I live in China, its great, but I hate the firewall. Ever since they blocked Youtube, I've been trying to get a good connection to a proxy server. I still have not found a good enough proxy to watch youtube. So I am looking for a paid VPN, but I don't know what would be the best to go for. Since my connection in China is bad enough I need a VPN that doesn't slow down my connection any more. Any ideas would be helpful.
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What is the best VPN to get around the Chinese Firewall
- Thread starter ChineseFirewall
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when i was in china, i used google to search for youtube vids, and then vixy to download. its a pain in the ass.
i had a direct line to the us at work, so it wasn't that big a deal. sorry can't really help you beyond that. try going on shanghaiexpat.com and into the forums. the people there will be able to give you info about proxy services that work.
i had a direct line to the us at work, so it wasn't that big a deal. sorry can't really help you beyond that. try going on shanghaiexpat.com and into the forums. the people there will be able to give you info about proxy services that work.
YouTube and free vpns
I have been able to access YouTube videos through free vpns like vtunnel and ninjacloak, but you can't upload through these. You can just search and watch. As far as paid vpns go, I've heard great things about Witopia, but I've heard rumors that it doesn't work very well on Macs. However, this is old info. They (the proxy administrators) were trying to get Witopia to work on Macs the last I heard...
I have been able to access YouTube videos through free vpns like vtunnel and ninjacloak, but you can't upload through these. You can just search and watch. As far as paid vpns go, I've heard great things about Witopia, but I've heard rumors that it doesn't work very well on Macs. However, this is old info. They (the proxy administrators) were trying to get Witopia to work on Macs the last I heard...
Freebie
You on Mac OS X? Don't know much else about it but I've read that 12vpn has free Viscosity licenses.
As far as paid Vpn's go, there's a comparison or strongvpn and 12vpn here
http://unblockfacebookinchina.info/12vpn-vs-strongvpn
Sorry if you read this post earlier today, it's not free accounts, its a free viscosity license! I misread the details! You get the free license with the purchase of an account. 12vpn is still good, but I'm sorry to disappoint about the free acounts
You on Mac OS X? Don't know much else about it but I've read that 12vpn has free Viscosity licenses.
As far as paid Vpn's go, there's a comparison or strongvpn and 12vpn here
http://unblockfacebookinchina.info/12vpn-vs-strongvpn
Sorry if you read this post earlier today, it's not free accounts, its a free viscosity license! I misread the details! You get the free license with the purchase of an account. 12vpn is still good, but I'm sorry to disappoint about the free acounts
I like/use VyprVPN (Golden Frog) it doesn't slow my connection down too much and I can run my iPhone through it. I've had for about 2 years now I'd guess and they just keep adding servers..
My wife travels to China several times a year on business and has no problem accessing Facebook or other sites using Cloak. It works like a VPN on Mac and iOS devices securing your connection, and has a free plan along with some quite reasonable price options if you are downloading a lot of data.
Last edited by a moderator:
Update 2012
There are a lot of services listed here, but most are blocked (I think I mentioned I live in China)
12VPN - Blocked
StrongVPN - Blocked
HideMyAss - Blocked
Cloak - Blocked
Some have mirror sites, some not. There's a frequently updated site, very appropriately called http://www.bestvpninchina.com/ that checks which are accessible from INSIDE the GFW.
There are a lot of services listed here, but most are blocked (I think I mentioned I live in China)
12VPN - Blocked
StrongVPN - Blocked
HideMyAss - Blocked
Cloak - Blocked
Some have mirror sites, some not. There's a frequently updated site, very appropriately called http://www.bestvpninchina.com/ that checks which are accessible from INSIDE the GFW.
Astrill has been solid throughout the whole ordeal minus about 2 weeks when the party changed hands or what ever they did.
Astrill just released their open VPN stealth package for $5/month or $10 for the router package if you own a ddWRT router.
I'm using the regular package as it works just fine with all blocked sites and torrenting for $60/year, but add-ons may cost you up to $180/year. if this was the only option with Astrill, I'd move over to another service or just give up accessing blocked sites.
Astrill just released their open VPN stealth package for $5/month or $10 for the router package if you own a ddWRT router.
I'm using the regular package as it works just fine with all blocked sites and torrenting for $60/year, but add-ons may cost you up to $180/year. if this was the only option with Astrill, I'd move over to another service or just give up accessing blocked sites.
Trouble with many public VPNs is that their IP addresses are known, so they're easy for the authorities to block.
One solution is to have someone with broadband access in a freer country run a VPN on a machine there. As long as that VPN remains under-the-radar, you should be able to connect to that. So, best not to mention it too much (or repeatedly visit "what is my IP address" sites, which can database likely VPN and proxy users).
http://unvexed.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-set-up-real-encrypted-vpn.html has instructions for doing this on a $35 Raspberry Pi, but the same approach can be used with any spare PC running any flavor of Linux. The PC doesn't need to be very powerful for this application. Needless to say, the machine needs to be powered-on at all times in order for you to use it. That's one advantage of the Raspberry Pi-- it runs very well off an iPhone charger, so the electric bills are tiny.
One solution is to have someone with broadband access in a freer country run a VPN on a machine there. As long as that VPN remains under-the-radar, you should be able to connect to that. So, best not to mention it too much (or repeatedly visit "what is my IP address" sites, which can database likely VPN and proxy users).
http://unvexed.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-set-up-real-encrypted-vpn.html has instructions for doing this on a $35 Raspberry Pi, but the same approach can be used with any spare PC running any flavor of Linux. The PC doesn't need to be very powerful for this application. Needless to say, the machine needs to be powered-on at all times in order for you to use it. That's one advantage of the Raspberry Pi-- it runs very well off an iPhone charger, so the electric bills are tiny.