iPad and iPhone internet access for two weeks in China that bypasses the Chinese internet wall?

[Manny]

I wonder if Moby or any of our resident tech gurus have a cheap answer to iPad and iPhone internet access for two weeks in China that bypasses the Chinese internet wall?

Perhaps some kind of VPN that accesses my internet connection at home or utilises my server somehow?

Last time I was there I only switched on roaming occasionally and it ended up costing me about £150.

This time I’m thinking ahead and wondering, apart from any bolt on deals offered by my local service provider, are there any other innovative techniques the folks here can suggest?

[Markje]

I wonder if Moby or any of our resident tech gurus have a cheap answer to iPad and iPhone internet access for two weeks in China that bypasses the Chinese internet wall?

Perhaps some kind of VPN that accesses my internet connection at home or utilises my server somehow?

Last time I was there I only switched on roaming occasionally and it ended up costing me about £150.

This time I’m thinking ahead and wondering, apart from any bolt on deals offered by my local service provider, are there any other innovative techniques the folks here can suggest?

VPN's other than government-approved ones are not allowed. It can get you into serious trouble, they also try to activly disrupt VPN services.
I did however find a few vpn's that claim to operate whilst being in china

https://www.expressvpn.com/
https://nordvpn.com/ (free trial of 7 days)

[Manny]

VPNs are pretty commonplace there. I think they’re even on the App Store. And you don’t get in trouble as a foreigner for bypassing the wall; indeed many international hotels offer wall-bypassing Wi-Fi as standard.

The situation is the actual mobile connection itself. It may be that a local Sim card is the best way forward if connected to a VPN. Unless one can use some kind of foreign service to connect via a local provider while accessing a VPN. Hence the question....

I just want to be able to access my own sites whilst sitting with suppliers, perhaps this site, sites like TripAdvisor and search engines such as Google. Not to mention updating social media accounts, etc., while I’m sat on the bullet train or whatever......

Right now I connect to the hotel Wi-Fi there and I can do everything. I want to be able to do the same thing while I am on the move.....

I don’t want to pay O2 a squillion quid for this type of access if later Moby comes along and says, “oh you should’ve gone to xyz.com for $10 to do the same thing”

[andrewfi]

Install TeamViewer to access your home machine remotely. Useful for many things not just bypassing region issues.
And yes, it is free.

[Manny]

Install TeamViewer to access your home machine remotely. Useful for many things not just bypassing region issues.
And yes, it is free.

Help the neophyte please: I’m familiar with team viewer, but how does that help me get a mobile connection on my iPhone in China?

[andrewfi]

My apologies, I did not read well enough. TeamViewer is likely a better option than a VPN but it does not give you access.

As for sharing stuff when with suppliers and the like, can't you just use their wifi? Doing so will, at the least reduce your overall costs.

If you want a SIM card then here you go: https://startuplivingchina.com/whats-best-china-sim-card/
Looks like the same process as the UK. Take ID and pay money.

For completeness, here's the info for using Teamviewer: https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/TeamViewer-General/Remote-into-my-PC-back-in-the-US-while-using-TeamViewer-from/td-p/30584

If you have a decent connection you might well be able to use Skype. I have not done that, but TeamViewer works well enough to stream video and audio on a decent mobile connection when I am travelling.

The person providing the responses said he turned off updates and set his machine to not go to sleep while away, that's what I do. However, I do it with a little application that keeps the pc from closing down by any means apart from by turning off the power. The software is called Insomnia, it works a treat.

[msmoby]

Buy yourself an unlocked (open to any network)  mifi router with a network port. Then buy a data SIM plan in China

Then you keep your UK SIM in the mobile phone



TeamViewer is great for connecting back to a UK computer and a cheap solution for your iPad to get a UK IP

There is a built in VPN in the windows version of TeamViewer, meaning one can dispense with the overhead of loading the remote ( Home) GUI..


My clever Russians have made me a Wireguard router which allows me to make a UK WiFi connection in the foreign country..so I can make and receive calls to / from UK numbers within my plan as, if at home using WiFi calling.

Then I can watch live UK free /pay tv and chose to watch recordings on my SKY Q box.

[Markje]

The 2 vpn listed have chinese access points. The exit point can be any country you choose. Thereby giving you the same as hotel wifi

[Steveboy]

Buy yourself an unlocked (open to any network)  mifi router with a network port. Then buy a data SIM plan in China

Then you keep your UK SIM in the mobile phone



TeamViewer is great for connecting back to a UK computer and a cheap solution for your iPad to get a UK IP

There is a built in VPN in the windows version of TeamViewer, meaning one can dispense with the overhead of loading the remote ( Home) GUI..


My clever Russians have made me a Wireguard router which allows me to make a UK WiFi connection in the foreign country..so I can make and receive calls to / from UK numbers within my plan as, if at home using WiFi calling.

Then I can watch live UK free /pay tv and chose to watch recordings on my SKY Q box.

That's a lot of trouble for Corrie isn't it?

[msmoby]

I am more into Line of Duty, Silent Winess and Luther ...!))

