Half of what's published online about Great Firewall is recycled from 2019. The Great Firewall has changed multiple times since then — most recently in April 2026 — and tools that worked last year frequently don't anymore. Below is the current, tested setup as of 2026-02-22.
What Great Firewall Actually Is
Great Firewall is one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot in VPN marketing, but rarely explained at the protocol level. This guide breaks it down in concrete terms — what's happening on the wire, what trade-offs each design choice makes, and why it matters in 2026 specifically inside mainland China.
How It Works on the Wire
When a client establishes a VLESS-over-Reality tunnel, three things happen in sequence:
- The client opens a TLS 1.3 handshake to a chosen "fronting" hostname (e.g.
www.cloudflare.com) - Mid-handshake, the client substitutes a Reality-specific public key in the ClientHello
- The OxeraVPN server validates the key, and from that point all traffic is tunneled — but the GFW only ever saw a normal-looking TLS handshake to
www.cloudflare.com
This is the critical difference from VMess, OpenVPN, or WireGuard: there is no distinguishable VPN handshake to detect, because the handshake is a real TLS handshake.
Sample Server Config
A minimal Xray Reality inbound looks like this:
{
"inbounds": [{
"port": 2053,
"protocol": "vless",
"settings": {
"clients": [{ "id": "<uuid>", "flow": "xtls-rprx-vision" }],
"decryption": "none"
},
"streamSettings": {
"network": "tcp",
"security": "reality",
"realitySettings": {
"dest": "www.cloudflare.com:443",
"serverNames": ["www.cloudflare.com"],
"privateKey": "<server-private-key>",
"shortIds": [""]
}
}
}]
}The matching client URL (which OxeraVPN's app builds for you automatically) follows the standard vless:// scheme:
vless://<uuid>@server.example.com:2053?security=reality&sni=www.cloudflare.com&fp=chrome&pbk=<public-key>&type=tcp&flow=xtls-rprx-vision#OxeraVPNOpenWrt Quick-Start (Optional)
If you're running this on an OpenWrt router, you can install Xray and wire up the same config:
opkg update
opkg install xray-core
mkdir -p /etc/xray
# paste the JSON above into /etc/xray/config.json
/etc/init.d/xray enable && /etc/init.d/xray startWhy This Beats Older Approaches
| Protocol | GFW Detection Risk | Throughput | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenVPN UDP | High (within hours) | Medium | TLS-over-UDP fingerprint is well-known |
| WireGuard | High (within hours) | Very high | UDP fingerprint instantly identifiable |
| Trojan | Low | High | TLS-wrapped, but key exchange is detectable |
| VLESS + Reality | Very low | High | Real TLS handshake to a real domain |
Common Misconceptions
- "It's just obfuscation." No — Reality piggybacks on a real TLS handshake to a real third-party domain. There's no synthetic obfuscation layer to detect.
- "It's slow because of the extra hop." There's no extra hop. The handshake target is a destination the GFW already trusts; the actual traffic still flows through the OxeraVPN server.
- "You need to host your own server." You don't. OxeraVPN runs the server side; you just install the app and pick a server.
How to Use Great Firewall With OxeraVPN
The OxeraVPN app ships VLESS + Reality as the default protocol. There's no manual setup — sign in, pick a server, you're using it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How fast will my connection be?
On a healthy 500 Mbps home line in Guangzhou, expect roughly 123 Mbps of usable VPN throughput on VLESS to Seoul — enough for 4K streaming and HD video calls. Latency to nearby Asian servers is typically 74 ms.
Is OxeraVPN really free to try?
It is. Sign up, install the app, get 10 GB free on a 30-day trial — no credit card needed.
What's the fastest way to get started?
Sign up at dashboard.oxeranet.cloud, install the OxeraVPN app on your device, connect to the nearest Singapore or Hong Kong server, and you're online in under 2 minutes. The free plan is enough to test Great Firewall end-to-end.
What's the difference between V2Ray, Xray, and Sing-Box?
V2Ray is the original, Xray is a maintained fork with more modern protocols (including Reality), and Sing-Box is a Go-based reimplementation that's smaller and faster. OxeraVPN's Windows client uses Xray under the hood.
Which protocol should I use for Great Firewall in 2026?
Start with VLESS + Reality — it's the closest thing to invisible from a DPI perspective. Fall back to Hysteria2 if you're on a flaky mobile network or the GFW gets twitchy on a sensitive day.
The Bottom Line
Great Firewall matters because it changes the rules of the cat-and-mouse game between VPN providers and state-level censors. Older protocols leak fingerprints. Reality doesn't. For users in mainland China specifically, that's the difference between "VPN that mostly works" and "VPN that quietly stays connected for weeks at a time."