Access Gmail in China:Thunderbird+IMAP

richard — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:01:09 +0000

In the past 2 months, it is very difficult to access gmail ( https://mail.google.com ) in China. Time out. Can not connect to the server. As a loyal google fan, I cann’t endure the days without accessing gmail. I can use VPN to climb the GFW and access web gmail smoothly.

If you don’t have an VPN to climb the GFW, you can use free email client software thunderbird to access gmail.

Download thunderbird and install on your PC.
Setup new mail account: FILE–NEW–MAIL ACCOUNT.
Input your gmail account info, thunderbird will read SMTP/POP3/IMAP server info automatically. What you need to do is just click “create account”.
Done. Enjoy Gmail.

After my test, when you can not access web gmail, you can still access your gmail via thunderbird.

It is hard to be a google fan in China

richard — Mon, 09 May 2011 10:02:10 +0000

Google is a great invent in the internet era. Google is top.1 search engine in the world. But in China, it is very hard to be a google fan. The reason is apparently: Great Firewall of China. You can not access many google products in china, including: Youtube, Blogger, Google Sites.,etc.

Thanks God. Gmail is still accessable in China. Gmail means a fast and secure free web mail service to chinese netizens. Unlike Yahoo Mail, Yahoo sold out chinese user’s account info to china goverment.

Unfortunately, now GFW begin to take action to Gmail. In the past 2 months, chinese netizens found they can not access https://mail.google.com sometimes or it is very slow to open gmail.

Now if you still want to use gmail in china , you have to try to find a way to climb the wall. The most popular and trustable way is: VPN. Smart chinese netizens bought VPS and build their own VPN service( just like me) . Althought it is hard, nothing can stop us to be a google fan even we are in china.

The story of Google and GFW » gmail

Access Gmail in China:Thunderbird+IMAP

It is hard to be a google fan in China