For those of you who don't know it, Skype and other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software’s are blocked in the Middle East (Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar..etc), China and several other countries. Reason? VoIP technology has affected the local telecom market here. So, in order to salvage what's left and consolidate market shares in the region, these countries have decided to block VoIP.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BLOCKED?
It's simple, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) in some countries block access to certain websites that allow people to download or buy credit from VoIP providers like Skype, MSN, Yahoo..etc. They then disable any outbound traffic on port 6050...the default VoIP port. Some ISPs are a little more advanced and make use of packet shaping tools to analyze the contents of each packet and filter them accordingly.
WHY IS THIS WRONG?
VoIP has revolutionized the entire telecom industry. With VoIP technology it's now possible to make inexpensive long distance calls from the comfort of your personal computer or smartphone from anywhere in the world (as long as you have a reasonable internet connection). The significant cost difference may have led to a decrease in telecom revenue; however this revolution in technology has created a new and fast growing market of VoIP providers that is becoming increasingly competitive. Hence, the old giants of telecom are forces to rethink their business model. For example, telecom provider AT&T has taken to heart the phrase... "If you can't beat'em, join'em!" and started its own VoIP service called CallVantage.
WHAT SHOULD I DO?
If you are a person who is affected by this blockade there are several thing you can do to continue using VoIP services.
This is the most common solution to censorship. A proxy server is a middle man server that proxies or redirects traffic between a destination server and a client. Acting as an intermediary between the client and destination server, it can be used to bypass firewall restrictions, speedup traffic, provide anonymity and protect the client or server from being exposed to direct attacks. A person can either purchase access to a proxy service/subscription or use free software from the internet. There are plenty out there but here are a few that I found to be useful. Needless to say...all are free.
a) Your-Freedom: A SOCKS proxy application allowing users to bypass restrictive firewalls by connecting to a set number of networks maintained by the program's authors. It is confirmed to work through China's firewall and will provide a bit more bandwidth than a modem connection and up to six hours of usage per day (up to 18 hours per week), and will probably be enough for all casual users. You have to create an account first. DOWNLOAD
b) Ultra Surf: Created by UltraReach Internet Corp., is a dynamic proxy tool that adjusts your proxy server configuration based on the fastest proxy server speed available. It is designed to work with IE by default. DOWNLOAD MIRROR
c) The Onion Router: Better known as TOR, is a free software implementation of second-generation onion routing enabling Internet anonymity by thwarting network traffic analysis. It was originally sponsored by the US Naval Research Laboratory. See tutorial for setup instructions. TUTORIAL
d) ezProxy: A web proxy server program extensively used by libraries to give access from outside the library's computer network to restricted-access websites that authenticate users by IP address. This allows library patrons at home or elsewhere to log in through their library's EZproxy server and gain access to bibliographic databases and the likes to which their library subscribes. It's free for 30 days after which only 2 computers can use it.WIKI DOWNLOAD
Note: If you use softphones like X-Lite/eyeBeam then proxies may not work for you. I'm still working on finding a solution to this.
Disadvantages:
- The speed of your connection is dependent on the server load of the proxy.
- You have to configure each software individually to use the proxy.
- Free Proxies are not always reliable. They have downtimes too!
Option 2: Virtual Private Network (VPN)
A VPN is a virtual network of computers that exist over an existing network such as the internet. The purpose of a VPN is to enable connected users to gain access to specific resources available within a network. For example: Jill wants to work from home today. But she needs to access a corporate database at XYZ Corp. So, Jill installs a VPN Client software on her computer and enter her company's VPN credentials to log in. She is now not only a part of her home network, but also a part of the corporate network. Jill now can access the corporate database and any other resources made available to her at XYZ Corp. VPN essentially allows the user to obtain resources via the VPN server which is based remotely - like a secure proxy. There are a number of VPN services out there. However, most of them are paid services. This is due to the limited resources and the high bandwidth costs necessary for providing users with a descent connection. The ones I have listed below are free and fairly good for VoIP and surfing the internet.
a) PacketiX.NET: Is a free non-commercial academic version of the premium service. It's servers are based in Japan and is fairly good for VoIP traffic and browsing. Not recommended for large downloads and multimedia related activities.TUTORIAL
b) Hotspot Shield: Another great VPN! It's fairly reliable and secure with no traffic quota limits. DOWNLOAD
c) UltraVPN: Is a French VPN client that is based on OpenVPN service. There is no traffic quota limits and the bandwidth goes up to 500Kb/s depending on network load.
d) AlonWeb: Is also based on the OpenVPN tunneling service. The servers are located in the Netherlands and Panama. It's secure and hides your IP using OpenDNS-Servers. However, users are only allowed to transfer 1GB of traffic every month. So, it's great for browsing sites and VoIP. Not recommended for multimedia use.
Note: If you are interested in obtaining a paid VPN service feel free to check out these services...12VPN, StrongVPN, Banana VPN, BlackLogic and Skydur
Disadvantages:
- The speed of your connection is dependent on the VPN server load.
- All software connects make use of the VPN connection. This can be annoying at times especially if you have a slow connection.
- Free VPN services are not always reliable. They have downtimes too!
Option 3: Switch ISP's
This is somewhat of an extreme option. In some countries the state owned teleco is the sole ISP as well, so in the word’s of Google..."No Donut for you!". Also, if there are options available they are likely to be more expensive. In countries where multiple ISP's operate, legislation outlawing VoIP services & providers are often passed. So it’s quite possible that this may not even be an option for some.
