Okay people. These latest developments indicate that we the paying consumers are considered futile, powerless peons by BTL/GOB/PUC. I have not tried any of these services, and therefore DO NOT ENDORSE THEM. These desktop VPN services will allow you to pass your VoIP client traffic to the US (in most cases) totally encrypted. In theory, they should work with Skype, Gizmo, Vonage Softphone etc. Test them out and let BFIC know if they work for you (if so, inform us privately at bficmail at gmail dot com). This WILL NOT HELP YOU if you have an ATA (analog adapter) system like Vonage or Packet 8.
You will see that most of the services are geared towards insecure wireless hotspots. Don’t worry about that, it will work with either a wired or wireless connection.
Most of them offer month-to-month and yearly plans. I would love if a few people signed up for the 1 month services and gave their reviews here.
Belize Free Internet Consortium 
From an anonymous BFIC reader:
I bought 1 month at publicvpn.com It does allow you to get on to Skype, but I had trouble with delay and the vpn server would have trouble connecting at times.
I was having all kinds of trouble with my internet today, my speed would vary between 30k and 100k so obviously BTL was fucking with the pipe. But one thing was consistent… via VPN I could get on Skype, but no VPN no Skype.
Tonight it has been much more stable. I’ll let you know how it goes over the next few days.
Keep up the fight!!
Public VPN works wonderfully with Skype. However, Skype-Out is completly garbled after about 10 seconds. Wondering if trying one of the other VPN’s might improve my chances??? Thanks for the tip!
Public VPN worked for me also with skype. For skype-out I tried to use the L2TP/IPsec
setting on VPN but unfortunately I can hear the person on the other end but they can’t
hear me. Is it a matter of settings or BTL again at work? Comments or suggestions
I received word that WiTopia also works, can we get more reviews? The more diversity we have the harder it will be for BTL to block these services too 😦
Skype doesn’t seem to work that well on Public VPN. There is too much delay and packet loss for a quality conversation. Using Public VPN shaves about 5-10kbps off of the connection speed wich means your upload speeds are not fast enough to support ViOP, at least not for us with “DSL light” service. Maybe a faster DSL speed would work better.
I am also suspicious that BTL has degraded the upload speed of DSL in order to render ViOP useless. Prior to the “iron firewall” last month my upload speed was usually 64Kbps, but now I never get any better than 53kbps and often upload speeds of less than 30kbps. This could be intentional by BTL or it could be a delay caused by their packet sniffing software that is essentially creating a bottleneck as all our data has to stand in line to be sniffed before BTL lets it through to the world wide web. Either way it means BTL is not delivering the level of service they are charging for. I suppose I should complain to the PUC? HA HA HA!
Gizmo seems to work better for ViOP although I have only tried computer to computer (you know the LEGAL form of ViOP that the PUC says we are supposed to be able to use!!!). I haven’t tried calling a PSTN phone with Gizmo yet.
Indeed, users trying Skype with Public VPN are experiencing mixed quality on 128k/64k connections. Folks using 256k/128k or above are fairing better.
Another problem, as suggested, is the encryption overhead introduced by both PublicVPN.com and Skype’s included encryption. Since Gizmo is not inherently encrypted on its own, this may yield better results using Public VPN on slower connections.
The other problem might be simply a slow computer. Try your best to not use any other applications while using the VPN w/ Skype, and absolutely don’t use any other applications that interferes with the internet connection (i.e. web browsing, streaming music/video, or even instant messaging).
Format future comments like this, and then provide any additional feedback.
————-
Speed of BTL/ISP Access: (128, 256, etc)
VoIP Service: (Skype, Gizmo, Vonage softphone)
Computer Operating System: (Windows, Mac, Linux)
VPN Service: (PublicVPN, Witopia etc.)
Type of VPN: (PPTP or L2VPN/IPSEC)
Quality of Service: (Describe)
————–
I have been unable to stay connected to the internet today via PublicVPN. It works for only a few minutes and then I have no internet connection. Once I disconnect my VPN internet access is fine, albeit with no VoIP services.
I hope this is a problem with PublicVPN and not an issue of BTL terminating all VPN traffic.
