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While some of our readers are lucky enough to live in far off lands of fast internet and access to that thing called YouTube, the many of us here in China are stuck behind the ever-present and always annoying Great Firewall. So how do we at Shanghaiist still have access to our favorite timewasters websites like Facebook and Twitter? Does it have something to do with our obvious awesomeness? Well, yes and no.
Internet-savvy cats that we are, we use proxies on our computers. What is a proxy? For those in the dark, we decided to hit up the fine folks at Freedur, creators of a downloadable proxy, for the scoop on proxies, firewalls, and our chances of ever (fingers crossed) being able to watch Hulu in China:
What is Freedur?
Freedur is a proxy service that focuses on intuitiveness and user friendliness. Most proxies and VPNs require the user to configure internet settings; we made Freedur plug-and-play so even the most tech illiterate people can use with ease.
Proxy? VPN? What does that mean and how does it work?
A proxy, as the name suggests, works like an internet middle man. When you try to access a website that is blocked, the firewall basically says to your internet connection, “Sorry, but you cannot go there.” So instead, you send your “proxy,” who is allowed to go there, to fetch the information for you whether it’s a blog, video, or whatsoever.
In addition, the proxy is also very good about keeping your information a secret. Your ISP or local network administrator has the power to monitor your web activities, and by using a proxy your web traffic is effectively encrypted to protect your privacy.
When was Freedur developed?
Freedur was launched in 2009; we're the new kid on the block.
So why the name Freedur?
Should the internet be FREE? DUR!
How has traffic been to your site and sales overall? For being the new kid on the block, you seem to be fairly popular already.
Thank you. We have a very talented marketing team that is extremely good at viral marketing and internet marketing in general. People are surprised to hear that to date we have not spent one penny on advertising fees (though this is changing very soon). Our traffic has been growing steadily since launch and we’re at the point where we’re scrambling to get new servers up to meet the demand.
How much of your clientele comes from China, or at least outside the United States?
The bulk of our clients come from outside the US and distributes quite evenly across many countries. Currently about 30% of our users come from China, however the vast majority of those are expats living in China and not Chinese locals.
Do you do anything specifically in China? We've noticed some of our IPs coming from Canada. Does this mean we'll ever be able to watch Hulu?
Other than making sure the speed is fast (we do this for all regions), we don’t do anything special in China. Hulu is a special case where they have truly gone above and beyond to prevent non-US users to watch their videos. Enabling Hulu videos is on our to-do list, but we release features based on the feedback we get from customers, and it seems that Hulu isn’t a high priority at the moment. Our focus right now is on expanding the network to ensure the Freedur service continues to be lightning fast.
If the Chinese government knows about proxies, why do you think it's still relatively easy to get around the "great firewall" via methods like Freedur?
For censorship to reach 100% efficiency, the amount of resources and the kind of infrastructure it would require goes up exponentially. But frankly, China is probably only interested in censorship for its local citizens and doesn’t mind for a relatively small group of foreign inhabitants to bypass their firewall. Because if they really cared they would be actively blocking proxy/VPN websites and obviously they’re not.
What do you think it would take for China to take down the GFW?
When China takes over USA as the undisputed #1 super power.
If you had to place a bet on it, what year do you think China will finally take down the GFW?
Year 2222.
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Not a fan of Freedur, stick with Witopia. Unprofessional website (no FAQ, no support e-mail addresses/only contact form), slow customer service/response time, contradictory information (title says 30-day free trial, Terms of Service say 3-day free trial, purchase page says no free trial).
Using it also froze my Firefox/computer n times. If I didn't check "use freedur in Firefox/Safari," then when the VPN was on I couldn't access any sites on either browser.
No more free trials because of cheap ass freeloaders. They explained it quite clearly.
Looks like the witopia staff don't like the freedur competition. It's so obvious some of these negative comments are from witopia themselves lol.
freedur suspended trial accounts
witopia rules: http://www.witopia.net/welcome.php
Best way to "conquer the ever-present and always annoying Great Firewall" is to stay at home on the other side of wall.
Your xenophobic comments are always so appreciated. LOL!
Seems you've finally though slowly learnt the new trick of "LOL", lol!
Seems you've finally though slowly learnt the new trick of "LOL", lol!
Freedur is the fastest proxy out there right now and service is superb. I was a witopia customer until witopia started to block sites themselves (http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/index.php?name=MDForum&file=printview&t=95286&start=0) 80% of my company use Freedur and we love it.
Nice to see an article on freedur! freedur opens facebook and twitter superbly and best of all youtube is faaaaaaaaast!!
