I thought I might bump this old conversation about a stale press release to mention that SoftEther, the VPN client behind VPN Gate, was opened under a GPL license today. Since I have seen some frustrations with the current state of VPN clients, this might be worth a critical look, especially because: 1.) it's multi-protocol and cross-platform, 2.) they attempt obfuscation over DNS and ICMP, 3.) there are likely tens of millions of users looking at VPN Gate's statistics, and 4.) on a good day, you can catch a tunnel into some inaccessible countries with VPN Gate.
http://www.softether-download.com/oss.aspx *None of these are security claims, this is just a note on why you should pay attention to the tool.* On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 8:46 AM, Andrew Lewis <m...@andrewlew.is> wrote: > Not trying to steal Jake or Nadiem's talking points, but why did he roll > his own when there are pretty well vetted standards out there? > On Mar 15, 2013 10:27 AM, "Yosem Companys" <compa...@stanford.edu> wrote: > >> This story appeared on Network World at >> >> https://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/031313-users-flock-to-japan-student39s-267650.html >> >> Users flock to Japan student's firewall-busting thesis project >> 'VPN Gate,' designed by Ph.D. student Daiyuu Nobori to circumvent >> government firewalls, has drawn 77,000 users in less than a week >> >> By Jay Alabaster, IDG News Service >> March 13, 2013 07:05 AM ET >> >> IDG News Service - If you're not sure about the purpose behind Daiyuu >> Nobori's online thesis project, perhaps the large picture of the >> collapse of the Berlin Wall will help. >> >> Nobori created VPN Gate to help individuals in countries that restrict >> Internet use to beat government firewalls. The service encourages >> members of the public to set up VPN (virtual private network) servers >> and offer free connections to individual users, aiming to make the >> technology more accessible. >> >> "Today's VPN software is very complex. They are not easy to use. Some >> VPN services around the world are expensive for people in other parts >> of the world," Nobori said in an interview with IDG News Service. >> >> His service maintains a public, real-time list of freely available VPN >> servers for users to choose from. It also offers downloadable server >> software to run the VPN, and a client that greatly simplifies the >> process of finding and connecting to one of the free servers, for the >> less technically inclined. >> >> The 28 year-old doctoral student at Tsukuba University, about 30 miles >> northeast of Tokyo, wasn't sure what the reaction would be when he >> launched last Friday. He did little to advertise it outside of the >> home page and a few mentions on tech forums. >> >> Five days later, the service has drawn 77,000 users and served nearly >> 4 terabytes of data. >> >> "There are a lot of users from around the world, so I'm very happy," >> he said, but "the large amount of data transfer charges are a problem. >> This is coming from my credit card." >> >> Nobori had originally planned to host the service on his university's >> servers, but they have been down recently so he switched it to the >> Windows Azure cloud platform. He has spent about US$9,000 keeping it >> up so far, and will move it back to the university as soon as he can. >> He also operates his own VPN company, income from which has helped >> with expenses. >> >> The service is based on "SoftEther," open-source VPN software he >> built. He says most of it will be released as open source in the next >> few months. He said he plans to keep certain small portions related to >> custom protocols private, for security reasons. >> >> He was motivated to create VPN Gate when he learned about the >> firewalls imposed on people living in Middle East countries such as >> Egypt and Libya. The Web page is currently offered in English, Chinese >> and his native Japanese, but he says that is more based on the number >> of language speakers worldwide than any political feelings about a >> particular country. >> >> "I'm an engineer, I don't have any interest in politics," he said. "If >> people somewhere want to study and can't use services like Wikipedia >> or Google, this is a big problem. Wikipedia has political articles, >> but also articles about science and other topics." >> >> The service's public access logs show that the vast majority of >> connections are coming from China. He had friends at his university >> help him translate his materials into Chinese, but they asked that he >> not credit them by name for fear of repercussions. >> >> Nobori said that while few people in countries like Japan feel >> threatened by government firewalls, he remains concerned. In Japan, >> police have publicized a plan to block access to a genre of sites that >> give advice on how to kill yourself, to cut down on the country's high >> suicide rate. >> >> "It is probably acceptable to block the suicide sites, but you don't >> know what happens next. There is always a chance it will expand." >> >> The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate. >> >> All contents copyright 1995-2013 Network World, Inc. >> http://www.networkworld.com >> -- >> Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by >> emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at >> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech >> > > -- > Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by > emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech > -- *Collin David Anderson* averysmallbird.com | @cda | Washington, D.C.
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