Just now at around 12:00 noon Beijing time on October 25, 2020, ExpressVPN’s officially recommended method of connecting to the wall in mainland China is no longer available: Automatic Protocol + 4 servers (Hong Kong – 4, Japan – Yokohama, Singapore – Marina Bay, USA – Los Angeles – 5), I ran the flip test on three devices – IOS, Windows 10, and MacOS – and they all showed that I think this is a sign that ExpressVPN is experiencing this, and I’m sure other VPNs and flip-flops will feel the chill right away as well. This is because on October 26th and 29th, mainland China will be holding the “5th Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee” for four days. I thought the October blocking period might be over this year, but it doesn’t look like it, as the real blocking period may only start today.
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Local Devcie and Network: Windows10/200M/WiFi;
Speedtest Ping: 4ms; Download: 237.03Mbps; Upload: 37.03Mbps;
ExpressVPN – Official Method Test in China:
The officially recommended method is to set the connection protocol to Automatic and then connect to the official 4 servers optimized for the Chinese mainland: Hong Kong – 4, Japan – Yokohama, Singapore. – Marina Bay, USA – Los Angeles – 5.
Starting Time: Oct 25, 2020, 12:52 PM
Device and network: Windows10/200M/WiFi Connection;
ExpressVPN Version: 9.2.0 (58)
Protocol: Automatic
Hong Kong – 4: Failed. (Try once)
Japan – Yokohama: Failed. (Try once)
Singapore – Marina Bay: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 5: Failed. (Try once)
Device and network: MacOS/200M/WiFi Connection;
ExpressVPN Version: 9.0.12 (9)
Protocol: Automatic
Hong Kong – 4: Failed. (Try once)
Japan – Yokohama: Failed. (Try once)
Singapore – Marina Bay: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 5: Failed. (Try once)
Device and network: IOS/200M/WiFi Connection/China mobile 4G;
ExpressVPN Version: 8.3.8 (13490)
Protocol: Automatic
Hong Kong – 4: Failed. (Try once)
Japan – Yokohama: Failed. (Try once)
Singapore – Marina Bay: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 5: Failed. (Try once)
ExpressVPN – IKEv2 Protocol Test in China:
This method is not an official recommendation, but a suitable method for using ExpressVPN connections in mainland China, as the IKEv2 protocol currently exists only on Windows, IOS, and MacOS systems, and is not supported by Android devices.
Due to time constraints, I will not be running speed tests for all of today’s IKEv2 tests, so I hope you will forgive me. If you have any questions, please leave a message.
Starting Time: Oct 25, 2020, 1:25 PM
Device and network: Windows10/200M/WiFi Connection;
ExpressVPN Version: 9.2.0 (58)
Protocol: IKEv2
USA – Santa Monica: Failed. (Try once)
USA – New York: First success. (Time efficiency: 5s)
USA – San Francisco: First success. (Time efficiency: 5s)
USA – Chicago: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Washington DC: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Dallas: First success. (Time efficiency: 15s)
USA – Miami: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 3: Failed. (Try once)
USA – New Jersey – 1: First success. (Time efficiency: 11s)
USA – Los Angeles – 2: First success. (Time efficiency: 9s)
USA – New Jersey – 3: First success. (Time efficiency: 55s)
Canada – Toronto- 2: First success. (Time efficiency: 38s)
Device and network: MacOS/200M/WiFi Connection;
ExpressVPN Version: 9.0.12 (9)
Protocol: IKEv2
USA – Santa Monica: Failed. (Try once)
USA – New York: First success. (Time efficiency: 6s)
USA – San Francisco: First success. (Time efficiency: 4s)
USA – Chicago: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Chicago: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Dallas: First success. (Time efficiency: 55s)
USA – Dallas: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 3: Failed. (Try once)
USA – New Jersey – 1: First success. (Time efficiency: 41s)
USA – Atlanta: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles: First success. (Time efficiency: 8s)
USA – Dallas – 2: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Hollywood: Failed. (Try once)
USA – New Jersey – 2: Failed. (Try once)
USA – New York – 2: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 1: First success. (Time efficiency: 39s)
Canada – Toronto – 2: First success. (Time efficiency: 136s)
Canada – Toronto: First success. (Time efficiency: 133s)
UK – London: First success. (Time efficiency: 12s)
Device and network: IOS/200M/WiFi Connection/China mobile 4G;
ExpressVPN Version: 8.3.8 (13490)
Protocol: IKEv2
Due to time constraints, I will not be running speed tests for all of today’s IKEv2 tests, so I hope you will forgive me. If you have any questions, please leave a message. It’s troublesome to upload screenshots to your computer after testing on your mobile phone, so I will only publish the test results for IOS/iPhone tests.
USA – Santa Monica: Failed. (Try once)
USA – New York: First success. (Time efficiency: 8s)
USA – San Francisco: First success. (Time efficiency: 9s)
USA – Chicago: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Washington DC: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Dallas: First success. (Time efficiency: 6s)
USA – Miami: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 3: Failed. (Try once)
USA – New Jersey – 1: First success. (Time efficiency: 72s)
USA – Los Angeles – 2: First success. (Time efficiency: 20s)
USA – New Jersey – 3: First success. (Time efficiency: 22s)
USA – Seattle: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Miami – 2: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Denver: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Selt Lake City: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Tampa – 1: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 1: First success. (Time efficiency: 55s)
USA – Los Angeles: First success. (Time efficiency: 6s)
Canada – Toronto – 2: First success. (Time efficiency: 61s)
Summary: Today I tested two methods of ExpressVPN in Macbook, Windows 10, and iPhone. The officially recommended method (Auto+4 servers) is currently disabled and cannot be used. However, the IKEv2 protocol is still available, which I tested mainly on US-based servers, and although the connection success rate has dropped a bit, there are still quite a few servers available. I’ll keep an eye on it, and post a new test article as soon as it changes!
ExpressVPN Test Version: See above；Protocol: Auto/IKEv2
Today’s Test Score: ★ ★ ★
