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Tor: Directly connecting users from Turkey

metrics.torproject.org

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Re: Tor: Directly connecting users from Turkey

#31

Post by logicchains »

Oculus wrote: post #29

My biggest fear is once dictatorships/governments become aware of the ability to sidestep their bans, they'll begin blocking websites such as torproject.org. Keep in mind this traffic spike is because people who don't normally use Tor, started using it (i.e. they downloaded it). At that point I think we'll begin to see an arms race between the public and government which might finally bring us to decentralization of…

The TOR website is blocked in mainland China, as is TOR itself, but it works via obfsproxy, all it requires is someone to send you the executable/source. Most people who bypass the great firewall use VPNs, however.

Re: Tor: Directly connecting users from Turkey

#32

Post by notimetorelax »

chacham15 wrote: post #16
joeblau wrote: post #12

It's amazing what humans beings will do for information. This reminds me of a time in 2007 where my friend was a teacher at an elementary school. The school blocked MySpace and Facebook to stop the students from visiting those sites. Somehow, the students figured out how to use proxies and get around the firewalls and what ended up happening is that the teachers were the only ones who couldn't figure out how to get a…

The solution I used to use in high school: add a period to the end of the domain name. E.g. "www.facebook.com" became "www.facebook.com.". Apparently, the last dot does nothing, but gets around almost all pattern matchings. Everyone I told was amazed, but it actually worked (and teachers/administration were clueless).

Here's some nice explanation on that matter: http://www.dns-sd.org/TrailingDotsInDomainNames.html.

Excerpt from the page: "domain name that doesn't have a dot at the end is not fully-qualified and is potentially ambiguous".

Re: Tor: Directly connecting users from Turkey

#33

Post by girvo »

chacham15 wrote: post #16
joeblau wrote: post #12

It's amazing what humans beings will do for information. This reminds me of a time in 2007 where my friend was a teacher at an elementary school. The school blocked MySpace and Facebook to stop the students from visiting those sites. Somehow, the students figured out how to use proxies and get around the firewalls and what ended up happening is that the teachers were the only ones who couldn't figure out how to get a…

The solution I used to use in high school: add a period to the end of the domain name. E.g. "www.facebook.com" became "www.facebook.com.". Apparently, the last dot does nothing, but gets around almost all pattern matchings. Everyone I told was amazed, but it actually worked (and teachers/administration were clueless).

My favourite was that http was blocked, but https wasn't at my school. Easy peasy :)

Re: Tor: Directly connecting users from Turkey

#35

Post by narrowrail »

Intermediate wrote: post #27
userbinator wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't TOR look like other encrypted traffic, specifically to avoid detection methods like this?

TOR is effectively blocked in China, the only way to use it there is to setup a private obfsproxy somewhere abroad, but I believe it's beyond an average user skills.

Do you happen to have a technical explanation for this? I don't think I understand how it is possible.

Edit: Ok, after reading a bit more, I think I understand. For anyone else looking for more info: https://www.torproject.org/projects/obfsproxy.html.en

Re: Tor: Directly connecting users from Turkey

#36

Post by boklm »

narrowrail wrote: post #35
Intermediate wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TOR is effectively blocked in China, the only way to use it there is to setup a private obfsproxy somewhere abroad, but I believe it's beyond an average user skills.

Do you happen to have a technical explanation for this? I don't think I understand how it is possible. Edit: Ok, after reading a bit more, I think I understand. For anyone else looking for more info: https://www.torproject.org/projects/obfsproxy.html.en

About Tor in china: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/how-to-read-our-china-usage...

Re: Tor: Directly connecting users from Turkey

#37

Post by CSDude »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #30
tyrant_device wrote: post #9

Too bad Twitter can't put a server at 140.140.140.140

I know you're joking because of the twitter 140 character limit but accessing twitter directly by IP address won't help much. The govt can easily block a specific IP. So knowing the IP helps when DNS is down but, in the long run, it's not too helpful when someone is trying to block a site.

They have already switched to IP blocking so the only option you have is proxy or VPN

Re: Tor: Directly connecting users from Turkey

#38

Post by csomar »

What amazes me in this mess is how ignorant the government (and the people running it) about methods to overcome censorship. They are, basically, computer-illiterate. Really very illiterate.

After the Tunisian revolution, there were thoughts and plans by politicians to do censorship again. This was dismissed as politicians, officials and government finally recognized that censorship can be overcome no matter what they try. Religious complaining about "porn" and that stuff can ask their ISP for a traffic filter.

Re: Tor: Directly connecting users from Turkey

#39

Post by 1ris »

arjie wrote: post #14
pdevr wrote: post #4

Thank you. I looked at other countries' graphs as well. India's [1] make no sense. Distorted sinusoidal wave?! [1] https://metrics.torproject.org/users.html?graph=userstats-re...

Drops every Sunday¹. Employees of companies are using Tor to bypass company site blocks. ¹ https://metrics.torproject.org/users.html?graph=userstats-re...

No, I don't think so. Look at a bigger time frame:

https://metrics.torproject.org/users.html?graph=userstats-re...

There was a huge spike in Mid 2013, cause by a botnet that installed tor. Before there was almost not oscillation. After that there is quite a bit. I think there are many infected PCs at companies.

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