How to use Facebook, Twitter in China?

[oneseven]

How to use Facebook, Twitter in China?

[Shelley]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

 

You don't say where you are now, I am guessing not in China?

 

I am no expert but I know it can be done.

 

I will leave the fine details to someone more knowledgable.

 

[DavyJonesLocker]

Only with a VPN. 

 

Download it before you come, makes it easier as they block the VPN websites too! 

You can do it when you're here but it's a bit of a hassle 

[Angelina]

There is something new from Google/Alphabet. I have not tried it yet, but it looks interesting. 

It is called Outline. 

 

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/22/alphabets-outline-lets-you-build-your-own-vpn/

 

Quote

But it’s also awful because anybody who has access to your VPN server can see your internet traffic. That’s why you should never rely on a VPN company, even if they promise that they respect your privacy. They’ll analyze your browsing habits, sell them to advertisers, inject their own ads on non-secure pages or steal your identity. And you can’t know for sure if you can trust them.

Traditional VPN protocols can also be blocked because they use specific ports and they look like VPN traffic if authorities and ISPs use deep packet inspection. That’s why countries can block VPNs altogether.

And yet, a socks5 proxy looks like normal internet traffic. Shadowsocks is taking advantage of that and combining the advantage of a proxy with traffic encryption. It’s supposed to work great in China for instance.

 

It's supposed to work great. Does it work?

 

[ChTTay]

Davy’s advice is sound. 

 

Just buy a VPN before you come. 

 

The questions regarding privacy when using a VPN should be something you’re aware of but most of the debate surrounding this issue is if you’re using a VPN somewhere like Europe or the USA and want to keep your data private. Unless you’re tech savvy and want to try set something up to use in China, it’s a lot more straight forward to just buy one. 

 

If you’re like most people here and just want to be to be able to search using google, access Facebook and watch YouTube videos, then just buying a commercial one is enough.

[王麻子]

Before explaining how to break through China's cyber blockade, you need to understand China's national network firewall.
( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall)

VPN is the main way to get rid of network restrictions in China. There are not only paid VPN services but also other free services on the Internet. If you have high requirements for network speed, paying VPN is a good choice.

However, care must be taken to use VPN services provided by non-Chinese companies, as some VPN service providers will provide Chinese government departments with personal data of users. There are many free VPN services available on the Internet and can also be found in the Google play store.

In addition to VPNs, there are other ways to access websites that are blocked in China. For example Tor browser, Shadowsocks, ShadowsocksR, Brook, Goflyway. The security of these software is higher than ordinary VPN.

Hope to help you.

[DavyJonesLocker]

free ones are next to useless in China though. Far too unstable  and slow. Everyone I know trys the few ones for a while and eventually just gets a paid one. I tried a pile myself for about a year.

[889]

Those "free" ones you download off Google Play are indeed almost all useless in China. Let me save you a lot of frustration: don't waste your time on them.

 

"However, care must be taken to use VPN services provided by non-Chinese companies, as some VPN service providers will provide Chinese government departments with personal data of users."

 

The only free VPN I've found to work consistently in China is indeed a Chinese VPN. It's remarkable to be able to suddenly get through after everything else has been blocked. Yes, I assume it works because they're willing to turn over to the Chinese government whatever the Chinese government wants.

 

But so what. I just want to be able to read the NYT, do some Google searches and such. Email, if set up properly, not to mention this site, should be through secure connections. That is, the VPN does know what site you're connecting to, but not the content of the transmission.

 

Anyway, it's always safest while in China -- and sometimes while not -- to just assume that your online activities can be thoroughly surveilled, however you conduct them and no matter what protections you take. It's just plain silly to be afraid of using a Chinese VPN on your Chinese mobile phone.

 

 

[ChTTay]

I agree with 889! I’d gladly use a state sponsored VPN if they let me just access news, google, YouTube. Want my passport number? Sure! Photograph? Sure!  Just let me use the real internet. I’ve got nothing to hide unless finding educational videos on YouTube or making my own flashcards becomes a problem. 

[889]

"Lead us not unto Bing, but deliver us to Google, because Thine is the reign, and the power, and the glory. Amen"

[Balthazar]

A bunch of paid VPNs also don't work. Perhaps ask the people over at r/China which ones are currently recommended?

 

If you're more tech-savy than the average user: Shadowsocks is supposed to be pretty reliable

[889]

At least on Android, I've never gotten Shadowsocks to work.

[DavyJonesLocker]

I and many others I know use expressvpn in China. Using it for years and it's quite rare it doesn't work. The odd time it might fail around a CPC meeting but usually it means trying different servers. They normally tell people in China which server to use at these times. 

[ChTTay]

If you’re not in China, you can pretty easily find VPNs that currently work here. Google is your friend. Davy’s reccomendation is solid again, a lot of people I know use that. 

 

I don’t use reddit’s forums on China that much. It’s not as positive as Chinese-Forums. 

[Balthazar]

6 hours ago, ChTTay said:

I don’t use reddit’s forums on China that much. It’s not as positive as Chinese-Forums. 

 

I don't like it there either (something about the sarcasm and general negative attitude towards everything that has to do with China) but when it comes to question such as this it's usually easy to get a good answer fast.

[John-DC]

Using NordVPN here. Paid. Good service and offers a great selection of geographies and encryption methods. It's still choppy sometimes getting a stable tunnel going for any length of time, but that's much more a reflection of the crappiness of the Chinese internet infrastructure than anything else. I am a data network engineer / architect by trade, and what I've seen in this country gives me hives. Case in point - walking down the street in a retail district in Shenyang last week - HERE is an example of why the internet in China is less than optimal. Keep in mind that those are fiber optic cables and termination points. They should be in weatherproof enclosures. China Uni seems to think otherwise.....   (no, these distribution boxes weren't being serviced at the time). Just something visual to think about next time you're getting 1400 ms pings to Seattle or San Francisco.   

[lakesandrivers]

On 4/9/2018 at 8:51 PM, DavyJonesLocker said:

use expressvpn in China

 

Totally on my to-do list before entering China. Heard too many praises here, out there and on my trusted tech sites.