Internet Blocks, the Great Firewall and VPNs

[roddy]

Are you sure you want to be double-clicking? I need to right-click the icon and then select an account and connect.

[ABCinChina]

When I right-click, I don't get the option to connect at my work computer. What I did was copy the setup program from home and installed it onto my work computer.

Edit: It seems that I have to install Witopia on my work computer in a different way. I followed the directions here and everything is fine now.

Edited November 4, 2008 at 03:30 AM by ABCinChina

[roddy]

Anyone else unable to connect to witopia? Seems like it might be a domain / DNS issue - their website seems to be down as well, and the connection is failing at connecting to vpn.witopia.net. First time it hasn't worked.

Edit: Back again, ignore me.

[ABCinChina]

It seems that Witopia sometimes doesn't work sporadically. Yesterday I had the same problem mentioned above, and now I'm having the same problem again.

It seems to log-in ok, but when I start browsing websites, it doesn't work. Maybe China is finding a way to block Witopia since they've blocked the free xB browser for quite some time now.

Edited November 15, 2008 at 01:08 PM by ABCinChina

[skchow]

Just want to report that I signed up w/ Witopia through the affiliate link and that is working fine in Hangzhou. If you don't hear back again from me, then you'll know I'm happy with the service.

[roddy]

Very good, hope it works out for you.

[GoodPeoples]

Hello everyone, I am looking for a youtube workaround. My friends and family really want to see what I'm up to. I have been doing my homework on proxy setups and websites that do just this, a workaround for youtube.

I thought I should ask...What do you use to workaround youtube or the firewall of China for that matter? I know some of the ways are reslly slow and some just cost too much.

In advance Thank you everyone.

I have seen some threads about this, but who knows there might be some new info on this subject.

[vampire]

free//gate:mrgreen:

[gerri]

witopia vpn - interestingly, it sometimes doesn't work, but when it does (which is: usually), it speeds up the internet connection

[imron]

Merged with thread providing your answer. If you're not technically inclined, Witopia will be your best bet. It works out to 1 RMB a day over the cost of a year.

[GoodPeoples]

Thank you Imron and to the others in this thread.

[roddy]

Those of you further up the topic asking if Witopia has different servers so you can have a US / UK IP address if you want one. It didn't, but it does now. See here for instructions on changing the gateway.

I tried using the UK one to use the BBC iPlayer service. Technically it worked, but was too slow to really call usable.

[gato]

f r e e g a t e works.

[westmeadboy]

I tried that one but it seemed a bit flakey.

Then I switched to another one (starts with the same first four letters and then plus the first three letters of a particular fruit which has an acquired taste) which seemed much more stable. Also a decent firefox plugin but also works with other browsers. Very fast. However, recently I've noticed that this sometimes doesnt work either. But how can it possibly not work when everything's encrypted...?

[roddy]

Encrypted traffic can still be blocked - you can stop traffic to certain addresses, even if you can't read it.

[westmeadboy]

Yeah, I thought so - but in that case how do these apps work? Surely whatever IP address they use (even if those IP addresses are constantly changing) can be blocked.

[roddy]

In the case of Onion routing, there's probably a game of cat and mouse - as one gets blocked, others come on line. With the likes of Witopia, they're probably, currently, below the radar - I'd guess the number of users in China is in the low thousands, if that; mainly foreign; and mainly visiting Youtube and Facebook.

[muyongshi]

I'm wondering if witopia is now on there radar. I have been having issues connecting for the last couple weeks. Well not issues connecting but rather, the speed being 10x slower than normal and sometimes stops working in the middle of being connected.

Now i will say there is a variable in here as I started using it on my windows partition as well and that one seems to be faster than my mac one so I'm not sure what's going on for sure. Messed with the DNS, used all different gateways, etc. including the new 256 bit encryption.

[imron]

Well not issues connecting but rather, the speed being 10x slower than normal and sometimes stops working in the middle of being connected.

Maybe the number of users has skyrocketed?

[muyongshi]

It's possible. I'm not an expert but it feels to me more like it's been hacked than anything else. Based on what it feels like when sites are blocked without the VPN. No expert just 推测.