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Tell HN: Tailscale is giving 451s within Russia

9 points by Humorist2290 ↗ HN
A friend who lives in Russia was using Tailscale to connect to an exit node placed elsewhere to communicate with family via Signal etc. Now when they connect to the control server the requests give a 451 'unavailable for legal reasons' error. Probably a self-hosted control server like Headscale might circumvent this censorship for some time, but the friend is not technical enough (and understandably afraid) to manage this.

13 comments

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bez00m
Can confirm. Many paid VPNs are not reliable enough as Roskomnadzor is successfully targeting them. I though that by deploying Tailscale exit node on my own server I could overcome this. Alas, not anymore.
u_sama
For a functional VPN with all the telecom companies you should set up a v2ray/Xray node on a close VPS in a country near your area.

It is functional as I had to set up some for some people, if you need help I can guide you through it as there are not many good English guides.

bez00m
Thanks for an advice, I'll have a look. Was planning to setup a Wireguard server, but things are moving in this area.
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borschkharcho
I successfully got Headscale working on a digital ocean droplet and all is back to normal for me. It’s not too difficult lmk if you need tips.
denis0
Me too, but I cannot find a field for Alternate Coordination Server on client Tailscale for IOS 1.74.0
borschkharcho
I have 1.74.2 and it’s in the actual Tailscale app settings (not iOS settings) under Login -> top right toolbar button
atlasduo
This has been going on for a while. A year or so ago I remember Tailscale was blocking downloads of their applications from Russian IPs. HTTP 451 means "unavailable for legal reasons" so I imagine this is Tailscale trying to cover its soft spots.
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randomopining
Wait so can't you just use an encrypted connection to a physical host somewhere outside of russia and then basically haave access to everything?
chupasaurus
DPI there detects and blocks a good number of VPN protocols.