While BTL may not be happy that we can use VPNs to skirt their attempts to block VoIP, the fact of the matter is whatever data I send through my VPN is encrypted and therefore they can not prove that I am using it for VoIP. I have a right to protect my data and enjoy a secure connection on the internet. The very fact that they are sniffing every data packet is all the argument I need to justify using a VPN.
Denying me the use of a VPN for my own privacy and security would be like my bank forcing me to stand outside the ATM and shout out my PIN number to anyone who passes by.
BTL/ADSL @ 512/256 advertised – actual today 370/190
VOIP Service – Skype
Windows XP Pro SP2 with all updates with AVAST! anti virus, Microsoft anti-spy and firewall
A Pivate VPN in USA using SSL
Quality of Service – Excelent. No delay, no static or dropouts. ADSL speed while using this encripted VPN connection dropped to 90/65 so the use of a VPN with slower connections probably won’t work.
BTL blocked the publicvpn gateway server today for about 6 hours. The server was available to any user in the US/Europe, but Belize was “off the map”. Maybe that was just a test, but it is back up now (9:20pm BST)
Today I spoke to the office manager at my local BTL office, he says that BTL corporate is telling him to INSIST to his customers that VoIP is not being blocked. He even used Dean Boyce’s exact language “that is not of our concern”. Only cowards would do something like this, and I don’t mean the local BTL guys/gals.
Talking about this in the wide open is not the answer. Knowledge is power, and you are giving the enemy the knowledge they need to stop you. Want your shit to work? Don’t post it on the web in the #1 place where BTL is going to be looking! Talk to your neighbor, not the world, unless you are talking about a political solution or big scale ISP solution to the problem. Don’t ruin it for everybody when there is an answer for the people!
Also, anything you are doing wrong in writing is stupid….. I would recommend taking pages like this one down to preserve any hope of keeping your workarounds working. And for those of you that are not as tech savvy as some others on this site, BTL can block anything they damn well please at any time and it is NOT DIFFICULT for them to do so. Didn’t they prove that with the VoIP blocking?!? Seriously, we have to get this info off of Belize forums and other Belize-related sites.
Hi,
Thanks for the good sevice,
windows Xp sp2,
UAE, Dubai, Etisalat ADSL 256 KB
VOIP Skype
Skype is Blocked & I can not sign in.
So many web sait are blocked by etisalat….
Please I need some help on setting up proxy where I can pass etisalat proxy.
Zzz
amazinggggg serviceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
every voip things work amazing for only 40 dollars per year
contact me on rawdesire@gmail.com for more info!!
plus amazing speeeeeeeeeed! i love it it rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does tor have to work before you can install VPN? i cannot get it to start, and want VOiP
No, tor has nothing to do with the current solutions. Download hotspot shield from http://www.anchorfree.com, Turn on the VPN and use whatever VoIP client you like… Gizmo, Skype etc
007, I understand what you are saying. But the more we cower in a corner and sneak around, the more BTL gains power. They should be ashamed to talk about what they are doing. We should not hide. We should get louder and louder and louder until we are heard. Keep fighting the good fight and give the information to so many people that Belize doesn’t have one thousand people using a VOIP workaround, rather they have one million.
Well it looks like the bastards have blocked access to public VPN. I could not connect to my VPN a few weeks ago, but as soon as I was out of the country I was able to connect with no problem. Now back in Belizistan I can not connect to my VPN anymore.
While this may not become a hot button issue the way the initial voip block did, it should. BTL has now decided that we are not allowed to secure our connections to the internet! Forget voip, the bastards have now decided that we are must do our online banking, commerce, and any other sensitive activity in the wide open without any protection from hackers.
Once again BTL puts it’s insatiable greed ahead of the people of Belize.
Has anyone got any new info? I just arrived in Belize recently, and my business depends on using Skype.
I’ll build a private VPN with servers back home if I have to, but I’d like some advice on how to set one up, or what software to use to do it.
Wow thanks for sharing very informative.
Home Phone Comwave
Wow thanks for post sharing very information.
I used this to unblock Skype from Dubai: http://www.sunvpn.com/.
I surely works from Belize too.
Everyone loves it when folks get together and share opinions.
Great website, keep it up!
I’ve got a great discount coupon for those who are interested:http://www.primovpn.net and it is easy to use and give fast sdpeed.