Thank GOD for those who live / travel anroad and want to watch decent ( or soaps)  TV...!

Yesterday, I was on a train from Batumi to Tblisi and when in tunnels  continued watching the UK tv content I had dowloaded beforehind while I heard the slaps of frustration as those streaming closed their screens))

It amuses my sad brain to see I am connnected to 3 ( UK mobile phone network) while in the middle of nowhere in the moutains of Georgia...which has FAR better mobile coverage than the UK....
 
Wow fast internet in the countryside  in Rep of Georgia https://imgur.com/a/jUJhtaI


50 down and 40 up between Tblisi and Gori in a car

[Manny]

I worked out an easy answer to this - not the cheapest but it works.

https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/international/using-phone-abroad

You can pay a single, fixed daily rate for O2 Travel. That’ll get you the 120 minutes, 120 texts and data you need, when roaming in all of our O2 Travel destinations.

If on o2 UK, a fiver a day, activates automatically as you travel out of the EU. £70 for a fortnight. Not the end of the world for what seems like unlimited data. I assume that's plus VAT but I didn't check as I can deduct that so dont care.

If you've got a Pay Monthly sim, text O2TRAVELto 23336.

I did that and got the confirmation back - painless. No pain is worth more money.

On VPNs, Markje above and a well-known US expat who lives in China whose Youtube channel I follow both recommend Nord VPN at just £2.29 a month. Again, that seems painless.

Can one hotlink from the iPhone to a linked iPad without extra cost I wonder?

VPNs are now discussed at more length on >>this topic<<.

[andrewfi]

Upthread, we mentioned using TeamViewer to access one's PC from far away and how this gives access to services that are not supported in China or, potentially, other places.

A solution that, it seems, has been around for a while came across my field of vision today - Chrome Remote Desktop. Dead easy to install and easier to configure and use. I am just starting to play with it and am keen to see how it compares with TeamViewer for speed and latency. One plus point I can see is that there are no nag screens telling me about the commercial version of the product and no concerns about potential 'commercial use' detection.

One can get the required setup from here: https://remotedesktop.google.com/home

And yes, before anyone (moby) brags that he and all his best Natural English speaking mates have been using it since 2014, the tool seems to have been around for some years but everything is still labeled as Beta.

[msmoby]

Andrewfi

CRD still sucks - we use it as one of our programmers INSISTS on it aand we humour him - if he wants remote access:

Issues :


Requires a particular web browser
Unable to print remote files to a local printer
No chat capability
Can't copy files to/from the computers
Unable to send custom keyboard shortcuts (only Ctrl+Alt+Del, PrtScr, and F11)


https://www.lifewire.com/chrome-remote-desktop-review-2625155



Also when doing attended remote control - it KEEPS asking the remote   end user  to confirm they still want to BE connected - to BE remote controlled ..

Gawd save us from the likes of andrewfi and autistic programmers ..one knows F 'all and offers shyte software as a solution and t'other hates teamviewer and has a 'thang about google stuff that doesn't even work, yet 

[andrewfi]

moby, what are you burbling about? Are you making an early start on another drunken weekend?

Word of advice, put down the whisky bottle when you are going to be bashing at your keyboard.

[Manny]

After some testing I found the TeamViewer quite inadequate for China. It could be the hotel Wi-Fi speed or the fact that I run Followliker on my home computer which seems to slow it down. Or a combination of the both.

Also with team viewer one appears to have no access to a keyboard. So how do you type in the web address or a password? And no facility to drag and drop something to the local device. It seems to be more like a window to look through which works on some levels but doesn’t allow you to do many things that you may need to do.

And yes the pop-ups are irritating....

[Markje]

I keep telling you guys, use a real VPN provider. NordVPN or somesuch.

Yes it costs a few quid each month, but the convenience-factor alone is worth it.

If you wish to try-out , i am willing to provide a free-VPN service through my home-network, but it will take a few days to set up as I have little time these days.

[andrewfi]

Manny, the onscreen keyboard is available from a toolbar at the bottom of the teamviewer window on your iPad.

As for speed, I have never seen it so slow as to be inconvenient. However, there's a setting available from the top toolbar that let's you increase responsiveness at the expense of graphic quality.

TeamViewer does not need a fast connection to mirror your remote pc screen. That's only needed if you want to use video or audio, or to try to play games - but I'd guess that's totally out of the question in practical terms.

There's a whole heap of businesses who rely upon teamviewer so the chances are that it ain't the software, or your devices causing the problems that you face.

[msmoby]

moby, what are you burbling about? Are you making an early start on another drunken weekend?

Word of advice, put down the whisky bottle when you are going to be bashing at your keyboard.

Let's pop all these afi 'ripostes' to stuff he doesn't understand ...and it shows..

1/If I drink such a spirit..it would be WhiskEy ..from Ireland

2/ I am not partaking of alcohol..given the need to fit my 30 year old DJ( Tux)..for an upcoming do...

3/ If you do not understand...then you should not be offering 'advice' on VPNs or remote control software....but that was clear from the start...

@Manny..you should take up Markje's offer...but not sure how it will help with viewing UK content ))