Yeah, it doesn't work as well in China. I live here and everyone who's lived here longer than a year knows the best VPN is Astrill. It's fairly unknown outside of China but somehow works really well here.
Nah. Most people don't even know what Tor is. Few that have heard of it think it's some kinda uTorrent alternative. Everyone uses VPNs with Astrill VPN being the most popular.
Source: I live in China
Living in mainland China. Yep it's blocked. Which is bullshit, because we mostly use it for taking pictures of food, cats, and "sparrow face" selfies. Goddamn. I'm going through withdrawal.
EDIT: As of 12:46 p.m. China time, Instagram is working in Shanghai. EDIT 2: Nope no instagram now (7:24 p.m.). I followed the instructions Astrill has on their website to set up my VPN in my phone and I'm using instagram no problem. Look up your VPN provider and get their details to add a VPN to your smartphone and browse instagram with no problems.
Girlfriend works in China and they are very anti-VPN there. It’s a cat and mouse game on a daily basis since everything is blocked - Google, Facebook, WhatsApp and hundreds of other sites. All the foreigners who work with her and need VPN access pretty much either use Astrill VPN or Express VPN. They are the only 2 that can get through The great firewall of China. Both VPNs have dedicated teams that try to get through the China blocks. Girlfriend used Express for the first few years but torrenting became a problem. Now she’s on Astrill and everything - Netflix, torrents work great. These 2 VPNs rarely have discounts if ever and are much more expensive than the usual buy for a year and get 5 years free type VPN. If they can get through China then anywhere else is a piece of cake!
As a Chinese I can confirm that Reddit isn't banned. Although for some strange reason, since summer of last year (2013), the NA and EU League of Legends official websites are not accessible at all unless we have a VPN (I use Astrill). I still don't know why they blocked those sites. Also, as I play on NA (made my account when I was still in the states), the launcher shows NA and other servers as "Unavailable" 9.999999% of the time. We basically HAVE to use the launcher backdoor (typing "thereisnourflevel") to be able to have the server status show "Online" and the "Play" button to light up in order to be able to play. Also, the Korean version of our LoL Subreddit, Inven, is blocked for some reason too (my Korean friends tell me). Yet here we have the English LoL subreddit unblocked and perfect accessible, is accessible too as well. China's internet is really weird. Nobody knows why anything is filtered by the Great Firewall of China.
Here is a bit of information to backup my post above:
Edit on March 18: The contents at , presumably at the request from someone representing Astrill
This is a SQL script I wrote while at Astrill to help us locate IPs corresponding to IPs of copyright trolls. The script pulls records from our torrent spy table (records we keep of our users bit torrent activity) to determine to which peers they are connecting.
In addition to logging users bit torrent activity we also log our users http requests, among other things.
Most of this logging is done either to identify users who are abusing the VPN network by running automated software (such as spamming or attempting to data mine google/facebook, or other nefarious purposes), or to find IPs others are using to probe our network (then blocking them).
All these comments show a fundamental misunderstanding of what they were talking about.
Whenever they send you a custom fix, they ALWAYS tell you to NEVER post it online so that their fix will not be found out for some time.
Now, people defy their request and end up posting explicitly what Astrill asked them not to, ruining it for all of you Astrill users.
So yes, if you posted the solution publicly, you're an idiot and there really is no solution for that.
When I lived in China for 5 years, I always used Astrill. They always had a solution and always said to never post it publicly. It's really not that difficult
Might look into a VPN. It's how users from other countries watch blocked youtube videos. I don't use it but Jay from JayzTwoCents youtube channel recommends Astrill. He's a super credible dude, check him out sometime.
I live in China and this has affected us for many, many years. Though usually they just block the websites offering signups (e.g. Astrill creates new domain names specifically for people in China when the others are blocked). Also they can do deep package analysis and find patters which autoblocks (if connection is to another country). I've heard OpenVPN is relatively easy for them to detect but haven't personally detected it. Haven't yet had problems with corporate VPNs like Jupiter. Also, ssh socks tunnels are extremely unlikely to be blocked since it would make any ssh traffic be blocked (correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it's "impossible" to detect patterns for ssh traffic that could be identified as a socks tunnel, unless the have been collecting petabytes of encrypted traffic and do some deep learning on their Tianhe supercomputer lol).
