I got the bastards in the end! Yes indeed, my international internet is up and running again. Long live freedom of information on the internet! Down with dictatorship and oppression!
This was the problem: I use a so called ssh tunnel to dig through the Great FIrewall to get to my server in the US. From there I can surf freely, including Youtube or whatever. However, I need access to the default port on the server (port 22) and that’s what the Chinese authorities now have started blocking. I never thought this would happen. After all, this is how big businesses keep their data secure. And yet, as of the past week the tunnel has been blocked and even the Chinese internet has been very erratic.
The Chinese authorities think that internet access only is about them. They think that if the Chinese people find out about their corruption and their crimes, the people will turn on them. In suspecting as much, they may no doubt be correct but access to the internet is about so much else. Everything I do these days requires internet access. For example: since I was cut off about a week ago I have not been able to …
- write letters of reference for a student at Beijing University who is applying to go to Columbia, Yale and NYU.
- continue writing a paper I’m collaborating on with my colleague in Belgium (the paper is on Google docs).
- finish downloading photos and movies at Picasa.
- get hold of a book I need by John Dewey which is available for free download at Internet Archive.
These are just a few of the things that happened to me in the last couple of days. Add years of non-access for me and then multiply that by millions and millions of people and the effects will be enormous. Mark my words: China will never be successful, never be developed, never be acceptable, as long as there is no internet access. Internet access is not all it takes to be sure — the country also need to get rid of its cleptomanical power elite — but without it, everything else will be in vain.
So this is the solution (for linux servers, nerdy):
- log on to your server via their web site (remember ssh access is blocked). I use Linode.
- change the ssh config file from default port 22 to something else. Instructions here.
- restart the ssh server.
Go back to your own computer
- download a program called sshuttle. Get it via “sudo apt-get install sshuttle” or from the website.
- configure it with the logon information for your website and add the new port for ssh connections. More here.
- when sshuttle returns with a request for your login details, login as normal.
I celebrated all afternoon by reposting old article from New York Times on the crimes of Wen Jiabao and by listening to BB King and friends on YouTube: