First order of business in the new flat was to get on-line so I can figure out where I actually am in the city. That was somewhat frustrated by the Golden Shield Project, the Ministry of Public Securities somewhat cack-handed attempt at censorship and surveillance on the internet.
They insert data into the http response that makes it look as if the website at the other end is currently down, usually with a ‘Server not found’ error. This includes a number of foreign newspapers and TV stations, such as the BBC, along with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as YouTube, Wikipedia and most painfully many parts of Google.
I tried using foreign proxies and routers but by far the best solution was an inexpensive VPN, so I can run the internet as if in the US or UK. This has the added benefit of giving me access to location specific content such as streaming TV sites like iPlayer or Hulu. Also, because the internet connection isn’t being tampered with it is often faster, especially if you connect to whichever location is currently in the middle of the night and therefore low in traffic.
I went with www.12vpn.com, which has a small charge but is easy to set up. There are free services but these tend to be ad-supported, which is real estate I don’t need to lose on this small screen netbook.
UPDATE: 12vpn.com are now blocked…try Astrill or StrongVPN
More details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Shield_Project
