Trouble with a website in China

need advice

[webwoman]

I have an on and off client who has a website in english, marketing to US companies, with a factory in China. Recently he went to China and found that their website was not accessible there. It had been in the past, he has staff there and they were able to view the site, and use the email provided by the US host for the site.

He called the host here in the US and was told that there is a censorship problem in China and they assumed that was why the site was unable to be seen. The host suggested that he purchase another domain name with them, and create a mirror site. He did this and, of course, this did not resolve the problem. (Why would it?!)

I know that other countries are able to view the site because I see visitors in the logs.

His main concern is his staff's email problem, she has resorted to using hotmail, which works for her some of the time (more often than not) but she also needs to be able to access the site.

So now he has a mirror site, and still no access in China. I suggested that he have his staff there find a reliable Chinese ISP, purchase the same domain name with a .cn, and we put up another version of the site, but in the Chinese language (his staff can do the translation).

Does anyone here have a similar experience, or any ideas as to why this is happening or what we could do about it?

Thanks in advance for any light on this subject.

-webwoman

[jim_w]

I know that recently the Chinese government started filtering IP’s with content they didn’t like. It could be that. I know that I have no problem with China. I have customers there and they get to our site, download update, and send email.

They may have deny’ed too many IP’s, not that I have ever done that.

Isn’t AOL or someone starting a deal in cn? If so they could try that.

[bcolflesh]

[cyber.law.harvard.edu...]

[webwoman]

Thanks for the reference. Very interesting stuff. Can you suggest a solution for my client? This site is not religious, sexually explicit, or political. If anything, it promotes economic growth in China. Do you think it is an ISP problem or a censorship issue that is mistaken?

[paybacksa]

My associate in China had this problem. Any webmail system he set up for his company on a non-Chinese ASP became inaccessible from outside of China. I think he tried twice. Every time he inquired of his ISP or discussed this with his "mayor" and other businessmen higher up his food chain, he was told to use his government-provided email accounts, which are administered by the city post office. He later learned that they, too, were blocked from access outside the country.

Looks like they have achieved very granular tracking and control in China (i.e. people at his local level must be watching what he does).

[bcolflesh]

You should work to rule out ISP problems first - if that isn't it, I'd imagine you are screwed with that domain - unless you have the cash to start bribing Chinese officials.