How to Get and Use Tor Bridges

Welcome to another 12pm Tutorial.

This tutorial will teach you how to access the Tor relay network in an area where

Tor has been blocked by connecting to a “Tor Bridge Relay.”

Tor Bridge Relays, also referred to simply as “Bridges”, are relays that are not

publicly listed in the Tor network.

This makes them ideal for reconnecting to the Tor Network if it has blocked in your

area.

Now that you know what the Bridge Relays are, let me show you how to use them.

First, make sure you have the Tor Software installed on your computer.

Having access to a bridge relay without the Tor software isn’t going to help anybody.

If you need to know how to download and install Tor, you can view my “How to Use

Tor” tutorial at http://bit.ly/9uD3N9

Once you have the software you can go to www.torproject.org/bridges to read about

using bridge relays to access Tor.

Let’s go there now.

Go ahead and take a moment to read over the information on this page.

Once you’re ready to move on with the tutorial, minimize your browser and start

the Tor software.

Go to settings.

Click the network tab.

Now check the box that says “My ISP blocks connections to the Tor network” and a

Dialog box called “Add a Bridge:” will appear.

This box is where you will type in bridges and where you will see all the

bridges you have added.

It is always better to have more bridges because the more you have the less chance

you will be disconnected from the Tor service if one of the bridges is blocked.

The simplest way to get a Tor bridge is to click the button “Find Bridges Now”.

Another simple way to get a Tor bridge is to open your web browser and go to

https://bridges.torproject.org/.

The bridges listed here will change every couple of days in order to allow access to

the Tor network after these get blocked.

The last way to get a list of Tor bridges is to open up a Gmail account and use it to

send an email to [e-mail] with “get bridges” in the subject line.

It is important to remember that Tor will only send bridge relays to people who

send this request from Gmail. This is Tor’s way of minimizing the number of relays

that get blocked by securing the information behind Gmail’s standard HTTPS

encryption.

Check your inbox a few minutes after the email is sent and you will have received an

email from Tor with a number of bridge relays.

Copy and paste each of these relays into the “Add a bridge” dialogue box and click

the green plus sign to add the bridge to the rest of the list. Tor will automatically

use these relays to access Tor so long as you have a checkmark next to “My ISP

blocks connections to the Tor network.”

Once you’re done adding relays, click ok.

Now you know how to use Bridge Relays to Access Tor.