ocpaul20 Posted January 9, 2006 at 06:47 AM Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 at 06:47 AM Is there any way to ask for a review of blocked websites. I really want to get onto a web site but it seems to be blocked from inside china. As far as I can see, there is nothing objectionable on it, no anti-chinese propaganda, pornography, etc. Anyone know of an email address where we can request a review and maybe get it un-blocked? Of course, if we are not supposed to know that there ARE blocked web sites, then I dont suppose there will be a review mechanism. Anyway, just a long shot..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted January 9, 2006 at 06:56 AM Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 at 06:56 AM I read something quite some time ago about how the ISPs can make representations to have a websites block reviewed. You could therefore try asking your ISP. Realistically though. . . Roddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocpaul20 Posted January 9, 2006 at 07:14 AM Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 at 07:14 AM but who should we make representations to? Who actually blocks them? the PSB? The web site is one hosted in the USA and has nothing to do with me - other than I want to see it ! As far as I know, they are unaware or unconcerned that people here in china cannot see it. Maybe this is one of those big imponderables...just wondered if anyone had come across the same problem before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted January 9, 2006 at 07:26 AM Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 at 07:26 AM Blocked Page but here's the relevant bit quoted. It's about Wikipedia editors in China trying to get Wikipedia unblocked On October 21, Shizhao once again submitted an appeal to his ISP, and stated, "If nothing goes wrong, the block should be lifted within one week." On October 24, Shizhao posted, "The block will be lifted by Wednesday [October 26]. According to procedure (the details of which are unknown), after the appeal is submitted, a reply will come within 3 business days, and my appeal has already been submitted by the ISP on Friday. My ISP has said that so far they haven't encountered a case where an appeal has failed. This should be good news, but it's still impossible to know the reason for the block."The appeal submitted strove to be closer to the position of the Chinese government than the first appeal submitted in 2004. It stated, "... [t]he most effective approach is not to reject [this project] outside our borders, but to participate in it actively. If we block Wikipedia, we lose the opportunity to speak with the world with a Chinese voice, and allow forces such as evil cults and Taiwanese independence control the development of content in the project, thus presenting to the world a twisted [image of] China; as users, we lose a channel through which we could access knowledge, a channel whose importance is rising constantly; such an act [i.e. blocking] is no different from cutting away our own voice and tongue, or shutting our own eyes and ears; it is isolationism in the age of the Internet." (Original text) In the morning of October 31, 2005, Chinese Standard Time (UTC +, Wikipedians from all parts of mainland China began to report that they could access Wikipedia without using proxies. It was initially thought that the block had indeed been lifted, but later on the apparent "unblocking" was linked to the deployment of an LVS load balancer in front of the squid in the Korean server cluster, which changed the IP address of Wikimedia sites for users in China, thus circumventing the block. In any case, within a few hours normal access to Wikipedia was once again impossible. So there is, at least theoretically, a way you can do this. But you need to get your ISP to pay attention to you. You need to persuade them to submit an appeal (to who? I'm not sure). And then you need that appeal to be examined and approved. If you let us know what the website is, someone might be able to figure out why it's blocked. Roddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gougou Posted January 9, 2006 at 07:46 AM Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 at 07:46 AM If your only worry is seeing the page yourself, you can also go through a proxy. roddy was advertising one back in the days when we still had advertisements and currently is giving out free samples, if you're interested in having a closer look at the problem. A completely free alternative would be anonymouse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted January 9, 2006 at 08:54 AM Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 at 08:54 AM I agree with gougou's way of thinking. It's faster, easier and all around less hassle, to just find a way to bypass the Great Firewall. Either paying for a proxy service, or if you're technically inclined, setting one up yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malinuo Posted January 9, 2006 at 11:10 AM Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 at 11:10 AM Can someone explain the logic of the proxies? Surely it isn't a long term solution? The Chinese will start blocking them as well, and if you paid for a proxy service which gets blocked, you basically paid for nothing. Or is there something fundamental I haven't understood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted January 9, 2006 at 12:35 PM Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 at 12:35 PM Basically, yes. But to attract attention it has to get a fair amount of use. Paid proxies don't, for the simple reason that they are paid. Also, the one I use (info here) seems to maintain a range of different servers so if one was to become blocked, you can switch to another. Some proxies (anonymouse.ws comes to mind) seem to have been unblocked for years, although you'll find they can't get you access to everything. Also, if you can set up your own proxy ( I used to have a bbc news-specific proxy I coded myself) and keep it secret, the chances of it being blocked are unlikely. Roddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted