Internet Access in Iran

We all love to share our adventures on social media but it’s more difficult to access the internet in Iran than usual if you’re planning to visit Iran next.

Internet censorship in Iran is very similar to China with more restrictions on social media platforms and fewer restrictions on google products, however it’s fairly easy to get around the restrictions.

Making the situation worse, most companies block access to their services from Iran as well such as streaming services or banking related websites/apps. We have provided a full list of which ones are accessible or blocked below.

 

 

Which social media and chat platforms are accessible?

i message: accessible

whats app: accessible

Instagram: accessible

discord: accessible

Skype: accessible

Kik: blocked

Signal: blocked

telegram: blocked

Facebook messenger: blocked

twitter: blocked

Facebook: blocked

snap chat: blocked

Tik Tok: blocked

please leave a comment if your social media of choice isn’t listen

Streaming services

Most well known streaming services are also blocked in Iran with the sole exception being apple TV+.

accessing streaming services is slightly more difficult since such services typically detect and block access from VPN IP addresses.

however a number of VPN providers support streaming , if you already have a VPN subscription please check with your VPN provider to be sure.

 

Banking systems

There have been instances where logging into bank accounts from Iran resulted in temporary freeze of said accounts.

we suggest also using a reliable VPN if you need to access your bank accounts while visiting Iran.

 

Which VPN protocols work in Iran?

 

L2TP/IPsec

Unfortunately all L2TP ports and protocols are blocked in Iran, most PPTP are also blocked with a few exceptions.

OpenVPN

OpenVPN is not blocked,it can be used in both TCP and UDP protocols, the following VPN providers support Openvpn and can be used in Iran

Nord VPN

Vyper vpn

proton vpn

cyberghost vpn

Private Internet Access

ExpressVPN.

Wire guard

Since wire guard is a relatively new protocol it seems to be a hit or miss, we don’t have enough data to know for certain if it’s blocked or not but OUTLINE works flawlessly, with the downside of having to self host your VPN server

tor browser and onion routing

tor browser can also be used to access blocked websites however the browser must already have an updated list of bridges or it won’t be able to fetch them, also this method is much slower than using a regular VPN.

We suggest using the obsf4 method and having an extra pair of nodes or two ready just in case the ones you use get blocked during your visit.

SOCK and SHADOW SOCKS

Iranian firewall is based on the great firewall of china.its safe to say all socks and shadow socks protocols are blocked and cannot be used either.

However, if you know a VPN is able to get through the firewall of china it’s most likely able to connect in Iran as well.

Please avoid using less known VPNs or other tools since no one can guarantee the safety . There’s a high possibility that they’re being monitored.