Plan to travel China for a month plus with my laptop.

Understand that internet access there is mostly blocked. Googled and most solutions are for window users or vpn subscription.

Noticed that there are 2 alternatives:
1. Tor - Anyone tried Tor and knows the impact on bandwidth over there?
2. FoxyProxy - Know of any good/reliable proxies?


In Debian, are there any packages that can help get access to the "real" internet when in China?

Do you have a server setup here in the US (or whatever your home country may be) that you can access while abroad? I would setup an SSH tunnel that would let you access all of your files at home and also proxy your Internet connection. But you will need to have a decent connection on the home machine to facilitate a proxy at decent speed.

You could use public proxies of course, but I have never had much luck with their performance, and privacy could be an issue there as well.

I haven't read up much on the use of Tor in China, so I can't comment there. Seems like that would be a relatively common practice though, so perhaps somebody here can chime in.

Hi MS3FGX,

thanks but do not have a server setup, else I would have tried openvpn

Typically American IMO, assuming anyone on an English language forum comes from the States, whereas 95% of the worlds population actually doesn't Nothing personal, just an observation

Given the capabilities of Tor, it's pretty likely the Chinese communist webcensors have blocked its use from the mainland. You may get a connection from the more capitalist part of the country, i.e. Hong Kong, but outside that area you're probably taking a risk. To prevent flagging yourself for some unwanted attention, play along, but write your sensitive remarks on your laptop and put them online after you get home.

Old Chinese proverb: Bamboo bends in the wind, but doesn't break...

Note: I've never been to China, or anywhere else in Asia for that matter, but sometimes it's good to actually give a common sense reply

That's something that I'm "afraid" of; a misunderstanding.

Wanted the internet access to keep in touch with the real world/internet, eg google, news, chat, not the 007 sort of things.

Comes to think of it, Foxyproxy would be better choice of the 2 (less misunderstanding?), provided someone here knows of some reliable proxy servers.

You could try vtunnel.com:
http://freeproxies.org/
but the whole subject is a bit above me. What i can tell that vtunnel does work with reasonable speed.

In general (nothing to do with China): if your safety and/or finances are at risk, you need to properly encrypt your communications. I wouldn't be playing around with the two-bit approach. If you need a server, there are inexpensive cloud solutions.

As for your specific situation (i.e. traveling to China): be careful. I don't know Chinese law, but it is incumbent upon you to understand what may get you into trouble when traveling to another country.

You are really asking for it aren't you? China has teams of people using the most advanced computers skilled at hacking into stuff.

Until China moves into the free and modern world, you may wish to abide by their rules until you cross back over the border.

A sat com may work on coasts.