3 ms·

Test whether any website is blocked in China in real-time

58 points by hughesey 15y ago

Renaud 15y ago
Blocking has been an issue for the international company I work for. The company recently switched 4000+ users to Gmail and Google Apps only to find after the facts that nearly 20% of the workforce would have little or no access to most of the Google Apps sites as they are in China (I guess a bit more testing should have been in order...). I hacked a solution, involving stunnel for encrypted communications, ss5 (a SOCKS5 proxy server), Proxy Auto-Config files (PAC) files and the Web Proxy Auto-Discovery protocol (WPAD)... An installer is used to easily deploy the whole thing and configure the system. PAC files are used by the browser to redirect traffic based on URL pattern matching. Instead of going through the local Internet, requests that match the rules for known bocked sites are diverted to a local stunnel service running on the user's machine (or a local server depending on the configuration). The encrypted requests are then sent to a server in Hong Kong running the SOCKS5 proxy (we actually now use multiple servers on different HK ISPs and do some load balancing for better results). From the point of view of the user, the system is transparent: it just works, they have nothing to do once their machine is configured. I tried many setups, but the various measures used in China to disrupt traffic required the data stream to be encrypted for reliable results. The only issue we face is due to the really unpredictable quality of the network in China: most ISPs have limited international bandwidth and depending on the ISP, the time of day, etc there can be large variations in quality. I need to write about this one day...
willvarfar 15y ago
a plus link to a fb blog? delicious at the beginning, will be tedious if you keep it up ;)
iskander 15y ago
Interestingly, google.hk is blocked everywhere (which wasn't true when I visited last summer).
- olalonde 15y ago
  It isn't blocked, it actually redirects to http://www.google.com.hk/ http://www.google.com.hk/. (writing this from an apartment in Shenzhen)
- corin_ 15y ago
  Things change, and China has blocked Google multiple times.
yannickmahe 15y ago
Small typo : Shenzen should be Shenzhen.
wickedchicken 15y ago
blockedinchina.net: apparently not blocked anywhere in china
buddydvd 15y ago
Interesting, Reddit seems to be blocked half of the time: http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=reddit.com http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=reddit.com
- olalonde 15y ago
  Never seen it blocked here in Shenzhen, maybe a bug with the software or different location in China...
- huetsch 15y ago
  As other commentators have pointed out, much like the actual Great Wall of China, the Great Firewall of China is not a singular entity but rather a patchwork of potentially overlapping walls whose policies vary by ISP, city, and province. Inner Mongolia has been having uprisings recently, it does not surprise me that reddit would be blocked there (actually, I believe most internet was severed from Inner Mongolia a month or two ago).
olalonde 15y ago
I'd like to mention this service isn't 100% accurate. For instance, my website http://syskall.com http://syskall.com is shown as not blocked when in fact it is blocked (as are all Posterous blogs). Also, http://google.com.hk http://google.com.hk is shown as blocked when in fact it isn't. Writing this from an apartment in Shenzhen and regular DSL connection.
- wiradikusuma 15y ago
  hi olalonde, i'm planning to visit shenzhen by the end of this month. quick question: can i use gmail there?
  - olalonde 15y ago
    Yes, Gmail isn't blocked. Also, feel free to join http://www.shenzhenstuff.com/xn/detail/1343813:Group:5211918 http://www.shenzhenstuff.com/xn/detail/1343813:Group:5211918
  - yicai 15y ago
    gmail is not blocked. it just chokes now and then.
timxpp 15y ago
This service can not be accurate, as what is blocked varies within China! And even within the same city, it varies with ISP. Go figure.
- kalleboo 15y ago
  Also varies based on what you've visited before. English Wikipedia works fine… until you visit the Tiananmen Square Protests article, and then suddenly all of Wikipedia stops working.
  - dongsheng 15y ago
    That page triggered keyword filter, it's intrusion detection system
jedschmidt 15y ago
And you thought testing your development environment was hard. http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=127.0.0.1 http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=127.0.0.1
dimmuborgir 15y ago
Scribd is blocked. Not surprised though.
dongsheng 15y ago
plus.google.com is blocked already! That's quick
zalew 15y ago
is there any similar website for Iran?

