What happens when the government blocks VPN?

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Bagelnut
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2023 8:10 am

What happens when the government blocks VPN?

Post by Bagelnut » Mon Jan 02, 2023 8:20 am

I am from a country with almost 0 internet censorship so I dont know what is the expected behaviour. I am currently developing an app and I am testing using softether for now. I am expecting two outcomes.
1.) Wont be able to connect at all
2.) Able to connect but cant access any site or only able to access unblocked sites

Im guessing it's the former but I just want confirmation because it is important I know so I will be able to handle the app behaviour properly. Thanks in advance.

shakibamoshiri
Posts: 285
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2022 9:10 pm

Re: What happens when the government blocks VPN?

Post by shakibamoshiri » Mon Jan 02, 2023 9:57 am

Hi and welcome

You have come to the right place,
I am from Iran and for more than 100 days, the worst censorship has done here; other than a few protocols nothing else work.

For testing you can share you app to test. I can test, others can too.

Some tips
- proper logging is really useful, so make sure your app can log and users can easily access it or can send it to you.
- the app shows what/which protocol is selected
- download link is available not just on app market/store but somewhere else since most app markets/stores have been filtered

1.) Wont be able to connect at all
2.) Able to connect but cant access any site or only able to access unblocked sites
Unfortunately, it is not as simple as this. In a country e.g China or Iran (I live now) there are different Internet providers with different speed and different infrastructure configuration.

Let me give you a real example.
Right now in Iran Cisco AnyConnect v5+ works only with one cellar network but with others does not work. Meanwhile this app v4.8 works with all cellar networks but does not work on iOS devices. For iOS version v4.6 works, but it is not available on app store any more, so just jail-break ones manually install this version :|

Let me know if you needed more samples.

sikawa
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2023 2:26 pm

Re: What happens when the government blocks VPN?

Post by sikawa » Mon Jan 02, 2023 4:05 pm

Bagelnut wrote:
Mon Jan 02, 2023 8:20 am
I am from a country with almost 0 internet censorship so I dont know what is the expected behaviour. I am currently developing an app and I am testing using softether for now. I am expecting two outcomes.
1.) Wont be able to connect at all
2.) Able to connect but cant access any site or only able to access unblocked sites

Im guessing it's the former but I just want confirmation because it is important I know so I will be able to handle the app behaviour properly. Thanks in advance.
What you mean by point 2 is ISPs handling DNS queries regardless of end user configuration.
This is rather an easy challenge that you will face during your journey.

vpnfail
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2023 2:11 pm
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Re: What happens when the government blocks VPN?

Post by vpnfail » Tue Jan 03, 2023 10:45 am

When a government starts blocking VPN resources, it's up to people like you or me to set-up more dynamic and more stealthy VPN infrastructure that can bypass that blockage. Ideally the VPN servers should be non-public, so that they don't quickly end-up on a blacklist. The protocol used for VPN networking needs to be encapsulated in SSL traffic (think HTTPS) so that the government can't know it's a VPN you are using by looking at your traffic.

At the end of the day, it's the people, the community who can fight censorship and resist for internet freedom. That's why building a community is so important, and it's exactly what we're doing by supporting the VPNgate community here!
Free VPN that works. For V2Ray, WireGuard and OpenVPN - https://vpn.fail/
Real-time free proxy list. SOCKS, HTTP & V2RAY - https://vpn.fail/free-proxy


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