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Russian here, living in Russia. My paid VPN provider stopped working months ago. Then my self-hosted Outline server stopped working. Then my self-hosted OpenVP

Russian here, living in Russia. My paid VPN provider stopped working months ago. Then my self-hosted Outline server stopped working. Then my self-hosted OpenVPN stopped working too. Both were hosten on Digital Ocean (Frankfurt). What currently works for me is self-hosted Outline running on an US server, but I suspect that won't last long. Looks like I have no choice but to learn how to self-host XRay. A smart friend told me that it still works and is hard to block, but unfortunately he has no personal experience with it -- and no need for it anymore, since he emigrated to another country. Does anyone here have any experience with XRay / XTLS-Reality?

mmastrac 3y ago
As a curiosity, how do you pay for an EU VPS given the sanctions?
- dudefeliciano 3y ago
  DO does accept cryptocurrencies, that could be an option
- MrDisposable 3y ago
  Via a business bank account in one of the Baltic countries, or via a personal bank account in Georgia. For people who don't have bank accounts in other countries, or are of conscription age (means you can't get an international passport which is necessary to cross the border) I'd recommend teaming up with friends who emigrated. Some of them still need rubles in Russia (to pay for mortgages, or help their parents), so you provide them with rubles and they pay for your VPS.
pilosus 3y ago
I’ve written an Ansible playbook [1] to automate XRay installation on a Linux machine. Some people say XRay works well, but I don’t have personal experience. [1]: https://github.com/pilosus/Xray-ansible https://github.com/pilosus/Xray-ansible
jmnicolas 3y ago
Why do you host your VPN in "hostile" countries? Wouldn't it be better to host in Asia (Viet-Nam comes to mind) or Central / South America (Nicaragua etc)? Latency might suck but it would be better than no access.
- cromka 3y ago
  Chances that “the baddies” have an informal Five Eyes alike agreement are pretty high, I’d say.
  - jmnicolas 3y ago
    Better than a NATO country though. As a French citizen I wouldn't host anything in Russia, not from a moral standpoint but because we're at war (it's a "soft" war for now, but who knows how it will evolve).
- MrDisposable 3y ago
  Just plain convenience and my laziness. Also, I'm not concerned about being prosecuted for the use of VPN (well, at least for now), I just want my Internet to work.
genman 3y ago
I was so hopeful in the beginning of 90s. There was sense of harmony all over the Northern hemisphere. But then Russia started to quickly become more and more aggressive, yes, first in the rhetoric, but then Putin came and the shit became real. Now I understand that the Russian society first had a kind of agreement with him - they don't mind the politics and Putin doesn't mind them. It looks like it has played out well for Putin but not so well for the rest of the Russians. Closing down close to all of the Internet traffic to the free world feels completely logical when the play of elections is nearing and if it is successful then it will probably remain like this.
- EasyMark 3y ago
  The USA dropped the ball on this. I was screaming at the news (or anyone that would listen :) ) that we needed work closer with Yeltsin/Gorbachev to support the burgeoning democracy. The USA just patted itself on the back and didn't do anything diplomatically/financially other than lip service to build economic ties and then the big collapse and rise of oligarchs and Putin.
  - UberFly 3y ago
    They actually did open up relations a lot, but Russia was like Mordor and the old ways were just too ingrained. The ball was less dropped and more the air slowly deflated.
- pvaldes 3y ago
  Disclaimer: This is just an opinion and I'm not expert in Russian affairs in any way I assume that Russians know but choose to ignore it. Russian frontiers are simply too big to became closed to external info forever. There are a million ways to sneak terabytes of videos among the import containers. Just a pigeon carrier with a SD or micro SD card would pass the blockage. But it doesn't matter. Showing the carnage and the lies of the government of the last two years will not move a hair. IMAO, Russians are in an archetypal abusive relationship with Putin. In this cases, the abused lives in denial, too afraid to break the bubble. As long as there is a tiny chance that the grinder-meat will stop before they reach top of the list, will obey and remain quiet as a flock of sheep. They will choose to please their abuser hoping to remain low in the punish list. Most of the 302.000 Russians killed in this war either never see it coming, or were too paralyzed to make a move and put themselves out of the frying pan (And videos in Avdiivka for example are crystal clear showing that is exactly that: a chain of frozen blue hamburgers running towards a giant frying pan). Unfortunately a lot more will die this year, so the army remains distracted dying, far from turning their focus towards Kremlin. Unless they will break the spell, the eventual disintegration of Russia in smaller states vassals of China seems more and more probable each day.
asdffdasasdf 3y ago
you're probably getting spoted by using a single server every time. protocol doesn't matter
chris-orgmenta 3y ago
(Sorry, this is possibly just my naivety here) - Would Mullvad+WireGuard still be an option? https://mullvad.net/en/help/connecting-to-mullvad-vpn-from-restrictive-locations#from-russia https://mullvad.net/en/help/connecting-to-mullvad-vpn-from-r... (And allows you to pay by posting cash or paying by cryptocurrency)

mmastrac 3y ago

As a curiosity, how do you pay for an EU VPS given the sanctions?