The great firewall uses machine learning and deep packet inspection to discover VPN traffic. There is no way they were unaware of Astrill. The only reason it still worked as long as it did is that the government hasn't yet decided to block it. This message is thus both factually inaccurate and extremely unprofessional, and makes me question giving Astrill another dollar.
Foreign businesses operating inside China can register their VPN with the sensors, and legally keep it. They are not the current target. Commercial and free VPNs operating from outside China is.
All VPN browser plugins/extensions for all browser are currently blocked. Including Hola! VPN/P2P VPN unblocker - the only free alternative for using Netflix in China. Hola Engine for Windows (not an extension) is also blocked.
OpenVPN and SoftEther via VpnGate servers are blocked (not new) and will cut connection after a few seconds if it manages to find an open server (new).
All commercial VPNs seem to have problems with some platforms. Astrill, StrongVPN, VyprVPN etc.
iPhones/iPads (iOS) seems to have most serious problems. But Android is also affected. The built-in VPN client on Android can not connect to anything as far as I can see.
As always, different parts of China may have different problems. It is always like that. Your VPN working today doesn't mean it will work tomorrow.
I used to live in Shanghai and I used a VPN regularly to play any games that had to connect to overseas servers. Did you try a paid VPN service or a free one? I used Astrill VPN and it worked fine for me most of the time. Good luck man, online gaming in China is rough.
I was having troubles with Astrill as well, but I found a solution to the problem. 1 - Open Astrill Client 2 - Switch over to StealthVPN 3 - Go to SETTINGS 4 - Go to StealthVPN Options 5 - Switch from Fast (UDP) to Reliable (TCP) 6 - Try different servers, not all of them work, but a few work really well. (I generally use Dallas or Phoenix)
damn. sorry. posted with wrong formatting and then deleted. Here it is again. From @Astrill on Twitter: 12 hours ago: We are experiencing technical issues with our API servers. We are investigating this. 11 hours ago: At the moment everything should work as normal. We were a target of a DDoS attack. We are working on measures to prevent this in the future. We apologize to all customers for this downtime. 3 hours ago: We are experiencing performance issues with our API system. The system is no longer able to serve all customers requests in real time. 3 hours ago: We ask customers to stop trying to connect or login at this time.Please wait an hour or so. The system can't handle it. 3 hours ago: In the coming weeks we will work on total redesign of our API which will be able to handle much more request. 3 hours ago: We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding as we work to improve the reliability of our systems.
I’ll be honest I’ve had express for two years. And Astrill for 3 months. And there is a reason I got Astrill. Basically express has always been good. But quite often the government finds and shuts down a server or two. Which isn’t a huge issue because 3-4 days later they fix it by changing the ip address. The issue comes with the fact that express has 2-3 good servers max. If the government shuts those down. Or even one of them (causing heavy load on the others) it basically makes things like watching YouTube impossible. Ever since I switched to Astrill. I’ve not had a problem. Others swear by it. But what I like is they don’t have 3 good servers. Running speed tests they have about 30 good servers. Which means it’s just never an issue. I get up to 30mbps running to Denver and other US sites.
TLDR: have express. Have Astrill. Astrill is better. Won’t be renewing express.
You say that as a joke, but after the 439th Astrillian Rifles implemented his guidelines for more ergonomic combat fatigues, their conquest of Patrenar VII went forward 7.2% more efficiently leading to an improvement in Time-To-Compliance of 3.7 Terran standard years below the average, an improvement in the ratio of Vile Heretics Justly Slain For Their Heinous Crimes Against The Emperor to Brave Guardsmen Nobly Martyred In The Name of Him-On-Earth of nearly 12%, and an attendant decrease in Munitorum resupply/reinforcement expenditures. On top of that, they were able to arrive at their next warzone nearly 17 months earlier than similar regiments that either didn't implement the guidelines, or that implemented false placebo guidelines, with no need for an extended recruitment drive/R&R.
Oh, interesting, I'll have to check his site out.
> COUNTRY BLOCKED
Oh, that sucks, I wonder if...
>If affected by this bug, you can accurately report your country of residence by connecting to SideShift AI using a service such as:
>* Tor Browser >* Private Internet Access >* Astrill VPN
I fucking love this guy.
Down in Beijing; was spotty yesterday, completely down today. I suspect we will have a difficult month ahead with the National Congress now in session.
From experience, we should probably lay low and wait patiently for a fix, as I'm sure Astrill is already aware of the problem.
I'm a a developer as well and I lived in China for 4 years.
