I've got to write a follow up article on some of the recent posts I've been making, because I suddenly became aware a few days ago that it's still possible to access Facebook in China on iPad. I know, I know, after all my posts talking about how L2TP and PPTP VPNs were blocked because of the stuff that was going on in Egypt, and after all the stuff I wrote about how mobile devices like iPad couldn't access blocked sites without jailbreaking the iPad and messing up your warranty, I've got to go back and change what I said. It is completely possible to access Facebook in China on iPad – all you need is a web based service to help you bypass Internet censorship.
I got an email from a company called Securitales the other day. I had seen their advertisements around, and to be honest, they never really caught my eye. I didn't really know what they were, but I was happy with my VPN, so I didn't look into it so much.
However, when they contacted me about featuring them on the site, it came to my attention that their service was a bit different from other services I had tried. They're a web based service. This is now the second time I've used this term – and it's exactly what it sounds like. It's called a web based service because their method of unblocking sites in China does not involve downloading or installing anything on your computer. It is accessible through any device that can connect to the Internet because there are no changes made to the device that you're using. It's just like accessing a website, or using a special browser window. This is why you can even access Facebook in China on iPad.
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Unlike PPTP and L2TP VPN protocols which are blocked and don't work in most of China, Securitales will send you a secure link to your inbox, which means you can access their secure browser anywhere, anytime, even if their site is blocked. They've even got a FREE TRIAL, (if you click the link, the free trial option is right below the sign-up form) which is amazing these days – most VPNs don't even offer that. Once you access the link, type in your username and password, and type the URL of the blocked site into the secure browser area. You'll notice that it's using HTTPS, not HTTP.
I was pleasantly surprised at the speed of Securitales. Like I said, I had seen their service advertised around before and didn't think much of it. But don't let their lack of flash and strange name (sounds like the name of a Pixar/Disney movie doesn't it?) fool you. They're pretty much on par with most VPN companies.
A disadvantage of using a web based service is that you've got to type the URL you want to visit into the designated area in order for the site to be unblocked. I'm still getting used to it and I frequently switch back to my normal browser only to be blocked from the site, and then I've got to go back and retype the URL. Not a big deal, but slightly inconvenient. For users that want to access Facebook in China on iPad however, you haven't really got a choice, and something is better than nothing. This is probably just one of those things that you get used to.
Securitales will also work on your iPhone and Android devices. In a nutshell, for mobile users in China, its a very cool service to have.
Securitales Website
Remember, they've got a FREE TRIAL
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One is that it's a bit more difficult to install. On my first time around I almost gave up. I'm a real idiot when it comes to computers and as soon as they asked me to create folders and unzip files into them I set it aside for a day before I came back to it. I also didn't have a file unzipper which I had to find and download. My second time around I had an idea of what to do and paid closer attention to the instructions the provided(they have everything laid out pretty clearly). It wasn't so bad, but compared to 12VPN which it just "click, click, finished", some people may have trouble with it.
But they've only got 5 sever locations, which when compared to services like Hide My Ass and 12VPN which have upwards of 10 or 20 locations, 5 is a pretty small number. HOWEVER, most of the time this doesn't matter for users in China. We're trying to get OUT OF CHINA, not get into anywhere else. 1 VPN server is enough to do that, so what do you need 20 for? Do you really need to browse the Internet from a server in Siberia? No.
The biggest deciding point for most people is the cost. Their cost plan is pretty straightforward, especially for users in China. Because PPTP and L2TP are blocked in most places, that means that there's only the monthly SSL/OpenVPN plan available. At 20 dollars a month, it's a bit more expensive than others, not by much, but it is. For any decent VPN service you can expect to pay 10 to 20 dollars a month, but 20 is pretty much the top of the scale..png)
I haven't been able to connect to the StrongVPN site for the past week. I'm living in Fujian – I don't know what the rest of the country is like. I contacted StrongVPN and they maintain that "some areas are having connectivity issues", but I'd like to know how you guys are doing. Of course, if you've already got the VPN downloaded, you shouldn't have any problems. The problem is that the main site is blocked – so you'll find that the links here to the StrongVPN site aren't working.
Just a few months later, Freegate was useless.
Some big stuff went down in Egypt – The Twitter Revolution. And there was a small movement in China that tried to follow..png)
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I've kept up on lots of the VPN services that unblock sites in China, and even those are a bit shaky – it seems that what works in Guangdong doesn't necessarily work in Xinjiang. But that's another story.
At my job it's a totally different story. When I check my Gmail (or attempt to, per say) on the computer at the office, I get about a 5 percent success rate, if that counts for anything at all. All of the time I've got to use HTML mode, and most of the time I can't even get Google to search properly. They are using a Chinese version of Internet Explorer – may IE 6 or 7 I'm not sure. It's miserable. The good news is that I've got to check out Bing and Yahoo sometimes – an I've found out that my site is pretty much invisible on those search engines – bummer. It must be because they censor their search results, because a lot of the articles I've written over the years are also unavailable.