Bridges are quiet gateways into the Tor Network. Like Tor relays, they are run by volunteers. Unlike relays, they are not listed publicly. Using bridges disguise the fact that one is using Tor.
Currently there are five bridge types, or transports, available. More are being developed.
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ORPort |
Requesting 'bridges' without specifying the bridge type, will return ORPort bridges, also called Vanilla bridges. ORPort bridges are NOT reliable for circumventing censorship or national firewalls. ORPort bridges can be useful as trusted entry points into the Tor network. |
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obfs2 |
Censors have learned how to identify obfs2 bridges. This transport is being deprecated. |
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obfs3 |
Obfsproxy disguises Tor traffic as random noise. obfs3 bridges work almost everywhere. A few obfs3 bridges have been blocked. |
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Scramblesuit |
Scramblesuit is an additional tool for the obfsproxy transport. Scramblesuit bridges are designed to be hard to identify and hard to block. |
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FTE |
Format-Transforming Encryption disguises Tor traffic as web (HTTP) traffic or other types of internet traffic. FTE bridges are effective, but in limited supply. |
(Note that flashproxy is a Pluggable Transport, but does not rely on bridges.)
There are four ways to get a bridge.
Visit https://bridges.torproject.org/ and follow the instructions.
Email bridges@bridges.torproject.org from a gmail or yahoo
email address. Put
Politely ask a human at help@rt.torproject.org if you cannot access either of the first two methods.
Install and configure a Tor instance to be bridge for yourself. The computer acting as a bridge must have uncensored internet access to the Tor network. A full installation guide can be found at https://www.torproject.org/projects/obfsproxy-debian-instructions.html.en
Enter the bridge information you get from any of the above steps in Tor-launcher.
Choose yes when asked if your Internet Service Provider blocks connections to the Tor network. Select 'Use custom bridges' and enter each bridge identifier on its own line.
Click Connect. Using bridges slow down the connection. If the connection fails, the bridges you received may be down. Get more and try again.