Tor partially blocked in China

by phobos | September 28, 2009

On September 25, 2009, the Great Firewall of China blocked the public list of relays and directory authorities by simple IP address blocks. Currently, about 80% of the public relays are blocked by IP address and TCP port combination. Tor users are still connecting to the network through bridges. At the simplest level, bridges are non-public relays that don't exit traffic, but instead send it on to the rest of the Tor network.

If you want to help people in China get access to the uncensored Internet, run a bridge.

Feel free to mirror this post, or the Tor website. We have a list of mirrors at https://www.torproject.org/mirrors.html.en or search for tor mirrors via Google, Yahoo, Baidu, etc.

Links to other helpful sites (not run by us):

We knew this day would come, https://blog.torproject.org/blog/torproject.org-blocked-gfw-china%3A-so….

Comments

Please note that the comment area below has been archived.

rconversation

http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2009/09/chinas-censorship-…

help

i'm in shanghai and i can't find a bridge

finding more bridges

https://www.torproject.org/bridges#FindingMore or your favorite mirror.

text of an email a friend sent to CNN:

To whom it concerns,

This is a very important story and a *huge* and alarming move by China to further control the flow of, and access to, unfettered news from around the world, and from within China. This story is important because it shows China's ever increasing aggressive stance on the Internet and the freedom of the Chinese people.

If CNN runs with this story, and ties it into the unrest in Iran (ie. Tor usage by Iranians), I think CNN would have a major scoop and human interest story.

Below I describe Tor and offer some useful links and information. The Tor team would be very happy to speak with CNN, I am *sure*...

Thank you in advance for standing up to China and standing up for the Chinese people.

--Blog Entry from Tor Team Regarding Blockage by China:

blog_post_a) "Tor partially blocked in China"
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-partially-blocked-china

blog_post_b) "Torproject.org Blocked by GFW in China: Sooner or Later?"
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/torproject.org-blocked-gfw-china%3A-so…

--Short Background of Tor:

Tor was originally designed, implemented, and deployed as a third-generation onion routing project of the Naval Research Laboratory. It was originally developed with the U.S. Navy in mind, for the primary purpose of protecting government communications. Today, it is used every day for a wide variety of purposes by the military, journalists, law enforcement officers, activists, and many others. Here are some of the specific uses we've seen or recommend:
https://www.torproject.org/torusers.html.en

--Reporters Use Tor:

(taken from the Tor page "Who Uses Tor?" https://www.torproject.org/torusers.html.en )

a) "Reporters Without Boarders" advises journalists, sources, bloggers, and dissidents to use Tor to ensure their privacy and safety.

b) "The US International Broadcasting Bureau" (Voice of America/Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Asia) supports Tor development to help Internet users in countries without safe access to free media.

c) Citizen journalists in China use Tor to write about local events to encourage social change and political reform.

d) Citizens and journalists in Internet black holes ( http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=554 ) use Tor to research state propaganda and opposing viewpoints, to file stories with non-State controlled media, and to avoid risking the personal consequences of intellectual curiosity.

--What Has Tor Done of Note Recently?

One example of Tor usage was during the unrest in Iran following the elections this year. Tor was a major reason why Iranians could report on the situation anonymously, without fear of government reprisal. (please see the following blog posts for proof positive data and great visual aids such as graphs, etc)

a) "Measuring Tor and Iran":
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/measuring-tor-and-iran

b) "Measuring Tor and Iran (Part two)"
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/measuring-tor-and-iran-part-two

c) "On the Recent Growth of the Tor Network"
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/recent-growth-tor-network

--Detailed Descriptions of Tor and Tor Usage:

"Tor Overview"
https://www.torproject.org/overview.html.en#overview

我送这对美国报纸也

我送这对美国报纸也。良好的写作

what are u talking about?

They said they have sent the

They said they have sent the above to some newspaper in the US

text of an email a friend sent to CNN

Try Fox as CNN is a liberal network that will probably not care about your issue because they would not want to offend China. The Obama government, like liberal CNN, is into "we want everyone to like us, so we will ignore any wrong doing".

Fox wouldnt help, Fox is

Fox wouldnt help, Fox is racist.

I'm surprised that

I'm surprised that blog.torproject.org has not been blocked yet!

me too

A few days after I set up a

A few days after I set up a bridge using my own computer, I could not connect to any websites in China. Apparently they blocked my ip address to prevent people from logging on to TOR. As the GFW is bidirectional, I am blocked as well. Are there any ways to fix this?

china blocking known bridges

it appears china gfw group is crawling https://bridges.torproject.org/ and blocking IP's served up. instant messaging and email still work.

if you can, change your IP and let tor push your new bridge IP to the world.

