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China tightens Great Firewall by declaring unauthorised VPN services illegal

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Re: China tightens Great Firewall by declaring unauthorised VPN services illegal

#81

Post by janekm »

robjan wrote: post #76
toni wrote: post #75

This might sound like a naive or stupid question, so please help me out here: Let's say I live in Shenzhen. Isn't it possible to connect via a normal phone line to a dial-up service in Hong Kong and enjoy an almost uncensored (albeit very slow) internet? Or is that a bit far-fetched?

It would probably be quite expensive as, in most cases, calls to +852 are considered to be long-distance. I don't think internet access is as restricted in SZ as other parts of the mainland, as I am pretty sure that I bought an unrestricted SIM at the HK-SZ border last time I crossed.

Internet access in SZ is also restricted, but you are right that you can buy an unrestricted SIM on the border, but that is actually a HK SIM (or dual network sim) so your data connections are terminated in HK and hence not filtered.

Re: China tightens Great Firewall by declaring unauthorised VPN services illegal

#82

Post by pasbesoin »

gutnor wrote: post #65
schuke wrote: post #17

Here's my translation as a Chinese native, though I'm no technical expert. Companies that provide IDC, ISP, CDN services, without authorization, are prohibited to set up or lease connections (including virtual private networks), to conduct business operations across borders. I guess it means if you're a ISP etc, you're not allowed to sell VPN services without authorization. It says nothing about individuals purchasin…

> It's nonetheless a chilling sign that they're restricting VPN access, which is consistent with the overall tightening of internet control that's been going on for quite a while. It is also consistent with the worldwide tightening of internet. Trump and May are much more likely to applaud the latest Chinese effort than criticise. Chinese internet management is the model that will lead the West. Quite a reversal, qui…

Years ago, I was saying that China's Great Firewall was the prototype. Meaning, on an international scale, involving international participation including especially the companies then selling them the equipment and services.

Nothing I've seen has changed this basic perception.

P.S. Although, now, an increasing amount of the expertise and technology are internal.

Re: China tightens Great Firewall by declaring unauthorised VPN services illegal

#83

Post by intrasight »

yorwba wrote: post #35
intrasight wrote: post #18

How would they discriminate between business people traveling to China (who probably wouldn't travel if their VPN was blocked) vs Chinese citizens?

The same way they do it currently. I'm in Shanghai as an exchange student and I get very different connection quality depending on whether I'm using the WLAN on campus (fast, some Google-owned services work even without VPN), using my mobile connection specifically catering to foreigners (4G, no noticeable slowdown with VPN) or the "citizen grade" connection at the flat I'm renting. I have observed speeds of 10 MiB/s…

Really that's what I'm asking - how do they do it currently?

Re: China tightens Great Firewall by declaring unauthorised VPN services illegal

#84

Post by tornadoboy55 »

Canada wrote: post #30
brador wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$300 per megabit?? Did you mean GB or TB maybe?

I confirm that is indeed megabit per month. (324 gigabytes, or about $0.93 per gigabyte) Yeah, harsh. But hey, it's black market internet access.

> black market internet access

Sounds like a sentence from a '90s hacker game. Welcome to 2017 I guess..

Re: China tightens Great Firewall by declaring unauthorised VPN services illegal

#85

Post by lordlimecat »

hamckio wrote: post #63

Just want to mention Streisand here; it's an opensource project that helps you to "setup a new server running L2TP/IPsec, OpenConnect, OpenSSH, OpenVPN, Shadowsocks, sslh, Stunnel, a Tor bridge, and WireGuard. It also generates custom instructions for all of these services. At the end of the run you are given an HTML file with instructions that can be shared with friends, family members, and fellow activists". Github…

It should be noted that the GFW currently has the ability to detect most or all of those. Long gone are the days when OpenVPN over TCP 443 could fool them.

Re: China tightens Great Firewall by declaring unauthorised VPN services illegal

#86

Post by tiatia »

lordlimecat wrote: post #85
hamckio wrote: post #63

Just want to mention Streisand here; it's an opensource project that helps you to "setup a new server running L2TP/IPsec, OpenConnect, OpenSSH, OpenVPN, Shadowsocks, sslh, Stunnel, a Tor bridge, and WireGuard. It also generates custom instructions for all of these services. At the end of the run you are given an HTML file with instructions that can be shared with friends, family members, and fellow activists". Github…

It should be noted that the GFW currently has the ability to detect most or all of those. Long gone are the days when OpenVPN over TCP 443 could fool them.

Yeah. This guy has obviously never lived in China.

Re: China tightens Great Firewall by declaring unauthorised VPN services illegal

#87

Post by PakG1 »

baq wrote: post #60
PakG1 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I buy unfiltered Internet for my org. We don't use VPN. It's super expensive. Email me if anyone likes. I prefer not to discuss it in public here because I'm not sure what the ramifications could be. It's a grey area in the market here.

a black market for network connections... gibson must be proud.

It's not a black market, it's an awkward grey market. Deal only with the big ISPs. Everyone who emailed me, gee, give me time to reply... more emails than I expected. :) I'll email everyone at the same time later, bcc everyone.
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