

StrongVPN.com GFW'd as China's 60th anniversary nears - cnanon
http://uuuming.blogspot.com/2009/09/strongvpncom-gfwd-as-chinas-60th.html
China ISP blocks StrongVPN.com HK Server as China's 60th anniversary nears
======
cnanon
I fear the future. Once countries start compiling a blacklist of secure VPN
providers worldwide and block these IP segments. Everyone will start building
their own VPNs on SliceHost / Linode / RackSpace Cloud Servers. Then these
countries (China) will start blocking SliceHost / Linode / <insert your fav
VPS provider here>

I don't care much about using Twitter / Facebook / social apps. I have no
doubt that I'll become a victim from further IP blocking. I won't be surprised
to find my website on SliceHost GFW'd in China in the near future.

As I do most of my online business with China, hopefully a Chinese company
will duplicate SliceHost's services here.

\- UUuMing

------
jhancock
Although some services like StrongVPN may be convenient, the solution I've
relied on over the years is doing my own tunnel through my own server in the
U.S. I usually use a dedicated server in the U.S. But this works with just
about anything you have SSH access with. Just run SSH from the command line
like "ssh -CND 9999 <your_server_name_in_your_ssh_config>" and setup FoxyProxy
(Firefox extension) to use port 9999 (choose any high port you like) for the
SOCKS tunnel.

There was a blog post making the rounds a month or so ago promoting another
VPN/proxy service similar to StrongVPN. All I could think was all those poor
non-techies will sign up for this and it will soon get blocked. You are
correct that the GFW will not block port 443 for ALL IPs. So your little
unknown server serving up SSH connects on 443 (I don't use that port) is the
safest bet you've got.

This has been a big year for anniversaries in China. It will be interesting to
see if things ease up soon.

------
jaaron
Tor is blocked as well:

* [http://cubiclemuses.com/cm/articles/2009/09/27/tor-blocked-i...](http://cubiclemuses.com/cm/articles/2009/09/27/tor-blocked-in-china/)

------
cnanon
Ah.. finally! StrongVPN's OpenVPN Client can connect to HK server now. Not
sure who changed what on which side (China ISP vs StrongVPN) but I'm glad it's
working now!

~~~
jaaron
Where are you connecting from? I'm in Guangzhou. Tor was down this morning
(haven't checked recently).

~~~
cnanon
Connecting from Xian City, Shaanxi Province. It's been on and off the past 3
days.

My connection is fine now but I foresee VPN outages anytime without warnings.

