Firewall Problems

Hi, need some help. I'm on the mainland, and for a while now have been unable to access a U.S. health care organization's website. I used to be able to access it when I live in Dongguan 2 years ago, although usually only at like 2 a.m., during the day I could never get through. I can access it when in HK.


I bought this computer from a friend, but he's left the country now and not really sure who to turn to for computer help. I've got Rising Antivirus and Rising Firewall on the machine, but the firewall is Chinese so I can't read anything.


Is it my firewall that's blocking me, or maybe the "Great Mainland Firewall" that periodically and arbitrarily knocks out our Hotmail or other services. I've adjusted the security settings as recommended on that lovely page that always pops up telling me the page cannot be displayed. One thing I've noticed is that it says to make sure under Security Settings that the boxes for SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, PCT 1.0. are checked, but there is no box for PCT 1.0 on my computer.


I'm using Windows XP, version 5.1 and I think it's a legit copy, but not sure. My friend told me to not send error reports to Microsoft, so it's possible I've got a bootleg copy.


Any suggestions? I'm only moderately technically literate, but can usually follow instructions if they're not overly technical.


Thanks!

A couple of questions:

Can you access the site from other computers (ie friends, internet cafe)?

Have you tried temporarily turning off your firewall and accessing the site?

I'd thought about having someone else try and then forgot to ask them. I'll have some people check and will also try turning off my firewall. Thanks.

I've asked a bunch of friends to try accessing it, and no one in Panyu can get it, but everyone in Hong Kong can. It's legitimate, it's the Upledger Institute in Florida, google CranioSacral Therapy and you'll get the address. They have classes all over the world and I'm a teaching assistant and need to check the schedules, plus I'd like to refer my clients to the site to answer some of their questions.


Haven't tried turning off my firewall yet, will try that next, then see about what gzStone suggested.

China's official firewall system is complex and often puzzling in terms of what they block. If none of your friends can access it, that suggests that it is being blocked at a higher level than your own firewall (unless all of your friends are also using the same firewall software as you).


As for the reason for it being blocked, you may never know, and it may be unblocked in the future for no apparent reason. It may be that someone somewhere on the Institute's web site has an article that mentions Tibet or some other forbidden topic, or the Institute's ISP may have another customer that has offended China in some way. Or it may just be some random thing... In any case, I can't offer any other helpful suggestions. People in China have found various ways of bypassing the firewall, but the government moves to block them pretty quickly so you need some up-to-date sources of information about how to do this.


Hong Kong, luckily, is not affected by the Great Chinese Firewall.

molly, download the ipig client from here register for free and access your site http://www.iopus.com/ipig/

You need to find a proxy server that's not blocked by the China firewall. New proxies go up as fast as China can block them, but the trick is finding one. And when that proxy goes down, finding another. There are websites that list active proxy servers (I've just googled "free proxy" and came up with this: http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html ), but I doubt you can access those sites from within PRC. Ask someone in HK to find a proxy and send you the IP address and port.


You set a proxy server in Internet Explorer under Tools:Internet Options then the "Connections" tab, then the "LAN Settings" button.


You click on the "Proxy server" option, then enter the proxy's IP address (i.e. 66.210.33.141 )and port (i.e. 8080 ) in the boxes provided.


Some proxies won't work even the first time you try them, so you have to just try another. And some proxies are very, very slow. Generally, proxies located in the US are faster.


Here are a few proxies you could try, the first ten entries from the website I found on Google:


IP/Port/Type/Country/Last Test

200.90.80.147/8080/transparent/Venezuela/2006-12-11

202.83.174.22/80/anonymous/Pakistan/2006-12-12

81.207.142.57/8080/anonymous/Netherlands/2006-12-11

201.57.66.2/3128/transparent/Brazil/2006-12-11

66.210.33.141/8080/anonymous/United States/2006-12-12

200.88.46.58/80/anonymous/Dominican Republic/2006-12-11

148.233.159.24/3128/transparent/Mexico/2006-12-11

62.150.40.142/80/transparent/Kuwait/2006-12-11

200.148.158.129/3128/transparent/Brazil/2006-12-11

210.22.14.61/3128/transparent/China/2006-12-11


Good luck!