Catshanghai

How difficult is it to get a virtual private network (VPN) working in China to access international sites that are blocked or geo filtered?

A VPN is a way of connecting to a computer remotely. Many sites such as BBC Iplayer, Hulu or Pandora have geographical restrictions that block access from computers outside specific countries. You need to have a UK IP address to access the BBC Iplayer. You can only access this service overseas by setting up a VPN that makes it look like you are in the UK by giving you a UK IP address. Given that the Internet is heavily controlled in China I also need to use a VPN to access blocked sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

It is possible to setup a VPN yourself, but making an SSH tunnel connection with an overseas webserver, but this requires technical knowledge and a friend in another country willing to share their connection. I have been trying out paid for solutions with mixed results,which I am still trying to figure out.

I have tried Witopia, which offers remote VPN access to servers in the USA and more recently the UK. It requires a little technical confidence to setup on Windows or Mac and used to work quite well for me until three months ago when the connection slowed to being almost unuseable. I also had a problem when connecting to the UK servers to access BBC Iplayer. The connection would start quickly enough before being throttled into a crawl or even cutting out. The basic service costs $40 a year and the full SSH costs $70.I have read reports from people who love it and others whowith the same complaint as me. They have a very responsive support team who have suggested that I change the DNS settings or the server gateway, but nothing has worked. I am on the verge of ditching Witopia when my subscription comes up for renewal at the end of August.

I was quite excited when I read an interview with a newcomer called Freedur on Shanghaiist. Freedur promises to be easy to install on Mac or Windows to allow unfiltered web access to American servers without worrying what is happening under the hood. The website was a little difficult to follow, because it did not have clear instructions. The service starts at $5.99 a month using Paypal, which I paid after failing to figure out the trial service, but I got Freedur to work on Leopard after playing Email tag with Freedur’s support team. I have been very pleased with Freedur. It has been very quick for streaming music services and Youtube videos in China. I did become very alarmed at the beginning of the week after AVG flagged up the Freedur client as a trojan horse. I changed all my passwords and reinstalled Windows 7 on my new netbook. Freedur told me the AV notification was a case of mistaken identity, which appears to be the case after I scanned the file again today. I have reinstalled Freedur cautiously and have started to use it again.

I have also tried another VPN servce at VPNUK, which offers basic access to a UK Ip address for 6.50 GBP a month. It was quick enough when I first started using it, but it keeps disconnecting at home. The connection is more stable from my local Starbucks, but it is still slow.

I also tried out consult-here.com to access Iplayer earlier in the year, but their website looks so under the radar that I don’t quite trust them.

Freedur is my favourite VPN at the moment, because it offers the most stable and quickest connection. I am aware that it is possible to spend $15 a month or more for a dedicated IP address in another country with no bandwidth limits so the connection should be very reliable if you are willing to spend a little more. I am cautious about spending a lot of money on a VPN solution given that there is no guarantee that something working today will be reliable tomorrow or next week. I may also need to look at replacing my ADSL terminal or wireless router. It is really irritating when my Internet connection stops working altogether after I disconnect from a VPN. Perhaps there is mischievous censor kicking me off the network as punishment for finding ways to access Twitter and Facebook.

A final word of caution is that all traffic goes through the VPN provider. This is a mixed blessing. Using a VPN should make you safer from hackers and eavesdroppers in a coffeeshop, but the VPN can see all your data. You need to trust the VPN provider or be cautious. I never log on to a VPN while accessing my online bank account or entering sensitive passwords.

Related Posts
http://www.catshanghai.com/blog/2009/07/09/no-face-book-2/
http://www.catshanghai.com/blog/2008/12/16/watching-bbc-iplayer-from-china/

Posted via email from catshanghai’s posterous