Comment by hiddendoom45
1 day ago
From my own personal experience with an outline server running on the same IP over 3 years, the GFW consistently ends up blocking it around 3 days after I first connect. Outline does use shadowsocks to obfuscate but I suspect the traffic detection is what triggers it after 3 days of observations. Running multiple servers and repeatedly cycling through them is an experiment I want to try the next time I'm there.
I've also observed similar behavior with the vpn I'm using as backup where the server I'm using tends to get blocked in around the same timeframe. It's using openvpn/wireguard as the underlying protocol which doesn't try to obfuscate itself so I suspect traffic pattern analysis plays a larger role in what gets blocked than the protocol itself. The exception was my recent trip week-long trip where I was mostly cycling between two servers without noticing either being blocked.
>GFW consistently ends up blocking it around 3 days after I first connect
I saw a lot of speculation years ago that the GFW used to flag connections for human review. 3 days sounds like support ticket turnaround.
Makes sense; the "3 days" you mention reminds me of something sad ~10 years ago. At an expo, there was this company "Dowran" with a banner boasting about "adjustable internet disruption patterns on demand" and other corporate catch phrases. I can assume there's an operator who installs GWF and puts "3" as part of installer wizard.