Your-Freedom and/or OpenVPN

dzarch · 2009-09-28 02:58:46

Hello all,
I have been using Arch for about 5 months now, on and off. I enjoy it. Since I am also a sidux user I don't install any Arch software through a GUI and/or active desktop. For now I change gdm in rc.conf with "!" and reboot to make sure I am not in a GUI active environment since I am not sure that ctrl-alt-F1, then init 3, drops me out of the gnome environment. Kinda of a pain but I make a list of all the packages I want to install, then I do it. I find my system to be much more stable when installing new software and/or updating Arch. Anyway, a great distro and having lots of fun. My question/s are: Since I am and America working in China, as you may or may not know, as of July 2009, China ISP's blocks allot of websites such as Facebook and many others. (The Big Brother Attitude) aahahahaha I am wanting to figure out how to get around this. I have installed "your-freedon" but find little about howto correctly set it up in the Arch wiki, also the forms. Also want to try OpenVPN but again find little information on setting it up in the Arch wiki and/or forms. I am not sure if "your-freedom or OpenVPN will work as a work around here in China. I am hoping maybe some of you sharp linux guru' s might have answers. Anyway, any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank You

Ranguvar · 2009-09-28 03:14:05

Basically, what you need is a proxy (just in case you don't know, a non-blocked server that sits there in a non-censored area and accepts your requests for web pages, grabs them, and sends them back to you). You could:

1.) Use a generic web or IP proxy found by Googling. Disadvantages are that these are often slow, and are often later blocked themselves.
2.) Use a complex proxy service like Your-Freedom. These are also usually fairly slow (the free ones), but harder for anyone to block. Often there are commercial services (Your-Freedom offers this) with greater speeds.
3.) Use Tor. Tor is nigh-impossible for anyone to block, and also makes you anonymous (not encrypted!) to the website/server you go to, but is the slowest of all usually.
4.) Set up a personal proxy. This isn't hard to do, and can be easily done over SSH (slower than generic proxy, but encrypted so your Chinese ISP can't tell what you're doing, etc.) among other ways. I use this to get access to websites my school doesn't approve of. You're limited by your "server" (in my case, my home desktop)'s upload speed, but you have the advantage that it's not likely to be blocked, and you're not competing with other people using the proxy.

Gotta run, good luck!

neddie_seagoon · 2009-09-28 04:41:52

Also check out:
http://techpp.com/2009/07/09/top-5-free-vpn-clients/

I think at least a couple of those providers (Alonweb for sure) will generate an OpenVPN config file so you can simply run OpenVPN with that and then direct your web traffic through their proxies.

Nezmer · 2009-09-28 05:13:14

I'm looking for a low-cost VPN solution myself .
Any suggestions ?

Ranguvar · 2009-09-28 05:18:12

I know that http://www.torrentfreedom.com/ is reliable and administered by a knowledgeable person(s?), a friend I used to know used them and loved them.

It may be too much for what you guys want, though -- I don't know their pricing plans.

graysky · 2009-09-28 05:32:01

Ranguvar wrote:

4.) Set up a personal proxy. This isn't hard to do, and can be easily done over SSH (slower than generic proxy, but encrypted so your Chinese ISP can't tell what you're doing, etc.) among other ways. I use this to get access to websites my school doesn't approve of. You're limited by your "server" (in my case, my home desktop)'s upload speed, but you have the advantage that it's not likely to be blocked, and you're not competing with other people using the proxy.

Can you provide a few more details on your suggestion? Is it as simple as connecting to your home machine via (ssh -D portnumber) or do you have something more robust?

fukawi2 · 2009-09-28 05:43:33

graysky wrote:

Can you provide a few more details on your suggestion? Is it as simple as connecting to your home machine via (ssh -D portnumber) or do you have something more robust?

That's pretty much the most basic version of it. I go one step further and have a VPS (with Linode) running Squid that I use as a remote proxy when I need it.

dzarch · 2009-09-28 09:05:59

Thank you for the replies. At this time it seems that some of these sites, I have been given, are blocked, here in China. I did manage to get into your-freedom but had to use "https", "http" was blocked. Your-freedom states it also works with VPN. As soon as I figure out how to gather the information to set it up I will give it a try. I am real new at this but after a 100 mistakes later I will figure it out, I hope!. ahahahahaha I will give up after 1000 tries. ahahahahaha I will also look at setting up a personal proxy. Where to find doc's on setting this kind of thing up??? Anyone help here? Most of the info I find is for setting up windows. I guess I could install vbox and winxp and try it there. On the other hand, I have winxp on another HD but seldom boot into it. I don't like leaving Arch linux. ahahahaha Anyway, thnaks for the help.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-28 02:58:46

Your-Freedom and/or OpenVPN

#2 2009-09-28 03:14:05

Re: Your-Freedom and/or OpenVPN

#3 2009-09-28 04:41:52

Re: Your-Freedom and/or OpenVPN

#4 2009-09-28 05:13:14

Re: Your-Freedom and/or OpenVPN

#5 2009-09-28 05:18:12

Re: Your-Freedom and/or OpenVPN

#6 2009-09-28 05:32:01

Re: Your-Freedom and/or OpenVPN

#7 2009-09-28 05:43:33

Re: Your-Freedom and/or OpenVPN

#8 2009-09-28 09:05:59

Re: Your-Freedom and/or OpenVPN

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