PaperQueen

Google searches turn up conflicting info--will I, or will I not, be able to use Dropbox while in Taiwan? Anyone tried it in the past year?

Same question for Gmail...? Looks like I'm in the safe zone with Evernote (according to a support chat that just concluded).

yevlesh2

Of course, why wouldn't you be?
Internet in Taiwan is unrestricted - and usually very fast.

PaperQueen

I know internet speeds are good there, but having been in parts of Mainland China where the speeds were fine---but access to certain domains was blocked---taught me to never, ever take things for granted.

Technically, Taiwan is part of the R.O.C., which is what has me curious. Anyone out there with firsthand knowledge that can confirm one way or the other? My Google searches are leaning more toward "blocked" than "not blocked" right now.

Letitride3c

TW is ROC. "Mainland" China is PRC. A world of difference between the two, for all practical purposes.

See this typical Google browser page for TW via Firefox browser - traditional Chinese characters might not display properly depending on your configuration - http://news.google.com/news?ned=tw Full suite of products dedicated for Taiwan - including Gmail.

AFAIK, there are no problems with using Dropbox, Google Drive, Sky Drive, or iCloud, etc. What is there to worry about? None !

(And, even in mainland China - VPN is your friendly tunnel to the outside universe ...)

dtsm

Everything works in ROC, just like in HK. Not even sure why OP asked such a silly question......

gfunkdave

Tut tut...there are no silly questions, just silly answers.

PaperQueen

The "silly question" came from my last visit to Hong Kong and Beijing (same trip). In HK, everything worked, but the Beijing leg was a jolt--both of my business domains, my Blogger account, and Gmail account were blocked, at a Starwood property no less. Was able to log into each one the night I checked in, but the next morning, no go. Same for the VPN. The only things that worked without problems were Skype (whew) and, oddly, my older Comcast email account.

Granted, it's been a couple of years, but being prepared ahead of time is never a bad idea.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with helpful info!

lin821

Sound like your 1st visit to Taiwan? You may want to check out Asia Forum and see if you can find some helpful tips for your Taiwan trip.

Beijing is in China, not Taiwan. Other had pointed out the differences between ROC (aka Taiwan) and PRC (aka China), so I won't reiterate.

I've never had problem using Gmail in Taiwan. Never been "virtually blocked" for anything. Unless the websites are down or my ISP has some temp technical difficulties, the (internet) world is always at my fingertips in Taiwan. No key-word block here either.

As for your blocked issues in China, you may want to visit China Forum and see how people get around the "problems" in some of the discussion threads. Here are two examples:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...s-beijing.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...ing-china.html

elCheapoDeluxe

Let's put down the subject of censored internet for a minute. More importantly, I think you may want to brush up on your history for cultural reasons before you go. Here's the boiled down version:

• In Taiwan, if you say Taiwan is just part of China - that would probably be pretty offensive.
• In China, if you say Taiwan is their own country you could find yourself in a re-education camp.

You know that whole thing we have in the US where we go through congressional hearings every time we sell weapons or lend support to Taiwan to defend themselves as an independent country lest the PRC feel invited to invade them, while at the same time trying not to piss off China irreproachably? You know that whole "pivoting our axis" of military strength to the Pacific that we're undergoing right now? Yeah. Time to find out what that's all about....

Not trying to flame you, but I think it would be better to prevent any offensive gaffes on your visit.

dtsm

Thank you, well said. That is why it was a silly question

Skyman65

I can confirm (first hand) that you should have no problems accessing gmail, dropbox, etc. from Taiwan. They are not blocked or restricted in any way. I use them daily here.

You may have some problems accessing some media content that is geographically restricted (i.e. Netflix, Hulu, etc.) unless you connect through a US-based VPN. But that problem is not unique to Taiwan.

Regarding bandwidth, when I first moved back here two years ago, I was very disappointed with the bandwidth speeds I was getting when trying to access any off-island sites. Although I had a 10Mb/s connection at my home, I would only get that speed when accessing domestic websites. As soon as I tried to connect to anything off-island, the speed dropped to about 1-2Mb/s. That problem is largely gone now. It seems that they have upgraded the data "pipeline" that connects Taiwan with the world, and I can now usually get at least 7-8Mb/s off-island.