In Russia, they began to massively block VPN services. What to do?

What to do?

Briefly

The most popular VPN services block in Russia, what to do? How to go around locks?

The most effective way is to know how everything works and how to configure your network, so that in which case it is quickly done. Or have friends who can help with this.

A simple way to install 10 different “customers” of VPN services and calm down is not working, as they can block anything at any moment. Moreover, the services for “massive use” (ordinary users) have many restrictions: owners of the VPN service cannot arbitrarily change connection technologies, ports, protocols, and so on. This greatly facilitates their blocking.

By drawing an analogy - you can imagine that the owners of the services go along the road, locks are snipers, and the impossibility of such manipulations can be compared with the walls of the labyrinth, which limit the ability to hide or evade the shots.

If you need to urgently get to the blocked site, but you can’t connect to the VPN, you can use proxy servers, including through plugins in browsers, for example, our Censortracker .

And the blocked VPN will earn again or shouldn't you hope for them?

I can’t speak for the owners of the services and predict whether they will work their VPN or not, but I know that some of them are trying to use all kinds of tricks so that users can continue to use them. For example, they change connection technologies, purchase new servers, new addresses, etc. However, these are very costly steps and not all services are ready to go to them.

On the other hand, these are only temporary measures, and if the censors desired, they will still be blocked. Because they cannot also flexibly configure the network and hide it from prying eyes, as a private person with a personal network can do.

Which VPN services are better and more reliable to install?

I recommend the marketplace VPNLove.me VPN services . There are services for which people from our team, or IT law enforcement officers can vouch. I myself fundamentally do not use third -party VPN services, because I prefer to have my own personal network (VPN), add rented servers (VPS) to it and use them as “output points” in other cities or countries.

Also, I can recommend the Amnezia application from the guys from our accelerator - it is just written for ordinary users to facilitate the configuration of its network between its device and a rented server.

What is your own network setting up? Am I creating my own VPN? How does this work?

This requires either certain professional knowledge (not everyone has them), or means of automation of this process. The same Amnezia, which will set everything up for you and give you special access keys - and even can immediately connect to a freshly built network.

But, for example, Shadowsocks or, for example, 99.9% of the plugins for browsers called VPN (what they deceive the user) work according to a completely different technology - proxy. In this case, no network is built. Just a remote server receives a request from you, processes it and gives you a result. At the same time, they can also help to circumvent locks.

True, it is worth remembering that in the case of a proxy and in the case of a VPN, the service owner can read your traffic. If it is not encrypted, then it can be replaced, inserted and stealing login and passwords. And if encrypted, then still the owner can correlate which client to which sites has addressed.

I have a VPN from another country, but the application, for example, a taxi still clearly defines my geolocation, why?

Taxi applications receive information about the current position from the GPS sensor (GPS or GLONASS) in a smartphone that communicates with satellites to calculate its current coordinates.

Even if the smartphone does not have access to GPS, it will still try to determine his location, requiring the coordinates from the base stations of the mobile operator. He transmits these data to the application. In addition, all applications and services are not something monolithic, but a whole set of small subprograms-algorithms.

How to go to sites that Roskomnadzor has not blocked, but they themselves stopped serving users from Russia? Often, even VPN does not help.

The developers of mobile applications collect the maximum amount of information to “profile” users. According to this information, they can identify the user, even if he has changed the individual profile parameters.

Although in some cases it is enough to simply start a new account, indicating another location. But some services can find a hoax on indirect signs during profiling and stop working. There is no universal council here, in each case you need to understand separately.

Can it turn out that in Russia everyone will block at all and we will not be able to read/watch/listen, but getting around the locks will not work? Or will people always find a way of bypass?

One way or another, to those who are very important to go around it and communicate “across the border” will find a way of communication. At the same time, ordinary users will most likely be hard.

It seems to me that if such a scenario (total blocking and introduction of the “White List”) will come, then, most likely, “urban” or “district” local networks with peer exchange content through file -prophetic software will return.