FOSS4G 2012 Beijing Internet Access

Internet access to foreign sites/projects may be potentially block by the Great Firewall of China for Mainland China users. In order to minimize the negative impact the censorship would have on the FOSS4G 2012 Beijing conference, foreign conference attendances are encouraged to prepare for circumventing the so-called "wall" when they arrive at Beijing.

Tips:

• To communicate to the presenters, ensure presentations and demos are available offline.
• Test the in-China availability of the service of your choice.
• Get some proxies as back-up. If your business or school has VPN/SSH, it should work.
• Avoid the popular SNS tools if you want to reach the locals.
• Ask community members from Chinese Mainland on the mailing list when you're not sure.

Mainland China Availability Test

The services listed below may help you to test whether a website is available inside Beijing.

• Chinese Firewall Test - ViewDNS.info
• Behind-the-Wall Test - Website Pulse
• Chinese Firewall Test - Best VPN
• GFW Check Using Sina App Engine
• Censorship Test - BlockedInChina.net
• GFW Stats Checker - GreatFire.org

For popular websites, just check top sites and top blocked sites.

Common Ways to Circumvent the Censorship

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