Job Discussion Forums

[mark_in_saigon]

It is being reported today that Gmail is being blocked by the Chinese govt in China at this time. I notice that Gmail has also been loading very slowly here the last several days. Has anyone else noticed this? All my other programs seem to be working fine, my machines seem fine, this is occurring on multiple systems by the way. Everyone else having the same issue? I would hate to have to move over to another email provider, but it looks like trouble. Of course, the Chinese govt wants google to work with them on their censorship policies, so they have been messing with google generally in the recent past, and this is almost certainly a continuation of this battle. The VN are still more tied into Yahoo mail, but a lot of the westerners moved over to gmail years ago. This could be a total pain in the butt.

Google has accused the Chinese government of disrupting Gmail in the country, making it difficult in the last few weeks for users here to gain access to the company�s popular e-mail service.

Google said that it was not having any technical problems with Google�s main Web site or Gmail service in China.

�There is no issue on our side; we have checked extensively,� Google said in a statement released Sunday. �This is a government blockage, carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail.�

[tefl peasant]

IMO, the VNese government is very paranoid right now.

Economic issues, protests in other nations where VNese people work, and they are returning to unemployment. Currency devaluation, closing down the USD markets.

When this paranoia strikes the gov here shuts down/block emails.

It's because of "security," whatever that means.

[bobpen]

this might be of help.

[LettersAthruZ]

Strange - I've noticed NO difference and NOTHING unusual about G-Mail here......

....but, the way Viet Nam likes to do their blocks is generally by Internet Provider!

One week, on VietTel and V.N.P.T. Internet, Facebook will be TOTALLY HARDBLOCKED (meaning ya gotta use a V.P.N. or a proxy server to git to it) whereas, during that SAME week, FPT Internet will let you get to it simply by changing your DNS settings to OpenDNS!

THEN, then next week, they ALL hardblock it......

THEN, the week after that, VietTel and FPT are hardblocked, and V.N.P.T. will give you easy access to it.

I have noooo idea why they do it this way, and it's possible they're gonna start doing that with G-Mail also, but I don't think they'll touch G-Mail. Simply because, China had a pre-existing argument with Google, and Viet Nam never did, soooooo......

P.S. - HideMyAss free proxy LIST is probably the most recent and accurate free proxy list for getting around blocks here!

[The Mad Hatter]

Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me.
thats about all I CAN say. Now if they can all just GROW UP.

[mark_in_saigon]

Another big story on this subject in today's New York Times. It would probably be a good idea for all of us to have a backup plan in place for this issue, I suspect there is a pretty good chance VN will do the same thing, as they copied China on the Facebook thing. However, apparently youtube is blocked there, but not here, so perhaps not. Youtube is now owned by google as I recall. It would be a good idea to have a way to access your contacts and data in the case that VN does block gmail, as once it is down, it will be very hard to get those archives for many of us. You can get gmail to download all your stuff into outlook if you need a backup. China has been blocking a lot of VPN's, so you guys may want to get ready for this if it would be a big problem to you.

[Jbhughes]

Mail-forwarding can be set-up in gmail to forward all mail received to a different account, here's how you do it:

Click on the 'cog' icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen -> mail settings.

Next, click on 'Forwarding and POP/IMAP', in this section you need to enable the radio button 'Forward a copy of incoming mail to' and select an email address from the drop-down menu.

I think the mail address used when setting up the account is automatically added to the list, if not, or if you want to use another, click on 'add a forwarding address'.

I think you may need to accept forwarded mail in the account that the mail being forwarded to, can't remember.


Can one use another account to send mail using their gmail address?

What about outlook? Personally, never used outlook - bit of a black art to me!

[deadlift]

I've had no problems with gmail whatsoever.

[sonbuenas2]

I'm bumping this because for the last month I have not been able to access Gmail.

Google works, as does the rest of the (unblocked) internet, but not gmail. Odd thing is, it's only on my home computer. I use VNPT.

I can access gmail through a proxy but not through the VNPT connection.

Another interesting block I've noticed is the BBC website. www.bbc.co.uk - again blocked, but accessible through a proxy.

This authoritarian information control BS is really starting to bug me

[mark_in_saigon]

Gmail was coming up VERY slowly when I first posted that. It MIGHT have had something to do with their new advertising scheme, notice all those ads they have that are related to your emails. It can be kinda creepy, some of the matches they come up with are rather in your face. Anyway, it seems to be fine here in 3 and has never quit working for me, but they were coming up very slowly for a while (a month or two ago). Be sure to check your download and upload speeds from time to time, often that will show you what your real issue is. I have been seeing surprisingly good speeds lately, quite competitive with what we have in the states, and of course they cost us a lot more over there as well. Down is about the same as most of the places I operate in the west, and up can even be faster here, which can be quite important. Not everyone realizes upload speed is where you make the request, so if it is just browsing stuff and you have good down and bad up, you are still rather slow. Be SURE to scan for viruses and spyware here frequently, and understand that well over half of the USB drives that the VN use are compromised with viruses or other junk.