Preface#
Currently, github.com is mostly unresponsive when pinged from within China, although sometimes it may respond. Below are several methods for accessing GitHub. Some of the tools that require accessing GitHub are provided with links to cloud storage in this article.
1. Mirror Sites#
These sites are mirror sites of GitHub, where you can view public projects just like on the original site, and perform basic functions such as downloading, but they do not support logging in.
Git File Accelerated Download#
This service allows you to proxy and accelerate the download of GitHub files, Releases, archive, gist, and raw.githubusercontent.com files.
GitHub Proxy Acceleration
Wangda Geek Community
2. Changing Hosts#
DNS and hosts
Before discussing modifying hosts, you need to know that a website domain name corresponds to one or more server IP addresses. For example, the current server IP address corresponding to baidu.com is 220.181.38.148. If we compare a "domain name" to a "company" in the real world, then the "server IP" is the "phone number" of the company. GitHub has servers all over the world, but in China, DNS resolution services usually resolve domain names to servers in the United States, so accessing GitHub can be slow. However, we can bypass public DNS resolution and directly access GitHub's servers in countries such as South Korea and Japan by modifying the local hosts file, thereby achieving accelerated access.
1. Github520 + SwitchHosts#
The author of Github520 has been maintaining a list of high-quality IP addresses for GitHub, and it is dynamically updated. At the same time, he recommends using the tool SwitchHosts to automatically update the IP addresses in the hosts file. You can find the specific tutorial on the official website of the Github520 project.
SwitchHosts Cloud storage download
2. UsbEAm Hosts Editor#
The well-known project "UsbEAm Hosts Editor" developed by the "Feather City" master was originally used to improve the access and download speed of game platforms such as "Steam", "Blizzard", "Ubisoft", and "Microsoft Store", but it also supports "Github" as a side effect.
You can directly download the software from the master's blog:
https://www.dogfight360.com/blog/475/
Open the software, click on the lower left corner of the software, and select the website to prepare to modify the hosts
Check the latency » Select the IP address with the lowest latency » Apply the selected one
Then go to visit Github.com and it will be much faster
It is recommended to modify all of these to effectively improve the access speed of Github.
3. Reverse Proxy#
This method is much simpler than modifying hosts, and the programs developed by the masters can be used out of the box.
1. Steamcommunity 302 (WIN)#
The master "Feather City" later developed steamcommunity 302, which uses reverse proxy to accelerate access to websites such as Github.
You can download the software here:
https://www.dogfight360.com/blog/686/
It is quite brainless as long as there are no problems (remember to check github in the settings).
2. FastGithub (WIN/Mac/Linux)#
Steamcommunity 302 is very good, but the disadvantage is that it is only available on Windows.
FastGithub is another tool that uses reverse proxy to accelerate access to Gtihub. It supports WIN/Mac/Linux and can also be deployed with one click on docker:
https://github.com/dotnetcore/FastGithub
For the Windows version, just double-click to run after downloading. The software does not have a program interface, it directly runs the command line, so do not close the command line window after starting!
In addition to accelerating access to Gtihub, the biggest advantage of FastGithub is that it can also help you directly connect to V2EX images.
3. dev-sidecar (WIN/Mac/Ubuntu/Linux)#
Finally, let me introduce another reverse proxy tool, dev-sidecar. This project is named after the service-sidecar of service-mesh, which means it is an auxiliary tool for developers. It is mainly used to solve the problem of accessing Github.
After downloading, you will need to install a certificate for the first run. Just follow the tutorial to install it. In addition to that, it can also accelerate Git, NPM, and more.
Watt Toolkit (All Clients)#
"Watt Toolkit" is an open-source, cross-platform, multi-functional Steam toolbox. It supports accelerating platforms such as Steam, GitHub, and supports custom scripts.
Postscript#
If you have anything to add, please leave a comment in the comment section below.