How to Add bridge relays

Question

I want to access a website using the Tor Browser, but when I try to log in, the website asks me not to use proxy.

So I searched for Tor bridges and entered 3 of them as custom bridges. The Tor Browser detects the first one and the circuit is completed by using one of my input bridges and two other from Tor.

However, the site stops me again from signing in, saying that I am still using a proxy.

How can I make a complete circuit using bridges which are not listed?

Answer 1

You cannot.

Bridges only serve as entry points to the network, their purpose is to get you onto the tor network through potentially uncensored means. They are simply private guards which are not listed in the tor consensus to make it harder for a censor to know that it is a tor node, after the first hop to the bridge, tor operates as it would normally.

The reasons for exits being known universally are two-fold:

1. It is beneficial to the people or entities operating tor relays that allow exiting to be able to advertise the fact that this is what they're doing in an open and public way, it provides them with some protection from legal repercussions from the activities that people perform over the tor network though their relays. See, for example, Exonerator.
2. If users were given a small set of unlisted exits to use it would harm their anonymity. Tor's protection comes from the ability to hide in a crowd, all tor users are as likely to have exited from a specific exit as any other user. A user who only ever uses a small set of unlisted exits could ultimately end up linking all of their tor traffic to a single, trackable entity. Furthermore whomever was distributing the unpublished list of exits could "poison" users to track their tor usage. This would also ultimately make it easier for them to be the subject of targeted attacks.

It is unfortunate that sites feel the need to block tor rather than finding better methods to handle abuse, but blacklisting appears to "work" and it's relatively easy to deploy so it's what website operators tend to deploy. You should read Roger's blog post "A call to arms: Helping Internet services accept anonymous users" and try to put forward a case for allowing Tor users to use the service, if they do not you should probably try to find a similar service that does allow anonymous use because the current service operators clearly do not hold your privacy in very high regard.

Answer 2

Tor bridges are unlisted tor entry nodes; the purpose of bridges is to let you access the tor network if your ISP or network is blocking all of the publicly listed to entry points. The problem that you are having with the website is unrelated to bridges; you need to use bridges if your ISP blocks you from being able to connect to the tor network. What's going on is the website you are visiting is resolving the IP address tor is giving you from the exit node and is such picking up that it's a proxied ip address you are currently coming from. If the website does not allow you to sign in from a proxied tor ip address then you will need to go there normally with your real isp ip address or go to a local coffee shop or something.