You honestly get used to using a VPN, but you really need a paid one if you want it to be reliable. I used Express VPN and my SO used Astrill, both had their good and bad times but overall it was ok, not as bad as it sounds. Yeah, it sucks not being able to read a Whatsapp in your phone the moment you receive it but you just turn the VPN on and that's it. For the computer is an (almost) seamless experience, you just turn it on and you are done, internet is slow-ish, but it's more than enough. Some companies like Astrill even offer you a VPN router, so you don't even need to have it on when you are at home.
Overall, I wouldn't say it's the end of the world, Bing works, so you can Bing stuff when you are in a hurry. You start using some alternative apps from time to time when you are too lazy to turn the VPN on on your phone, but when using my computer I always had it on, so not a huge issue.
I recommend ExpressVPN. Its paid, about 100$ a year so kinda pricey but it's totally worth it. Super lenient device limit, and their customer service is unparalleled.
Also it's one of the few VPNs that hasn't been accused of storing user data, so that alone sets it above it's primary competitor, Astrill.
Source: Living in China and a VPN is required to get past the Great Firewall.
AstrillVPN. Never let me down, and all my friends with Express got fucked several times during crackdowns.
I can use the USA - China Optimized 1 server 95% of the time, and in case that one's not working, China Supercharged 2 covers the gap.
Only once (beginning of the Hongkong crisis) were both down for like a day or 2, but I could easily use the server in Singapore.
Or literally any of the European ones, but they are a bit slower due to the distance.
TL;DR: Astrill rocks. If you want a referral code, let me know. Think we both get a free month or something out of it.
I'm finding that rebooting the router, using Ccleaner to clear all cookies, and opening a dos box to use the old "ipconfig /renew" seems to work best. Getting some really strange behaviour with Astrill though, as some servers are now 10X as fast as they've ever been while others I've been using for the past 6 months are completely fucked.
Not a personal attack or something, but are there actually people here who don't have a VPN? When Astrill went down last week I didn't do anything all day. I forgot how terrible the internet here is without a VPN.
You'd be surprised. When I first arrived in China many people used homemade VPNs, but even the big companies like Astrill are fighting an uphill battle now... Suffering constant service interruptions and attacks. Plus you can't download them in the Chinese iphone app store, and you need an overseas card to purchase online.
VPNs are getting more and more difficult to use these days, since cyber-sovereignity became a big issue for the government. I have to use constant tricks and various settings to get Astrill to work, and some days it just won't connect. The gov seems also to be very hostile to HTTPS which may be the reason for Wikipedia being blocked.
Yep, same problem here.
On a separate note, Astrill has been dogshit lately. Slow as hell and constantly getting disconnected.
EDIT: There are conflicting reports about it being a server crash or under maintenance. Could be DDOS? Last time Astrill went down, it was less than 24 hours - time well tell.
EDIT 2: There's an Astrill alternatives thread you can refer/submit to in /r/shanghai -
Free VPNs are risky, everyone even a bit tech-savvy can tell you that. No one knows what they're doing with its users' personal data, but they have to get money from somewhere... I'm using Nord, but heard that Astrill is also pretty okay, so I'd say to look into these, or read more articles about it, for example here.
But we shouldn't talk about DUMB CLUB!!! Because nobody in the Chinese censorship apparatus will ever have thought about getting an Astrill subscription to see how it works.... Oh no, they have too much moral probity and integrity to ever sully their hands by downloading foreign technology onto their iPhone.
But seriously, it's probably not their fault that Xi Jinping has developed full on megalomania.
"Sorry we called you dumb and blamed you for our failure to deliver the product you paid for but it was your fault so be smarter next time. Thanks and happy holidays!"
Best non-apology ever. Sorry Astrill but I'm still switching VPNs.
Sometimes I'm not so sure the government people involved with this stuff have any vision at all. According to Wikileaks cables Google was blocked after a Politburo politician Googled himself and found unfavourable commentaries. This mobile VPN blockade could be one step in a well-thought out plan (however misguided), but at the same time it could be they caught some or other undesirable who had Astrill installed on his mobile phone so they decided to block all of it.
