Unblock Facebook in China

Tunneling Through the Great Firewall

How to Surf Blocked Sites in China

August 15th, 2011 Posted in Securitales, Surf Blocked Sites, Unblock Facebook, Web Based Proxies, Web Based Service
Aug, 15 2011
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blocked sites in chinaUse Web Proxies To Surf Internet Anonymously and Surf Blocked Sites in China

Are you often worried about protecting your identity when browsing the internet? Or have you come across a situation where you were unable to access a site just because it was blocked – ie The (infamous) Great Firewall. With exorbitant expansion of internet, risks of identity theft have also increased. Do you know that when you browse the internet, you are easily giving away some of your information such as your IP address, location, browser name, application name and version etc. This is some of the information that can be misused if received by the wrong person (ie Chinese hackers). In order to protect people from becoming victims of internet fraud and scams, many software companies have developed proxies that allow you to surf the internet anonymously.

Moreover, with these proxies, you can also get access to the sites which have been blocked. In China, a number of websites and social networking sites like Facebook are blocked. Previously, people used to make use of VPN connections to unblock these sites, but lately most of the major VPN sites have also been blocked. If you are looking for information on how to surf blocked sites, then there is good news for you. There are web based proxies available which can be used to surf blocked sites.

facebook in chinaThere was a time when I was eager to find out information about how to surf blocked sites because my company had blocked some of the major websites I was a member of.  Companies blocking websites works a lot like how China blocks websites. I came across this web based proxy called ‘Securitales’. This proxy not only allows you to surf blocked sites, but it also allows you to surf internet anonymously. This means that you get two benefits in one package. Apart from these benefits, there are also other benefits of using web based proxies such as Securitales.

blocked sites in chinaIt does not require any installation on your computer which means that no one will ever find out that you are using a proxy to access blocked sites. Moreover, if you are using this web based proxy from your work computer or your school computer, your activities will never be detected. You will have freedom to access those restricted sites and you will get to do all this with complete security and privacy.  This also means that you'll be able to use in on your iPhone (or Android) as well as computer without a problem.  One of the major downfalls of VPNs in that you are limited to one subscription per computer, and in China, VPN protocols for phones are blocked.

How to surf blocked sites remains a popular topic because not many people are aware how great these web based proxies really are.  Even today, you can see tons of forum posts and Yahoo questions popping up in Google. Securitales helps solve the problem of how to surf block sites – instantly.

There's even a FREE TRIAL

I don't do a lot of direct promotion on the site, but Securitales really is a kick-ass way to surf blocked sites in China.

surf blocked sites with securitales

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Access Facebook in China on iPad

July 7th, 2011 Posted in Access Facebook, China, iPad, Reviews, Securitales, Web Based Service
Jul, 07 2011
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ipad in chinaI'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.

facebook in chinaUnlike 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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Access Facebook in China

May 18th, 2011 Posted in Access Facebook, China, Internet Censorship, News, Securitales, Unblock Facebook, VyprVPN, Web Based Service
May, 18 2011
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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.

access facebook in chinaBeing able to access Facebook in China is not as easy as it used to be. I've been in China for more than five years now. I was here before Facebook was blocked, and it's been a slippery slope for the scope of the Internet in China for as long as I can remember.  Every year there are fewer and fewer sites accessible from behind The Great Firewall.  What's worse, there are way to access blocked sites in China, but these are slowly getting weeded out by the Chinese government, and while just a few years ago there were hundreds of ways to access Facebook in China, there are now just a few.

Back in 2009, I remember using a bit of software called Freegate to access Facebook in China. It was free, and was passed around between me and a couple of my colleagues at work.  Their official site was quickly blocked in China, but I was lucky enough to have a group of friends to pass the software to me.

websites blocked in chinaJust a few months later, Freegate was useless.

Then I started using a site called Privacy Tunnel (or something like that, I can't really remember).  It was a free proxy that was (again), introduced to me by a friend of mine.  Proxies reroute your information to a server somewhere outside of China and change your IP address – this is how you're able to access Facebook in China though a proxy.

At that time there were tons of free proxies available, and as soon as one got blocked, more seemed to pop up.  You could always find fresh ones in forums and by word of mouth.

But China's been working hard at blocking proxies, and I can only think of a few that still work today….NONE of which are free.

Then I discovered VPNs.  I had never heard of VPNs before 2010 when I got tired of spending HOURS on the Internet looking for ways to access Facebook in China.  I found the cheapest one possible (12VPN) and went for it.

I couldn't believe how much more convenient it was.  Instead of having to type my URL into the proxy browser, all I had to do was connect to the VPN (after downloading and installing it on my computer), and then I could surf the Internet without thinking about it.  At that time is was 30 dollars for a year of service, and I couldn't have been happier.

But the game has changed in 2011.

access twitter in chinaSome big stuff went down in Egypt – The Twitter Revolution. And there was a small movement in China that tried to follow.

Facebook and Twitter were deemed heroes in The West as catalysts for political change.  So you can guess how the socialist government of China felt about that.

The immediately blocked some of the biggest names in VPN providers – StrongVPN, 12VPN, Witopia, and Freedur.

Not only that, but they blocked PPTP and L2TP VPN protocols which are used on mobile devices like smart phones (iPhone/Android) and tablet computers (iPad/Android).

Most VPN services soon recovered, with higher prices, special China packages, and frequent updates to their SSL/OpenVPN.  But the game wasn't over.  If you've been to Unblock Facebook in China .info before, you know that things change frequently. It seems that right when I updated the site to include all the VPN services that had recovered nicely from the March 2011 blocks, VPN sites started going down again.  Two of my favorite VPN services are currently blocked in many parts China (StrongVPN and 12VPN).  The SSL/OpenVPN still works great for both, but the sites are inaccessible, making it impossible to sign up.

So how can you access Facebook in China now?

vyprvpn in chinaWell there are other VPN services available. I've tried many. The only one I can really recommend, that's not blocked of course, is VyprVPN. It's a bit on the expensive side, but it works, and it's fast.

There's also a web based proxy service called Securitales.  This works well also.

Which one is better?

Why you should use VyprVPN

  • It's faster
  • It's more secure
  • It's more convenient
  • You can watch Hulu/Netflix/Pandora/BBC iPlayer

securitales in china
Why you should use Securitales

  • You can install it on iPhone, iPad, Android, and mobile devices
  • There's nothing to install so you can use it at work and on school computers
  • It's cheaper ($70/year)

Remember that not just Facebook is blocked in China.  Youtube, Twitter, Blogger, parts of Wikipedia, Google images, and thousands of other sites are blocked for seemingly no reason.

* Want to protect your Gmail account from getting hacked?
* * Did you know that Hotmail and Yahoo were both victims of Chinese hackers this year?
* * * What will you do if your email service is blocked in China?
* * * * How will you make phone calls if Skype is blocked?

You can forget about all these problems with a VPN or Web Based Proxy.

facebook in china
https://www.goldenfrog.com/vyprvpn


https://securitales.com

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