Unfortunately I could not

Unfortunately I could not change my ip...

If the GFW uses a binary search to match ip addresses with the blacklist, they would have a great advantage because searching is only O(log n). It is very hard to compete with blocking by establishing new bridges. Perhaps we should think about other ways to penetrate the wall.

Now my problem is how do I

Now my problem is how do I visit websites in China that I do want to visit... i.e. penetrate back to inside the wall :(

This is a problem the tor

This is a problem the tor project should address.
You should need to solve a captcha before it gives you any bridge addresses.

simple, use Tor when you

simple, use Tor when you need access website out of china. For other websites in China, just access them with Tor.
Two browsers, am I clear?

Bridges

I have put some bridges but it does not seems to work. Am i doing something wrong?
how many address can I put ? How long do the adress last?

u can find some way in Chinese here.

u can find some way by Chinese here.

http://groups.google.com/group/torcn

tor setup pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42980995@N06/3957192771/

桂枝茯苓丸的中国砍

桂枝茯苓丸的中国砍死

http://identi.ca/notice/10678

http://identi.ca/notice/10678936 hahahaha meme score !!!111

the chinese is related to

the chinese is related to http://www.chinasmack.com/stories/jia-junpeng-your-mom-wants-you-to-go-…

Bridges

I have put some bridges but it does not seems to work. Am i doing something wrong?
how many address can I put ? How long do the adress last?

as many as you want until it

as many as you want until it works. i have 25 loaded up.

Can't the bad guys pretend

Can't the bad guys pretend to be good guys and harvest IPs?

ayup. but if you run a

ayup. but if you run a bridge outside china, it's not like the chinese government is going to hunt you down.

I just hope the baddies

I just hope the baddies don't have vast arrays of good guys pretender bots around the world.

is GFW upgrade?

there a strange condition:

opening a website within china is slower than a outside website with Tor.

anyone have a idea about this?

I heard that New Version of GFW is "Blue Shield"

i heard that china gov install new software "Blue Shield" on every ISP international gateway start on Sept, 11.

no one known the mechanic of this software.
but we can see how effective of it.
most of the software which ever can cross over GFW is now blocked.
----
personally, i think "Blue Shield" should scan for every packet across it
both header and content!
if it found that packet content is special software (ex. FreeGate)
it will auto block the IP.

seem old GFW scan only header, this way is cheap CPU cost,
but absolutely fail to catch special software.
so china decide to scan its content with big cost of CPU.
China Internet user can notice dramatic speed drop when they want to browse international website, since Sept 11.

"China Internet user can

"China Internet user can notice dramatic speed drop when they want to browse international website, since Sept 11."

but it seems that users from other country, especially form Europe and North America,who want to browse those china websites （eg Baidu）are blocked in some degree. well when i get Tor connect, and to go to the international websites, like BBC, it's just ok, but when i opening those china public website like Baidu through Tor service, the speed drop down.

i disagree with this.

i disagree that china will block access from outside.

but because new GFW scan for all packet "going outside"
and Baidu is sending data to your Tor exit which is outside of China!
that is why people outside china also speed drop
when browse website in china too.

That's right,I agree with

That's right,I agree with what you said.

maybe i should not use the

maybe i should not use the words "block international users", but instead of “interfere other country users”.
u sure the new GFW will scan all packet now? and that's the problem of why browsing webpages outside china is more slower than within china?
thx 4 ur point

"and that's the problem of

"and that's the problem of why browsing webpages outside china is more slower than within china?"

wrong, i mean:

"and that's the problem of why browsing webpages within china is more slower than outside country?"

Do you understand what i mean?

Do you understand what i mean?
1) I "assume" that china scan for all packet which going outside of china.
as i told no one known how "blue shield" work for now.
so my assumption still unsure, but there is great possibility.

2) china don't do anything outside of its country.
they just scan out-going packet and block IP,
if it found that the destination IP support for breaking GFW in anyway.

3) i will show it in easy way to understand
china people => china website = no change
china people => inter website = request to website is scaned so it slow
inter people => inter website = no change
inter people => china website = response from website is scan so it slow

the internet world seem divide to china and non-china now.

well thx and i do know what u said....

well thx and i do know what u said....
"inter people => china website = response from website is scan so it slow"
if like that, search engine who located in china like Baidu should not access any international websites that were blocked by GFW. but in fact u can open cached pages on Baidu even the straight links were blocked.
So, GFW has a white list？and it allow these websites access international resources without limitation, well let them decide which links should be blocked？
i thought GFW do blocked a series of ordinary IPs, especially from Europe, they were not websites, but just providing some service like tor.

fuckkkkkkkkkkkk GFW

My Server IP has been

My Server IP has been blocked for running an TOR Server (whole IP, not only TOR Port), in both directions (i cant connect to chinese servers, and chinese people can't connect to my server).:

Shanghai.: Timeout
Beijing..: Timeout
Guangzhou: Timeout
Hong Kong: 324ms
New York.: 121ms

Connections from and to Hong Kong are currently possible...

