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GFWaaS – Make Your Website Work in China

117 points by felixding 7y ago

duxup 7y ago
I find the idea of "Well I'm stuck behind the firewall...how can I sell that as a thing?" amusing, and kinda interesting.
- hmsync 7y ago
  It is also very interesting to have such a service provided by a Chinese developer (the author)
gainsurier 7y ago
My suggestion is that you can build a proxy server in China, and you can test your website bypass the proxy server to see if your website is work. Chinese cloud host like Aliyun or QCloud may monitor if you have a proxy server like shadowsocks server in their default template os, so you must reinstall it or provide your own template os.
yixiang 7y ago
I suggest remove "GFW" from the name. It's not funny if your site was blocked for the name when you promise to make clients' websites work in China. I also wonder if there's really a market for such a tool? Who needs to optimize for China EVERY MONTH? Besides Cloudflare (which sucks)? I had a similar idea of offering a service to make websites fast in China. Seems more viable.
minicoolva 7y ago
Test my website https://gfw.netlify.com/ https://gfw.netlify.com/
nodesocket 7y ago
Can't you also just rent a Alibaba cloud instance which is in mainland China and fire up a browser?
- throw03172019 7y ago
  Launching servers in China still require ICP to be lawful. https://www.alibabacloud.com/icp https://www.alibabacloud.com/icp
  - zhangweifang 7y ago
    if you just rent a windows server used as remote desktop PC, there is no need ICP. In another words, if there is no ICP bind on the server you have, port 80 will be blocked, 3389 ( windows remote desktop ) is still open, and you could login in the windows server by windows remote desktop, and open any browser to browse website like a PC locating in China.
  - gainsurier 7y ago
    If you just build a service for yourself only, you do not need ICP
  - rqs 7y ago
    Only when you run a content distribution platform (like a website, chat room etc). Other than that, you're mostly fine without an ICP (Internet Content Provider) license.
  - hmsync 7y ago
    Only TCP port 80 and 443 requires ICP.
pgmgr80 7y ago
This site is a complete abuse of GitHub's services [1], it's just a commercials page, and there's no any code related to project technology. [1]: https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service#c-acceptable-use https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service#...
rqs 7y ago
Well, actually it's a Remote Desktop as Service. The real "GFWaaS" is when you intentionally put blocked keywords on a HTTP page, triggering GFW to reset user connection. That way you can block Chinese users from accessing your website. And it's free. My suggestion is, may be add more web browsers to your service, make it a browser compatibility test platform, and (innocently) put few servers in China. People will figure out what's going on themselves :P
- dleslie 7y ago
  Is there a list of such keywords maintained anywhere?
  - rqs 7y ago
    No, they don't provide such user support, it's a free service after all. But the keyword is not hard to find, really ;P
  - snazz 7y ago
    I don’t think so, but copy/pasting the Wikipedia article on the Tiananmen Square massacre would probably do the trick.
  - markdown 7y ago
    "Tiananmen Square" or "Tiananmen 1989" will probably work for as long as there is a GFW.
  - komali2 7y ago
    "Taiwan is a sovereign nation" "Tiananmen square massacre" "Free Tibet" "Falun gong organ harvesting" "Winnie the Pooh"
    - rihegher 7y ago
      Winnie the Pooh !?
      - 7y ago
felixding 7y ago
Author here. Surprised to see this would be in the frontpage of HN. Happy to answer any questions you may have :-)
- pgmgr80 7y ago
  I think this site is abuse of GitHub's services [1], it'd better to build a dedicated website. [1]: https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service
- gkanai 7y ago
  This is a great idea. Something I struggle with daily living behind the GFW and having to use websites made without understanding of the impacts of the GFW.
- cfarm 7y ago
  How does this work? You don't need to disclose secret sauce per se, just enough to understand the legality and robustness of using it.
  - felixding 7y ago
    Not sure I have understood your question. But I'll try to explain. In terms of tech stack, GFWaaS is a mix of Rails, Apache Guacamole, and headless browser. If you just want to solve your own problem, you could simply setup Guacamole on a server in China, and use VNC in your browser. The real challenge is dealing with the Chinese Internet. For example, to get reasonable connection speed for VNC, choosing the right cloud service provider is really the key. You have to figure out a way to get an account from the major providers in China (many of them, if not all, require you either live in China or have a local entity), and test the speed and stability of the connections. And, in some cases, because of the bad traffic peering across Chinese ISPs, you website may work relatively well with one ISP but not others, so you have to test with different ISPs. GFWaaS streamlines the whole process so you can focus on testing your website, instead of finding the right cloud service provider and setting up software etc by your own. Hope I have explained what you asked, and sorry for my English.
good_guy 7y ago
Humm, I can't even see where should I put my work email. what a crappy site.
alfonsodev 7y ago
I don't have experience launching websites in China yet, what's the benefit or risk of this versus using a AWS partner like this[1] ? [1] https://www.amazonaws.cn/en/new/2017/whats-new-announcing-partnership-between-aws-and-nwcd-availability-of-ningxia-region/ https://www.amazonaws.cn/en/new/2017/whats-new-announcing-pa...
- yorwba 7y ago
  The benefit of this is that it lets you simulate the experience of a Chinese user to debug issues caused by the Great Firewall. One way to solve those issues could be hosting your website on a Chinese server. Note that you'll need to register with the government before you'll be allowed to do that. https://www.amazonaws.cn/en/about-aws/china/faqs/#new%20step https://www.amazonaws.cn/en/about-aws/china/faqs/#new%20step
huxflux 7y ago
Another way to earn money by looking helpful

