) and asked them to open the ports. They did. I also lost access to a gay chat room (hey, it's all mandarin practice!) and they opened that up too.

So if you definitely need a particular port and your program won't allow you to use any of the standard ones, find the BNU network admins (they used to be in the internet cafe just behind Dorm 3, the one with McDonalds in it) and tell them what you need.

While I'm here, anyone need screenshots of any web pages emailed to them from London? :-)

[gato]

FG is only working sporadically these days, but you still have other "free" options. Tor still works, once you configure it with a bridge. And if you have SSH access to a server, there's also SSH tunneling which is surprisingly easy to set up. See below for more.

1. Tor

Tor (Windows)

http://rapidshare.com/files/287655964/vidalia-bundle-0.2.1.19-0.1.15.exe

Tor (Mac)

http://rapidshare.com/files/287656452/vidalia-bundle-0.2.1.19-0.1.15-universal.dmg

Take a look at the pictures attached to this post for setting up Tor with Bridge.

Here are the bridge relay addresses you can use:

bridge 218.189.200.130:4439

bridge 92.41.50.141:443

bridge 83.226.198.100:9443

bridge 69.60.117.34:9001

For more detailed instruction for setting up the bridge in Tor, see this page in Chinese:

http://ow.ly/s6Kh

送你一颗绿色洋葱头

Adding Proxy Setting in Browser:

Once Tor is running, you also need tell your browser that you're using a proxy. If you are using Firefox, I would highly recommend the Multiproxy add-on, as it makes it a two-click process to switch in and out proxies.

Here is the link to Multiproxy:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7330

See the attached picture for the settings for Tor in Multiproxy.

2. SSH Tunneling

If you have SSH login access to a server, it's actually really easy to set up that server for tunneling access, which means that you'll be accessing the rest of the web through that server.

See this page on how to do it.

http://thinkhole.org/wp/2006/05/10/howto-secure-firefox-and-im-with-putty/

Secure Firefox and IM with PuTTY

SSH tunneling sounded complicated to me before, so I never tried it out before this latest round of blockade. But with the blocking of FG recently, I finally got around trying tunneling. I tried it with a server I still have access to, left over from my college days. It's surprisingly quick to set up. Just follow up the instructions above, and you'll be up and running in five minutes or less.

Edited October 3, 2009 at 03:10 AM by gato

[imron]

Heh, as I mentioned in the other thread - SSH Tunneling FTW!

[cui ruide]

Hey could you post those pictures or a link to a site showing how to set up Tor? I'm having a hard time getting it to work. Thanks gato for providing the info and files!

[gato]

Oh, I guess the pictures didn't come through previously. I've re-uploaded them in the post above.

The link to adding bridge address to Tor is actually already posted above:

http://ow.ly/s6Kh

It's in Chinese, though. You probably don't need to read it. Just follow the pictures I posted and enter the bridge addresses in the settings menu, and you should be up and running.

[johninchina]

I'm using the tor with bridging and its working great . . except no video. I'm asked to install the latest version of flash. I've done that quite a few times. It goes through the download and installation process as if it worked but when I go back to the video it is still asking for the latest version of flash.

[liuzhou]

I'm asked to install the latest version of flash

That seems to be a Firefox problem. It works fine in Opera.

[johninchina]

Okay, I just installed Opera. Now how do I get Tor to work for Opera? Without the firefox torbutton I don't know how to tell a browser I'm using a proxy.

[imron]

hit F12 to bring up the quick-menu and the x to enable/disable the proxy.

The proxy itself needs to be configured in the options screen.