How to proxy? China edition

chaosisorder

This is far out of my domain and seems like the sort of thing that if I go net fishing, I'm just asking for virus fun.

We're moving to China in a few months (finally) and will be there for several years. While we've been assured we will be given special interwebs privleges once we apply for them, I'm not holding my breath. I'd like to learn how to proxy. I don't mind using a pay service, but I know whatever I end up using, I better get it now rather than try and get to it in China.

Side note: anyone currently in China that can tell me if the Typepad sites are *currently* blocked? The wikipedia for the Great Firewall of China isn't updated all that often. I've been dorking around with a proxy that sends me into China so I can see what I'll be able to access, but it is ,obviously, crazy slow.

TLDR- moving to China, will supposedly be given access that is less restricted since we are US citizens, not counting on that , how do I proxy?

Cauld

I was in China for a while recently, my wife is Chinese. I'm not sure about Typepad specifically, but I know the following things are blocked almost entirely if not entirely: Wikipedia, Facebook, Youtube, etc. almost all social networking is blocked except for the Chinese equivalents, MSN profiles usually substitute for facebook like things there. I briefly tried what little I know about setting up a proxy there, but didn't want to do it too much since I was staying with my in-laws and didn't want them to get in any trouble. Even GIS would only work sporadically.

I find it to usually be more of an inconvenience than anything else. For example I'll read a news site and come across something I don't understand, but I can't read the wiki. I'll read the forums here but can't watch any of the youtube links, etc.

What part of China will you be going to?

Gutock

Tor is pretty great. Can get to Facebook, youtube, etc without hassle, just a bit slower. Then again, China, so it's usually pretty slow compared to Cable speeds.

Ultimanecat

Ultrasurf is a popular program - it tunnels your connection over to one of their servers in the US, and while running automatically configures your browser to interact with it.

It's generally fine for random browsing, but I wouldn't recommend downloading anything too big with it, since it'll be slow and is a bit wasteful considering it is currently offered for free.

There have been some concerns over what the company that operates ultrasurf does with the data it collects - the program is not spyware, but obviously since all traffic is routed through their servers they probably have a good idea of what certain IP's are looking at. It also blocks a select few sites (mostly *ahem* adult-oriented stuff), but that likely will not come up during normal browsing, and in any case is far less limited than what the Chinese gov't blocks.

I played around with it a bit, and it seems to work as advertised, but I wouldn't use it to do anything intensely personal or conduct any transactions with it due to privacy concerns. It is a fairly popular program and has withstood some scrutiny, so I would hardly call it shady - I just don't know how the parent company gets the money to do it, and what response, if any, the Chinese government has to it.

Inca

I'm currently studying in China, and the program everyone seems to be using to get around the restrictions is Hotspot Shield. I played around with it for a bit, but I don't think I'd use it for anything more private than Facebook. It also limits you to (I think) 4GB of traffic a month.

If you're attached to an institution based outside China, see if they'll give you a VPN connection to use. I've heard it's a lot faster and likely more secure than any of the proxy software you can find around the internet.