Tell HN: Russia has started blocking OpenVPN/WireGuard connections • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Russia has started blocking OpenVPN/WireGuard connections

#161

Post by askonomm » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 7:04 PM UTC

Lendal wrote: post #156

throwbas wrote: post #15

I have the fortune to reside in Russia-controlled Donbas. Over here they have been blocking all WireGuard connections for a long time. OpenVPN seems to be blocked selectively depending on the host. The government and commerce must need it more than WireGuard. It isn't consistent. Different ISPs block different hosts and protocols at different times. I assume we are a kind of test and staging environment for censorshi…

You might see some confused faces. To most English speakers "fortune" mostly means good, unless it is preceded by something that specifies that it is bad fortune, like "ill fortune" or misfortune.

It's called sarcasm.

Re: Tell HN: Russia has started blocking OpenVPN/WireGuard connections

#162

Post by LudwigNagasena » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 7:06 PM UTC

libertine wrote: post #126

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that Western readers can clearly see the draconian overtones of tyranny seems laughable after the last several years. And let's not even mention the fact that Marxism, fascism and Nazism have all originated in Europe...

> The idea that Western readers can clearly see the draconian overtones of tyranny seems laughable after the last several years. This is a very confusing statement... Why is it laughable to have an education system that teaches us history and critical thinking to see tyranny, even in our societies? Or now you're also on the boat that Stalin was a nice guy after all? > And let's not even mention the fact that Marxism,…

What does Stalin have to do with that? As far as I know, fascism is everywhere on the march. And it’s Trump who sets the pace, not Stalin. (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/20/fascis...) Also, it was Trudeau who froze protesters' banks accounts, not Stalin. It was Boris Johnson who partied during Covid lockdowns, not Stalin. It was Pedro Sánchez whose implementation of a state of alarm was deemed unconstitutional, not Stalin. It was three different US administrations that wanted to jail Snowden, Assange and Manning; not Stalin. It is the US police that supposedly targets people of color, not Stalin. It was the bipartisan American parliament that voted for the PATRIOT Act, not Stalin. It was David Cameron who pledged to ban encryption, not Stalin. Are you still wondering why it is laughable?

Re: Tell HN: Russia has started blocking OpenVPN/WireGuard connections

#163

Post by tg180 » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 7:06 PM UTC

cassepipe wrote: post #148

Maybe it's the right place to advertise Snowflake. It's a browser extension that allows people to bypass Tor censorship if I understood correctly : https://snowflake.torproject.org/

Snowflake users from Russia are still on the rise

https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-bridge-combined.htm...

Re: Tell HN: Russia has started blocking OpenVPN/WireGuard connections

#164

Post by edot » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 7:07 PM UTC

Lendal wrote: post #156

throwbas wrote: post #15

I have the fortune to reside in Russia-controlled Donbas. Over here they have been blocking all WireGuard connections for a long time. OpenVPN seems to be blocked selectively depending on the host. The government and commerce must need it more than WireGuard. It isn't consistent. Different ISPs block different hosts and protocols at different times. I assume we are a kind of test and staging environment for censorshi…

You might see some confused faces. To most English speakers "fortune" mostly means good, unless it is preceded by something that specifies that it is bad fortune, like "ill fortune" or misfortune.

Their English is actually good enough to properly use sarcasm. “I had the fortune of getting food poisoning last week” would be understood as a joking way of taking about misfortune.

Re: Tell HN: Russia has started blocking OpenVPN/WireGuard connections

#165

Post by pshirshov » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 7:07 PM UTC

This thing works perfectly well: https://xtls.github.io/

I provide some server nodes to certain people there.

Re: Tell HN: Russia has started blocking OpenVPN/WireGuard connections

#166

Post by NoOn3 » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 7:07 PM UTC

I want to point out that many sites still work without any VPN, including this site. And not all foreign sites are blocked, but only those included in special lists.

Re: Tell HN: Russia has started blocking OpenVPN/WireGuard connections

#167

Post by genman » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 7:09 PM UTC

MrDisposable wrote: post #107

Russian here, living in Russia. My paid VPN provider stopped working months ago. Then my self-hosted Outline server stopped working. Then my self-hosted OpenVPN stopped working too. Both were hosten on Digital Ocean (Frankfurt). What currently works for me is self-hosted Outline running on an US server, but I suspect that won't last long. Looks like I have no choice but to learn how to self-host XRay. A smart friend…

I was so hopeful in the beginning of 90s. There was sense of harmony all over the Northern hemisphere.

But then Russia started to quickly become more and more aggressive, yes, first in the rhetoric, but then Putin came and the shit became real. Now I understand that the Russian society first had a kind of agreement with him - they don't mind the politics and Putin doesn't mind them.

It looks like it has played out well for Putin but not so well for the rest of the Russians.

Closing down close to all of the Internet traffic to the free world feels completely logical when the play of elections is nearing and if it is successful then it will probably remain like this.

Re: Tell HN: Russia has started blocking OpenVPN/WireGuard connections

#168

Post by theyinwhy » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 7:10 PM UTC

I highly recommend hans to bypass such shenanigans: https://github.com/friedrich/hans

Re: Tell HN: Russia has started blocking OpenVPN/WireGuard connections

#169

Post by genman » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 7:10 PM UTC

pvaldes wrote: post #133

Most probably related with the revolts started in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan the last week.

The play of elections is also coming.

Re: Tell HN: Russia has started blocking OpenVPN/WireGuard connections

#170

Post by jvanderbot » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 7:13 PM UTC

computerfriend wrote: post #138

jvanderbot wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How, technically, can they block wire guard? It can operate as pure UDP on any port. Are we referring to wireguard vendors like tailscale here?

This is the first (that I know of) public conversation about this and goes into detail about the various problems with obfuscating WireGuard. https://lists.zx2c4.com/pipermail/wireguard/2016-July/000184...

The reply https://lists.zx2c4.com/pipermail/wireguard/2016-July/000185...

... is pretty informative. There is a PSK mode, which really should be essentially indistinguishable from random UDP packets. But I haven't read deeply enough. I do PSK on all my networks, but that has its own disadvantages. I honestly thought that was the only way to do wireguard.