# My computer(on the internet) knows I'm in China. How can I stop this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2004, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-on-the-internet-knows-im-in-china-how-can-i-stop-this/264816 "2004-09-18T07:27:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-on-the-internet-knows-im-in-china-how-can-i-stop-this/264816/21 "2004-09-18T19:08:56Z")
That sounds about right. I seem to remember a few Pit threads about not being allowed to discuss things that are legal in Canada but illegal in the States. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-on-the-internet-knows-im-in-china-how-can-i-stop-this/264816/22 "2004-09-18T19:30:31Z")
I have a Japanese handheld computer (several, actually, but the one in question is a Sigmarion III, which uses a partially-English-converted Japanese version of Windows CE .NET 4.1). It runs the CE .NET version of Internet Explorer, and that’s one of the things that is sort-of still in Japanese. Now, I am in the United States, and so is my IP address, but when I go to Google, the Japanese version of the page comes up. I haven’t yet found a place to change the language preference in the Internet Explorer software itself, but hopefully the above reference on how to change the language preference in Google itself should be helpful. So, how the heck does Google (and presumably the other sites that come up as Japanese too) figure out that this browser is Japanese? It is still doing it even after I’ve replaced the Internet Explorer .exe file with an English version, so it’s apparently not a function of the executable itself. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-on-the-internet-knows-im-in-china-how-can-i-stop-this/264816/23 "2004-09-18T19:39:11Z")
> [@InvidiousCourgette](#): > > I just found this [list of proxies](http://www.publicproxyservers.com/page1.html) at the bottom of this [page](http://www.publicproxyservers.com/index.html) by googling for “proxy server”. > > As an experiment I went into IE’s Tools\>Internet Options\>Connections\>Settings and filled in all the info for one of the anonymous proxy servers listed and enabled it. I then went to the web page [what is my ip](http://www.whatismyip.com/) to see what IP it told me I had. It seems like it got the correct IP, and not the proxy IP. 😕 > > As I don’t really understand this stuff too much, can anyone explain what is going on? Will a proxy server be any use to **Mahaloth**? You may have goofed up - I just tried a quick trial with one of the anonymous proxies from your list, and the whatismyip site. It reported the proxy IP on both IE and Firefox for me, which should give the OP what he wants, if he can stand the performance hit from the proxy server chosen (if you’re in China, and are filtering through a US proxy to get a US-seeming IP address, there’s obviously potential for long lag times). It is also possible that you chose one of the transparent proxies, which is not designed to conceal the source IP address, and “whatismyip” is smart enough to pick up the relayed IP from the X\_FORWARDED\_FOR header. Some background on the headers sent by proxy servers (what that page calls “variables” beginning with HTTP\_ correspond to HTTP headers. They are seen as variable settings in a CGI script): [http://www.freeproxy.ru/en/free\_proxy/faq/proxy\_anonymity.htm](http://www.freeproxy.ru/en/free_proxy/faq/proxy_anonymity.htm) ---
**Author:** ![InvidiousCourgette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@InvidiousCourgette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InvidiousCourgette)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-on-the-internet-knows-im-in-china-how-can-i-stop-this/264816/24 "2004-09-18T19:52:13Z")
Hmmm. I just tried it again with a different (anonymous) proxy. Same result. What am I doing wrong? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-on-the-internet-knows-im-in-china-how-can-i-stop-this/264816/25 "2004-09-18T21:13:23Z")
> [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > Peter Morris, how did you get Chinese characters to appear correctly? (Those are “traditional” by the way. If Mahaloth is in mainland China they will be “simplified” or “modern” and will be a bit different. Which I’m sure PM will know, but others might not.) Oh, I just cut from Chinese Google and pasted into the SDMB reply to thread editor. (Actually, I don’t know anything about Chinese, I just experimented to find out how to switch languages) ---
**Author:** ![rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-on-the-internet-knows-im-in-china-how-can-i-stop-this/264816/26 "2004-09-19T02:46:30Z")
this might help. [http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-03-08.htm#5](http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-03-08.htm#5) ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-on-the-internet-knows-im-in-china-how-can-i-stop-this/264816/27 "2004-09-20T15:10:48Z")
I had a meeting last year with a US-based software company that had developed software that would spoofe the Chinese firewall, allowing Chinese users unrestructed access to [cnn.com](http://cnn.com), Falun Gong websites, and all sorts of stuff. I’m not really a computer-savvy individual, but it involved the random generation of proxy servers (or something like that) that would prevent the Chinese authorities from simply blocking access to an IP for a proxy. In essence, there would be far too many Internet routes out of China than the government could possibly hope for. Sounds great, right? Well, I’ll be damned if I can remember the company or the product’s name. I remember that they were based in Silicon Valley (yeah, big help, I know), and that the product was being distributed for free. I’ll search my files and see what I can find, and will return if I can track down the name. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-on-the-internet-knows-im-in-china-how-can-i-stop-this/264816/28 "2004-09-20T15:49:17Z")
A little searching turned up [this](http://jgillick.nettripper.com/switchproxy/) Firefox browser extension which can be used in combination with a list of proxy servers like [this](http://www.stayinvisible.com/index.pl/proxy_list), which ought to do nicely. I found that [here](http://joi.ito.com/archives/2004/09/10/the_chinese_firewall.html), along with an interesting discussion about using SSH to get around the Chinese firewall. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-on-the-internet-knows-im-in-china-how-can-i-stop-this/264816.md?page=1)