Sweet!
That’s great news man! Good shit!
Gents, from Oct 2nd until the 4th I’ll be in Suzhou for work. If we want to get something going this Saturday I’ll be available early afternoon. Got a family thing in the morning.
VPN, I has it.
What service did you pick up?
I’ve been running VPN since I got here.
Ah you got it to work? Good stuff man! What was the problem?
We weren’t running the VPN client as admin. It’s all peachy now.
Finally found some soldering equipment here in China. Was kind of nightmarish, cab driver just dropped me off on a block, all the stores had the symbol for electric in them, none of them save one sold a soldering iron. Someone tried to sell me a welding torch instead.
Buuut, I got it for cheaper than I thought. One iron + a megaton of solder for 43元. Not too shabby.
What’s up guys? Let’s get some games on this weekend!
Starcade, what VPN service are you using?
I’m having problems with mine lately, just running horribly, and my wife can’t connect at all. So I’m in the market for something better if things don’t clear up over the weekend.
Starcade and I both use Witopia VPN. They have two websites, either www.witopia.net or hopthewall.com(net?). Their SSL and Pro packages are a little steep but the speed is great and their response to government blocking is pretty good. You can select from a huge list of servers and there is no limit to how many times you can change from one to the other. Customer support is pretty good as well. Don’t go for the PPTP because it is blocked in China.
Yeah, I’m running Surfbouncer, and unless things change, I’m switching. But I know my wife won’t be going for something “steep.” She wants to switch to a Korean VPN for $6/mo down from surfbouncer which is $15/mo.
But I’ll tell her not to be looking for PPTP.
I almost said that’s not bad for $60/year, but then I realized that was per machine. Blech.
Well if you absolutely need to both be on at the same time often, then yeah it is steep. Otherwise you can have the VPN on multiple machines but can’t be on at the same time. The SSL package is at 50-60$/m and it is more than worth the price, in my experience, because of the speed of the connection and their response timing to issues.
I think I got mine fixed for right now. I’d like to stay with it if it continues to work, because once I figure out how to set it up in my DD-WRT router, I can just have my wireless router maintain the connection, then even my wife’s smartphone can access the internet through VPN, and then if for some reason we need to access through the chinese servers only, then we can plug into the wired router I brought to sit in front of the wireless router for that very purpose, or if that’s too much of a hassle, I’ll get a cheap wireless router to run with that.
That sounds like a pretty good idea. I’m solid right now with my Witopia connection. I got the Pro package that gives me access to the L2TP VPN which I can use with my iPhone and iPad. It’s the priciest solution but I’m a happy camper. 
Yo, J! Had fun in Hangzhou? I just ordered a new case for my stick from the Qanba people. It’s the one from their latest model, the Q4 RAF. I’ll probably have it before the week is over.
I’m gonna be buying UMvC3 and KoFXIII from taobao this month guys. If anyone wants any of these games let me know and I’ll grab more copies. As usual I’m going with the HK versions because I’m cheap but I’m sure there are some US versions floating around as well.
I want it, but I can wait a month. UMVC3 at least. May want KOF as well. I’ll hold off and buy them next month or while I’m in Seoul in January.
how much is a copy of U? I might spring for that if its cheaper.
Also the first post should be updated to include 东直门 as the newest spot for SF for the y’know veritable FLOOD of newcomers. ;_;
@Raas I did a quick and dirty search on taobao just now and I can see prices for UMvC3 ranging from 280-425 RMB (postage not included)
@Missing Person Taobao generally has a wide selection of versions if that is a concern. You can pretty much find HK, JP and US versions. There’s not much to worry about if you go with sellers that have a decent rep (a couple of diamonds or crowns).