Things I love:
- you can live as cheaply or as extravagantly as you like
- transportation is easy and simple
- the elegant decay of the FFC
- able to eat any nation's cuisine at will
- Alipay & WeChat make life exceedingly convenient
- able to travel to the rest of China (so many places to visit, literally not enough lifetimes to do so)
- watching a cyberpunk city evolve and develop in real-time
Things I don't love:
- humidity
- requiring a VPN for everything, gaming, etc (although, total yearly cost for Astrill & game boosters is about $150-175 yearly, so not a huge deal
- .... can't think of anything else
I used ExpressVPN for two years with no issues until last month. Things started getting so bad that I switched to Astrill. It's faster to connect, seems reliable, and I can actually connect to more Netflix regions than with Express.
I don't agree at all that you don't need to worry about encryption (e.g. sharing your passwords with the Chinese government), but I understand the point you are trying to make.
Isn't it just common sense to use a non-shady VPN company?
Note I would put Astrill in the shady list too. They're basically a carbon copy of Express VPN.
A VPN should do the trick. Get something like NordVPN or Astrill and bypass it, it is easy. And I mention those particular ones, because they have obfuscation option so even if your guest wi-fi blocks VPNs (some do), you can obfuscate your traffic so it seems like an ordinary one. I use NordVPN and even on my last trip to China, it worked well. They are doing heft discounts, for now, such as this, maybe it will be useful.
Netflix content in Korea will still be in English, but the content is different than in the US for example. So if you want to have US Netflix, then you will need to have a VPN. And yeah you need to install it before leaving because VPNs are banned there so you won't be able to reach their sites to download while you in Korea. And you need a VPN who is working there because not all of them does. You will be good with NordVPN, Express VPN, Surfshark VPN and I think Astrill still works. So choose between these. My favorite is Nord.
If used Astrill for years and last month when it was up for renewal I thought I’d try Nord as it was cheaper and claimed great support.
iPhone app won’t work in China. Need to download OpenVPN app & add in server connections. Even after that the connection wasn’t great. I gave up after 3 weeks, cancelled subscription & went back to Astrill as it just works.
Tengo contrtado Astrill como VPN, como extranjero es muy difícil vivir sin VPN porque muchas de las páginas están bloqueadas, pero fuera de eso no hago nada más como "seguridad".
Sobre que me metan a la cárcel, naaah. Mientras no diga nada en contra del partido o el presidente, todo está tranqui.
I've spent 4 out of the last 12 months in China, and am posting from Ningbo right now. You can use a VPN called Astrill that works on your laptop and mobile device. With it enabled, browsing is completely unrestricted. Google, Facebook, Instagram etc.
I've used it at dozens of hotels, coffee shops, coworking spaces and never had a problem.
Wow how the hell did you get all this data? Surely you didn't try each and every VPN yourself? I'd love to also see stats about whether the VPN is blocked in countries like China/Iran. My experience is almost everything except the big names like Astrill are blocked in China, which also makes me think Astrill somehow has a deal with China... Astrill is one of the few that use non standard protocols which helps a lot in China too.
EDIT: Also you said in the FAQ it helped you choose a VPN service, so which one did you choose?
I'm Shenzhen based, but I'd assume it'd be province-wide.
I dunno, I've lived here for nine years, and like other long timers on this sub been through a mountain of VPN crackdowns. None of them stick, we'll see if this one does.
I'm out of the province right now and can't say either way whether there's been any disruption of service. Everything's fine here in Yunnan. It seems like that letter is focused on cracking down on local VPN providers, but I dunno.
One thing I will say is that I've been a loyal Astrill customer for years. They're expensive, but their StealthVPN protocol is brilliant. Whenever the GFW cracks down on PTPP or OpenVPN protocols, Astrill keeps on trucking.
I lived in China 5 years, using Astrill and Witopia. They all get blocked because the government gets good at blocking it.
Don't complaining about Astrill, do you think they purposely let their VPN go down?
As someone living behind the Great Firewall for the last 7 years, spring for Astrill VPN.
There's cheaper options, but the lower cost services seem to all fall by the wayside whenever the censors up their game. Meanwhile, Astrill keeps chugging along. Heartily recommended.
As an aside, online censorship sucks. To everyone in Europe or Stateside, don't take what you got for granted.
The internet is always good, but sometimes our government slows things down so that we go outside and enjoy the fresh air we're so lucky to have. On our little strolls we can sometimes see luxury brand stores, and if you're able to afford luxury brands in China, well then you know you have a right to shit on the streets whenever you please. --end rant.
Anyways, stick to Astrill, it's the most consistently reliable IMO. But on days when GFW activity is heavy, I usually just read Orwell.
