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arrow_back Why does Rostelecom block ESNI traffic?

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3 votes
Recently, it has become really annoying that Rostelekom for some reason blocks ESNI traffic. I do not know where to go anymore to announce it as publicly as possible. The essence of the problem is that when ESNI is enabled in FireFox, then the sites through Rostelecom do not open just some, for example, https://www.pcgamingwiki.com и https://downdetector.ru с https://maxedtech.com not to mention just the pictures on the same https://www.deviantart.com ...
Why actually do that at all? Other providers do not have such a problem, but the most interesting thing is that when there was a problem entering Personal Area at Rostelecom with enabled ESNI, then for a while they stopped blocking this traffic after a complaint, and then began to crush it again. And no, with the settings of the network\internet\dns and so on everything is fine, the problem is in Rostelecom, but here at the same Tele2, which belongs to them, everything is fine opens. Help support in chat and call center just gives parrot excuses, like we do not have any blockages, and in general, the problem is allegedly with your equipment ... This problem is about a year, if not more.
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UPD: As of today, 10/16/2020, somehow by magic they stopped blocking ESNI traffic. It's true that the sites open every once in a while...
UPD2:A few hours later the sites stopped opening again...
UPD3:An interesting thing turned out, sites with ESNI support open in the same tab, if any other HTTPS site without ESNI was opened in it before, but not in the new tab...
UPD4:After the network failures of Tele2 in some regions, somehow they appeared exactly the same blocking of sites with esni support and absolutely the same way the above sites are not opened for examples...

1 Answer

by
3 votes
After weeks of waiting and sending dumps from WireShark, they called from support and said that their filtering system prohibits ESNI, and they do not plan to change, although there is no law about it at all, which is only still in the draft... So it is time to leave the RTC. P.S. There was no talk about bypassing blockages and switching allegedly to banned sites, but in the end innocent sites suffered...

3 Comments

This is a problem not only for direct users of Rostelecom, but also for those providers who use their infrastructure.
Semyon Well, there's also a block hanging on the Jell-O2...