Slashdot Mirror
Tunneling Under the Great Firewall?
An anonymous reader writes "I am traveling to China in the near future, and needless to say as a Slashdot reader I am going to require access to the Internet. The whole, unadulterated, unfiltered Internet. Also needless to say, I am very leery of the government there (my lack of a nickname on this submission being testament to that). I will only be there for a few weeks, and will not be using the computer for much of that time, so I don't want to shell out a lot of money to a VPN service. However I also don't want to be hindered by extremely slow speeds such as those provided by the Tor network. I have experience implementing Web servers and work fairly often with Linux; however, many of my friends who also face the same dilemma don't. What would be the most cost-effective (free is best) method for me to subvert the Great Firewall during my travels while maintaining sufficient anonymity and enjoying sufficient speed?"
At my workplace we have people who travel to China. On occasion VPN connections from China just stop for hours or days at at time. No hits at our VPN endpoint from China at all; the traffic is stopped upstream somewhere while everything else that is unencrypted works.
That's the only country we have people visit where the VPN can be problematic.
Trolling is a art,
SSH tunneling with SSH -D is trivial to set up. Make sure you forward DNS with network.proxy.socks_remote_dns set to true if you're using Firefox.
I think I read that SSH can even create a virtual network device that forwards all traffic over a tunnel. Haven't had time to play with that though. That would be a great solution for every app, even those that don't support SOCKS proxies.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Before leaving, set up a computer with decent upstream bandwidth and VNC / screen share. Pretty simple, and only shows a connection to that one IP address. If you use OSX it's a 30 second setup in sharing preferences, and I'm sure that there are windows and Linux equivalents. You may need to tweak the ports to get under the Great Firewall.
However, one significant drawback (with the OSX solution) is that audio is not streamed. Another is lag with slow / far connections.
But it will get you the full net.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
Just change your online name to "FreeTibet". They'll never notice.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China Those definitely all sound like sites chock full of state secrets.
I suggest that you play nice with China's laws if you are going to China. Trying to bypass their firewall as a foreigner traveling there is more likely to attract the sort of attention you don't want than anything else. As you said, you're just going to be there for a few weeks. Do you *really* need to search for the kind of stuff they filter out while you are there?
My wife travels regularly to China for work. We are very careful about our conversations on the phone when she's there, and about the emails we send when she's there. I sure as hell would never advise her to try to bypass their firewall.
If you are a Chinese freedom activist, by all means, you know what you're getting into, bypass away. I support the people of China in their efforts to access the whole internet, to speak their minds, to be as free as they care to be.
If you are a Westerner visiting, I'd suggest you just hold your horses there bucko and deal with the internet you can get from your hotel room and don't make yourself look more suspicious than you actually are. You really, really don't want anybody to think you are doing anything against Chinese interests while you're there. Seriously.
Besides, the Chinese and Asian in general are quite relaxed people.
It isn't the general population causing the VPN problems we have with people travelling in China, it's the government.
Trolling is a art,
Slashdot rails against DMCA, censorship, walled gardens, etc, and you expect the Chinese government to get a free pass? What a joke.
You can raise frail strawmen all you want, but it's not about how "relaxed" Asians or anything else like "hate and fear" that you've just made up in your post. It's very specifically about the Chinese government. Exactly what part of "I am very leery of the government" have you completely failed to understand?
Is this REALLY a conversation you want to get into?
As long as we are going with "things the original author specifically discounted in his post", I think he should purchase VPN service...
I have done this from Beijing and it worked the week I was there.
FoxyProxy is a nice add-on to use for this, since it allows you to either whitelist specific sites for use through the proxy, or to simply switch back and forth to the proxy as you need.
What you are asking is illegal there. If you get caught bad things will happen to you. Is it really worth the risk for a couple of weeks? Are you THAT addicted?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Hey, if all information wants to be free, it will be free for everyone, including the "bad guys".
"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live." - Mark Twain, "Taming the Bicycle"
While not necessarily the best tone in the world, I actually agree with DJ Jones here.
Here's your decision tree:
1) Is the website you want to see worth defying the laws of your hosting nation?
2) Is absolutely no way you can do without it until you come home?
3) Do you have some kind of diplomatic immunity, wealthy connections, etc that can extract you from a sticky situation?
You get the picture.
Imagine this post on the Arabian Slashdot:
I am getting ready to travel to the United States and don't want it to interrupt my terrorist training. Can you guys recommend a way around the DHS's websniffing protocols, eavesdropping, cellular tracking, etc?
And what would your advice be??
Opportunistically, if you gave advice about methods, would you feel bad if he landed in Gitmo?
Think about the implications. After all, it is only the internet and you don't live there. Think deeply.
Yup. I dont understand also other parts of the question...
"Shell out a lot of money for a VPN service..." $9.95US for 1 month is a Lot of money?
He also claims he knows computers yet does not think of setting up his own VPN gateway at home? It's clear he is not moving there, just going there for a few weeks. Nobody I know terminates all their leases and sells all their stuff to go out of the country even for a few months....
Pay $9.95 for VPN service each month, or set up a linux box as a VPN point. Call it done.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
"Hi, I'm a college student who thinks computers are cool but I don't really get into code or anything. I run Linux because it's L33T and strikes a blow against THE MAN! BTW, I can't get the latest version of Fedora to boot, but that's another question. Anyway, when I get to China I want to connect to some site outside China that the firewall blocks. I will then come back and tell my friends how cool I am! How I am cyberpunk and stuff! Striking a blow for FREEDOM! I mean, yeah, I'd just be doing a search for Falun Gong on Google, even though I'm not really sure who they are, but still, it'd be SO L33T! I know that I'm a dangerous underground revolutionary because I'm posting anonymously on Slashdot out of FEAR OF THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT! Angela Davis ain't got nothing on me. I mean, I'm not crazy - I wouldn't invest $10 for VPN service for this, and your talk of setting up my own VPN gateway is confusing (can I just apt-get that and connect from a kiosk in the Beijing airport?). OK, actually about 95% of the time I dual boot to Windows except when progressive chicks might be walking by my dorm room, and then I switch to Linux with a big tux wallpaper..."
Advice: on VPS providers
That is exactly why I won't visit the USA.