VPN - Unblock Facebook in China

Access Youtube From China

July 2011 – You’ll notice a lot of links that aren’t working here on the site. It seems that in recent weeks, The Great Firewall has had some serious updates, and many of the VPNs featured/reviewed are blocked (at least the sites are). This may not be for the entire country, but at least here in Fujian, many have been blocked.

Securitales is a Web Based Service that is not blocked. A web based service is different from a VPN, but can also unblock sites in China. The advantage of a Web based service over a VPN is that you don’t have to download anything onto your computer. It works on iPhone, iPad and other smart phones as well as laptop and desktop operating systems like Mac, Windows, and Linux.

The most important thing right now is that it’s NOT BLOCKED.

Check out Securitales at www.securitales.com.

I do a lot of talking about Facebook here at Unblock Facebook, but today I though I’d make a featured post for Youtube. Yes, you can access Youtube from China with a VPN, just like any other site. Lots of people forget about Youtube, because we have Youku here in China, but there’s lots to be had you Youtube that can’t be found on Youku. Ok, mostly the anti-china stuff, but I think in general, Youtube has more stuff than Youku, and it’s in English, so it’s easier to find. Youku is good for watching free movies, but that’s about it. I just don’t get Chinese meme – I saw a video of some guy washing his laundry the other day that was supposed to be funny.

This is why we need to access Youtube from China.

I find that video from Youtube is a bit slow with a VPN, but there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s slow video, or no video.

Actually, when I tried StrongVPN a while back, I was able to access Youtube from China and stream video at a pretty good speed. That’s why I always talk about StrongVPN being the fastest VPN I’ve used. At that time I was using the lite service from 12VPN, back when it was available, and there was a clear difference in speed.

Problem is however, that StrongVPN has been blocked recently. Well, at least I’ve been unable to access my account for the past week here in Fujian. Try the link and see what happens.

Access Youtube From China (top 2)

SwitchVPN in China Review

By Roderick

SwitchVPN is a lesser known VPN, but still worth checking out. I recently tried their service and was happy with the results.

Easy to navigate website +1

Their website is simple and easy to navigate. Lots of sites like to have EVERYTHING available which is a lot to take in for new users. Considering users in China can’t use PPTP or L2TP this makes things much easier. You can ignore pretty much all of their plans but the SSL plan which is 12 dollars a month.

2. Live Support +1
3. Unlimited Bandwidth +1
3. Downloading Torrents OK +1 (some sites don’t allow this)
4. Windows/Mac/Linux/mobile devices +1
5. 7 Day money back guarantee +1
6. Site Design +1

I used to Knock their site for bad design and presentation. They’ve recently improved it, and it looks much better – more like a service I can trust. Update 2013: They have updated their site again. It looks even better than before.

7. Price: Super cheap for a basic package. Other packages are reasonable +2
8. Not Affected by March 2011 VPN crisis in China +2
9. Still Not Blocked in China +2
10, Connection speed +1
11. Servers in Multiple Locations +1 (US, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Malaysia + More)
12. Free Server Switching +1

Update 2013: Main domain was blocked at some point in 2012. Mirror site for China was immediately set up.

SwitchVPN is a good VPN service. If I had to choose one for myself, I would pick PandaPow or VyprVPN, but SwitchVPN offers some very competitive prices and a VPN that simply works.

→ Sign Up for SwitchVPN Here

Or check out my PureVPN in China Review

PureVPN in China: Review

By Roderick

This is an update of a previous post I made reviewing PureVPN in China. To be honest, it wasn’t a great review. However, since then, some things have been brought to my attention, and I’ve changed a lot of my views about PureVPN, and whether or not their a good choice for users in China.

Errors from my previous post

SSTP is not blocked in China
PPTP and L2TP only blocked in some areas of China
PureVPN does not have options for OpenVPN

firewall vpn

I guess it kind of depends on where you are. The truth is that this year, many users in China have experienced issues with PPTP and L2TP VPN protocols, and there was a time (March 2011) when pretty much all of China was unable to connect to the internet using these two protocols. I wouldn’t recommend them for someone who has other options – ie SSTP or OpenVPN. For users on iPhone and Android, a web based proxy is always an option as well. However, for smartphone users who want to use PPTP or L2TP, it is possible, and PureVPN does currently offer these services.

SSTP is was created by Microsoft, so you can imagine that it has a limited range of compatibility – Windows Vista and Windows 7. However, for Vista and Win 7 users, it’s a great option because with SSTP VPN clients already installed in these operating systems, you don’t have to install any 3rd party software, ie OpenVPN.

→ Sign Up for PureVPN Here

Mac, Win XP (plus anything outside Vista/7), and Linux users get a kind of Chinese special “cocktail” VPN. These tech guys know what they’re doing, and basically, they can get you hooked up and surfing any site you want – but I don’t know what kind of VPN is it. Unfortunately, you’ll have to contact their support team for details.

Though they do but a bandwidth limit on two of their VPN plans, don’t let the 30G cap scare you – i’ts pretty hard to even get close to that unless you’re doing some serious downloading and streaming. Back when 12VPN offered limited plans, I also signed up for a 30G monthly limit, and for day to day surfing and video streaming, I rarely topped 10G for an entire month.

Considering that StrongVPN and SwitchVPN have had their main domains blocked, iVPN’s live support team is never actually online, and Astrill’s live support is rude and unhelpful, for someone who’s looking for a reliable and friendly live support option, PureVPN is a good choice. Also, their service has continued uninterrupted throughout all the craziness of the last few months. This makes PureVPN a very solid option for users in China.

Yearly Plans

$75 / $145 / $160

www.purevpn.com

Gmail in China

By Roderick

I haven't been able to access my Gmail in China for about a week now. Now before I say that Gmail is blocked in China, I realize that different places in China produce different results for different people, different computers, and different operation systems.

Google and Gmail in China 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.

So a lot of users report that they can access Gmail from China in one place, but not the other. I'm just one of those guys. For example, with my home computer, running Windows XP SP3, using the Firefox 4 Internet browser (English version), I have about a 30 percent success rate as of May 2011. That means that I'm able to access my Gmail account in China only 30 percent of the time (when I'm not using my VPN). Of that 30 percent, only about ten percent of the time am I able to access Gmail in it's full form. Most of the time I've got to view it in basic HTML just open my mail.

internet censorship gmail china 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.

So I use my VPN most of the time. For me, it's matter of convenience. If I have to wait for five minutes for the page to load every time I access Gmail in China (which would be several times a day for me), it would add up to HOURS of waiting time per year. Maybe even days – just waiting for my stupid Gmail account to load. So I just connect to my VPN account and it a few seconds I can access my Gmail account normally.

You can check out some of the VPN services I recommend HERE or browse the site.

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