[tor-relays] Re: webtunnel bridges for the telegram distributor

[meskio via tor-relays <tor-relays@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

We reached the objective, right now there are 39 webtunnel bridges. Thank you 
for the amazing response and setting up the bridges that fast.

This doesn't mean we don't need more bridges, more are welcome and will help 
users. But now we can enable the distribution of webtunnel bridges over 
telegram, and we'll do it in the coming days.

Quoting gus via tor-relays (2025-07-18 15:21:40)
> Hi, I assume you'd like a visualization showing how close we are to
> reaching 30 webtunnel bridges, right? 
> 
> You can extract this info by parsing Onionoo[1], for example:
> 
> transport    distributor count
> webtunnel    email      1
> webtunnel    telegram   26
> webtunnel    none       23
> webtunnel    lox        1
> webtunnel    settings   180
> webtunnel    https      120
> 
> Thank you for running bridges, Jonah!
> Gus
> 
> [1] https://metrics.torproject.org/onionoo.html
> [2] https://gitlab.torproject.org/-/snippets/221
> 
> On Thu, Jul 17, 2025 at 03:44:46PM -0500, Jonah Aragon via tor-relays wrote:
> > Is there a place to see how many bridges are currently assigned to each
> > distribution method?
> > 
> > Jonah
> > 
> > On 7/17/25 8:20 AM, meskio via tor-relays wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > Russia is extending their Tor block[0]. Currently, they block Fully Encrypted
> > > Protocols like obfs4 on some mobile networks[1]. For a while, WebTunnel has been
> > > a good alternative, but since June, Roskomnadzor has enumerated some WebTunnel
> > > bridges and blocked them by domain name[2]. Bridge operators can bypass this
> > > block by creating a new subdomain or using a new domain for their WebTunnel
> > > bridge.
> > > 
> > > We are working on multiple solutions for this problem. And one of them is to
> > > start distributing WebTunnel bridges over Telegram[3]. In the past, our Telegram
> > > distribution bot has proved to be fairly resistant to the attempts to enumerate
> > > bridges made by the Russian censor.
> > > 
> > > But to be able to do that, we first need to have enough bridges assigned to that
> > > distributor. We are looking for a minimum of 30 bridges assigned to this
> > > distributor. If you are in the capacity to host a WebTunnel bridge, please do
> > > so!
> > > 
> > > You can follow the documentation on the Community portal[4] and configure your
> > > WebTunnel bridge with this option in your torrc:
> > > 
> > >    BridgeDistribution telegram
> > > 
> > > Or if you're using our Docker container, you will need to add the lines below to
> > > your .env file:
> > >    OBFS4_ENABLE_ADDITIONAL_VARIABLES=1
> > >    OBFS4V_BridgeDistribution=telegram
> > > 
> > > It is ok if your WebTunnel bridge is on the same IP address of another existing
> > > WebTunnel bridge as long as is in a different subdomain name, for example
> > > www1.example.com. As the censor is blocking the bridges by domain name and not
> > > by IP.
> > > 
> > > Please avoid hosting your bridge with Hetzner, Digital Ocean, OVH and do not use
> > > Cloudflare DNS, as there are reports of these are being targeted and blocked by
> > > DPI[5].
> > > 
> > > Thank you.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > [0]https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/issues/40057
> > > [1]https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/issues/40050
> > > [2]https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/issues/40064
> > > [3]https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/team/-/issues/158
> > > [4]https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/webtunnel/
> > > [5]https://github.com/net4people/bbs/issues/490
> > > 
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
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> 
> -- 
> The Tor Project
> Community Team Lead


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meskio | https://meskio.net/
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