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this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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Couldn't you just use any server/droplet/AWS instance via SSH to get around this law? Seems much simpler.
If you're savvy enough, sure. But for the lay person who doesn't want a clouded view of the world, they likely won't have the same resources or technical capabilities.
It's not without drawback though. SSH tunnel consumes a lot more cpu compared to wireguard. If your vps has a weak cpu, it might not even able to fully saturate a 1gbps connection due to cpu bottleneck on certain ciphers. If you're using a mobile device, it will drain your battery faster than wireguard.
So it'll take you 10 minutes, instead of 5, to download a DVD rip of a movie... This limitation would have next to no practical impact on being able to communicate with the free world.
True, it's not like Russian need to use VPN to pirate stuff anyway.
Wait! You got it. We just encapsule https in the bittorrent protocol!
I was talking to someone from the UAE in some thread on lemmy.blahaj.zone a month back. Apparently, because the UAE doesn't like LGBT stuff, they block images hosted on that server.
I was seriously thinking there about what it would take to hide a VPN connection, and that BitTorrent Is actually not a terrible choice, as it generates a lot of bidirectional traffic.
IIRC I went looking and some guy did a prototype as his masters thesis some years back.
Lemme see if I can find it.
googles
Yeah.
https://github.com/danoctavian/bit-smuggler
EDIT: Ah, now I remember. Wasn't that they block images, but that they block the server. Gay UAE dude could use a permissable Threadiverse server and federation would let him talk to people on lemmy.blahaj.zone. However, the image-hosting is not federated. If someone put a post with an image up, he could view the text on another Threadiverse server, but couldn't see the images, because the images don't propagate to federated servers. The browser still tries to talk to the original server for that.
People in western countries use VPN to hide bittorrent traffics, while people living in an authoritarian countries uses bittorrent to hide VPN traffics. Life is sometimes stranger than fictions.
Very interesting project though. Thanks for mentioning it.
that's assuming you can get one, which is challenging since most hosting companies don't/can't offer services in russia anymore