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Gmail in China

May 11th, 2011 Posted in China, Vpn
May, 11 2011
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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 ChinaI'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 chinaAt 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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Problems with Gmail in China

May 2nd, 2011 Posted in China, Gmail and Google, Slow Internet, Yahoo!
May, 02 2011
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China's at it again. I just can't get on my Gmail account without using my VPN. Seriously, block it or not. I'm tired of this temptation to access my gmail in China without the VPN…. and I wait, and wait, and wait. Until the stupid thing tells me to load it in Basic HTML.  I'm seriously thinking of switching to Yahoo one of these days. If only Gmail and Google weren't so damn cool.  Anyone else having problems with Gmail in China?

 

I couldn't access Astrill today either. I don't know if this is a permanent or temporary thing.

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Can’t access Gmail

April 12th, 2011 Posted in China, Gmail and Google, Internet Censorship, Slow Internet, Yahoo!
Apr, 12 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.

I don't know about you guys, but I can't access Gmail, or Google for that matter!  I'm not going to say that the whole of China can't access Gmail, but I've got two internet access points here, one at the office, and one at home.  Either both are on the fritz or China's at it again.  I'm using Firefox at home, and anything I type into the Google search bar gets shot down with a "the server request is taking too long"..but this may be a problem with my personal computer – I've got more viruses than the average person.  The school computer is generally virus free but I think they restored it from the 90's so that's nothing to get excited about either.  Regardless, I'm SOOOOO glad that I have a vpn, because without it i'd have to start using Yahoo for searching.

That's the funny thing, is that I can't access my Gmail account, but Yahoo and Yahoo mail is not  a problem. I started using it to search the other day, and didn't realize how slow Google actually was.  Have you heard about "throttling"?  It's where they limit bandwidth of an internet connection, in this case to make the site slow on purpose.  China does this when they can't block a site completely, but want to discourage users from using the site.  They used to do this with Wikipedia a few years ago, and they do this with Google and Google pages now.  As a webmaster, I use things like Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics.  All blocked in China. Or slow to the point of being useless.

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It’s all going to hell…

March 18th, 2011 Posted in China, Internet Censorship, New Blocks, News
Mar, 18 2011
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Just yesterday I thought Strongvpn and 12vpn were doing great because they survived 'THE Block', but as of tonight, march 18 at about eight o'clock I was unable to access either of them. My vpn is still working, so that's good news if you've already go one or are planning to buy one – i.e. if they block your site at least you can still use your vpn to get around. But it's just frustrating to see that China's firewall is winning the battle. I'll give it a bit of time before I go and Change my entire site, but for now, if you run across this blog – Astrill and Purevpn are still up. I'm getting hot and heavy for Astrill – cheap vpns, nice site design, OpenVpn/SSL options, and most of all, accessible. Check em' out before it's too late. Oh and heads up for Mac users – PureVpn only has SSTP for Windows 7 and Vista so go with Astrill. Astrill Vpn Pure Vpn

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