ChinesePod blocked in China

jennyzhu
 October 03, 2011, 04:41 AM posted in General Discussion

A nightmare situation has happened. Our site is blocked in China. We are working hard to determine the cause but with the current holiday, it might take a few days to get to the bottom of the problem and see what we need to do to get the site back for users in China. In the meantime, could I trouble users in China to use a proxy if possible? Our sincere apologies. Thank you for your support! 

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toianw
 October 03, 2011, 05:02 AM

Hi Jenny,

The site is working fine for me in Beijing.

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bodawei

hi toianw

Can you clarify that comment .. do you mean that it is working without a proxy?

I can't say if it is currently working in Yunnan - I am out of the country.

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toianw

That's right - no proxy

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bodawei

thanks for confirming that - we've had examples here before of the firewall operating differently in different places. the firewall works in mysterious ways...

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sinologia

i dont know where you re sitting but i could not get any connection to chinesepod without vtunnel yesterday. today is another story, its fine.

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toianw

Judging by Jenny's comment below, I guess I escaped the problem because I use OpenDNS. I didn't notice any problems at all. This suggests to me that the site wasn't blocked, as you can't get through the Great Wall just by changing your DNS settings.

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kong_yi
 October 03, 2011, 05:26 AM

I couldn't get on Chinesepod without using my vpn and I live in sichuan.

 

I usually use a vpn anyway for chinesepod because the skritter lite app doesn't run very well without it.

 

I hope it gets unblocked soon :)

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pangxiaodi
 October 03, 2011, 12:03 PM

I'm in Dalian and it is blocked, I am using a VPN - I just got the premium service on 9/30 :(

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anonymous546627
 October 03, 2011, 12:18 PM

Current situation according to websitepulse.com (http://bit.ly/q3thPP):

See this screenshot:http://bit.ly/pSiABV.

No connection to ChinesePod in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. But in Hong Kong.

ChinesePod should allow connections via https protocol...

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jennyzhu
 October 03, 2011, 02:49 PM

Dear all,

We are very sorry about the disruption which has caught us by surprise.

We have tested and confirmed that by switching to Google public DNS on your computer, you can visit our site in China without a VPN. We are still trying to determine whether this is a problem with China Telecom's DNS server or we are being blocked by China. Both are possible. (The curveball is when you are blocked in China, the authorities would not tell you. They just keep disrupting your service.) While we work hard to determine the exact cause so that we can work towards a solution, we'd truly appreciate it if you could use a proxy or change DNS. (Using Google public DNS will make visiting foreign sites in general smoother.)

Here is instruction from Google on changing DNS:

Microsoft Windows

DNS settings are specified in the TCP/IP Properties window for the selected network connection. 

Example: Changing DNS server settings on Microsoft Windows 7

  1. Go the Control Panel.
  2. Click Network and Internet, then Network and Sharing Center, and click Change adapter settings.
  3. Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:
    • To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, right-click Local Area Connection, and click Properties.
    • To change the settings for a wireless connection, right-click Wireless Network Connection, and click Properties.
    If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
  4. Select the Networking tab. Under This connection uses the following items, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) or Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and then click Properties.
  5. Click Advanced and select the DNS tab. If there are any DNS server IP addresses listed there, write them down for future reference, and remove them from this window.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Select Use the following DNS server addresses. If there are any IP addresses listed in the Preferred DNS server or Alternate DNS server, write them down for future reference.
  8. Replace those addresses with the IP addresses of the Google DNS servers:
    • For IPv4: 8.8.8.8 and/or 8.8.4.4.
    • For IPv6: 2001:4860:4860::8888 and/or 2001:4860:4860::8844

Mac OS X

DNS settings are specified in the Network window. 

Example: Changing DNS server settings on Mac OS 10.5

  1. From the Apple menu, click System Preferences, then click Network. 
  2. If the lock icon in the lower left-hand corner of the window is locked, click the icon to make changes, and when prompted to authenticate, enter your password.
  3. Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:
    • To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, select Built-In Ethernet, and click Advanced.
    • To change the settings for a wireless connection, select Airport, and click Advanced.
  4. Select the DNS tab.
  5. Click + to replace any listed addresses with, or add, the Google IP addresses at the top of the list:
    • For IPv4: 8.8.8.8 and/or 8.8.4.4.
    • For IPv6: 2001:4860:4860::8888 and/or 2001:4860:4860::8844
  6. Click Apply and OK.

 

 

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xiao_liang
 October 03, 2011, 09:23 PM

Wow. What a nightmare. Hope you guys get it fixed soon. xx

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babyeggplant
 October 04, 2011, 01:29 AM

Site is loading for me without a VPN today in Shanghai (but wasn't working the past few days). However, the downloads have been incredibly slow (or not downloading at all today) for me the past 2 or 3 weeks. It now takes me over an hour to download one mp3 where as it used to take less than a minute. I have tried multiple computers/browers/ect and keep having the same problem. Thankfully I can still use the VPN to download at a faster rate, but I don't always have access to it. All this makes me wonder if it's really an issue with the server rather than being blocked.

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calkins

Downloads are normal outside of China. I downloaded the latest QW, here in Taiwan, in less than a minute. I have no idea how the great firewall works, but does it also make downloads slower?

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babyeggplant

Actually, I have noticed it slowing down a torrent program I used before, so I guess it's possible.

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kong_yi
 October 04, 2011, 02:45 AM

Ok its working now from Sichuan without VPN.

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sinologia
 October 04, 2011, 05:14 AM

Beijing is fine too. Even the app works fine and can get content. But what caused the problem?

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caesar83
 October 04, 2011, 06:38 AM

Hi,

I am also in Sichuan and I can browse through Chinesepod, but cannot download or stream any media content, neither in my computer nor Iphone app.

I also tried to change the DNS as instructed by Jenny and still cannot download.

Does anybody have the samo problem? Might it be related with China blocking it?

Thanks!

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kong_yi

hey where do you live in sichuan!?

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caesar83

I live in Chengdu, and still have problems when downloading; it either goes really slow or doesn't download at all.

I hope they stop blocking the site...

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jennyzhu

We are very sorry about the access problem and download speed. We will look into the problem as soon as we get back to work this weekend.

Thank you for your understanding!