FAQ

Q: How do I know if my internet traffic is being routed through GPass?

A: You can observe the network speed meter when you visit a website or upload/download a file. To be sure your internet traffic is being routed through GPass, you can block applications (i.e., IE or Firefox) from directly accessing the Internet using a firewall (such as Zone Alarm), but when you use these applications with GPass, they should be able to go online as usual.

Q: GPass is blocked in my environment. What can I do?

A: There are several scenarios:

• If GPass is blocked by an anti-virus software, simply allow GPass in your anti-virus software. Note that even though some anti-virus software may label GPass as a virus because some agencies do not want people to use GPass to access the Internet freely, we assure you that GPass is definitely not a virus and will not harm you or your computer.

• If GPass is being blocked by your personal firewall or LAN proxy, read firewall settings and LAN proxy settings to resolve the problem.

• If the type of channel you are using is blocked, try another type of channel. Refer to tunnels setup.

• If GPass still cannot find usable tunnels, try to get a current GPass server address via Skype or MSN and enter in the tunnels setup page.

• If your current version of GPass is indeed blocked and you've tried everything else, try to see if a new version of GPass is available. At the same time, capture some network traffic and send the debug information to us.

Q: I want the traffic of only some overseas websites to go through GPass but my normal web browsing to go through the network as usual. How can I do that?

A: Start a copy of your favorite browser inside GPass for the "sensitive" websites and keep another copy outside GPass for regular websites, if the browser allows multiple running instances. You can use network rules to switch your browser from connecting the Internet directly or via GPass. You can also use GProxy with Firefox to switch proxy between GPass and None.

Q: I have an application X that does not work with GPass.

A: Try to set GPass as a proxy (127.0.0.1:8000) for your application if it supports a Socks5 proxy. Some network protocols may not yet be supported by GPass. Let us know your needs through our website and we will do our best to help.

Q: How can I be sure the software (exe file) I get does not contain a Trojan or virus?

A: This is explained in integrity check.

Q: Can I change the default page my browser loads when it starts from GPass?

A: Drag a favorite item in Internet Explorer (IE) or a bookmark in Firefox that you intend to be your startup page to a folder, and then drag the shortcut icon onto the GPass application list. Instead of starting IE or Firefox, start such shortcuts in GPass. You can also drag-drop multiple copies of IE or Firefox onto the application list, and then change their parameters to the URLs of the web pages you want to open by default.

Q: What are Skype and Tor channels?

A: GPass enables you to transport your network data via Skype and Tor while improving your online security and speed by adding encryption and compression. These are intended as backup channels in GPass. For maximum security, you should always use GPass native channels as much as possible.

Skype and Tor are not part of GPass. They must be installed and started online first before you can set up and use them in GPass. For your safety, please always download Skype and Tor from their official website http://skype.com and http://torproject.org.

When Skype or Tor tunnels are used, the network speed may be slow initially. This is a limitation of Skype and Tor. It usually speeds up in a few minutes.

When Skype or Tor is used as a tunnel, to enable you to get online more securely, GPass will automatically change its network rule to "Ban unsafe IPs."  However, this safety measure will sometimes affect the speed of getting online; if you don't need this safety measure, you can first start Skype and then start GPass. When it asks if you want to restart Skype, select "No."

The GPass Tor tunnel does not require the Vidalia suite (Tor's user interface). You only need to copy Tor.exe to the folder where GPass is located and then you can use it along with GPass. 

Q: What is the difference between Skype tunnel and running Skype via GPass?

A: This involves two completely different methods of use:

(1) GPass' Skype tunnel:  For example, if you start IE in GPass which Skype tunnel selected, your online data from IE will be encrypted by GPass and transported by Skype.

(2) Running Skype via GPass (going through GPass tunnels or Tor tunnels):  GPass will encrypt Skype's chat data and transport it through the current tunnels. Of course, in this situation, you cannot use Skype as a tunnel.

Q: I am in China, and my friend is in the US. If I use Skype via GPass, but my friend does not, do I gain any security benefit from GPass?

You are saying that you are in China using Skype via GPass, but your friend is using Skype overseas without GPass.  In this case, your Skype data will be encrypted through GPass, first sent to the GPass overseas servers and then after the GPass servers decrypt it, it is sent to your friend. The data your friend sends to you will be returned in the opposite way.

In terms of security, there are two benefits to doing it this way:  1. Even if your copy of Skype had a backdoor, your chat data will not be intercepted inside China because GPass helps you to encrypt it; and 2. your Skype basically will not connect with a Skype supernode inside China (which could be a trap set by the Public Security Bureau).
 

Q: After I start my browser from GPass, do I still need to set its proxy?

A:  The short answer is No. Long answer: There are three scenarios under which a browser and GPass are used together:

(1) The browser is started outside of GPass and directly sets 127.0.0.1:8000 as its SOCKS proxy. (For Firefox, you can set GPass as its proxy via GProxy). This is similar to the traditional anti-censorship software FreeGate and UltraReach.

