Shutdowns en

Internet shutdowns: what still works

Sometimes a country does not filter sites but cuts the connection to the rest of the world, while sites hosted inside the country keep working. Shroudly notices this by itself and says "Only this country's network works". This page explains what that means, what Shroudly can and cannot do then, and what you can prepare.

What a shutdown is

• Filtering: some sites and apps are blocked, the rest of the internet works. This is what Shroudly gets past every day.
• Only the national network: the connection to the rest of the world is cut. Sites and apps hosted inside the country (banks, local news, local messengers) still open; everything abroad does not. Shroudly checks this by opening well-known sites inside the country with their real certificates, so a hotel or café sign-in page is not mistaken for it.
• Full shutdown: nothing works, not even sites inside the country.

No app can make a connection that does not exist. Shroudly's techniques get past filters that inspect traffic; they cannot reopen a route that has been cut. When the world comes back, Shroudly carries on by itself: you do not need to restart anything.

What still helps when only the national network works

A shutdown cuts the country's ordinary connections to the world, but rarely all of them: some data centres, companies and connections (and satellite links) may still reach it. Through one of them, you can reach the world too.

Your own server

If you have the address of a server that still reaches the world, Shroudly can send everything through it.

1. Get its link from someone you trust. Shroudly accepts socks5://…, http://… and Shadowsocks ss://… links, the kind that are passed around for this.
2. Computer: Settings → Server and sharing → Your own server. Android: Settings → Advanced → Your own server. iPhone, iPad: Settings → Your own server.
3. Paste the link and press Use. Shroudly first opens a site through it and tells you whether it works, and why not if it does not (no answer, a wrong password, a server that does not carry sites).

While it is set, every site goes through that server, and Shroudly's own techniques still apply on the way to it. If the server stops working, the main window says so; Stop using turns it off.

The server can see which sites you open (not what you read on them, which stays encrypted). Use only a server whose owner you trust.

Share my connection

If your connection still reaches the world (a different provider, a workplace, a data centre, a satellite link), you can let people you trust use it through Shroudly.

1. Computer: Settings → Server and sharing → Share my connection, and turn it on. Your system may ask whether Shroudly may accept connections: allow it.
2. Shroudly shows a link (ss://…). Copy it and give it to the people you trust, through a messenger that works inside the country, in person, or on a piece of paper.
3. They put it into Your own server in Shroudly (computer or Android), or into any Shadowsocks app (v2rayNG, Hiddify, Shadowrocket, sing-box and others).

• On the same network (the same Wi-Fi, the same building) the link works right away.
• Over the internet it works only when your router opens a way in (Shroudly asks it, using UPnP) and your provider gives you an address of your own. Many mobile and some home connections share one address among many customers; then only people on the same network can use it, and Shroudly says so.
• New link makes a new link and stops the old one at once, if a link went to someone it should not have.

What they open goes out from your connection. Give the link only to people you trust: you may be held responsible for what is done with it. Shroudly keeps no record of what they open, only how many people are connected right now. People who use the link can never reach your computer or your home network (your router, printers, other devices), only sites on the internet.

Prepare before a shutdown

• Install Shroudly now and keep it updated. During a shutdown its download page abroad cannot be reached.
• Keep the installer. Save the Android APK and the installer for your computer on your phone, your computer and a USB stick. Give copies to family and friends: an APK can be passed from phone to phone without the internet (Bluetooth, a cable, a nearby-share app).
• Keep links ready. If someone you trust runs a server, keep its link before you need it.
• Know who can share. Friends with a connection that may stay up (another provider, work, a data centre) can turn on Share my connection for you.
• Offline messaging: Briar sends messages over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi between phones nearby, with no internet at all. Install it while you can.
• Save what you may need: offline maps, important documents, contacts.

When nothing works at all

• Briar keeps nearby phones in touch without the internet.
• Toosheh (toosheh.org) sends news and files over ordinary satellite TV: with a satellite dish and a receiver you can receive, without any internet connection. It only receives; you cannot send anything back with it.
• Radio and satellite TV keep bringing news from outside.

Satellite internet

Satellite internet (Starlink and others) does not go through the country's network, so a national shutdown does not cut it. But the dish and its use can be illegal where you live, its signal can be located, and terminals and "satellite VPNs" are often sold at high prices, sometimes by scammers. If you consider it, know the law and the risk first; pay little and test before you pay more. Someone with a satellite connection can use Share my connection to let a few trusted people nearby use it.

Other tools

Tor Browser (with Snowflake bridges), Psiphon and Lantern are free anti-censorship tools from other projects. Like Shroudly, they need some connection to the outside to work; during a national-only shutdown they work only where such a connection still exists.

Help people in censored countries

• Windows, macOS, Linux (Settings → Server and sharing → Help people in censored countries): While this is on, people in countries that censor the internet use a little of this computer's connection to get past the blocks. It is safe for you: they cannot reach this computer or your network, what they open stays encrypted, and the sites they open never see your address. Nothing is recorded, and your connection is used only while someone is being helped. How it works: they come through the Tor network's Snowflake, so what they open leaves from Tor's servers, not from yours.
• Android (About → Help people in censored countries): People in countries that censor the internet can use a little of this phone's connection to get past the blocks. On a phone, a free app made for it does this, and you turn it on and off there: Psiphon's Conduit, or Orbot's Kindness Mode. It is safe for you: they cannot reach your phone or your network, and the sites they open never see your address.
• iPhone, iPad (About → Help people in censored countries): People in countries that censor the internet can use a little of this device's connection to get past the blocks. On iPhone and iPad, Psiphon's free Conduit app does this, and you turn it on and off there. It is safe for you: they cannot reach your device or your network, and the sites they open never see your address.

Safety

• The internet inside a country during a shutdown is closely watched. What you send through domestic apps and sites can be read by the authorities.
• Shroudly never sends anything about you to anyone (see the guide). The server you choose under Your own server sees which sites you open; the people you share with use your connection.
• Download Shroudly only from its official pages, or take it from someone you trust who did.

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