Google in China (again)

Unable to reach Google from China

[bathrobe2]

It is over a year since I first reported that I was unable to reach Google from China.

Today I am encountering a similar problem. I've tried google.com, google.com.au, and google.co.uk. The browser times out trying to get through.

I can reach the Yahoo front page, but searches time out.

I can get to other overseas sites OK.

Is this a problem with Google world wide, or is it something here? If there are any Chinese members, could you please confirm whether or not you are experiencing any problems.

[bathrobe2]

Just to clarify, I did a search using Alexa and the results (powered by Google) were available immediately. Google still fails to respond.

[roddy]

I'm seeing the same thing from Beijing. I'm also noticing posts on forums and weblogs reporting similar problems.

Moreover, I can't access my adsense stats, the ads aren't showing on my site, toolbar shows grey for all sites, and toolbar searches don't work.

All other sites appear to be working perfectly well (with the exception of those usually banned).

Roddy

[takagi]

It is over a year since I first reported that I was unable to reach Google from China.

Here are some threads covering this problem one year ago:
I can't reach Google from China [webmasterworld.com]
I CAN get to google from china! [webmasterworld.com]

[newsphinx]

If there are any Chinese members, could you please confirm whether or not you are experiencing any problems.

Yes. Same here. But I don't think it's another block. It still can be accessed with proxy. One year ago, it's very hard to find a proxy to access the search engine.

[takagi]

At Harvard they have a tool to test filtering in China at Real-Time Testing of Internet Filtering in China:
[cyber.law.harvard.edu...]

For www.google.com it gives:

Accessible (based on cached results from testing within the last 96 hours)

but for www.google.co.jp it gives after 120 seconds:

Result: Indeterminate - please try again later to confirm

Last entries added to the list: Sites Inaccessible in China
[asp-cyber.law.harvard.edu...]

• www-ex.google.com - 10/20/2003 12:34:30 AM
  
• 216.239.51.104 - 10/20/2003 12:51:41 AM
  
• 216.239.41.104 - 10/20/2003 12:55:26 AM
  
• 216.239.51.99 - 10/20/2003 12:57:05 AM
  
• 216.239.59.99 - 10/20/2003 1:02:32 AM
  
• gfe-ab.google.com - 10/20/2003 1:12:20 AM
  
• 216.239.33.99 - 10/20/2003 1:32:06 AM
  
• www.sprintlink.net - 10/20/2003 1:38:06 AM
  
• yahoo.com - 10/20/2003 1:44:51 AM

Note:
216.239.33.xx = www-ex.google.com
216.239.41.xx = www-fi.google.com
216.239.51.xx = www-ab.google.com
216.239.59.xx = www-gv.google.com

[hotice_2002]

Yes, we all can not reach Google in China.
I think China has blocked Google again.

More information about this thing:

http://www.21cnbj.com/industrynews/google2003/2003-10-20-366.html

[bathrobe2]

More information about this thing:

http://www.21cnbj.com/industrynews/google2003/2003-10-20-366.html

Yes, this article makes it sound like Google is having problems (a 'breakdown' or 'fault'). Well, why isn't the rest of the world howling about the breakdown at Google. This looks like an artificial breakdown to me.

The Boao Forum for Asia (China's answer to the Davos forum) is holding its Annual Conference on 2 and 3 November. I hope they resolve the 'breakdown' before then.

As a country that is trying to look respectable, China will look a little silly if the participants (and they include some heads of state and other high-powered people) are blocked from accessing Google by their friendly hosts.

[morpheus83]

A similar thing had happened in India a few days back. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had blocked Yahoo groups (groups.yahoo.com). Because there was a group with Anti India propaganda. However it is accessible now. China being a Communist goverment may have blocked the same due to a similar reason it seems.

[mil2k]

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had blocked Yahoo groups (groups.yahoo.com). Because there was a group with Anti India propaganda.

Yeah and a lot of good it did. The news was reported in the times of India and that article got much more exposure then it could have ever got. I hope it teaches them a good lesson :)

[wardbekker]

A year ago, during the google-ban, i had no problem accessing Google from hotel computers (could not find any internet cafe's in Beijing , though, they were precautionary closed by the government because of 'risk of fires').

So, is the great firewall of China applicable for all internet connections? It seems not..

[hotice_2002]

Now I can directly visit www.google.com in Beijing Time Oct. 20th,2003, 22:14.

I am excited to see Google again. LOL

[lgn]

This may be outside the price range of most chinese citizens, but you can get internet by two way satelite signals from the ASIA 2 SatNav.

Since the ISP would be out of the country, this would probably solve all those annoying outages due to misconfiguration of the great chinese firewalls.

Are chinese citizens allowed to have satelite?

[newsphinx]

Can get to Google now. It turns out NOT a block!

[bathrobe2]

Well, maybe it wasn't a block. But since nobody else in the world was experiencing problems, it certainly had something to do with Chinese manipulation of the Internet. Maybe the outage happened while they fiddled with their firewall...

I'm glad Google is back, too. It's frightening that you can get so dependent on one source of information (unhealthy, too).

[litrenge]

Acctually in China I could reach google on 20 Oct through most other ip addresses
eg:
[216.239.33.101...]
[216.239.33.103...]
[216.239.35.102...]
[216.239.35.103...]
[216.239.37.100...]
[216.239.37.102...]
[216.239.37.103...]
[216.239.39.100...]

except [google.com...] and some ip addresses.

Perhaps there is something wrong with DNS.

NO SIGNS OF BLOCK OR MANIPULATION.

No facts, no guess pls.

[shrirch]

Could well be related to the sj data center being taken offline and a bad DNS cache on the great-firewall.

[bathrobe2]

No facts, no guess pls.

I don't know why Google was inaccessible on www.google.com. Ordinary users don't have a list of alternative addresses like yourself. The problem is why an entire country should suddenly be unable to access Google at its usual URL.

Whether it was because they were fiddling with their firewall or whatever other guess you might make, the fundamental problem remains. _Something in China_ was, intentionally or unintentionally, interfering with access to Google at its usual URL.