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If you suspect your access to the Tor network is being blocked, you may want to use the bridge feature of Tor. The bridge feature was created specifically to help people use Tor from places where access to the Tor network is blocked. (You must already have successfully downloaded and installed the Tor software to use a bridge.)

What is a bridge?

Bridge relays (or "bridges" for short) are Tor relays that aren't listed in the main public Tor directory. This is a deliberate measure to stop these relays from being blocked. Even if your Internet service provider is filtering connections to all the publicly known Tor relays, it may not be able to block all the bridges.

Where do I find bridges?

To use a bridge, you need to locate one and add its information in your network settings. Send an e-mail from a Gmail account to bridges@torproject.org with the line "get bridges" -- by itself -- in the body of the mail. 

Almost instantly, you will receive a reply that includes information about a few bridges:

Important Notes:

1. You must use a Gmail account to send the request.  If torproject.org accepted requests from other mail accounts, an attacker could easily create a lot of email addresses and quickly learn about all the bridges. If you do not have a Gmail account already, creating one takes only a few minutes.
2. It is generally recommended to use Gmail with a secure SSL connection at "https://mail.google.com", rather than the unencrypted URL "http://mail.google.com/". On the Gmail settings page you can make HTTPS the default, in case you forget to use the https: prefix. 
3. If you are on a slow Internet connection you can use the URL https://mail.google.com/mail/h/ for a direct access to the basic HTML version of Gmail.
   

 Turn on bridging and enter bridge information

After you get addresses for some bridge relays, you must configure Tor with whatever bridge address you intend to use:

1. Open the Tor control panel (Vidalia).
   

2. Click "Settings". A "Settings" window opens.

   

3. Click "Network".
4. Select "My Firewall only lets me connect to certain ports" and "My ISP blocks Connections to the Tor network".
5. Enter the bridge URL information you received by e-mail in the "Add a Bridge" field.
6. Click the green "+" on the right side of the "Add a Bridge" field. The URL is added to the box below.
    
7. Click "OK" at the bottom of the window to validate your new settings.
   
   
8. In the Tor control panel, stop and restart Tor to use your new settings.

Note:

Add as many bridge addresses as you can. Additional bridges increase reliability. One bridge is enough to reach the Tor network, however, if you have only one bridge and it gets blocked or stops operating, you will be cut off from the Tor network until you add new bridges.

To add more bridges in your network settings, repeat the steps above with the information on the additional bridges that you got from the bridges@torproject.org e-mail message.