[tor-talk] how bridges work

[Roger Dingledine]

On Sun, May 06, 2012 at 05:07:26AM -0400, eliaz wrote:
> Of what use is a bridge working off an IP address of a provider located
> in, say, the US, to a client in, say, Syria? Sorry for the elementary
> question. - eli

The client in Syria can connect through the bridge in the US to reach
the Tor network. Simplifying a bit, the bridge provides the reachability,
and the Tor network provides the anonymity.

See also https://www.torproject.org/docs/bridges

Note that in Syria, at least today, you don't need a bridge to reach
the Tor network. But if they started blocking the public Tor relays by
IP address, then a bridge would solve that.

--Roger