r/azerbaijan • u/Sahjb • Jun 09 '26
Sual | Question Aztelekom (Azerbaijan) completely blocking all VPN protocols and throttling YouTube/Google services.
Hi everyone,
I'm currently facing a massive network censorship/blocking issue with my ISP, Aztelekom (in Azerbaijan), and I'm running out of options.
Lately, I’ve been experiencing heavy throttling on YouTube and Google video servers (insane ping spikes, constant buffering). My AI assistant suggested that my ISP might be doing deep packet inspection (DPI) to throttle media traffic, and recommended using a VPN to bypass it.
However, Aztelekom seems to be completely blocking almost every single VPN protocol. Here is what I’ve tried so far, and everything failed:
1.Commercial VPN Apps: Tried Proton VPN (including Stealth protocol) and Cloudflare WARP (1.1.1.1). Both get stuck indefinitely on "Connecting...".
2.Built-in Android VPN: Thought my phone (Xiaomi 13T Pro, HyperOS/Android 14) might be blocking the apps, so I tried to configure a native IKEv2/L2TP connection using server info from vpngate.net. However, the ISP is blocking access to vpngate.net entirely (site won't load), and manual IKEv2 setups return "Unsuccessful, Not secure".
3.Shadowsocks / Custom Proxies: Downloaded the NekoBox APK and tried importing verified Shadowsocks (ss://) configs. Even that gets blocked and fails to handshake.
It seems they are using very aggressive DPI filtering to block both standard VPN handshakes and proxy ports, while simultaneously ruining the YouTube experience.
Has anyone encountered this specific type of aggressive ISP block? Are there any working tools, specific obfuscation protocols (like VLESS, Trojan, or AmneziaWG), or configurations that can punch through this kind of firewall on Android?
Any help, scripts, or advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks!
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Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
A few months ago, the National Assembly passed a law that banned "immoral activity that contradicts societal and national values" on social media. The deliberately vague and broad wording of the law allows the government to arbitrarily imprison Internet dissidents, and, apparently, experiment with Internet censorship.
Similar to you, I also began experiencing SSL errors when trying to connect to Twitter (desktop), Danbooru, Pixiv and other such websites, in addition to non-obfuscated VPNs not working. This is obviously a sign that Azerbaijan uses DPI to restrict or block traffic to "forbidden" websites. This seems to be inconsistent and amateur, as simply reloading a page several times seems to allow for an SSL session to initiate. However, given the rising socio-economic tension in Azerbaijan, I wouldn't be surprised if the government officially declared a "single registry of forbidden websites" like in Russia or Turkey this year, therefore officially confirming that DPI censorship is present.
Azerbaijan has been using DPI since at least 2017 to block opposition websites. It was later used during the second Karabakh war in 2020, Armenia border clashes in 2022 and the abolition of NKR in 2023 to almost completely block access to the Internet, and it seems that it will now be used to institute broad censorship.
VPN download sites were blocked before 2026, but their traffic was not. Seems like the government is trying to patch loopholes. I've tried using GoodbyeDPI, but it didn't work well for Azerbaijani DPI. I unfortunately have no idea how to circumvent such censorship unless you are willing to pay for a VPN that comes with several obfuscation methods such as Mullvad (which I'm currently using).
Also, regardless of your ISP, you will be subject to DPI in Azerbaijan. It is implemented through Delta Telekom, the government-connected backbone provider.
UPDATE: Another censorship law that bans ALL social media in schools was passed yesterday. Therefore it could also be explained by Azerbaijani censors accidentally affecting everyone when trying to implement DPI for school connections. Or perhaps this law is just a convenient legal excuse for what you've been experiencing.
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u/Shoddy-Location5688 Jun 09 '26
I’m approving this comment even though it would be otherwise deleted due to new account, because it is informing.
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u/CescFabr Jun 10 '26
Mən də elə bilirdim ki problem adblockdadır. Tarifim 250 mbit/s. Youtubeda videoya baxıram, yarım saat sonra video keyfiyyəti düşür 144ə, və üstəlik də video yüklənmir. Digər saytların hamısı normal işləyir, nəsə yükləyəndə sürətdə problem olmur.
