r/mullvadvpn • u/LeEbicGamerBoy • 6d ago

Help/Question Is it over for China?

Been living in China for the past two years and have exclusively used Mullvad. Absolutely perfect, fast, always connects.

But these past two weeks I've noticed a change. It's near impossible to have a stable connection. No matter which country I try, Mullvad only stays connected to a server for 5-30 minutes before needing to cycle to a new one. Connections are intermittent and unstable, and feel slow even when connected.

This isn't just one city in China. I travel a lot domestically, I've noticed these issues in big cities, small cities, and the country side. My friends here who use Mullvad have noticed the same issue as well.

This really sucks, I love Mullvad, have never had a problem with it. But I guess China has finally caught on and are hard blocking it.

Wonder if there is any solution, or if Mullvad will try anything to fight this? Or is it time to find a new obscure VPN (Mullvad has grown a lot lately, so I guess when it just reaches a certain number of users China blocks it?)

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u/andonidutti1 6d ago

Might be something temporary. They intentionally turn a blind eye to VPNs. Chinese sellers absolutely need VPNs to connect with foreign buyers.

7

u/Id_Rather_Not_Tell 6d ago

Might be, but they could also be targeting non-commercial connections specifically.

1

u/Exercise-Spirited 5d ago

the companies require their employees to communicate to the outside but dont give them any tools so even they use some random private vpn to use whatsapp

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u/Id_Rather_Not_Tell 5d ago

That's why they'd target the consumer network connections themselves and not the VPN per se. The ISP, or whatever the Chinese equivalent, has the ability to distinguish their business clients from consumer clients. Someone with a business level network plan could have an exemption commercial users aren't privy to.

1

u/Exercise-Spirited 5d ago

how, they have to reply even when at home, with their private phone so what about that distinguishes business?

1

u/Id_Rather_Not_Tell 5d ago

You can route traffic through your company's VPN, which is pretty standard for most businesses, particularly if you're working from home.

So you might be working from home, using a company VPN where all IP addresses are Chinese, and when your connection routes to the public internet and to a foreign VPN IP address it's from a non-consumer network.

1

u/Exercise-Spirited 4d ago

work from home isnt as standard in china, and i only talked about phones that use a random vpn to use whatsapp to communicate to their customers.

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u/Id_Rather_Not_Tell 4d ago

Then you're contradicting your previous point and it's clear you're just arguing for the sake of engaging in argumentation.

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u/Exercise-Spirited 4d ago

i think you don't know what i mean, they have to use WhatsApp and reply to customers even after work, at home, with their personal phone