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Comment by Zombieball | Hacker News Reader

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Zombieball·

> If they have no presence in Brazil, how did they get shut down in Brazil?

Blocked at the ISP level.

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Seems like a flaw in the service if it can be shut down that easily.

Why is that a flaw in the service? The ISP/mobile operator is essentially the gatekeeper to the Internet; having them block WhatsApp (or anything else) is just a case of them adding a block rule to their DNS.

What would interest me is knowing whether or not access is still blocked if you change your default DNS server to something like 8.8.8.8?

Changing the DNS server has no effect; I use Google's and it's still blocked.

What if you hit it via some VPN service?

I can reach them through a VPN, no problem at all to communicate with people outside of Brazil or with those connected through a VPN.

OT: Intrigued and tempted by ivpn.net but the about page don't give me enough info to decide (no team, no physical address...) Where can I read more?

Whois has provider name, business address and telephone.[0] They say:[1]

> VPN was founded in 2009 by a group of information security professionals who met whilst doing their Msc in Information Security at Royal Holloway, University Of London.

I've never researched that, but I've worked with them for years, and it's consistent with my experience. They're good people, I believe.

[0] http://www.siteshowinfo.org/sites/www.ivpn.net

[1] https://www.ivpn.net/aboutus

Somehow I assumed you worked for ivpn, based on your profile. My bad! Thanks for the info anyway.

I freelance.

WhatsApp uses IP addresses directly to route the traffic, but you could still use a VPN. The problem is that unless everyone else uses one you won't be able to talk to them...

Using DNS is the start of the flaw.

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