A vpn is a service that allows you to tap into their servers before browsing the web. It makes things anonymous for you by scrambling data. Everything related to Google is blocked here. Also any major news organization and in general, good shit.
Have her get Astrill. That's the go-to service. It cost $70 for a year but less for smaller amounts.
If the Internet on campus sucks then she can always go to a cafe like Starbucks. Either way the Internet is not free (in terms of browsing) like at home. You hit roadblocks all the time.
The same goes for her phone. Using an android phone without a vpn means no google play or maps.
Ok. I read somewhere else that a lot of the people who are getting kicked have Astrill VPN service installed. Do you?
"Yup, thats 4+ people now that have been using the VPN. You guys might be crap out of luck, you got banned for having the same IP has a hacker that got caught red handed, it will be hard to prove you are not the hacker."
Been using them for 6 months, the server closest to me is about 100 miles, I get very low ping and my bandwidth through the VPN is almost 90% of my full ISP bandwidth. No dropped connections, no issues with logins, definitely the most recommendable VPN I have ever used.
I think the most important part though for picking a VPN is just testing the connection quality you get, because different locations will vary. Other good ones I know of are Astrill, PrivatVPN and
Good to see so many of you fellow distinguishers of bicycles buses and traffic lights.
Some more context: I'm actually not switching servers at all! I was with Outline/Shadowsocks the past year on the same server and it killed me, and I learned to basically or DUCKDUCKGO when things got hard. Tried Astrill and friend's NORD and am getting the same errors.
Hell, LinkedIn even banned me recently for "viewing too many profiles" (I didn't but suspect it was my VPN sending too many requests). Cloudflare sites catch me always and Vimeo is an outright nono.
Actually thinking about it, you were probably right about Reddit. I had a VPN (Astrill) for other things that did need it, like Google Maps or GMail. Most stuff when I was there, like the Google services, were not completely blocked but they were very slow and flaky without the VPN; with the VPN they just worked fine. It seemed there was this effort with some stuff to make it unappealing to use rather than blocking it entirely.
Americans can get 10-year visas. I was just there for 2 months and did not have a single issue while using a VPN.
Other issues are valid though. I only go because I need to for work.
Astrill is the best VPN in case anyone needs a recommendation.
Basically, there is no alternative to those you mentioned. Not many VPNs work in China and NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Vypr are the ones who do. If you don't like these ones you can also check Astrill VPN and Surfshark VPN, they should also work. I use NordVPN myself and it works, but all of them mentioned above are also good. On more recommendation would be to get two of them, because sometimes one can get banned for a short period of time, so you would have a backup plan.
Astrill has always been the best for me and I've been here close to five years. The amount of times I've been at a friend's houses streaming stuff and them having to reconnect to Express VPN time and time again due to constant disconnections is ridiculous. But some still swear by it.
I would suggest downloading trials if you can, maybe different areas of Beijing work differently for different vpns? But I would never change from astrill.
When you figure this one out, you might want to contact the Chinese Government because they can't figure this out either.
I work in a school also and we have problems with students using Astrill. The main issue with a lot of them is they use multiple different VPN servers e.g. OpenVPN, OpenConnect.
At this stage it is a disciplinary issue and no longer a technical one.
The thing I find stupid about don't talk about Dumb Club is that it is predicated on the belief that not one person in China's 3 million strong censorship apparatus doesn't have an Astrill account, for research purposes. They're probably reverse engineered the entire thing.
Been a loyal Astrill customer since 2011, recommended them countless times on this sub and offline.
I'll be finding a new VPN after my current year expires, suck a G8 Astrill, this is not the way to treat your customers.
For Chinese, we are the lucky ones who can continue play our games behind the Great Firewall.
Sorry for the red ping, but that's the best we can get.
The situation is getting worse, every good VPN that can bring us green connection will always be banned by the GFW (maybe I should write government instead) in days, so we have to use Astrill which can't make our network faster but can save us from dropping again and again while playing, especially in the middle of Trials.
It's hell here.
And that's the real reason why we want to end the game as fast as possible, anything might happen in every mins, maybe the next second we will lose one teammate who is caught by the GFW.
GFW will cut you down as soon as it found you are using a VPN.
Hey there, i lived in shanghai for a year and had the same problems in the beginning.
