Would Yggdrasil be cable to bypass normal internet traffic blockage as a possible use-case?

[Aryanam-Aratha]

Amazing project.

I'm trying to determine if Yggdrasil would be useful, either now or in the future, to bypass internet traffic blockages like those that occurred in Iran in 2019 and 2022. The state of Iran withdrew their traffic routes to the internet. Since the physical infrastructure is not altered, I would imagine Yggdrasil would be able to route the internet traffic if peer nodes are available.

I'm wondering if I'm correct in that assumption or would the Yggdrasil's traffic would be blocked as well.

[tribals]

Yes, it does. The options are limited, though. First off, you can employ any tunneling protocol over Yggdrasil, there are guides for GRE and IPIP already in Wiki (in Russian). Those could be set up on any Linux box, but unfortunately not on Android or Windows (not sure if it supports GRE or IPIP). Second, there was once Crypto-Key Routing (CKR) but it was removed from main branch, and once again introduced in neilalexander's fork - https://github.com/neilalexander/yggdrasilckr. Unfortunately again, it requires support from peers on both ends, and there is no support in android app (well, there is, but you need to build APK yourself, and there is no GUI to configure CKRs), which limits this to Linux/Windows boxes.

I've tested that fork but didn't succeed as it doesn't clear which routes do I need to specify on "server" side.

[sdgathman]

Yes, IF you can get a peer outside of the blocked area. This could be some kind of radio link to a neighboring country from a node on the border. Wifi is good for up to 250 miles line of sight in dry weather. Or a buried coax. Or 10baseT for shorter distances (the lower bandwidth standards support longer distances, 100baseT is likely too short).

A different but analogous situation applies to China. There is a national firewall. But there are VPNs approved for tourists (and no doubt monitored) that are allowed through. So the yggdrasil connection can go over a tourist VPN. (Not a solution for Chinese citizens. I would point out that while the Great Firewall of China limits freedom, it does also protect from nasty stuff.)