JanJan Posted March 5, 2010 at 08:27 AM Report Posted March 5, 2010 at 08:27 AM I will be attending BLCU and i want to keep in touch with friends and family in the U.S. so i am wondering if websites like Myspace.com, Facebook.com, Yahoo Instant Messanger, Yahoo.com, Hotmail, or MSN Messanger are blocked? If so, what websites would you recomend in order to keep in touch? Quote
Hezhuomin Posted March 5, 2010 at 12:24 PM Report Posted March 5, 2010 at 12:24 PM The websites won't be blocked.You also can use Skype. Quote
Daan Posted March 5, 2010 at 01:06 PM Report Posted March 5, 2010 at 01:06 PM Facebook was blocked when I was in China a few months ago. I'm not sure about MySpace, but the others should all work. Quote
gougou Posted March 5, 2010 at 01:10 PM Report Posted March 5, 2010 at 01:10 PM The websites won't be blocked.I am surprised that you should say so, because for me, Facebook is blocked. Also, Myspace has some issues with profiles being blocked if you access them by their id instead of their username (or the other way round?). Quote
Lu Posted March 5, 2010 at 01:27 PM Report Posted March 5, 2010 at 01:27 PM Don't you know, there are no blocked websites in China, there are only some websites that are difficult to access :-/ Quote
XiaoXi Posted March 6, 2010 at 01:31 AM Report Posted March 6, 2010 at 01:31 AM I don't know quite what everyone is talking about. Facebook and youtube will be blocked in China. Myspace seems to work though. Quote
gato Posted March 6, 2010 at 02:04 AM Report Posted March 6, 2010 at 02:04 AM Facebook has been blocked for at least a year, but there are proxy software you can install (search for proxy on this forum) to get around the block. Quote
jla888 Posted March 7, 2010 at 06:00 AM Report Posted March 7, 2010 at 06:00 AM hi! facebook and youtube are presently blocked in china. You can use hotspot shield and download it before going to china because hotspot shield website is also blocked in china. I've also tried using my phones skyfire mobile browser and everything is not blocked. Quote
Xauner Posted March 7, 2010 at 11:57 AM Report Posted March 7, 2010 at 11:57 AM Hey, anyone know if Spotify works in China? Quote
pancake Posted March 7, 2010 at 03:34 PM Report Posted March 7, 2010 at 03:34 PM Xauner: Spotify works. But if you don't have Spotify premium, and you plan on staying for longer than two weeks, then your account will become inaccessible due to restrictions on travel. This happened to me. Quote
Xauner Posted March 7, 2010 at 04:49 PM Report Posted March 7, 2010 at 04:49 PM Thanks alot for the info...Can't really live without music for a longer period of time, guess I'll get premium before I head to China. Quote
phyrex Posted March 8, 2010 at 12:08 AM Report Posted March 8, 2010 at 12:08 AM Invest in a VPN. Otherwise you'll go mad in no time.. I'm using strongvpn.com and am quite happy with it. Quote
XiaoXi Posted March 8, 2010 at 04:26 AM Report Posted March 8, 2010 at 04:26 AM Yes a VPN is pretty essential. I found even with websites that aren't blocked, like Google for example is not blocked but some parts of it seem to be. And I'm not talking about parts that "need" to be censored either. Sections like webmaster tools and parts of google documents are for unknown reasons, inaccessible. I use Liberty VPN which seems fine so far. I find I use the VPN more for webpages that are blocked for unknown reasons than for deliberately blocked sites like Youtube and such. Quote
~lynks Posted March 26, 2010 at 06:52 AM Report Posted March 26, 2010 at 06:52 AM China puts in place all sorts of restrictions on internet use, depending on your browsing habits you might find these restrictions bearable or severe. There are loads of ways around it, you can as people on here have suggested pay a monthly fee for a VPN, you can use free proxy software such as hotspot shield, or if you have a techie friend back at home (or in any country without internet restrictions) just ask them for an ssh shell on a server and tunnel a socks stream through ssh - this is what i do, but i work in IT security so this stuff is part of my day-to-day and might be a pain to set up if youre not as much of a geek as I am What lengths you go to depends on how much speed and reliability you need. For maximum in both, a VPN is great, but an SSH shell could be equally fast and is free! Quote
miss_China_so_much Posted March 26, 2010 at 12:11 PM Report Posted March 26, 2010 at 12:11 PM I just came back from Beijing. Facebook and Youtube are currently blocked. MySpace is accessible. I strongly suggest that you arm yourself with VPN or SSH or anything that can help you get around the GFW. A recent very bad news for me is that google has moved out of China (now google.cn is rerouted to google.com.hk). Baidu is no match for google in terms of number of results returned and ranking based on relevance, also the "paid-ranking" of baidu just drives me MAD! Quote
Chris333 Posted March 26, 2010 at 03:00 PM Report Posted March 26, 2010 at 03:00 PM A free VPN I use: www.vtunnel.com Works for most sites, although when I visit Facebook, certain features don't work. For example; I can't respond to invitations or messages in my inbox. Additionally, when I visit YouTube it says I don't have the latest version of Java or WMP installed, even though I do. Quote
XiaoXi Posted March 27, 2010 at 01:55 AM Report Posted March 27, 2010 at 01:55 AM Vtunnel is not a VPN its a CGI web proxy. Quote
~lynks Posted March 27, 2010 at 02:18 AM Report Posted March 27, 2010 at 02:18 AM @Chris333 if youre finding that your browsing experience differs in any way (like the web sites claiming you doing have java installed) then you arn't using a vpn. youre using some kind of proxy. Quote
Chris333 Posted March 27, 2010 at 03:33 AM Report Posted March 27, 2010 at 03:33 AM Doh- just goes to show you what I know about VPNs. Quote
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