How to use bridges in Orbot?

Question

I am on android 4.4.2. Using Orbot + Orfox. I can connect the Tor network and browse webpages on Orfox when I am connected to a Wi-Fi. But whenever I turn-off wi-fi and try Mobile data, the pages on Orfox does not load. Here, How to make Tor work using mobile data?, they mention that mobile carriers may block access to Tor. And it is suggested that I should use bridges available. How can I do that? Checking "Use Bridges" option on android app does not resolve the issue (I haven't entered any IP address and port of bridges, since I do not know how to do it.)

Answer 1

1- Get bridges:

Enter bridges.torproject.org on your mobile browser. On the page opened, click on "Get Bridges" option. Scroll down to the "Advanced Options" box, and select "obfs4" on "Do you need a Pluggable Transport?". I didn't meddle with the "Do you need IPv6 Addresses?" option. By default, I found the "Advanced Options" box already selected as "obfs4" and "Do you need IPv6 Addresses?" box unchecked. Then, click on get bridges. Do the captcha. Get the bridge IP's and ports and other information.

2- Apply bridge settings on Orbot:

On mobile, click Orbot app. Get to settings in the app. Scroll down to the "Bridges" header. Check "Use Bridges" option. Then go back to your mobile browser and copy all the line that bridges.torproject.org gives you as bridge information. Copy all the line. Then, head back to the Orbot app options, and click "Bridges" option. Paste the copied information in the pop-up. Click "OK".

3- Restart your mobile device:

Now, at first, I wasn't aware that I needed to restart my mobile device. So, the changes didn't have any effect. But, after restarting my mobile device, the changes seem to get applied. Now, I can connect to the internet through Tor network on mobile data.

Answer 2

First, you have to get orbot

to get that on your phone there two ways which I know:

• using F-Droid

  which is accessible from https://f-droid.org but before installing orbot you have to activate Guardian Project Official Releases under F-Droid -> settings -> Repositories.

• using Google-Play-Store

  which you just type orbot in the search bar and there you go.

After installing Orbot on your device

it's strongly recommended to VPN the whole device traffic through Tor network. so to do that, you have to turn VPN Mode ON in the main page of Orbot.

now you go into settings, come down in settings, and you will see Debug section click on Torrc Custom Config and you will be prompted, you have to enter below lines to use Bridges:

UseBridges 1
ClientTransportPlugin obfs4 exec /usr/bin/obfs4proxy

now go up in the settings you will see Bridges Section,

• First activate Use Bridges by clicking on it
• Then Click on Bridges, and you will be prompted again, and now you have to enter your Bridges - so far so good but now how should I get Bridges?

getting Bridges

use gmail or yahoo mail (I'm not sure about other mail service providers) to compose a mail to [email protected] and fill both subject and mail content with get transport obfs4 (carefull about not having kinda misspelling). now you are done there is a mail back to you from [email protected] in seconds.

Final Step

Now you can enter the bridges you got into obrot -> settings -> Bridges.

below is an obfs4 bridge structure:

obfs4 IP:PORT HASH-OF-YOUR-OBFS4-BRIDGE

now you can come back into the main page and click on onion and turn it on.

as it shows Bootstraped 100%, it should be connected and you can enjoy surfing internet freely. but if it show Proxy Client: unable to connect to IP:PORT ("general SOCKS server failure"), you need to send another mail to [email protected] to get another bridges.