dudefeliciano 3y ago
DO does accept cryptocurrencies, that could be an option
MrDisposable 3y ago
Via a business bank account in one of the Baltic countries, or via a personal bank account in Georgia. For people who don't have bank accounts in other countries, or are of conscription age (means you can't get an international passport which is necessary to cross the border) I'd recommend teaming up with friends who emigrated. Some of them still need rubles in Russia (to pay for mortgages, or help their parents), so you provide them with rubles and they pay for your VPS.

pilosus 3y ago

I’ve written an Ansible playbook [1] to automate XRay installation on a Linux machine. Some people say XRay works well, but I don’t have personal experience. [1]: https://github.com/pilosus/Xray-ansible https://github.com/pilosus/Xray-ansible

jmnicolas 3y ago

Why do you host your VPN in "hostile" countries? Wouldn't it be better to host in Asia (Viet-Nam comes to mind) or Central / South America (Nicaragua etc)? Latency might suck but it would be better than no access.

cromka 3y ago
Chances that “the baddies” have an informal Five Eyes alike agreement are pretty high, I’d say.
- jmnicolas 3y ago
  Better than a NATO country though. As a French citizen I wouldn't host anything in Russia, not from a moral standpoint but because we're at war (it's a "soft" war for now, but who knows how it will evolve).
MrDisposable 3y ago
Just plain convenience and my laziness. Also, I'm not concerned about being prosecuted for the use of VPN (well, at least for now), I just want my Internet to work.

genman 3y ago

I was so hopeful in the beginning of 90s. There was sense of harmony all over the Northern hemisphere. But then Russia started to quickly become more and more aggressive, yes, first in the rhetoric, but then Putin came and the shit became real. Now I understand that the Russian society first had a kind of agreement with him - they don't mind the politics and Putin doesn't mind them. It looks like it has played out well for Putin but not so well for the rest of the Russians. Closing down close to all of the Internet traffic to the free world feels completely logical when the play of elections is nearing and if it is successful then it will probably remain like this.

EasyMark 3y ago
The USA dropped the ball on this. I was screaming at the news (or anyone that would listen :) ) that we needed work closer with Yeltsin/Gorbachev to support the burgeoning democracy. The USA just patted itself on the back and didn't do anything diplomatically/financially other than lip service to build economic ties and then the big collapse and rise of oligarchs and Putin.
- UberFly 3y ago
  They actually did open up relations a lot, but Russia was like Mordor and the old ways were just too ingrained. The ball was less dropped and more the air slowly deflated.
pvaldes 3y ago
Disclaimer: This is just an opinion and I'm not expert in Russian affairs in any way I assume that Russians know but choose to ignore it. Russian frontiers are simply too big to became closed to external info forever. There are a million ways to sneak terabytes of videos among the import containers. Just a pigeon carrier with a SD or micro SD card would pass the blockage. But it doesn't matter. Showing the carnage and the lies of the government of the last two years will not move a hair. IMAO, Russians are in an archetypal abusive relationship with Putin. In this cases, the abused lives in denial, too afraid to break the bubble. As long as there is a tiny chance that the grinder-meat will stop before they reach top of the list, will obey and remain quiet as a flock of sheep. They will choose to please their abuser hoping to remain low in the punish list. Most of the 302.000 Russians killed in this war either never see it coming, or were too paralyzed to make a move and put themselves out of the frying pan (And videos in Avdiivka for example are crystal clear showing that is exactly that: a chain of frozen blue hamburgers running towards a giant frying pan). Unfortunately a lot more will die this year, so the army remains distracted dying, far from turning their focus towards Kremlin. Unless they will break the spell, the eventual disintegration of Russia in smaller states vassals of China seems more and more probable each day.

asdffdasasdf 3y ago

you're probably getting spoted by using a single server every time. protocol doesn't matter

chris-orgmenta 3y ago

(Sorry, this is possibly just my naivety here) - Would Mullvad+WireGuard still be an option? https://mullvad.net/en/help/connecting-to-mullvad-vpn-from-restrictive-locations#from-russia https://mullvad.net/en/help/connecting-to-mullvad-vpn-from-r... (And allows you to pay by posting cash or paying by cryptocurrency)