[tor-relays] Help Turkmens to bypass Internet censorship: run an obfs4 bridge!

[gus]

Hi Gary,

In this case, you don't need to set a specific distribution mechanism
because users from TM are kinda 'pro' on finding a bridge that will work
for them. And when they find it, they share it over different channels.

Could you test your bridge with bridge status tool?

https://bridges.torproject.org/status?id=FINGERPRINT

Replace 'FINGERPRINT' with your bridge fingerprint and it will show the
status of your bridge. It should advertise your obfs4 as 'functional'.

If it's not functional, feel free to share your torrc + tor logs in
private with me and I'll check it.

cheers!,
Gus

On Wed, Mar 22, 2023 at 11:23:14PM +0000, Gary C. New via tor-relays wrote:
> Gus,
> Is there a preferred Bridge Distribution Mechanism?
> Within the last couple of months, I've added several obfs4 bridges (latest version) to the Tor network, which seem to meet the requested criteria, but they still don't appear to be receiving traffic.
> I originally set the Bridge Distribution Mechanism to "moat." However, after a month of not receiving traffic, I modified them to "any." Unfortunately, my obfs4 bridges' Bridge Distribution Mechanism is still reporting as "None" in the consensus.
>    
>    - Transport protocols
>       - obfs4
>    - Bridge distribution mechanism
>       - None
> 
> I have confirmed that I am able to manually connect and successfully browse using the obfs4 bridges in question.
> Suggestions?
> Respectfully,
> 
> Gary—
> This Message Originated by the Sun.
> iBigBlue 63W Solar Array (~12 Hour Charge)
> + 2 x Charmast 26800mAh Power Banks
> = iPhone XS Max 512GB (~2 Weeks Charged) 
> 
>     On Wednesday, March 22, 2023, 1:25:26 PM MDT, gus <gus at torproject.org> wrote:  
>  
>  Dear Relay operators community,
> 
> The parliamentary elections in Turkmenistan are coming up very soon on
> March 26th[1], and the Turkmen government has tightened internet censorship
> and restrictions even more. In the last few months, the Anti-censorship
> community has learned that different pluggable transports, like
> Snowflake, and entire IP ranges, have been blocked in the country.
> Therefore, running a bridge on popular hosting providers like Hetzner,
> Digital Ocean, Linode, and AWS won't help as these providers' IP ranges
> are completely blocked in Turkmenistan.
> 
> Recently, we learned from the Anti-censorship community[2] and via Tor user
> support channels that Tor bridges running on residential connections
> were working fine. Although they were blocked after some days or a week,
> these bridges received a lot of users and were very important to keep
> Turkmens connected.
> 
> How to help Turkmens to access the Internet
> ===========================================
> 
> You can help Turkmens to access the free and open internet by running an
> obfs4 Tor bridge! But here's the trick: you need to run it on a
> residential connection -- you won't need a static IPv4 --, and it would
> ideally be run on more robust hardware than just a Raspberry Pi
> (although that can help, we have found they can get overloaded).
> 
> You can set up an obfs4 bridge by following our official guide:
>     https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/bridge/
> 
> After you setup a new bridge, you can share your bridge line with the
> Tor support team at frontdesk at torproject.org, and we will share it with
> users.
> 
> A complete bridge line is composed of:
> 
>     IP:OBFS4_PORT FINGERPRINT cert=obfs4-certificate iat-mode=0
> 
> Check this documentation to learn how to share your bridge line:
> https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/bridge/post-install/
> 
> Just sharing your bridge fingerprint is not the best, but it's fine.
> 
> You can read more about censorship against Tor in Turkmenistan here:
>   - https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/issues/40029
>   - Snowflake blocked:
>     https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/issues/40024
> 
> Thank you for your support in helping to keep the internet free and open
> for everyone.
> 
> Gus
> 
> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Turkmen_parliamentary_election
> [2] https://ntc.party/c/internet-censorship-all-around-the-world/turkmenistan/17
> https://github.com/net4people/bbs/issues/80
> 
> -- 
> The Tor Project
> Community Team Lead
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