Those who are in the know in China all say that a Virtual Private Network is the way to go if you want to get around the so-called Great Firewall in China. Most VPNs cost money, but I recently found this free one that works well, and I thought I’d share it with you guys. As you can see from the video, it’s a very quick and easy install and requires no expertise at all (my speciality!) to configure.
Spread the word among your friends in China. Screw proxies. This is friggin’ wonderful.
Watch the Video of the VPN install:
NOTE: I had to censor the part with The Daily Show in it. Apparently youtube is quite sensitive about showing Jon Stewart’s face anywhere! They took this video down the first time I posted it. How about that? Youtube censored a video about censorship!
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August 1, 2008
6:43 am
Sounds good, I have been using witopia but it is about to expire, how does it fare for speed?
August 1, 2008
10:35 am
Thanks for the tip. You were mentionned by Reporter Sans Frontière ! http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=27993
August 1, 2008
10:39 am
Brilliant! Thanks for sharing this with everybody! I hope it stays available for a while. I just learned of another tool yesterday, called Freegate, which you can download here — I guess it’s been around for a while, but I just learned of it. It’s also very fast. I haven’t read about how it works yet, but I do know that it installs itself as a local proxy, and then talks to one of a list of servers to allow you to browse.
You mentioned torbutton, but their most recent update broke a lot of things, and it’s unusable now. That’s not to say that tor is unusable — it still works, albeit slowly. There are other ways to control tor besides torbutton. Another setback, though, is that the tor website itself is now blocked, so it’s hard, for those just getting started, to find a place to download tor.
August 1, 2008
11:05 am
Interestingly, the English version of the RSF article mentioned above doesn’t link here. But anyway, smoothzhuhai, thanks for the link, that article has a lot of good information.
August 1, 2008
12:00 pm
@Rick: Awesome stuff! Like Sir Stingley, I use WiTopia, and don’t know what I’d do without it. It’s $40/yr. price tag is barely an after-thought, but it’s good to know there are free alternatives.
@Klortho: The less we’re mentioned on the RSF site the more likely people will be able to read this without needing the above mentioned service
Still, gotta love the RSF.
August 8, 2008
11:03 pm
I wrote a long tedious blog post about the GFW and various tools, if anyone is interested.
August 10, 2008
11:09 am
Cool stuff Chris - thanks for sharing it!
August 12, 2008
10:42 pm
Thanks for all those tips guys, I’m so going to try them. The constant interceptions on YouTube is really getting on my nerves! this internet censorship alone has made living in China quite a daunting experience…
September 5, 2008
2:30 am
There is another VPN that’s free. Go to http://www.hotspotshield.com
September 5, 2008
8:51 am
@frankie456 Uh, thanks Frankie. I’ll definitely have to try that VPN sometime. Yes, I’ll definitely have to try hotspotshield, which I’ve never ever tried before ever in life.
September 5, 2008
11:12 am
Rick, while you are at it, trying new VPNs that you’ve never tried before, you might want to think about trying Hotspot Shield. I can’t remember where I heard about it, but I’ve heard it’s pretty good.
September 5, 2008
12:40 pm
You guys aren’t talking about hots pot shield are you? I’ve heard it’s good too - but is it free?
September 5, 2008
5:29 pm
So…this is great, but are they going to come and hunt me down or something?? Excuse my ignorance …
All of a sudden I couldn’t upload pictures to my blog…I installed the VPN and now I can…but is it safe? I’m not up on all this…I just want to post on my blog for my friends and family at home, thats all..
September 17, 2008
12:44 am
@nali
Take comfort in the fact that there are a quarter of a million people using hotspot shield in China. If they come after you, I guess they have to come after everybody else too.