Access Facebook in Vietnam

Vietnam seems to be heading in the direction of China in terms of Internet censorship. Yes, they're communists. Yes they censor the Internet. Yes, there are people trying to access Facebook in Vietnam. You've heard the story, and it's old news. I went to Vietnam recently and though their Internet censorship policies are no where near as strict as those in China, they're slowly heading in that direction.

Facebook was blocked back in 2009, just like in China. However, because - well to be honest I don't know the real reason behind it - because they didn't really have as much face to lose, and world events of the time weren't directly related to Vietnam (they were for China), their blocking of Facebook was a bit half-assed, so to say. You couldn't access Facebook in Vietnam directly, but any shmoe who knew how to search on Google knew about the "DNS trick", by which you could access Google's private DNS connections (https instead of http) and get access to Facebook. There were also many other ways to access Facebook in Vietnam - not 100%, but most of the time you could find sites here and there that through their https connections you could gain access.

Also, there were things like free proxies and other free "anti-Internet censorship" tools that hippies of the west put up to free us poor East Asian and Middle East countries who have to deal with not having Youtube, Twitter, Skype, Facebook, and Blogger.

However, much like that of China, Vietnam is slowly phasing out these smaller, unprotected, and badly constructed loop-holes.

An what are we left with to access Facebook in Vietnam?

VPNs. Yes, A VPN is a tool that any one living in a Internet freedom-oppressed country can't live without. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but really. Without a VPN in countries like China, Vietnam, and UAE, it is a REAL pain in the ass to do ANYTHING on the Internet. You never know when you're stepping on someone toes and you get blocked. Many times, just a search for Google images will trigger red flags in China, and block you from the entire search engine.

But ok, we're talking about Vietnam. So for the time being, VPNs are still great in Vietnam. You can use PPTP, L2TP, as well as SSL/OpenVPN. I know, its confusing if you've never used one. Basically, L2TP is for mobile devices like iPhone, iPad, and Android. SSL/OpenVPN is for laptops and desktops. PPTP is a not a very good VPN - it's like L2TP but not as advanced. Unlike China, Vietnam has yet to block L2TP and PPTP VPN protocols, so for the time being you can still access Facebook in Vietnam on your iPhone, iPad, and Android smart phones.

Cool.

Why use a VPN? I know, people on the Internet love free stuff, and no matter how many times I tell my friends to get a VPN, they say "Nah, I've got a free one". The thing is that their "free one" means that they've got limited bandwidth (limiting their picture uploads, video downloads, and connection speed), limited time, and you would be shocked at how patient they are waiting for their Facebook wall to upload.

No for me. I'm impatient. I want it now. I'll pay the measly ten bucks a month and not have to deal with WAITING ALL THE TIME.