Does nordvpn work in China? I just signed up because it said its speeds are fast and my Windscribe VPN has been show and unstable for the last few days... But works

Afterwards I couldn't connect to any of the servers in Android though...

Apparently pretty much no VPN service really works reliably or fast in West Taiwan because the government constantly tries to block them.

As far as I know the best bet is hosting your own private VPN at home before you go there because they're not gonna detect a small VPN with a single user.

@deadlyRants but nordvpn is supposed to be the best at getting around all this govt blocking so not sure how it's failing to even connect.

So just wondering anyone else ever had it just fail

Any commercial VPN service is a bad idea behind the GFW, as they're easy targets for the People's host filter. You're going to have much better luck with a SOCKS5 proxy over SSH.

NordVPN recently got hacked.

What I can tell you is that mullvad kinda works, but not really. Fine for getting some messages here and there, but unstable. The next try is SSR hosted on azure.

I don't know about Nord.

Afaik you need a license to use a VPN and even the developers of the GFW have an hard time with it. some are blocked via dpi, other get a portscan and are blocked afterwards and older VPNs are already on the blacklist.

@stop Yes, it is even illegal to use a VPN (but no one gets charged, they simply block it). The common protocols are guaranteed to get caught, possibly also leading to the IP being blacklisted. You may have some success with Wireguard or ShadowsocksR.

@saucyatom I don't think it's illegal... How can all the Western international companies operate in China without it?

It is illegal to operate a VPN within China though.... Ah so many free movies, tv shows, music, etc that only can be accessed within China...

@kescherRant Include a source next time. That gave me a way bigger scare than necessary...
https://techaeris.com/2019/10/...

@kescherRant as far as I know it is no confirmed hack, the keys were just open for public for a few months. And then they kept it still for 7 months until someone asked about it.

@billgates They can because they are licensed. My countries ministry of foreign affairs explicitly states that the usage of VPNs for individuals is illegal in their travel information/warning for China.

Also a lot of other things are illegal to do online, e.g. anything just hinting at sexual content and of course "propaganda" (which is any expression of political opinion except CCP propaganda). I read the (translated) law announcement and got the correctness of the translation confirmed by a Chinese. Moral policing is extremely strong there.