Without VPN. Can't search maps, can't sync most data, can't use the browser search function on my phone because it goes through www.Google.com etc. Pain. Workarounds?

Even VPNs are having issues. My Astrill has been giving me DNS errors recently when trying to access google services or anything connected to them.

The end of the world is near.

I have never been ale to fully use Google without a VPN and/or http proxy. I am still using witopia after years of ups and downs with it. I use the free GAP proxy called GoAgent, but since it has to be set up in Google Apps you need a VPN to set it up, and it does not work well in https addresses except for viewing, and it takes some patience and savvy to set it up and maintain it.

Why don't you have a VPN if you really need all of that? I can understand really, most of them gouge you for money and then do not really work and you can't get you money back. The majority offer three days trial at the most (some only a day) and you pay for a year and then when things stop they will not refund your money.

One thing I will say for Witopia is they offer a 30 day trial period, money back with no questions. Or they did when I signed up. They have decent support and of course in the end you have to learn some trick on your own.

China is really tough with the Internet. If I did not use Witopia (or a similar product) I doubt I would ever even use the Internet. The same way I never watch TV here. I just don't need a bunch of commie thugs and goons deciding watch I can and cannot watch.

No free work arounds any more that I know of. Those days are long over here.

Rather than thugs and goons, I think they're evolving into commie PR & spindoctor types - yes, I know the difference, but it's the similarities that scare me. All about somebody else deciding what should be in yr brain. The blatancy of mind control here is, in some ways, less insidious than Madison Ave., US Oval Office & friends in the media - with the latter, the fact that you know you CAN, largely, get behind front-page hype in most countries often means nobody bothers to. Take a look at all the bs, on all sides, concerning the Ukraine.
But I don't mean to push this comparison too far, it's just that more subtle mind cops can often be more effective than 'thugs & goons'.
Double-headed coins, loaded dice, manufactured consensus & 'harmony'.
Anyway, you're right about google - really screwy lately.

Yes. Synonymous to propaganda and censorship, but with a lot more tact and finesse, and widely accepted by the masses. Unlike rustic censorship, it it is seen as good and doesn't raise curiosity and disobedience.

Yea, I was making a sort of dumb joke abut a remark a few years back from a CNN talk show host who called Chinese (in terms of trade practices) thugs and goons and that set off a big anti-CNN backlash. A class I had back then told they would boycott CNN, but it took little time to find out they had never even heard of CNN until a day or so before.

But today my proxies are all spotty. Even my http proxy. Slow as hell.

Did you know that in China they allow (now up from 20) about 35 total foreign movies a year. All foreign movies combined, But here is a month a year of no foreign films, to allow the domestic movies to actually make some money. A couple years back a couple Marvel superhero movies grossed more than all the domestic films combined. China does not lie that. I wonder if it all about actually censoring subversive thoughts, or just trying to keep the masses here opiated on Chinese products. Material from the sacred Motherland. Like the banning of The Big Bang Theory. Is it subversive or just too popular and foreign at the same time?

And like yankee00 says, it is accepted by the masses here. Not 100% of course, but most like I cold say 90% or more and be safe. All those jailed dissidents here got what they deserved as far as I can understand from most people.

I think it carries over even into food and things like Beer Lao (from another thread). Tax that vile outside stuff to death as to make it out of reach of almost everybody so they will buy products made in the Motherland only. And play the developing nation card when the US and EU decide Chinese products should be taxed a little higher (or maybe at all) considering it China is the #2 economy in the world. I know this 'cos I hear it all the time here. Soon to be #1 and soon with the fastest Internet in the world and yet still blocked, censored and controlled. And as I write this my proxy is slowing down, better send now.

you can get VPN for 10 kuai a month on taobao, 安琪网络加速器

Yes, patchy but still workable service though not convinced about the cause. As well as calculated throttling of Internet access overall I sometimes think it could also be be: incompetence at ISP level and caused by system maintenance, upgrading, preparation for new pricing structures after recent relaxation of price controls from the top and there is probably not much redundancy built into the system to cater for maintenance. It could even be a way of getting consumers to complain after which they can be offered 'better services'. Admittedly the latter is a little far fetched but I have a built-in cynical streak. Impossible to attribute blame but I come down on the side of incompetence rather than calculated.

Not just google. Everything is much slower than usual. If I load any foreign website that isn't popular it first says it doesn't exist. If I can connect it will be slow. If I just wait a few minutes and try again it will be fast.

They also seem to be filtering every movie. Even personal movies I uploaded to my VPS in Singapore won't load the first few tries. Or it will load, but then mysteriously stop because of fake packets being sent saying the file is finished, or some other odd thing my server never sent.

Connect to VPN and the movies download fine at 3 to 5 mbps without problems. Friends in Thailand have no problem downloading the movies at 10 mbps.