ChinaNet blocking access from American universities? [fs]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:27:23 -0600
To: declan () well com
From: [deleted]
Subject: ChinaNet blocking American academic access

Hi Declan,

I've not been able to peruse all recent Politech messages, so I may have 
missed this.  If it hasn't made the list, though, I think it's intriguing 
and vitally important.

I've attached a general announcement, sent today, from the IT staff of the 
major university where I work.  I've anonymized it as best I can; please do 
the same for my particulars.  (If you want the original message for 
journalistic verification, complete with PGP signature, I'd be happy to 
forward it to you.)

Thanks!

. . . . . . . . . .

Several weeks ago, it was brought to the attention of Telecommunications 
and Network Services that many web sites and networks within China were 
inaccessible from the ___________ University network.

Investigations into this matter revealed that the ChinaNet network 
administrators had begun to block all IP traffic to and from the registered 
DNS (Domain Name Service) servers for ___________'s network, as well as the 
DNS servers for numerous other US universities and institutions. This made 
it impossible for users on our network to perform DNS lookups for any hosts 
on the Chinese network.

Users experiencing this problem were requested to send email to 
china-dns@___________.edu to receive instructions on how to temporarily 
work around the issue by reconfiguring their machines to query 
XXX.XXX.XXX.XX for DNS information.

At this time, IT believes that a more effective long-term solution has been 
implemented, and use of this temporary DNS server should no longer be 
necessary. IT will cease offering DNS services from XXX.XXX.XXX.XX on 
Friday, November 21, 2003.

Users should return their computers to their previous configurations for 
DNS servers before this date to avoid any interruption of service. If you 
need assistance with this reconfiguration, please contact your technical 
support representative or the Information Center at XXX-XXX-XXXX.

Please note that ChinaNet appears to have taken this action as part of a 
content blocking policy.  IT cannot guarantee that the ChinaNet 
administrators will not make another attempt to block traffic from our 
network in the future.

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