Wall Street Journal report on the issue:

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2...nsition-nears/

The censors have now blocked google/gmail, though not google.ca. Google.com was practically unusable this week because, while searches loaded quickly enough, clicking on any of the results was an exercise in futility. But, this latest shot, while probably short lived, is clearly a blow to the "stern". I've heard through the grapevine that our Mountain View chronies strategically hired a number princeling children upon their return to China in order to make amends for past sins, but it appears that this strategy has its limits.

To those of you who wonder why I'm not using a vpn, I quit xpress* last summer during an extended trip to other places, and when I returned, a generous FTer hooked me up with his own VPN, which worked really well until about 7 days ago.

Since I need gmail to do my job (in addition to my personal account, I have 3 business accounts), I'll figure out a new solution by the end of the weekend in the unlikely event order hasn't been restored by then.

*Edited in order to preserve the integrity of the vpn in question.

It has been crazy.

Even the witopia workaround stopped working.

Had to get a workaround for the workaround. Use different ports and different servers. A real pain.

Can't miss "Big Bang Theory" this week.

Ggl & its email seems to work about 7 am BJ time in BJ for a couple of hours, then its gone for the day.

yesterday, the local CNN cable feed was blocked 3 times when 18th C.. news was reported on.

But , the SIN channel-news asia (cable) was not blocked...

Should be over on wend the 14th ?

I have to say: although speeds drop with xprss (deliberate typo), and not all servers work at all times, I have been able to have uninterrupted service. And at times, speeds have been good. It has been worth the (modest) investment.

Functioning without google/gmail is just not possible for me -- and it's just too unpredictable to rely on no vpn.

The irony is that on "speedtest" I can get speeds of 30MB/sec, against a local server, but not to anywhere I want to go!

tb

using VPN and no issues at all .........

This VPN thing is a cat and mouse game. Since there are so many VPNs out there, the net nannies can't possibly take them all down, but when they focus their efforts on a handful at a time, they always win. This is why we try to avoid mentioning VPNs that we like here.

Btw, please don't use me as a referral for xpress any more. Several people have hooked me up, but I can't avail of the referrals because I don't have an active account. Use TB or others in the conga thread, instead.

Internet monitors are saying that the Google filter appears to have been lifted, but DNS updating not complete so access is still very spotty.

I'm on VPN almost 100% now because with so many domains blocked it is slowing down internet surfing considerably. Even the most benign of sites have Google analytics, FB/Twitter widgets installed, or use blocked blog platforms, and I have no patience waiting for time outs before the page content loads.

In Kunming, I'm getting spotty access to gmail/google, sometimes loading in Dutch, sometimes not loading anything. Most of the time, error messages appear.

FT is working fine, but considering that the convention will be over soon, I'd reckon non-Chinese site internetting will be copacetic once again.

The date is out for the NPPC meeting, It will start on March 5th in BJ. So expect the public internet to be 'slow' a few days before & during this event...

And maybe abet more BJ security....

The Ggl search mode never did recover, so i went back to Yahoo for search's.

I don't find that internet has improved after the 18th Congress.... I presume this is the new normal. I can barely work off-VPN these days, my usual internet haunts are just not China-friendly. I dread the though of things getting worse next March!

The VPN mentioned by moondog upstream (*xpre*s) is no longer working in some parts China as of Dec. 5th (information from the company).

If you are using this and are having connection problems either send me a PM or fire off a message to customer support, and I (or they) can give you some workaround instructions (tested and working - I am connected as I type this message ...)

The 'smart' boys are meeting back in BJ, & the internet has been slowed, i am sure the sensors are doin the google 'blocks'. Its SLOW..... but, great BJ weather this week.

Got a question do people have problems with accessing hosted exchange email like office365.com? Been looking to switch just because gmail is such a pain in China.