58 points by hughesey 15y ago

Blocking has been an issue for the international company I work for. The company recently switched 4000+ users to Gmail and Google Apps only to find after the facts that nearly 20% of the workforce would have little or no access to most of the Google Apps sites as they are in China (I guess a bit more testing should have been in order...). I hacked a solution, involving stunnel for encrypted communications, ss5 (a SOCKS5 proxy server), Proxy Auto-Config files (PAC) files and the Web Proxy Auto-Discovery protocol (WPAD)... An installer is used to easily deploy the whole thing and configure the system. PAC files are used by the browser to redirect traffic based on URL pattern matching. Instead of going through the local Internet, requests that match the rules for known bocked sites are diverted to a local stunnel service running on the user's machine (or a local server depending on the configuration). The encrypted requests are then sent to a server in Hong Kong running the SOCKS5 proxy (we actually now use multiple servers on different HK ISPs and do some load balancing for better results). From the point of view of the user, the system is transparent: it just works, they have nothing to do once their machine is configured. I tried many setups, but the various measures used in China to disrupt traffic required the data stream to be encrypted for reliable results. The only issue we face is due to the really unpredictable quality of the network in China: most ISPs have limited international bandwidth and depending on the ISP, the time of day, etc there can be large variations in quality. I need to write about this one day...

willvarfar 15y ago

a plus link to a fb blog? delicious at the beginning, will be tedious if you keep it up ;)

iskander 15y ago

Interestingly, google.hk is blocked everywhere (which wasn't true when I visited last summer).

olalonde 15y ago
It isn't blocked, it actually redirects to http://www.google.com.hk/ http://www.google.com.hk/. (writing this from an apartment in Shenzhen)
corin_ 15y ago
Things change, and China has blocked Google multiple times.

yannickmahe 15y ago

Small typo : Shenzen should be Shenzhen.

wickedchicken 15y ago

blockedinchina.net: apparently not blocked anywhere in china

buddydvd 15y ago

Interesting, Reddit seems to be blocked half of the time: http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=reddit.com http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=reddit.com

olalonde 15y ago
Never seen it blocked here in Shenzhen, maybe a bug with the software or different location in China...
huetsch 15y ago
As other commentators have pointed out, much like the actual Great Wall of China, the Great Firewall of China is not a singular entity but rather a patchwork of potentially overlapping walls whose policies vary by ISP, city, and province. Inner Mongolia has been having uprisings recently, it does not surprise me that reddit would be blocked there (actually, I believe most internet was severed from Inner Mongolia a month or two ago).

olalonde 15y ago

I'd like to mention this service isn't 100% accurate. For instance, my website http://syskall.com http://syskall.com is shown as not blocked when in fact it is blocked (as are all Posterous blogs). Also, http://google.com.hk http://google.com.hk is shown as blocked when in fact it isn't. Writing this from an apartment in Shenzhen and regular DSL connection.

wiradikusuma 15y ago
hi olalonde, i'm planning to visit shenzhen by the end of this month. quick question: can i use gmail there?
- olalonde 15y ago
  Yes, Gmail isn't blocked. Also, feel free to join http://www.shenzhenstuff.com/xn/detail/1343813:Group:5211918 http://www.shenzhenstuff.com/xn/detail/1343813:Group:5211918
- yicai 15y ago
  gmail is not blocked. it just chokes now and then.

timxpp 15y ago

This service can not be accurate, as what is blocked varies within China! And even within the same city, it varies with ISP. Go figure.

kalleboo 15y ago
Also varies based on what you've visited before. English Wikipedia works fine… until you visit the Tiananmen Square Protests article, and then suddenly all of Wikipedia stops working.
- dongsheng 15y ago
  That page triggered keyword filter, it's intrusion detection system

jedschmidt 15y ago

And you thought testing your development environment was hard. http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=127.0.0.1 http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=127.0.0.1

dimmuborgir 15y ago

Scribd is blocked. Not surprised though.

dongsheng 15y ago

plus.google.com is blocked already! That's quick

zalew 15y ago

is there any similar website for Iran?