As for your 1st question, definitely go check out W.Y.W.K. () Its a huge lan-cafe chain and you can go play league there while sipping some delicious milk tea, in Shanghai alone there are probably 20 or more. If you cant google use chrome translation and youll get the addresses off their website. Staff ususlly speaks english and they can help set you up with an account (which is SUPER difficult).
VPN: I used Astrill (~5$/month) or Hotspotshield (free).
If you got any other questions, just PM me.
As a Chinese VPN user, I have to point out that you are completely wrong. Tor can only give you very limited access of the free internet because it's too slow. Also it's too complicated for average users, and bridges are constantly banned. Most people use VPN providers like Astrill or proxies like shadowsocks. These solutions works not just for westerners but for everyone including average people like programmers or researchers who has to get outside of the GFW.
Buy a cheap VPN like Astrill. No, you won't get in trouble for using it. Reddit is not blocked but imgur can be buggy. You can fix that by replacing "" in the link with "".
You won't have any problem torrenting. Sometimes you need to turn your VPN on to access torrenting sites but once you've got the download started, you can turn it back off again.
You should avoid drinking tap water. But there's no reason to avoid salads to my knowledge. A little salad washed in tap water isn't going to kill you.
They've actually been really good thus far. Never had a serious issue with connectivity until today. However, because it seems Astrill is acting up for a crapload of people in China today, their service staff is probably spread super thin.
I think it depends on the VPN, I use a VPN because I live in China and here most expats use either Express VPN that you see people do ads for on YouTube or Astrill. Astrill has definitely been the better of the two in my experience and I can confirm it works with all streaming sites that I’ve used. Express I’ve heard has gotten worse and costs the same if not slightly more.
A virtual private network. Basically a program you run in the background that connects you to a 3rd party server first, then to your web page you entered and vice versa. It keeps your browsing history 100% private from an ISP. But be sure to keep using incognito mode to keep the local history off your PC
Private Internet Access is probably the cheapest one that's reliable.
I use Astrill myself but they're almost twice as much. But Astrill is much more "pirate" friendly.
Good luck with everything, man.
Shouldn't be a problem. Have taken my computer in and out of China. Put motherboard, graphics card, harddisks etc in carry-on. Didn't have a problem. They took the graphics card out to check but other than that it was fine. When I first went to China I put everything in check-in - nothing stolen or damaged but carry-on better. Didn't take a power supply or monitor. Power supply should be fine, may as well buy a monitor in China. Pack everything well.
Shouldn't have a problem with downloading Steam games although occasionally mine went from downloading pretty fast to awfully slow. Maybe download games you are most likely to play before going.
Adaptors for plugs easily bought in China.
Astrill only VPN that worked well enough for me. Shadowsocks also worked well but speeds can be slow. Get VPN before going to China.
Enjoy your time there.
If anyone wants a free month of Astrill VPN, pm me your email address (throwaway). I can invite you for a free month trial. May help some of you feel more secure with downloading it. I used astrill and the file downloaded in around 20 minutes.
Because Astrill is a highly unprofessional organisation that never invested much in their server infrastructure nor did the encrypt their data well. This was one of the main reasons their speeds were always great because they had limited encryption.
This has now caught them out and like a child they are blaming others for their mistakes. Other companies OTHER than Astrill are completely fine......because rhe actually have OK encryption.
Some people hate it, some people swear by it, but I've used Astrill for about 4 years now and I reckon it's the most reliable VPN service for China. In my experience, anyway. I used a bunch of others and was pretty disappointed, found myself coming back to Astrill.
Astrill works fine. Contact their customer support and they can help you switch over from PPTP to IPSec for your mobile devices, which works perfectly. One of the best things about Astrill is their spot on customer service; use it whenever you have a problem.
HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS, WE GOTTA SEARCHER HERE~!
Thanks for searching :-)
Read that thread, carefully. Pick a VPN which you think suits you. I tried wiTopia, they fucked up twice, I fired them the second time around and switched to Astrill. I've tried a couple of other ones at work places, Astrill has suited me the best so far.
Astrill user in Beijing. I can still connect to the service but over the pas few days I have had horrible latency issues - I guess the tightening control on Internet here is what is causing it. That or I just have a shitty ISP :)
A VPN will enable access to afltv for best results, however California will work fine as well.
You have to set the VPN to any country outside Australia as they don't allow streaming to be within Australia (insert witty foxtel slander here). I use New Zealand as a server because its close so the ping is low, reliability seems good as well.
