Has Your IP Been Blocked? Check It First

Why you must check

A blocked IP shows up like this: ping from inside China works but SSH will not connect, or you connect and no page will load. Plenty of people start installing their stack the day the box arrives and only notice the block after the refund window has closed — at that point you have to swap the IP yourself. Some vendors charge a few dollars for a swap; some refuse outright.

Blocks happen for many reasons: the previous tenant of that address did something that got flagged, the range is already polluted, or the IP was once used by some service. It has nothing to do with what you do. It is luck.

Three ways to check

# Method 1: ping from many Chinese nodes (most common, but you need a VPN to run it)
#   Common tools: https://ping.chinaz.com/ or ITDog

# Method 2: connect back from outside China (no VPN needed, recommended)
#   Run it on another overseas server you own:
ping -c 20 YOUR_VPS_IP

# Method 3: check whether TCP can complete a handshake (a successful ping does not mean the port is reachable)
nc -zv YOUR_VPS_IP 22
curl -v --connect-timeout 10 https://YOUR_VPS_IP

If it is blocked

First, do not wait. Raise a ticket the moment you find the block, with the reason “IP unusable” — many vendors will swap it for free as long as you are still inside the refund window.

Second, mind the ICMP trap: a failed ping does not necessarily mean a block; the machine may simply have ICMP replies disabled. Judge on the combination — all Chinese nodes losing packets and TCP handshakes on 443/22 timing out. Only then is it a block.

Third, do not sit on a blocked IP over the new year. Some vendors let you keep the blocked IP and take a different box, which means paying for one machine and getting none.

Common follow-ups

Routes mentioned

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