Sinobytes

Chinese Netizens struggling to access free VPNs

Nov 8, 2009 15:37

A lot of Chinese Netizens, missing the Web sites that have been blocked during 2009--and remain blocked right now--such as YouTube, Facebook and Blogspot blogs, have been scrambling to find free VPNs, and struggling to stay connected to them.

It's become a grim cat-and-mouse game between censorious authorities (using their so-called Great Firewall), who'd rather not have their citizens talking freely with people across the world, and open-minded and forward-thinking Net users who just want the freedom to use those sites. It's safe to say that most of these Chinese Netizens are wanting to use those sites for entirely leisure-based and honest purposes, which betray the fact that censorship is so often based on a lack of trust.

Free VPNs are a sweet idea, but in practice, they all too rarely work. I see it, one or several of four main problems occur here in China:

1. The free VPNs are easily blocked by authorities here, or in any state that seeks to block them. Most simply, the main Web site of the free VPN provider could get blocked, as has happened to Alonweb and HotSpot Shield, to name but two.

2. They could have some of their more commonly used servers--the West Coast of the US-based servers are preferable for users in East Asia, for speed and relative proximity--blocked by the Powers That Be, leaving users struggling to alter their free VPN server. I've seen that recently occur with both HotSpot Shield and It's Hidden.

3. Technical barriers of entry are quite high. Installing OpenVPN (Windows) or Tunnelblick (Mac), free and open-source applications for connecting to a VPN, is easily done. But then finding the necessary files--client.ovpn, etc.--can be strangely hard with a free VPN, and you may even need to scrounge them from another user, or from an online forum. (Needless to say, that weird situation does not occur with paid for VPNs). Next step is putting these files in the correct location in your computer's file system. Only then can you actually use OpenVPN or Tunnelblick to connect. If it connects, that is.

4. No customer support. This is inevitable: Since it's free, there's little, if any, tech support. Online forums are therefore the best bet. For Chinese Netizens, this may mean there's also a language barrier, so the free VPN providers' own forums, mostly in English, may be of no use. Needless to say, Chinese free VPN users have been helping each other in Chinese language forums.

The authorities are clearly wanting these problems to occur, and are instrumental in ensuring that issues #1 and #2 occur, to dissuade as many Chinese Netizens as possible from using those. In case you're wondering, here are five common free VPNs in China right now:

Ultravpn
Alonweb (main Web site blocked in China)
The Free VPN
Its Hidden
HotSpot Shield (main Web site blocked in China)

Paid VPNs
The only solution to getting back the "full Web" in China is a paid VPN, which solves the four issues listed above. Regrettably, it's not much help for the vast majority of Chinese Web users who lack both MasterCard or Visa credit cards, or Paypal accounts.

For media/creative-oriented companies, and individual expats in China who don't mind paying up to reclaim the full Web experience, a paid VPN is pretty essential. That's why I've been testing five professional, paid VPN services for the past week--oh, the freedom! I've been larking across the Internet like Homer Simpson in Chocolate Land--and will review and evaluate those paid VPNs in my next post in a few days' time...

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