So now that we know what bridges and pluggable transports are, let's see how we can get them and configure
our Tor browser to use them so we can access Tor even if it's being blocked by our Internet service
provider or by our network administrator.
So the first thing you want to do is right here I have my normal Firefox browser.
This is not the Tor browser and I've loaded the bridge database which you can get by going to bridges
dot tor project.org.
I'm going to include this link in the resources of this lecture and once you're here you can just click
just give me bridges to get the normal bridges that will allow you to access Tor if the firewall is
only blocking the known Tor nodes.
So if it's not used in DPI and we can also set the advanced options here and select a pluggable transport
so that we can access tor even if the firewall is using deep packet filtering, analyzing our traffic
and blocking all traffic.
That seems like it's tor traffic.
So right now all I have to do is just click on Get ridges.
But if this page did not load for you because chances are if your service provider is blocking you from
using Tor, they might be blocking this as well.
So in order to get your bridges, you can send an email to bridges at TOR project.org.
You have to send this email from either a gmail or a riseup account.
You will actually get an email with all the available bridges and pluggable transports similar to the
email that I got right here.
So if I wanted to get normal bridges, all I have to do is just send an email saying get bridges, or
if I want to get a bridge that uses a pluggable transport So similar to me clicking on the purple button
here, then I can send get transport followed by the transport type.
So let me show you how to get the transport if this page is blocked.
So all I have to do is compose a new email.
We're going to send this to Bridges, add the Tor project.org and I'm going to say I want to get transport.
And the transport that I want to get is the Ops four.
So we're doing this command.
We're going to send this and this will take less than a minute and you should get your bridges in an
email in your inbox, similar to the email that I got right here.
But as you can see right here, it's working for me and it could be working for a lot of you.
So if this was working, all you have to do is just literally click on Get Bridges.
It's going to ask me to fill up the capture.
And perfect.
As you can see, I have my bridges that use the ops for pluggable transport, as you can see.
So all I have to do is select all it's already selected.
I'm going to copy it and then I'm going to go to my Tor browser.
And I'm going to go to the settings.
Connection and scroll to the bridges section.
Here, you can actually just use a built in bridge or getter to automatically request a bridge for you
instead of doing it manually like we did.
However, it is unlikely to work if your ISP is blocking tor.
That's why I'm showing you how to do it manually.
So I'm going to click on Add a Bridge manually and I'm going to paste the bridges that I just copied,
Control V and I'm done.
I'm going to click on Okay.
And now Tor should be going through the bridges that we just configured it again.
You only need to do this if this page did not load or if it loaded and told you you're not using the
Tor browser.
So in my case it's already working.
As you can see, it's telling me that Tor is working and all my traffic is going through the Tor network
right now.
Now, like I said, with this method, you might notice that the connection will get a little bit slower
than a normal tour connection again, because obviously the traffic is being obfuscated to make it look
like it's normal traffic and not tour traffic.
Also, like I said, in worst case scenario, even if this didn't work, your Internet service provider
will be able to know that you're using Tor, but they won't really be able to see which websites you're
trying to go to unless they run a more active attack.
So if being flagged as a Tor user would put you in trouble in your country, or if you don't want to
be identified as a person that could be using Tor, then a really good solution is to use a VPN and
I'll talk about that in the next lecture.
But for now this is a free and a very good solution to access the Tor network.
If it's being blocked.