Hello all,
Last month we saw a massive uptick in support requests from Chinese
speaking users due the outreach work[0]. Helped users with
troubleshooting and using pluggable transport that works best for them.
With three Tor Browser stable releases, much of my work went into
post-release user support work. We got a number of reports about the
Snowflake domain fronting issue with Fastly[1], which was fixed with Tor
Browser 13.0.11. We got a few questions about the removal of automatic
onionsite prioritization[2] with Tor Browser 13.0.12.
In terms of documentation, I added a unified section about installing
little-t-tor (tor the network daemon) to our support portal[3].
Following is a thorough breakdown of tickets our user support team
handled in March:
# Frontdesk (email support channel)
* 645(↑) RT tickets created
* 617(↑) RT tickets resolved
Tickets by numbers:
1. 292(↑) RT tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese speaking
users.
2. 154(↑) RT tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian
speaking countries.
3. 23 RT tickets: Snowflake domain fronting issue
with Fastly.
4. 10(↓) RT tickets: private bridge and help with
circumventing censorship requests from regions where Tor is not blocked.
The issues were mostly resolved by troubleshooting and analysing Tor
logs and the issues ranged from - firewall, VPN & antivirus interrupting
the connection to having an incorrect system clock.
5. 5 RT tickets: Reports of websites blocking Tor.
6. 3 RT tickets: Questions about removal of automatic .onion site prioritization
in Tor Browser.
7. 3 RT tickets: Help with installing Tor Browser on Linux.
8. 2(↓) RT tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
Highlighting some other topics we received questions and feedback:
9. Help with verifying Tor Browser's signature.
10. Question if Tor Browser can be installed on Chromebooks[4]
11. Report of an app on iOS App Store masquerading as Tor Browser.
12. Troubleshooting Tor Browser post-update on Windows. Issue with anti-virus software
flagging Tor Browser.
13. Troubleshooting Tor Browser install on macOS. User was on a
very old and unsupported version of macOS.
14. Questions about how to get started with Tor Browser after installation[5].
# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal Support channel
* 628(↑) tickets resolved
Breakdown:
* 592(↑) tickets on Telegram
* 35(↑) tickets on WhatsApp
* 1(↓) ticket on Signal
Tickets by numbers:
1. 351(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking
countries.
2. 57(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
3. 49(↑) tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese speaking users.
4. 14 tickets: Which Tor apps to install on iOS and questions about
Onion Browser and Orbot for iOS.
5. 3 tickets: Snowflake domain fronting issue with Fastly.
Highlighting some other topics we received questions about:
6. 2 tickets: Reports of onion services (not maintained by us) being
offline. We asked the users to contact the concerned onion service
maintainers.
7. 2 tickets: Help with GPG signature verification while
installing Tor Browser.
8. 2 tickets: Instructions on how to fetch latest Tor Browser binaries from GetTor.
9. Help with troubleshooting Tor Browser for Android.
10. Help with using bridges with Tor Browser on TailsOS.
11. Help with installing Tor Browser on Linux (ArchLinux).
12. Question whether Tor Browser is supported on AndroidTV.
# Highlights from the Tor Forum
1. Snowflake add-on no longer listed on addons.mozilla.org[6].
2. iPad: Need Help With Download & Installation (Onion Browser and Orbot)[7].
3. Removal of automatic .onion site prioritization in Tor Browser[8].
4. (Fix) Problems with Snowflake since 2024-03-01: "broker failure
Unexpected error, no answer."[9]
Thanks!
e.
Note: (↑), (↓) and (-) are indicating if the number of tickets we
received for these topics have been increasing, decreasing or have been
the same from the previous month respectively.
[0]: GitHub - torproject/tor4zh
[1]: Fastly blocked domain fronting (#135) · Issues · The Tor Project / Anti-censorship / Team · GitLab
[2]: New Release: Tor Browser 13.0.12 | The Tor Project
[3]: How to install little-t-tor? | Tor Project | Support
[4]: Can I download Tor Browser for Chrome OS? | Tor Project | Support
[5]: RUNNING TOR BROWSER FOR THE FIRST TIME | Tor Project | Tor Browser Manual
[6]: Snowflake add-on no longer listed on addons.mozilla.org
[7]: iPad: Need Help With Download & Installation
[8]: Connect to Onion when available
[9]: (Fix) Problems with Snowflake since 2024-03-01:"broker failure Unexpected error, no answer."