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Users Flock To Firewall-Busting Thesis Project

Posted by Soulskill on from the routing-around-injuries-to-the-internet dept.

itwbennett writes "Daiyuu Nobori, a Ph.D. student at Japan's Tsukuba University designed 'VPN Gate' to help individuals in countries that restrict Internet use circumvent government firewalls. The service, which has drawn 77,000 users since its launch last Friday, encourages members of the public to set up VPN servers and offer free connections to individual users, aiming to make the technology more accessible. Nobori had originally planned to host the service on his university's servers, but they have been down recently so he switched it to the Windows Azure cloud platform. He has spent about US$9,000 keeping it up so far."

10 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Public list of VPNs? by schneidafunk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "His service maintains a public, real-time list of freely available VPN servers for users to choose from" - What's to stop a country (say Iran) from blacklisting the public list of VPNs?

    --
    Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
    1. Re:Public list of VPNs? by flyingfsck · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Exactly. That is the whole problem with VPNs. They only work till they get popular.

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    2. Re:Public list of VPNs? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes it's called "Potential Problem Analysis" and it's what's done by people who actually know how to get things done and not find themselves falling down a hole with no idea what went wrong or how they're going to get out of it.

      Let's try Tor:

      Supply a list of Tor connection nodes at

      Potential Problem Analysis: "What if China blocks those 4 IP addresses on their firewall?"

      You: "Stop being morons, stuff like this is still useful." (6 months later) "Oh, shit. Well uh, start distributing updates. Oh, they're getting shot down too. Uh."

      Intelligent people: "Hmm, that could be a problem. China probably will do that when they see the circumvention, so Likelihood is 'HIGH'. It'd be crippling, so Severity is 'HIGH'. We should make it part of the protocol to be able to trade information about the network, but not force synchronization of full information, that way the network won't have desync issues and it also will be harder to insert nodes on the network to quickly collect a list of all nodes and block them all."

      Another Potential Problem, in this case, is that the VPNs are direct and traceable--the country may leave the list of VPNs accessible, track it, and track connections to those addresses. Then they know who the offenders are. In that case, this project would still be useful: Iran could find the Blasphemers, come to their house at night, and behead them.

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  2. So... by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    (a) we already have TOR and other services
    (b) this guy makes a nice, handy list of server IPs for oppressive governments to block.
    (c) I doubt he will come to your aid when folks use your connection for [piracy|drug deals|child porn|planning a terrorist attack].

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    1. Re:So... by pipatron · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, this is pretty insane. Tor already does this FAR MORE SAFE. Not only does it give governments a nice list of server IPs, it gives governments a nice way to catch offenders.

      --
      c++; /* this makes c bigger but returns the old value */
  3. Think of the Canadians by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 4, Funny

    What *I* want to know is when someone is going to implement a system to help we poor Canadians freely access Hulu and US-Netflix. The pain of being unable to view SNL archive clips is unimaginable to the average American.

  4. God damn that expensive by stewsters · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wait, 77,000 / 9000 = 8 people per dollar spent? 9000 and only launched last Friday? How much does Azure cost to operate? Throw together a cheap php site or something for $20 a month.

  5. Re:$9000! Really? by localman57 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because if you don't spend up all the money budgeted to your department, you can't apply to get more next year?

    Sigh, I know I wasn't this cynical back in my 20's...

  6. Re:Windows Azure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Maybe. And if they are, good for them.

  7. Good, still not enough. by Corwn+of+Amber · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yeah, so, one more sort-of-TOR, but with fixed servers in easy-to-raid locations.

    They don't get it.

    There is ONE way to make a REALLY resilient network. It's been proven over and over.

    NO. CENTRAL. COMMAND.
    MESH EVERYTHING.
    ROUTE ERRYTHING BY DHTs.
    ALL NODES EQUAL PEERS. With the same capabilities. All nodes are routers. All nodes are relays. All nodes are bridges. All nodes are cell towers. Until we get rid of telcos/ISPs, all nodes are gateways, too.

    Like TOR, but if everyone were a bridge and an exit relay and a cell tower.

    THAT is unstoppable. Else there WILL be censorship and control and criminalization and destroyed lives like Aaron Swartz's.

    --
    Making laws based on opinions that stem up from false informations leads to witch hunts.