$0 on advertising fees? if this is true time to contact the freedur people for marketing tips!
freedur is so much better than proxify! best $5 i've ever spent!
reply From Wuitopia, when I asked why they are blocking
bittorrent site thepiratebay, the same as the Chinese harmonizers do. and downloading TV soaps should not be a big deal.
I found these witopia staff offensive pricks
==============================================
From: WiTopia.Net Support
Hi,
Why do you need the VPN to look at these sites?
Or, you can use one that is designed for illegal downloading, like the pirate
bay's.
We are truly sorry, but we don't equate illegally distributing songs and movies
with shots of Tiananmen Square. :)
downloading any copyrighted content is a violation of our terms for years. we just
had to start enforcing it because the abuse was growing uncontrolled.
Ultimately, this is an old argument that has no resolution. for example, should we
freely allow access to child pornography and snuff films?
If you have a particular site we that doesn't trade in stolen or illegally
distributed content, or has any genuine value beyond that, we'll look at allowing
it.
=======================================
wow! A company that needs to know its value is in happy customers and that responses like that will get them no where.
Seems to me that if there is truly nothing to hide then none of this would really be needed. The message being sent is then indeed there is stuff to hide...what a shame!
I agree shame on the Chinese harmonisers
I have used Witopia for six weeks now, I bought the standard 60 USD annual package. I must say its simply not worth the money. The speed is reasonable at times but too often its painfully slow. Youtube is as volatile as it was when it was possible to access it without a proxy. Facebook is always slow.
A couple of weeks ago access of any kind to facebook stopped and I contacted customer support. Their means of contact was a bit long-winded, but I stuck with it and they responded promptly. However, they suggested I upgrade if I was having problems accessing particular sites. I found that a little bit cheeky, considering its possible to log onto facebook using free proxies which offer superior performance.
Aside from all the above, personally I can live without facebook and youtube etc, its not worth paying to see them.
Just coughed up $5.99 for Freedur on the strength of the article and my dissatisfaction with Witopia. Freedur doesn't yet work on my Mac. The instructions on the site are almost non existent. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt as they respond to my support request. Otherwise, I'm going t tell anyone to steer clear.
Tried Liberty VPN 1 month. Good but pricey.
Have not done Witopia just because I think it's getting too popular. Hence some sort of specific crackdown target in the future.
Freedur rocks. But maybe not after this article, assuming significant amounts of people read this blog.
Catshanghai: Freedur does work on Macs, just download and install, Ive been using it on my MacBook Pro Tiger for a long while now.
Witopia is just too slow, and yeah, them blocking some stuff really defeats the purpose.
Chang, sure some of their website content/policies dont add up, Ive noticed. but I mean whatever, thats so insignificant. Its super cheap and FAST!
LoveChinaLongTime, yeah Freedur did a good job of explaining things. theyre pretty active on Twitter too, assuming you can access it in the first place ( :
@rsmeith I have Leopard running on an Intel MacBook. I downloaded and installed the Mac Client. It opens, but doesn't let me access Twitter, Youtube or Facebook using Safari or Firefox. I tried performing IP lookups and it says my IP is still based in Shanghai. I've tried multiple combinations of entering proxy information in Firefox and Mac network preferences.
There is no tutorial, FAQ page or screencasts. I submited a support ticket, but there is not even an auto response Email. There is not even any microcopy giving hints to users about what to do. I hope this is a case of early teething problems. BUT THE BOTTOM LINE IS FREEDUR DOESN'T WORK! SAVE YOUR MONEY FOR SOMETHING MORE GRATIFYING LIKE CAT LITTER!
I have to disagree with you Chang. I've been in China for 15 years now, and I've struggled with almost all the alternatives you can think of. Freedur is by far the best I have seen - fastest, most user-friendly ( i don't have to configure anything ), and I can toggle "on" and "off" with the click of the mouse. This makes me wonder why other providers can't stick to these 3 simple principles. I think its the smartest 5 bucks I spend every month.
I researching Freedur, I've noticed some alarming and dubious things that should be known. First of all, Freedur staff is clearly spamming these forums under the guise of regular readers with flowery comments about its product and bashing competitors like Witopia. The users alnany, Mark L, Jose Santos (good one), and BJ all registered and posted glowing reviews of Freedur within minutes of each other. In addition, Some of these users like Blur3d have commented positively here and elsewhere on this site with glowing Freedur comments.
This wouldn't be *too* suspicious, but I downloaded Freedur myself and it's total crap. No real customer would carry on like this about a product this bad. It'll log me into Facebook, but that's all it will do from there (I suspect it may have recorded my password). I can watch only a few Youtube videos, not all of them, but the few that I can get take forever to load. This product stinks.
The most alarming thing of all is that AVG virus scan found a dangerous trojan horse virus hidden within Freedur's code on the second day after instillation.
Do not download Freedur.