//And no, that means not that i will shutdown my Relay.. i think i will make a second relay..(if i have enough money :-P)

whateve thx alot

Let change your IP ;P

Let change your IP, and you can connect to china again.
until GFW catch that the new IP is Relay,
then change IP again and so on.....
;P

if GFW still continue in this way,
i think GFW will block IP accumulatively to half of the world's available IP soon.

U SPEAK ENGLISH?

Orz

Only for User with Dynamic

Only for User with Dynamic IP. If you are running a fast relay (on a server) like me, you have a static ip..

damn.. forgot to change

damn.. forgot to change anoymous to dreamax :-P

冒泡

这儿有中国大陆用户，请冒个泡。谢谢。

are here any users from china mainland?

Tor Doesn't Work Since 19 September to Today 29 September 2009

Why Tor Project stopped on the step of "establishing an encrypted directory connection"?

I live in Iran. Feom 19 September 2009 to Today 29 September, I tried Tor and it stopped in the step of "establishing an encrypted directory connection" , Please tell me how can I fix this?
These errors are also related to the "establishing an encrypted directory connection" problem: "no route to host" "No current certificate known for authority ..."

re: Tor and Iran

Initial indications are that Iran is blocking all public Tor relays as well. Perhaps China and Iran have talked about this.

Iran is also messing with SSL, in some cases, flat out dropping any SSL on any port.

This may only be from one ISP, but getting reliable connectivity into and out of Iran, with or without Tor, seems to be an issue right now.

then please support udp.

then please support udp. DITis now experimenting with several udp versions of freegate in their 8.9 series.

Fucking GFW, Fucking CCP!

from china.

谢谢提供bridge的人

用了bridge,tor很容易连接，浏览速度比以前还快

桥连上之后，童鞋们最好重新恢复做中继或帮助访问

桥连上之后，童鞋们最好重新恢复做中继或帮助访问。

如果觉得中继有些危险，那么帮助访问也好。

总之，这个时候，大家多替别人想想，也是为自己好。

只有在群体里，你的生活才有意义。支持！

一个人访问是没有任何意义的，只有在群体里，你的生活才有意义。支持！

An interesting thing I've

An interesting thing I've struck today is blocked websites are having a blank html page sent back so all i get is a white page.

One of the more interesting blocks recently is that google translate is blocked on anything that contains 什么 two very common characters (meaning what). This seems to be a new tactic to make these services seem "unreliable" as sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't, depending on weather or not you have "什么“ in your page or not.

User from Shanghai, China

It is obviously that the whole public directory of Tor network has been blocked by our dear Great Firewall. I am feeling ashamed for their naming such a project with such a name - "Great Wall". The later one is a nationalistic pride for resisting foreign aggression while the former one is our shame for suppressing people's opinions.

Now bridges are the only ways for us to get what we need out there via Tor proxy. Please help us, help the people here in real need with your Tor bridge relays. We thank you people outside Mainland of China very much in advanced.

you are right

I agree with you
---from China

But for how long ? How long

But for how long ? How long should this help sustain? There always will be an end to this . you know what i mean, It is just that we all dont want to think about it. (and yes we have never thought that the situation would become this worse, ,have we?)

Any way the current state wouldnt last for long. Either China(or ccp) push out some more ridiculous theory about purifying cyberspace than green damn to justify its action or it will keep lying through their teeth and denying everything. Either way if the we dont trash its plan as we do to green damn, the situation could be worse.

Dont even expect the situation to come loose after the National Day. I think you all heard the news that China has just finished its Golden Shield project Stage II and Blue Shield in September. Do you think those nuts will just turn off the switch and left their new toys rust in the control room? I doubt it

Tor must change and adjust. The situation could only be tougher.

Thankfully, there's plenty

Thankfully, there's plenty of people fighting the good fight, both within the firewall and without.

Two new routers up with daily-rotating IPs, seeding vidalia bundles over torrents with DHT. Keep it up, brothers :)

Tor distribution project?

Hi,

since Tor is an important tool to avoid censorship I propose to develop ways to distribute it in censored countries. I'm thinking about some kind of distributed Tor-downloader/updater, which transfers signed Tor packages/installers/sources in a p2p, but stealthy way. Yeah, I know automated steganography is hard, but since deep packet scanners are also automated I guess there is a chance.