 
(2) The browser is started from the  application list. This is the automatic mode. In this case the proxy of your browser is directly set to GPass and "[Via GPass]" will appear in the title of the browser. Because of the famous SocksCap program developed by NEC, the browser is said to be capped.

Depending on the speed of your computer and your browser, your online activities may be slightly slower than when you are not using GPass. However, this method protects your online activities more thoroughly. In particular, add-ons and processes started by your browser are also automatically protected by GPass, which are otherwise often left unprotected when method (1) is used.

(3) The browser is started from the  application list. At the same time, GPass is set as the proxy of the browser. This a combination of (1) and (2). This situation is the best in terms of both speed and security.

Q: What is the difference between Tor and GPass?

A: Strictly speaking, Tor is an anonymization software. It hides your IP address, but its anti-censorship capability is weak. In fact, its nodes can easily be tracked and blocked. Its speed is often slow because your online data is sent through several nodes sequentially. Even worse, censorship regimes are known to set up fake nodes and are able to trap and track you.

GPass is an anti-censorship tool with anonymization capability. Moreover, its automatic mode supports more network applications and provides much more thorough protection than Tor+Torxifier. 

Q: What is the difference between SocksCap and GPass?
 

A: SocksCap is a software initially developed by NEC that automatically sets a proxy in network applications. There is an opensource but less functional version named FreeCap. GPass has a more functional SocksCap built in. Furthermore, GPass 4 has network control which offers users more flexibility and control. On top of this, GPass encrypts and compresses your data, and has built-in dynamic channel discovery and selection.

Q: What is GProxy?

GProxy is a Firefox/Thunderbird add-on (toolbar and status bar icon) that helps users to manage and switch proxy settings easily.

There are two ways to use Firefox/Thunderbird with GPass. One is installing GProxy in Firefox/Thunderbird and starting them outside GPass, and the other is starting them from the application list. The former method is similar to how Freegate and Ultrasurf set browser proxies, and is more suitable for browsing conventional websites. You usually experience faster online speed, but some non-conventional browser plug-ins may bypass the proxy settings. The latter method covers more software and applications. It inserts GPass proxy automatically into applications that you start from the application list and their descendants, including software that does not support proxy. For example, you can start the CMD command line from GPass, then start wget or ftp from the command line, and the network traffic of wget and ftp will go through GPass.

With GProxy installed, you can choose GPass proxy to use GPass or None (i.e., no proxy) to restore direction connection. You only need to switch proxy this way if you start Firefox or Thunderbird via the yellow Firefox button or the menus next to it. You do not need to do so if your start Firefox or Thunderbird from the application list.

Q: Where does GPass write its data or temporary files?

A: Due to safety and portability considerations, GPass saves its configurations in local files rather than in a Windows registry. GPass selects a folder to store its configuration data and temporary files according to:

(1) If the directory where GPass.exe is stored is writable, this directory is used; otherwise

(2) If GPass.exe (except when it is a shortcut of GPass.exe) is on the desktop, GPass examines the following directories in sequence and selects the first usable one: [My Documents]\GPass, [The Disk where GPass.exe is Stored]\Temp, C:\Temp, and the Windows temporary folder.

(3) The help file help.chm is always extracted to \Temp.

GPass has two menu items to clean out these data files upon exiting, if the user chooses to do so: Clear GPass Traces on Exit and Clear IE History and Cache on Exit.

Q: What is the Restore IE Proxy menu for?

A: When IE is started in GPass, the proxy it set previously is cleared because otherwise IE may still try to connect to its proxy. When GPass exits, your IE proxy is restored. But sometimes your IE proxy cannot be restored successfully, e.g., when your computer crashes. In this case, the Restore IE Proxy menu offers a way to rescue the situation.

Q: When I download large files I do not want to attract attention. Can GPass distribute my download traffic among multiple channels?

A: GPass has an option to change server (tunnel) every 10 minutes for this purpose. It is quite effective with Tor tunnel, too.

Q: Why do you offer GPass?

A:  The creators and operators of GPass are mostly practitioners of Falun Gong. We believe in information freedom and feel certain totalitarian states have engaged in malicious suppression of their people's online activities, violating their right to information and freedom of speech. So we created GPass to help you reclaim these basic human rights that you are entitled to. In China, in particular, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is persecuting Falun Gong, monopolizes the media, silences voices of dissent, and at the same time, attempts to cut off all channels for the Chinese people to hear the truth. Our hope is that the Chinese people, and others who live in closed societies around the world, can hear the truth and have the freedom to speak the truth via GPass and the Internet.

Q: How can I support you?

A: GPass was created to ensure the safety of all users and we rely on private funding to continue operations.  You can help us by promoting GPass to more users.  The more popular GPass becomes, the more likely we will get funding for the free service we provide to millions around the world.