January 9, 2006 at 12:59 PM Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 at 12:59 PM Send an email to either usip AT earthlink.net or usip AT bellsouth.net. You'll receive instructions on where to download a proxy software for your PC. The proxy works with internet explorer and will allow you bypass the firewall. Though your browsing will a bit slower, it's still usable, particularly for sites that are not graphically intensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted January 9, 2006 at 11:38 PM Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 at 11:38 PM As a long term solution it works great :-) I've been using one a friend helped set up for about 2 years now and have never had any trouble. To anyone monitoring traffic, from the outside all it looks like is that I'm making a secure (i.e. encrypted) connection to a given server. The government is unlikely to block out all encrypted traffic, as it would effectively put an end to e-commerce in China - something I don't think they'd want to do. As I'm the only person doing this on his server, and as the websites that run on the server are completely innocent in terms of things that would come under the chinese government's radar, the chances of this being shutdown are extremely rare. It's always a possibility, but then I just need to find somewhere else to set it up, and continue on my merry way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hakkaboy Posted January 11, 2006 at 10:40 AM Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 at 10:40 AM Send an email to either usip AT earthlink.net or usip AT bellsouth.net.You'll receive instructions on where to download a proxy software for your PC. The proxy works with internet explorer and will allow you bypass the firewall. Though your browsing will a bit slower, it's still usable, particularly for sites that are not graphically intensive. For some reason google won't let me email either of those mailboxes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted January 11, 2006 at 10:48 AM Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 at 10:48 AM I don't think it's google, but the firewall. It filters every page, including your web email site. I had the same problem with hotmail. Your best bet is to either to turn on security (SSL) for your email (Yahoo mail has this) so that it would scramble the address and hide it from the firewall, or email it using a desktop email client program like Outlook or Thunderbird.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
got_no_jaffas Posted February 19, 2006 at 10:14 AM Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 at 10:14 AM china seems to have blocked my website; there are ways around it. but it also seems i cannot connect to the sql server of my isp hosting my website via enterprise manager. i also can't can't gain an ftp connection to my wesbite either should i want to deploy new changes. this is the first time i have experienced censorship & it's a real bugger. am i right in saying that sql & ftp access is now forbidden to me now that i am in china? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yingguoguy Posted February 19, 2006 at 11:18 AM Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 at 11:18 AM I don't suspect the Chinese government will have published specifications on how their firewall works but I'm guessing since you can't ping news.bbc.co.uk that it just drops any packets going to a forbidden IP address. So yes any type of connection to that machine will be blocked. How are you accessing the server? If your using Unix or command line tools you should be able to telnet into any computer outside China, and then telnet/ftp into the blocked machine, if your using a Windows machine you could get someone to set up Remote Desktop on a home PC somewhere and do the same thing. Complete pain in the ass though. Hmm, dissent via SQL, interesting thought: insert into PoliticalSystem("Democracy","Full Representation", 2015) where county = "ZH" and region="Hong Kong"; Sorry, I'm a geek. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
got_no_jaffas Posted February 19, 2006 at 11:41 AM Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 at 11:41 AM i'm on a full microsoft platform. bugger! spanking new dell laptop weighing 3kg with the latest microsoft apps & all i can do is send emails!! can't remote desktop because i don't have anyone back in london to help out with it. should have gone to taipei to learn chinese instead!! hahaha!!. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yingguoguy Posted February 19, 2006 at 12:09 PM Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 at 12:09 PM We're rapidly reaching the limits of my internet knowledge, but if you are in China for an extended period and this going to really disrupt your business I'd contact your ISP and explain the problem to them, they may be able to assign the machine to an extra internet address, one which is not blocked, or else think of some other cunning way round it. Of course how helpful they'll be depends entirely on how much you're paying them. (Just make sure they're not running their e-mail system on the same machine) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted February 19, 2006 at 01:14 PM Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 at 01:14 PM I ran into the same problem last year. My hosting company moving the site to another server solved the problem. See http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?p=46090 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
got_no_jaffas Posted March 20, 2006 at 12:11 PM Report Share Posted March 20, 2006 at 12:11 PM before i request my hosting isp to make the changes, can i just check that china blocks websites by ip address & not by domain name. if www.gozzle.com is blocked as a name then i guess it doesn't matter whether i migrate the dotcom business to a new ip address because it will still be blocked. i don't want to go through the hassle of migration & then find out i'm still back to square one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.