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I'm in the UAE right now. The site www.alqst.org is blocked here. I had to turn on a VPN to read the article. Here, it's not even allowed to read about what's

I'm in the UAE right now. The site www.alqst.org is blocked here. I had to turn on a VPN to read the article. Here, it's not even allowed to read about what's not allowed!

cebert 5mo ago
Aren’t you afraid of using a VPN and their being ramifications?
- AdieuToLogic 5mo ago
  > Aren’t you afraid of using a VPN and their being ramifications? Depending on the sophistication of the VPN software being used network traffic can appear to monitors as UDP[0] packets superficially similar to what many video games produce. 0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Datagram_Protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Datagram_Protocol
  - fragmede 5mo ago
    Okay, but user NewCzech posting to HN in the UAE could probably be deanonymized by the UAE for posting their comment, if the government got really interested in the matter.
- ceheaaf 5mo ago
  Using a common VPN on a residential IP caused my entire internet connection to be blocked for a few hours at a time after ~10 minutes, verified over a few weeks with ~3 intermittent attempts. Make of that what you will.
  - Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe 4mo ago
    Curious as to wether iodine works
- neop1x 4mo ago
  Currently the best VPN-alternative seem to be Project X https://xtls.github.io/en/ https://xtls.github.io/en/ It is flexible and well tested in China but configuring it properly is quite difficult.
- throwaway2037 4mo ago
  Honestly, I don't think the UAE (or any non-democratic regime) is too concerned about people using VPNs. They are more concerns when they are using VPNs to actively destabilse the ruling regime. There is a huge gap here. I would guess that the vast majority of VPN users use it to (1) watch geo-fenced legit content, like Netflix in a different country, or (2) visit banned websites (gambling, crypto, adult content, etc.). Probably very few users are actively engaged in creating and promoting content to destabilse the ruling regime.
- l23k4 4mo ago
  Basically everyone in the UAE uses VPNs, the government is OK with this. They do DPI to interfere with VOIP calling over VPNs though, the purpose being to use phone bills as a yet another hidden tax (which the UAE has a plenty of).

I'm in the UAE right now. The site www.alqst.org is blocked here. I had to turn on a VPN to read the article. Here, it's not even allowed to read about what's not allowed!

cebert 5mo ago

Aren’t you afraid of using a VPN and their being ramifications?

AdieuToLogic 5mo ago
> Aren’t you afraid of using a VPN and their being ramifications? Depending on the sophistication of the VPN software being used network traffic can appear to monitors as UDP[0] packets superficially similar to what many video games produce. 0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Datagram_Protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Datagram_Protocol
- fragmede 5mo ago
  Okay, but user NewCzech posting to HN in the UAE could probably be deanonymized by the UAE for posting their comment, if the government got really interested in the matter.
ceheaaf 5mo ago
Using a common VPN on a residential IP caused my entire internet connection to be blocked for a few hours at a time after ~10 minutes, verified over a few weeks with ~3 intermittent attempts. Make of that what you will.
- Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe 4mo ago
  Curious as to wether iodine works
neop1x 4mo ago
Currently the best VPN-alternative seem to be Project X https://xtls.github.io/en/ https://xtls.github.io/en/ It is flexible and well tested in China but configuring it properly is quite difficult.
throwaway2037 4mo ago
Honestly, I don't think the UAE (or any non-democratic regime) is too concerned about people using VPNs. They are more concerns when they are using VPNs to actively destabilse the ruling regime. There is a huge gap here. I would guess that the vast majority of VPN users use it to (1) watch geo-fenced legit content, like Netflix in a different country, or (2) visit banned websites (gambling, crypto, adult content, etc.). Probably very few users are actively engaged in creating and promoting content to destabilse the ruling regime.
l23k4 4mo ago
Basically everyone in the UAE uses VPNs, the government is OK with this. They do DPI to interfere with VOIP calling over VPNs though, the purpose being to use phone bills as a yet another hidden tax (which the UAE has a plenty of).