The Best Way Through the Great Firewall of China

eldavojohn writes "The MIT Technology Review brings news of a new report from Harvard assessing circumvention software. The best tools they tested (and they actually did test them in cybercafes in China) were Ultrareach, Psiphon, and Tor, while Dynaweb and Anonymizer also scored well — of course, the huge downside is the long loading times. The report also includes responses from developers of the tools."

Comments

SSH anyone

[gzipped_tar]

No mention of SSH in the abstract? I thought that was quite obvious a choice. Oh wait, you'll have to get a shell access to a server outside the wall in the first place.

Some conclusions from the paper

[gravos]

Some conclusions from the paper:

Tor can be recommended for widespread circumvention use, but only for expert users concerned about anonymity. Increased use of the tool might trigger blocking that Tor is not yet ready to defend itself against.

JAP can be recommended for use only by users who don't need anonymity or who understand the anonymity implications of JAP network composition and know to choose one of the non-default networks.

Psiphon can be recommended for widespread client and server use, but users should also be aware that some data leaks are possible.

Circumventor can be recommend for widespread client use but only for server use by expert users who are able to navigate the difficult install process and understand the effects of the install on the host computer. Circumventor users should also be aware that some data leaks are possible.

UltraReach can be recommended for widespread use as the best performing of all the tested tools, though users concerned about anonymity should be warned to disable browser support for active content.