VPN Problems Recently?

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  • #9779
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Recently getting VPN’s to work has become a major hassle. I have the VPN of 4 different companies setup and working and today none of them are working. Over the last few weeks they’ve all been intermittently out.

    I was browsing around and saw this where someone posted this:

    I run my own VPN on my own server, and I have seen them block the port it runs on 4 or 5 times in the last 2 days. Its my own server, with just me, everything else on the server works perfectly fine, even my ssh stays up. The only thing that gets blocked in the port I use for my VPN, a non standard port. If I change port, it works again, and then eventually gets blocked and I have to change again. They defiantly have something new which is targeting VPNs only, mostly likely looking for the OpenVPN protocol in the same way they block tor.

    Anyone have any info about what’s going on?

    #24407
    Avatar photoJerryS
    Participant

    Nicee, another sub group to join!

    Strong has been acting up lately, i guess China is getting smart and trying to cut off it’s port. A few days ago it was acting up, but a simple port change did the trick for me.

    And the first comment on that tread is interesting… hmmm…

    #24410
    Avatar photoFederico
    Participant

    Maybe really it’s way for promote OpenVpn protocol…

    With StrongVPN I use PPTP, with OverplayVPN i can choose if OpenVPN/PPTP/L2PT server… and sometimes with PPTP I can’t connect but never tried to change port…

    #24412
    Avatar photoFederico
    Participant

    P.S.

    Today with PPTP VPN to Singapore no problem

    #24414
    Avatar photoChris Ziich
    Moderator

    Mine has been out or worthlessly slow for the past few weeks. 2 of 3 ports blocked. Additionally, my monthly recurring credit card payment for it also was declined.

    On top of that, I remember that gmail without a VPN was usable. In the past month downloading/uploading attachments fails 70% of the time, sending a simple email fails about 50% of the time, search is incredibly slow, Gchat, forget about it (though gtalk client works fine).

    GLAD TO BE GOING HOME IN 2 DAYS FOR 25MBPS INTERWEBSSSS

    #24419
    Avatar photoFederico
    Participant

    Have so many problems about internet service providers for a “simple home/office use” it’s really crazy, but we stay in China.

    In my home lan I use a classic adsl router and usually if i can’t use VPN it’s for a low speed… restarting my hardware after it’s ok…

    If chinese internet provider sometimes block some port, why after some times still to be avaible? crazy…

    #24420
    Avatar photoBrendan
    Moderator

    This appears to be a carry on from the intensified efforts to block VPN traffic during the National Congress. That was being carried out via port blocking, though I don’t know if this is being handled manually, or if they have indeed implemented something specifically targeting VPN ports automatically. Either way, what does seem clear is that for now they intend to continue to block more diligently. This has been a real pain over the last month, I’ve had to reconfigure my VPN’s on both Mac & Windows several times now. SSH is the next option if this continues.

    #24421
    Avatar photoChris Ziich
    Moderator

    Google Translate is out for me now… really? Right when I’m in the middle of compiling a ton of Chinglish for a 4000 word report.

    Baidu translate sucks so hard. The government really likes making it tough for international business.

    fuck

    this

    shit

    #24423
    Avatar photoBrendan
    Moderator
    Quote:
    Google Translate is out for me now… really?

    Quote:
    The government really likes making it tough for international business.

    I’ve been laughing in ironic agony at this myself over the last while now. Translate is as good as dead on some days, only accessible over VPN…

    Oh wait…

    misc-are-you-fucking-kidding-me-clean.png

    #24424
    Avatar photoFederico
    Participant

    Hahahah I’ve been laughing in ironic agony too!

    Sometimes I use:

    Bing Translator

    World Lingo

    Maybe it’s true, for the National Congress the control is greater but I dream a Chinese Free Internet in the future… utopia?

    #24425
    Avatar photoBrendan
    Moderator
    Quote:
    but I dream a Chinese Free Internet in the future…

    Quote:
    utopia?

    Not at all! :/

    #24426
    Avatar photoFederico
    Participant

    Ahahahah right!

    Charlie, think about a DarkNet like you said? maybe we can open a topic, for check who want think about this project and how much expensive…

    #24444
    Avatar photoMelina
    Participant

    I got an email from my provider the other day saying that the great firewall has been updated and can now “learn, discover and block VPN protocols automatically.”

    They had a workaround for Mac users so I’ve been okay but they said its a bit hit and miss for Windows users.

    #24445
    Avatar photoRay
    Participant

    So these VPN providers oughtta be sending refunds to you guys. Right?

    #24446
    Avatar photoFederico
    Participant

    Oh my god, WTF!

    An interesting link:

    GFC

    #24457
    Avatar photoAM
    Participant

    Just had to fix mine there

    China Blocking UDP ports

    #24462
    Avatar photoFederico
    Participant

    Thank you AM isn’t only for StrongVPN customer right?

    #24470
    Avatar photoMikeV
    Participant

    One data point if you’re interested – I had been using a VPN pretty heavily around Chengdu for the past few weeks, from a variety of homes/hotels/cafes/4G, without any issues.

    I was using PandaPow with PPTP (which goes over TCP), so maybe that supports the UDP blocking theory…

    #24472
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster
    Quote:
    I dream a Chinese Free Internet in the future… utopia?

    That really seems like wishful thinking. 5+ years ago people were looking at China’s economic growth and many predicted that China would naturally liberalize. “Free market leads to freedom” was the argument that many made, but unfortunately it has not yet come to pass. The Olympics and 2008 in general was a pretty bold declaration of who China really is and what kind of growth is prioritized.

    Quote:
    So these VPN providers oughtta be sending refunds to you guys. Right?

    The cat and mouse game continues. Inept top-down controls versus free market service providers. I think they’ll get everything back online – they always do.

    Quote:
    Oh my god, WTF!

    An interesting link:

    That is interesting. I learned about some of this when CL was briefly blocked a few years ago, but haven’t read much about the GFW since then.

    #24473
    Avatar photoBen
    Moderator

    If you can change the port/protocol to get around the block then it looks to me like they are simply blocking standard OpenVPN configurations, in addition to more severe blocking on common VPN server IP addresses/netblocks.

    PPTP is really easy to block, so they clearly aren’t targeting all VPNs. I’m having no more issues than usual using my PPTP VPN to the UK.

Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 48 total)
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