117 points by felixding 7y ago

I find the idea of "Well I'm stuck behind the firewall...how can I sell that as a thing?" amusing, and kinda interesting.

hmsync 7y ago
It is also very interesting to have such a service provided by a Chinese developer (the author)

gainsurier 7y ago

My suggestion is that you can build a proxy server in China, and you can test your website bypass the proxy server to see if your website is work. Chinese cloud host like Aliyun or QCloud may monitor if you have a proxy server like shadowsocks server in their default template os, so you must reinstall it or provide your own template os.

yixiang 7y ago

I suggest remove "GFW" from the name. It's not funny if your site was blocked for the name when you promise to make clients' websites work in China. I also wonder if there's really a market for such a tool? Who needs to optimize for China EVERY MONTH? Besides Cloudflare (which sucks)? I had a similar idea of offering a service to make websites fast in China. Seems more viable.

minicoolva 7y ago

Test my website https://gfw.netlify.com/ https://gfw.netlify.com/

nodesocket 7y ago

Can't you also just rent a Alibaba cloud instance which is in mainland China and fire up a browser?

throw03172019 7y ago
Launching servers in China still require ICP to be lawful. https://www.alibabacloud.com/icp https://www.alibabacloud.com/icp
- zhangweifang 7y ago
  if you just rent a windows server used as remote desktop PC, there is no need ICP. In another words, if there is no ICP bind on the server you have, port 80 will be blocked, 3389 ( windows remote desktop ) is still open, and you could login in the windows server by windows remote desktop, and open any browser to browse website like a PC locating in China.
- gainsurier 7y ago
  If you just build a service for yourself only, you do not need ICP
- rqs 7y ago
  Only when you run a content distribution platform (like a website, chat room etc). Other than that, you're mostly fine without an ICP (Internet Content Provider) license.
- hmsync 7y ago
  Only TCP port 80 and 443 requires ICP.

pgmgr80 7y ago

This site is a complete abuse of GitHub's services [1], it's just a commercials page, and there's no any code related to project technology. [1]: https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service#c-acceptable-use https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service#...

rqs 7y ago

Well, actually it's a Remote Desktop as Service. The real "GFWaaS" is when you intentionally put blocked keywords on a HTTP page, triggering GFW to reset user connection. That way you can block Chinese users from accessing your website. And it's free. My suggestion is, may be add more web browsers to your service, make it a browser compatibility test platform, and (innocently) put few servers in China. People will figure out what's going on themselves :P

dleslie 7y ago
Is there a list of such keywords maintained anywhere?
- rqs 7y ago
  No, they don't provide such user support, it's a free service after all. But the keyword is not hard to find, really ;P
- snazz 7y ago
  I don’t think so, but copy/pasting the Wikipedia article on the Tiananmen Square massacre would probably do the trick.
- markdown 7y ago
  "Tiananmen Square" or "Tiananmen 1989" will probably work for as long as there is a GFW.
- komali2 7y ago
  "Taiwan is a sovereign nation" "Tiananmen square massacre" "Free Tibet" "Falun gong organ harvesting" "Winnie the Pooh"
  - rihegher 7y ago
    Winnie the Pooh !?
    - 7y ago

felixding 7y ago

Author here. Surprised to see this would be in the frontpage of HN. Happy to answer any questions you may have :-)

pgmgr80 7y ago
I think this site is abuse of GitHub's services [1], it'd better to build a dedicated website. [1]: https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service
gkanai 7y ago
This is a great idea. Something I struggle with daily living behind the GFW and having to use websites made without understanding of the impacts of the GFW.
cfarm 7y ago
How does this work? You don't need to disclose secret sauce per se, just enough to understand the legality and robustness of using it.
- felixding 7y ago
  Not sure I have understood your question. But I'll try to explain. In terms of tech stack, GFWaaS is a mix of Rails, Apache Guacamole, and headless browser. If you just want to solve your own problem, you could simply setup Guacamole on a server in China, and use VNC in your browser. The real challenge is dealing with the Chinese Internet. For example, to get reasonable connection speed for VNC, choosing the right cloud service provider is really the key. You have to figure out a way to get an account from the major providers in China (many of them, if not all, require you either live in China or have a local entity), and test the speed and stability of the connections. And, in some cases, because of the bad traffic peering across Chinese ISPs, you website may work relatively well with one ISP but not others, so you have to test with different ISPs. GFWaaS streamlines the whole process so you can focus on testing your website, instead of finding the right cloud service provider and setting up software etc by your own. Hope I have explained what you asked, and sorry for my English.

good_guy 7y ago

Humm, I can't even see where should I put my work email. what a crappy site.

alfonsodev 7y ago

I don't have experience launching websites in China yet, what's the benefit or risk of this versus using a AWS partner like this[1] ? [1] https://www.amazonaws.cn/en/new/2017/whats-new-announcing-partnership-between-aws-and-nwcd-availability-of-ningxia-region/ https://www.amazonaws.cn/en/new/2017/whats-new-announcing-pa...

yorwba 7y ago
The benefit of this is that it lets you simulate the experience of a Chinese user to debug issues caused by the Great Firewall. One way to solve those issues could be hosting your website on a Chinese server. Note that you'll need to register with the government before you'll be allowed to do that. https://www.amazonaws.cn/en/about-aws/china/faqs/#new%20step https://www.amazonaws.cn/en/about-aws/china/faqs/#new%20step

huxflux 7y ago

Another way to earn money by looking helpful