The goal would be to create a way to download the software itself, if you stumble about it. It should be able to create a randomized page with a randomized version of itself. Maybe by presenting a page based heavily on javascript, so it is even harder to scan it. If you install it you also have a way to download Tor (and maybe other interesting software) in an easy and secure way using a special protocol. Random ports, encryption, looks like other protocols (like games, emails, http(s)), ...

So many ideas. If I have enough time I implement something like this, but maybe someone else could do it (too).

re: tor distribution project

We've already started to work on a distributed distribution, with the expected secure updates and downloads. It's called Thandy for now, and one of our google summer of code students integrated bittorrent into it. You can read more about it at https://blog.torproject.org/blog/bittorrent-support-thandy.

This doesn't mean our solution is the only solution. Getting others to extend or rethink our work is a fine idea and goal.

i was hoping if you could

i was hoping if you could consider and think about iranian users who are being filtered every houre too.

in iran i've got high speed , loads of people have high speed connections but the slow down be speed even worse than a dial up connection

you tell us what to do :(

re: tor and iran

We are working on helping users in Iran. We learned much about how iran works online in June/July of this year. We're working with many people to figure out next steps for Iran now. It seems Tor users in China and Iran both need bridges right now.

We need to some Net Bridge!

Dear Gentlemens / Ladies, twitter.com website can accessed by Tor in this today, and Tor has return to normal conditions in China. We need to some Net Bridge!

Another so called GFW made

Another so called GFW made in US:

Symantec SEP 11 has blocked Tor, is there any way to solve this problem?

Thanks!

To who provide bridges,thank you very much!

Connected to TOR network, but still can't browse

I'm in Beijing, and was using hotspot shield until it got blocked for the 60th Anniversary.

Now I'm trying TOR, but i'm having problems.

I managed to get connected to the TOR network using Vidalia and bridges (The TOR onion is green).

I also downloaded torbutton for FireFox, and enabled the torbutton, which added some proxy settings - 127.0.0.1:8118 for HTTP proxy, and 127.0.0.1:9050 for Socks.

However, i'm still unable to browse the the restricted websites. In fact, i'm not able to browse anything after enabling torbutton.

Can anyone please help me?

Thanks

Thanks! TOR

I am from China, Now all other softwares (like freegate,ultrasurf,etc. or some VPN servers) seem to be blocked, Tor is the only software that can drill a hole in G.F.W, thanks a lot to those people who developed the Tor!!! we will never forget you!

Very slow though

It's not too slow to get connected but extremely slow to browse.
I believe they are making an effort to block Tor further.

yUP tOOOO sloow

yUP tOOOO sloow man like turtle,but maybe turtle can run fast than TOR to browse web,.

Please help us in china...

Please help us in china... It's been really difficult here!

TOR is working very well in

TOR is working very well in Beijing. Bandwidth is low sometimes, but all in all very satisfactory. Thank you!!!

How can we work with

How can we work with bridges... please I need help.
I´m now in Wenzhou and I have no access to anything...

There's a captcha on this

There's a captcha on this page to stop robots leaving comments.

But there is no captcha on https://bridges.torproject.org/ to stop robots harvesting bridge addresses.

Hello? HELLO? Anybody home? It would take half an hour to implement and potentially greatly increase the effectiveness of the bridge system. Sort it out !

re: captcha

We already rate-limit and restrict requests on the bridges website internally. As you see with spam comments on blogs all around the world, captchas don't work too well.

It's an ongoing fight

In the past few years, there were some Tor relays with IPs from China. If connected to one of those, it would be so slow and then connection timed out. Could they be working for GFW?

Today, after setting up bridges, there're no relay from China. Sorry, just can't trust anything from China, if have to, they should be used with caution.

I hope we don't get a filter

I hope we don't get a filter in Australia too (Aus government wants one :\ and are really quiet about it, nobody knows anything about it) That would really suck, so much for democracy ...

Tor does not seem to be

Tor does not seem to be working for me in Xiamen, China.

I am not able to connect to any relays. Also, most pages linked to Tor (except this one) are inaccessible to me, just get a time-out message.

use bridge, and i will go well.

i am also in xiamen. just find a web proxy and goto https://bridges.torproject.org
you will get 3 of IP Bridge.

Then put them all to Vidalia -> Settings ->Network
Mark 'My ISP block connection....' and text box will showed
put Bridge IP here. then try to start Tor again... Good Luck!

PS.another way to get bridge is to send Email to
bridges@torproject.org
and put 'get bridges' in the body of the mail.