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Does OpenVPN still work, in normal or PSK mode? I wonder if at some point their filtering gets smart enough that they will just turn it over to a whitelist, or

Does OpenVPN still work, in normal or PSK mode? I wonder if at some point their filtering gets smart enough that they will just turn it over to a whitelist, or worse, straying too far from the "norm user" gets you a visit from police.

htrp 9y ago
OpenVPN doesn't work unless you do some crazy tunneling over encrypted bank traffic ports (OVPN over SSL on 443)
barkingcat 9y ago
Regular openvpn sees disruptions. They sniff out the ip addresses that sees vpn traffic and blocks them. You can get a different ip and have it run (or do multi-encapsulated tunneling), but in my opinion, nothing about this issue is technological. At the very end, if you try to evade too many times, the government just tells the telco not to sell any internet access to you. Or get the police to show up at your residence. Regular Chinese citizens get jailed for 50+ years all the time for doing things online. If you are foreign, they can revoke your visa.
- htrp 9y ago
  If you are foreign, in a first tier city, just pay for the corporate internet (the unblocked version) in a lot of office districts. The government knows that the expats aren't their customer for censorship, they just want to make it inconvenient enough for their citizens to get to the new york times or the scmp. Have people actually gotten visa's revoked, that would be a crazy escalation by the MPS.
terminalcommand 9y ago
Even if OpenVPN doesn't work, ssh tunneling could get you onto the free internet. I imagine that using Tor would certainly get you into trouble in China. There was a statement in a documentary from an ex Syrian Intelligence Officer that they found out and tortured people who used Tor or other encryption methods. Anonymity in the Internet at the age of surveillance states is really tricky. One slip-up and your identiy might get comprimised.
- faebi 9y ago
  I was in China recently and my ssh tunnel got blocked to near zero bandwith after some time. The way to go is a good VPN subscription or shadowsocks on your own server.

htrp 9y ago

OpenVPN doesn't work unless you do some crazy tunneling over encrypted bank traffic ports (OVPN over SSL on 443)

barkingcat 9y ago

Regular openvpn sees disruptions. They sniff out the ip addresses that sees vpn traffic and blocks them. You can get a different ip and have it run (or do multi-encapsulated tunneling), but in my opinion, nothing about this issue is technological. At the very end, if you try to evade too many times, the government just tells the telco not to sell any internet access to you. Or get the police to show up at your residence. Regular Chinese citizens get jailed for 50+ years all the time for doing things online. If you are foreign, they can revoke your visa.

htrp 9y ago
If you are foreign, in a first tier city, just pay for the corporate internet (the unblocked version) in a lot of office districts. The government knows that the expats aren't their customer for censorship, they just want to make it inconvenient enough for their citizens to get to the new york times or the scmp. Have people actually gotten visa's revoked, that would be a crazy escalation by the MPS.

terminalcommand 9y ago

Even if OpenVPN doesn't work, ssh tunneling could get you onto the free internet. I imagine that using Tor would certainly get you into trouble in China. There was a statement in a documentary from an ex Syrian Intelligence Officer that they found out and tortured people who used Tor or other encryption methods. Anonymity in the Internet at the age of surveillance states is really tricky. One slip-up and your identiy might get comprimised.

faebi 9y ago
I was in China recently and my ssh tunnel got blocked to near zero bandwith after some time. The way to go is a good VPN subscription or shadowsocks on your own server.