In essence, you'll probably be paying for VPN access (assuming you don't have one already) and for the subscription to afltv. In my opinion its worth it simply to avoid adds but I'm also able to watch my team every week, even when its not on free to air tv. worth noting that afltv does not allow concurrent streaming.
*edited with links as promised. merry christmas!
I use Astrill. It doesn't appear on your list, but I've never had a problem with it in China or any other country. And if the govt ever blocks a particular IP, it's very easy to switch which location the application routes through. the only downside is it doesn't work well on my tablet (samsung galaxy 2).
This is the first time I ever had a problem with Astrill. Been with them for over a year now, and usually runs very smoothly. At least Openweb still functions normally, so on the laptop it still works perfectly, but my Android tablet is out of luck right now.
Unfortunately no one is going to share their less common VPNs for obvious reasons. from my experience, Astrill is reliable and express was total garbage, taking ages to connect everytime. Chinese VPNs will definitely be cheaper
Having graduated recently and having seen how the universities handle this and how ISPs are handling this now. I recommend using a VPN tunnel for your traffic. You will find that within a day or 2 you will get an email saying that you are violating the terms of service with the university. It is best to create an isolated downloader so that it doesn't have direct access try a VPN service like Nord or Astrill if you can pay for it. They aren't expensive and have very high speeds. If your internet is slow then you can use a free service.
Agree with China Unicom, better service than China Mobile and quite cheap. I pay 29 RMB (3,50 EUR) per month for 500 MB daily, and the excess is 1 RMB (0,12 EUR) per 1 GB. There's WiFi everywhere as well, but honestly I couldn't be bothered and treat my phone as an unlimited flatrate. The most I ever paid was 52 RMB in one month... Laughable.
Don't bother with that Google Fi crap, they charge you $10 per GB - total ripoff. Invest in a quality VPN (Astrill rocks!) and you're more than prepared.
Phone - whatever you like. Not a fan of Apple, but they are omnipresent, so no problem here either.
I would add a few visits to your stay in Beijing - or at least recommend some places : - the Temple of Heaven - the 789 Art District - pretty far from the inner center but it is quite nice to explore - Jinshan Park (it is a must) climb at the top of the hill and you will have a breathtaking view of the Forbidden City - You can also visit Beihai park which is next to the Forbidden City - Wangfujing - huge pedestrian street where there is the night market and street food (insects etc.) - Explore Hutongs (traditional homes) around the Drum Tower
Nightlife in Beijing is all around Nanlouguxiang and Salitun.
For VPN, Astrill and NordVPN should work. But there’s no guarantee in China!
Have fun there ! I have been to most of the places you’ll visit, China is just amazing.
Some gems in this one:
Quality boilerplate FYIL post.
I haven't had any problems at all with Astrill lately.
Everybody talks up Express as the better one, but the long-term limitation of servers you can connect to from within China really annoyed me.
Was just wondering if you were making the suggestion as a VPN user outside of China is all. If you don’t mind me asking, for how long were you in China? Did it work consistently well throughout your stay? Does NordVPN offer a website that is accessible without a VPN from China?
I’m just wondering how I’ve never heard of the VPN. Everyone I know has used Freegate or Hotspotshield in the early days, and then Astrill or Express and that’s about it.
Only gonna be a problem for people using commercial VPN services like Express or Astrill. Unapproved solutions like SSR or obfuscated openVPN that work now will likely be unaffected. Can't block what you can't detect, unless you block the whole internet.
Pollution
Unsafe sex
Gutter oil
Hot pot
Bubble tea
Mix babies
Eleven
Element fresh franchising
Dogmeat festival
No. Wait. I got it.
Being a mod of ccj2
No No. Earlier. It goes back earlier.
Nixon visiting china
You will need to subscribe to China telecom's internet service + their international VIP package. I have it and its super fast with Astrill VPN.
Edit: Do take note that this is quite "pricey", about 200 rmb a month, but well worth the money IMO. Also you will need to have a postpaid (后付)account, not a prepaid one. If you have a prepaid one, you may have to go to one of the main branches to convert your account
Shanghai. As far is VPN services are concerned, I don't think it's only about the geographic. Sometimes they do get selectively blocked, based on your location or your ISP, I don't know what's the logic behind it. My broadband works with Astrill most of the time, but my mobile doesn't at the moment.
Even though, most people use VPN instead of Tor.
