Please name and shame your provider. I'd like to know which ones to avoid.
this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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I am on a trip and using a local carrier in the country I am currently staying at, carrier is called Zain.
A VPN isn't rawdogging the Internet. For that you should use stuff like ad blockers. A VPN only protects traffic inspection by on-path attackers like ISPs, though HTTPS mitigates most of that, leaving only metadata. It also changes the apparent origin of your connection.
If possible, I'd change providers.
Try setting your vpn to listen on UDP, port 53 (usually used by DNS. If that fails, it's going to be some sort of deep packet inspection, yes.
You can use Tor: https://orbot.app/
Cheapest way to not be in this situation is to run an exit node on your home network and route your traffic through when you're travelling (dead simple with Tailscale).
Also try Mullvad's circumvention methods.
You could potentially get your own VPS server and set that up as a VPN server that way you're not connecting to a known VPN.
Edit: You might also try using Tor.
I have a Wireguard tunnel running on my home server back home in the US. I am currently outside of the US and that Wireguard tunnel won’t connect if I am on cellular connection for this one specific provider that I am using atm.
I have never attempted to use Tor as a VPN on my iOS device, how is the performance in terms of making Signal calls for example?
Oh, I see. I don't think you can make calls over tor because I think it's TCP only. Not UDP.
Could it be an IP addressing problem by chance where the telecom provider doesn't support say IPv6 while your home network is IPv6? If so, they may not be blocking it, so much as it's not possible to make the connection to begin with.
My home server VPN is IPv4. The VPN provider I have uses both IPv4/6. Neither of those work.
At this point I am inclined to believe the network carrier is performing DPI as I also can’t use OpenVPN on TCP 80 and TCP 443, which are generally hard to block unless provider is intentionally looking into it…at least that’s my understanding.
That very well could be, as I mentioned earlier, you might get yourself a VPS and set up an SSH tunnel or something like that, but otherwise I have no idea.
I do know that you can use signal over tor because I do so, but I only use it for the sending messages and voice messages part. As I said, I think the audio call uses UDP and tor is TCP only to the best of my knowledge.
The only other thing I could think of would be to try a mix net such as Nym.
Honestly, this sounds like a job for Tor. Install Orbot, possibly enable a bridge, and you should be good to go. Onion Browser is recommended for use with Tor, but Safari will work just fine.
I have never tried calling over Tor, but I have never had an issue with the speed before (although it is inherently slower than a VPN).
Tor Bridge Types
- obfs4 makes your traffic appear "random"
- snowflake disguises your traffic as VoIP
- meek-azure makes it look like you're connecting to Microsoft services
- meek-amazon makes it look like you're connecting to AWS
- meek-google makes it look like you're connecting to Google
Usually openvpn via tls port 443 is the least blocked.
I also had luck with UDP on port 123. On some public WiFi networks I could even connect to internet that way without agreeing to ToS on "login page".
Have you tried tailscale with an exit node? Could be worth a test, if it works, some combination of other providers might too
I second tailscale. But this requires you to be using it at home as well.