gato Posted July 15, 2011 at 10:50 PM Report Share Posted July 15, 2011 at 10:50 PM Anybody else experiencing massive slow down in access to international websites from mainland China in the last two days? Some sites like http://ftalphaville.ft.com/ are getting sporadically blocked for no good reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbradfor Posted July 16, 2011 at 02:59 AM Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 02:59 AM Not being in China I can't say, but right now I'm noticing a massive slowdown accessing Chinese sites from here. For example, I'm trying to read a comic at www.iibq.com; the page is loading so slow I feel I'm back trying to view porn over a 300 baud modem.... EDIT: never mind. It's fast again. Not sure what happened..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daofeishi Posted July 16, 2011 at 03:50 AM Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 03:50 AM trying to view porn over a 300 baud modem That reminds me of this xkcd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted July 16, 2011 at 04:15 AM Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 04:15 AM That reminds me of this xkcd That's blocked. What is it? the page is loading so slow I feel I'm back trying to view porn over a 300 baud modem.... That's why you download first, though of course if your video is HD, then good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daofeishi Posted July 16, 2011 at 04:38 AM Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 04:38 AM That's blocked. What is it? Is www.xkcd.org blocked now? Or was that particular page filtered away? I was linking to cartoon #598. Does this link work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedge Posted July 16, 2011 at 04:48 AM Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 04:48 AM I've had to sign on to VPN to use Facebook from Hong Kong this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted July 16, 2011 at 06:08 AM Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 06:08 AM Is www.xkcd.org blocked now? Or was that particular page filtered away? I was linking to cartoon #598. Does this link work? Now it's accessible. The blocking seems to be sporadic, as if they are just trying to mess with your head. The same sporadic blocking has been going on with Gmail since February. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lu Posted July 16, 2011 at 11:13 AM Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 11:13 AM For a minute I thought the problem was with my computer, but on a second try, chinese-forums is loading without any problem while google and gmail won't open. I thought we'd left this behind us some weeks ago :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted July 16, 2011 at 11:22 AM Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 11:22 AM I thought we'd left this behind us some weeks ago :-( Years ago people were thinking the same thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amandagmu Posted July 16, 2011 at 11:42 AM Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 11:42 AM I noticed it today. Accessing thebeijinger.com from VPN (it's never great) just timed out. Usually at least half the page loads on the first try. When I turned off the VPN it loaded in < 2 seconds. Forget about gmail without the VPN. It's just about dead in the water. 1 out of 5 times I can access it...so frustrating since, again, my U.S. uni decided to use gmail for e-mail hosting. Someone recently told me you can route it through sina.com and read it that way, anyone know if this is possible since it would still (obviously) be coming through a gmail server? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted July 16, 2011 at 12:38 PM Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 12:38 PM That reminds me of this xkcd That's blocked. What is it? If they'd blocked xkcd that really would be the last straw! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestTexas Posted July 16, 2011 at 02:14 PM Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 02:14 PM The university I work at in China released all the kids a few days ago. My internet is crazy fast now. No problems. Videos that used to take 20-30 minutes to download are downloading in 2 minutes, no exaggeration. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted July 16, 2011 at 02:42 PM Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 02:42 PM Videos that used to take 20-30 minutes to download are downloading in 2 minutes, no exaggeration. You are talking about video sites within China, of course. Almost all foreign video sites have been blocked for a long time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sthubbar Posted July 16, 2011 at 03:57 PM Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 at 03:57 PM Same thing here. Many of the foreign websites I visit are inaccessible. VPNs? Forgetaboutit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted July 17, 2011 at 09:14 AM Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 at 09:14 AM For what it's worth, there's been no drop-off in visitors from China to this site, so if anything is happening it's either not that drastic, or not affecting this site for whatever reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted July 17, 2011 at 09:25 AM Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 at 09:25 AM The Confucius Institute's got your back. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amandagmu Posted July 17, 2011 at 11:40 PM Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 at 11:40 PM Could be a Beijing thing. I'll let you all know when I arrive in Shanghai on Wednesday. Last time I went the general internet speed and accessibility increased several fold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted July 18, 2011 at 02:44 AM Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2011 at 02:44 AM I'm in Shanghai, and it's slow here, too, though things seem to have improved a bit after I complained here on Chinese-forums. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amandagmu Posted July 18, 2011 at 08:43 AM Report Share Posted July 18, 2011 at 08:43 AM har har. Seriously though, it was faster when I was down there last time. Same sites still inaccessible without VPN, but the average wifi connection in a cafe + my friend's place got faster service. Similar to the situations I experience with the bureaucracy involved in archival research: Beijing very slow, cannot print/photograph, or completely inaccessible; Shanghai not giving a rat's a** what I look at or print. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geeness Posted July 18, 2011 at 08:08 PM Report Share Posted July 18, 2011 at 08:08 PM I work in an architectural capacity for a consultancy; which involves Internet traffic engineering. The behaviour you are experiencing regarding websites sometimes loading, sometimes not, is not random. If you were located in China as a Chinese national, simply trying to view a website known to be foreign, and it was your first exploration;, to what extent would you persevere? Chinese nationals, in this context, learn very quickly: "ah, access to these foreign information/news/progressive views websites is a hassle! Let's stick to the purposefully-built Chinese alternatives!" This is a real issue in the mainland. The intellectuals find workarounds and tolerate it for the time being. But how can low to middle classes, with intelligent people keen to learn, reach the intellectual awareness stage, when simple access is stifled in such a manner? Having aided the management of controlling every technological aspect of the Olympic games through assigning IPv6 addresses to just about everything, I can assure you China is leagues ahead of the West in technology awareness, implementation and subsequently control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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