Review: Invisible Browsing VPN (ibVPN)

A little down recently about my regular VPN's lackluster speed, I started testing out a new service called ibVPN (Invisible Browsing VPN) and am decently happy with the results/ease of use.

The service is strictly PPTP and not SSL, which I suppose is both a pro and a con. From my experience PPTP is faster and easier to setup as services go, but is easier to get blocked.

And blocked I think is exactly what happe…

Google and the Illegal Flower Tribute

At this point, everyone knows about Google’s decision to channel Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” and more or less say “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” when it comes to complying with China’s internet censorship laws.  In its January 12 blog post, Google stated that the company does in fact recognize that leaving search results unfiltered could mean the end of Google.cn and the end of their bus…

The Great Firewall: longer, higher, meaner

The already unfortunate situation of internet censorship in China - imposed by the so-called Great Firewall - has been slowly getting worse this year, making a mockery of claims that the Olympics would open up China in terms of allowing a greater spread of communication and discussion. This year the Great Firewall has metamorphosed from a paranoid bug into a malignant disease, a raging cancer, blighting creativity, f…

Block Block Block, Blockity Block

I went to the supermarket today, but was blocked at the entrance by some dude checking his receipt and yelling at someone on his phone. Shrugged it off. Grabbed my gear and headed for the bus stop, but was blocked by some old lady super excited to bear witness to China's mass-transit system in motion. Shrugged it off.

On the bus, we headed away from the bus stop but were blocked by a black sedan idling the wor…

Using a VPN to beat Chinese Internet Censorship

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…

Access Flickr (in China) Upgrade

If you've been using the Firefox addon Access Flickr, which allows you view Flickr photos while being behind the Great Firewall, you may have noticed some photos display just fine and some wont at all.

Since posting last june about the fantastic solution for us shutterbugs in China, Flickr has added a new "farm" for photo storage - essentially a different sub-domain of the Flickr site. Unless you are using the lat…

Great Firewall of China: Explained

Finally. Finally a journalist has sat down and hashed out a detailed, sourced explanation of how China's Internet censorship works. May I just say, thank you Mr. Fallows.

James Fallows is The Atlantic's "man in China", and his article "The Connection Has Been Reset" is the first article I've seen that has given an extensive rundown of the technologies and policies the Chinese government employs in its battle with …