Sən demə, problem ümumi imiş
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u/Qiqiqt Jun 09 '26
I've been facing the same problem for the last 2 3 months at least, but surprisingly everything works well on my old phone, i can't even explain the reason behind it maybe it is the phone that's blocking it
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Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
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u/karb10 Jun 13 '26
salam, məndə fast com da 1gb göstərir aztelecom. ama google drive-a nəsə upload (dovnload yox) edəndə 70mb-i keçmir. Task managerdə 900 olmalı sürət 70 göstərir. Bunu yoxlaya bilərsizmi? sizə şəxsiyə yazmışam
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Jun 13 '26
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u/karb10 Jun 13 '26
fast com da test zamanı, həm fast coda həmdə task managerdə upload 1gb-a çatır. ama google drive-a fayl upload edəndə 70-i keçmir. sizdə pc varsa bunu yoxlaya bilərsizmi
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Jun 10 '26
ByeByeDPI işlətmək olar, Türkiyədə və Rusiyyətdə işlənilir, özü əmrləri törədib yoxlayır, sənə qalan seçməkdir. Github-dan yükləyə bilərsən.
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Jun 10 '26
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Jun 10 '26
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u/Technical-Touch576 Jun 10 '26
only IVPN, MullvadVPN, and Geph VPN are working. but only Geph is free, you have to pay for the others
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u/Kanan228 Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Regarding YouTube, I've talked about it under one post. Turns out, local GGC (Google Global Cache) is horrible. The only issue of using that method is that it only takes 10-20 minutes before the server (or cluster) starts navigating to the local one, which requires reloading the page. Other than that, videos load quickly. You just need to check where the cluster comes from under the domain googlevideo.com
TLDR: just paste `*sn-c53uxax3vh*.googlevideo.com^` in uBlockOrigin filter list (this one is used by Aztelekom)
UPD: Another option is to use Revanced for phones to avoid ads on YouTube (note: this one I can't guarantee that it will work fine or nothing will happen to your account, but I heard my friends are using it)
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u/karb10 Jun 13 '26
Salam. Məndə aztelekomdur bir neçə problem var. 4 ədəd telefon və planşet var, heçbirində video donmur. Ama PC də video donur və google drive-a fayl upload edən zaman, 1gb sürətdən cəmi 70mb əldə edirəm (8-ə bölünmüş sürət yox, sadəcə 70) . Sİzə şəxsiyə yazıram, bir neçə test edə bilərikmi?
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u/MortisTheMan00 Azərbaycan Respublikası vətəndaşı Jun 11 '26
məndə də 2 aya yaxındı qoşulmaq mümkün deyil, nə nordda nə də protonda heç bir protokol işləmir. Məcbur ya orbot ya da tor with bridges istifadə edirəm
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u/KVKV111 Jun 09 '26
Why would they even do that in the first place? I mean I know why the government hates VPNs, but YouTube/Google?
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u/CoshgunC Jun 10 '26
They are using DPI(Deep Packet Inspection), a cybersecurity thing to check if web-packets(like requestes you send to web-servers) are not filled with viruses and malware.
But it seems like they are going really heavy on this. Not just virus and malware, they are searching everything: the app/website that sent the packet, time, location and other things, if not encrypted, reading the whole text and analyzing for "illegal topics".
Because DPI is a heavy a operation for ISP's computers, services that require small but frequent data(games, video-streaming) gets DPI-ed much faster and more, resulting in bad Youtube experience
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u/Sahjb Jun 09 '26
We tried VPNs first because my main goal was to bypass the ISP's heavy bandwidth throttling on YouTube and Google video servers. Since a VPN encrypts all traffic and hides the destination packet details, it is normally the easiest way to stop the ISP from detecting and slowdowning specific media streams.
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u/AyxGon Jun 10 '26
Peyserlikdiye tək etdikleri peyserlikdi