Netflix acquires licenses for media based on the region. For example, a show might be available in the US but not the UK. Since Netflix doesn't operate in China, they don't have the license to distribute media over there. As u/Meganstefanie said, use a VPN and connect to a server from your country to watch "your" shows. We use Astrill and it works just fine 85% of the time.
Point by point:
No. I believe it puts me at equal footing with people who claim to have good hit detection. It seems that lots of people have no problems and there's only a minority of people who have terrible reg like me.
From what I've seen, a 100 doesn't seem to have any disadvantages.
No. I think part of my hit detection issue may have been that without my VPN i had some fluctuation in ping. My ping would go from 19-30 a lot of the time. Could be why others with similar ping don't have my problem.
No, i'm just using the application that Astrill provides me, which allows me to connect to different areas. if i change the location with the MWO client open, i lose connection to the MWO servers.
Been a bit odd occasionally over the past few weeks, but with Astrill on everything seems fine. One thing I have noticed over the past week or so is that torrents have taken much longer to connect.
Other than that, pretty standard.
Also, Google aren't Apple, they don't do the stupid iCapitalisation stuff. Gmail, not gMail. If it were gMail, Apple would have sued Google by now for using LETTERS
Great Firewall is China-wide. Beijing is no exception. Not sure where you heard that Facebook isn't blocked there.
Not sure which is the best VPN for Mac, but I use Astrill on PC and it works well for me. Apparently not everybody is /r/china is satisfied with it but I haven't had any problems.
Astrill is notoriously more expensive than most VPNs and their customer service can seem arsey at times (like not being able to download the app without a sub or no free trials etc), but in my experience, they earned that arrogance. They have been the most reliable easily-accessible VPN in my 4 years in China.
I use Astrill. It's one of the few that actually works well consistently in China (where I live). I think that's partially because their operations and servers are all offshore, and they are based in The Seychelles. There are so many servers available that when one stops working, it's easy to switch to another one. You can also turn on the setting to block internet access once you get disconnected from the VPN.
"Within a few upcoming days" lol. What do you even pay them for if they're so dependent on the whims of the Chinese government? I'm no major fan of Astrill, but they've at least managed to seriously limit downtime here and they've been clear about the situation being one they're constantly looking to resolve.
The reason for this is due to the fact that the great firewall is not a singular monolithic entity it's rather a collection of different ones. You just happen to be behind a section that allows Astrill.
Really? I'm in mainland and have encountered nil issues. Recent sign up. Previously express which was so incredibly bad for me. Never worked. Maybe it's the region? I'm very happy with the change to Astrill. I subscribed and activated while here on the mainland... Interesting that you had issues
I think ExpressVPN are.
I have suspicions about Astrill.
Give ExpressVPN a ring, or contact their online support, and ask them are they Chengbao in Hong Kong. They will deny it. They will claim they have no presence in Hong Kong, even though their HQ is in Hong Kong.
A tad shady, right?
"Also, using a VPN on Netflix is entirely legal." - that's true, but Netflix is constantly blocking IPs, so not that many services will let you access it. If I remember correctly, NordVPN works almost flawlessly with streaming, Astrill and Express are pretty good too. But it's always better to read more reviews (for example and comments before purchasing if you don't want to be disappointed later.
Yeah, I don't see any other option, VPN's can simply solve this. Best to look for a provider that's based outside 5 or 14 eyes (like Nord or Astrill) and has a kill-switch on their app. Try looking here
I had Surfshark VPN when I was on my trip to China. It's a pretty new one, maybe that's why it worked well in China, nobody knows it. I heard that Vypr and Astrill works, but can't be sure because I have never used them. Also, I recommend having a few VPNs if one brakes the other might work.
Coming from a German, I'm sorry dude. I fucking hate the dubbing shit. We fucking ruin basically every cinema for forigners. The closest cinema to me that doesn't have dubbed shit is in Frankfurt which is 1.5h away from me. Dude I would advise to get a VPN. ExpressVPN is apparently really good with Netflix and it allowes you to access so much more content also in English. Personally I use Astrill.
Check out what Astrill have to offer.
You need to buy the router and a subsription but it's the most stable thing i have found. Even during 'sensitive' times the router remains working no issues.
Even better if you have a smart TV and some sort of portable TV thing like an Amazon Fire stick, and then you can fool your TV into thinking you are in your home country and then have access to all the apps the Fire stick has to offer. Streaming Netflix during Chinese New Year with no issues.
Or so i've heard.