Okay.
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
the Tor project dot 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 the API 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 I'm going to keep everything the same.
I'm going to keep using the same pluggable transport.
But as you can see, we have a number of options that you can try.
If one of them didn't work, you can try the other one.
But I'm going to keep this on UPS four.
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, a tor project dot org.
You have to send this email from either a Gmail or Yahoo or a rise up account.
Once you do that, if you just type bridges in the email, 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 so bridges that you can get by clicking on the green button here,
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.
And again, as you can see, the available transport types are similar to the available transport types
here that we get when we click on the dropdown list.
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 at the Tor project dot org.
And I'm going to say I want to get transport.
So we're doing this command and the transport that I want to get is the OPS four.
So space ops four, 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.
And perfect.
As you can see, I have an email here.
If we click on this, you'll see I have my bridges, which I can just copy and paste them in my Tor
browser.
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 CAPTCHA.
So I'm going to set this to.
Q So I'm going to try to fill it.
Hopefully I get it right from the first time.
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.
Control C and then I'm going to go to my Tor browser, which I have already loaded before.
I'm going to go on Tor network settings.
I'm going to take the first box thought is censored in my country.
I'm going to click on provide a bridge that I know and I'm going to paste the bridges that I just copied.
Control V and I'm done.
I'm going to click on Och and now Tor should be going through the bridges that we just configured it.
So if again you'd 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, but I'm just going to double check to make sure that I didn't break
anything by using the bridges and perfect.
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 connection again, because obviously the traffic is being obfuscated to make it look like
it's normal traffic and not to our traffic.
Also, like I said.
And 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 used in 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.