Hello everyone,
This is the report from user support team for the month of November.
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.
- Summary of updates from user support
- General user support
- Farsi-speaking user support
- Russian-speaking user support
- Frontdesk (email user support channel)
- Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels
- Topics from the Tor Forum
- Highlights from Google Play Store
# Summary of updates from user support
## General user support
* 401 tickets in total (↓63 as compared to October)
* 265 tickets on Email
* 135 tickets on Telegram
* 1 ticket on WhatsApp
* Our user support channel on Signal was temporarily unavailable in November but it is back online and reachable via text on our Signal number, +17787431312, or Signal username, @torsupport.89
* In the aftermath of the third Tor VPN beta release, we received numerous tickets with the major topics being:
- Users enquiring about [WebTunnel support] for Tor VPN, which is an upcoming feature.
- Instructions to install Tor VPN beta.
- Instructions to use the ['Kill Switch'] on Tor VPN.
- Users unable to connect to connect Tor VPN due to having [Private DNS] configured.
[WebTunnel support]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/411
['Kill Switch']: Kill Switch - Features - Tor VPN — Tor
[Private DNS]: Can't use private DNS with Tor VPN (#147) · Issues · The Tor Project / Applications / vpn · GitLab
## Farsi-speaking user support
* 30 tickets in total (↓4 as compared to October)
* 7 tickets on Email
* 23 tickets on Telegram
## Russian-speaking user support
* 1034 tickets in total (↓159 as compared to October)
* 108 tickets on Email
* 1 ticket on Signal
* 25 tickets on WhatsApp
* 900 tickets on Telegram
* With more resources and apps being blocked in Russia - most recently the online game Roblox - the number of Tor users continues to grow.
[Restrictions]() on mobile internet are significantly stricter, with periodic activation of a "whitelist" or "allowlist" mode during which only government-approved, Russia-based resources remain accessible for several hours.
During those period, users have reported that Tor and our pluggable transports do not work.
[Restrictions]: Help find working method to circumvent Internet shutdown method in Russia!
That's it for the summary, following is a more detailed report about the tickets our user support team worked on last month.
# Frontdesk (email user support channel)
* 438(↓) RT tickets created
* 380(↓) RT tickets resolved
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 192(↓) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users.
2. 108(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
3. 24(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux).
4. 7(↓) tickets: questions, feedback and help with troubleshooting Tor VPN beta.
5. 7(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
6. 7(↑) tickets: reports of fake apps on iOS AppStore masquerading as official Tor Browser and questions about which Tor app to install on iOS (i.e. Onion Browser or Orbot).
6. 5(↑) tickets: reports of websites blocking Tor connections or not performing well in Tor Browser.
7. 4(↑) tickets: help with instructions to download, install or properly uninstalling Tor Browser.
8. 2(-) tickets: question about onion services and how to access them.
9. 2(↑) tickets: instructions to import and export bookmarks on Tor Browser.
10. 1(↓) ticket: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Android.
11. 1(-) ticket: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices.
12. 1(-) ticket: help with instructions to troubleshoot Tails operating system.
13. 1(↑) ticket: instructions to sign up for a account on Tor's GitLab instance.
14. 1(↑) ticket: help with installing little-t tor (the network daemon).
15. 1(↑) ticket: help with getting started with Tor Browser and other general questions about the browser.
# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels
* 1084(↓) tickets resolved
Breakdown:
* 1058(↓) tickets on Telegram
* 1(↓) ticket on Signal
* 26(↑) tickets on WhatsApp
Tickets by topics and numbers:
1. 926(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
2. 32(↓) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users.
3. 32(↑) tickets: [GetBridgesBot on Telegram freezes], stops sending bridges and users have to clear chat history.
4. 23(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
5. 19(↑) tickets: questions, feedback and help with troubleshooting Tor VPN beta.
6. 14(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux).
7. 13(-) tickets: helping users on iOS, using Onion Browser or Orbot, to use censorship circumvention methods.
8. 12(↑) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor.
9. 3(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor Browser Desktop on Windows, macOS and Linux.
10. 3(↓) tickets: help with instructions to troubleshoot Tails operating system.
11. 3(↑) tickets: help with configuring bridges to use with little-t tor (the network daemon).
12. 2(-) tickets: help with instructions to use bridges with Orbot on Android.
13. 2(↑) tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them.
14. 1(↑) ticket: instructions to import and export bookmarks on Tor Browser.
15. 1(↓) ticket: users seeing a "proxy refused" error when visiting websites on Tor Browser for Android using Samsung devices.
16. 1(↓) ticket: help with installing Tor Browser on Desktop on Linux.
17. 1(↓) ticket: instructions to download Tor Browser 13.5 legacy for legacy operating systems.
18. 1(↓) ticket: instructions to use WebTunnel bridges with Tor Browser.
19. 1(-) ticket: help with instructions to verify Tor Browser GPG signature.
20. 1(-) ticket: help with using Snowflake with Tor to circumvent censorship.
21. 1(↑) ticket: reports of websites blocking Tor connections or not performing well in Tor Browser.
[GetBridgesBot on Telegram freezes]: GetBridgesBot freezes and stops sending bridges (#286) · Issues · The Tor Project / Anti-censorship / rdsys · GitLab
# Topics from the Tor Forum
1. Accessing Tor Browser's configuration files on [Flatpak Tor Browser] on Linux.
2. Discussion on Firefox's [Tab view] not available on Tor Browser.
[Flatpak Tor Browser]: Path to "torrc" file? Using Flatpak Tor Browser
[Tab view]: Firefox View / Tab View
# Highlights from Google Play Store
* Tor Browser for Android (TBA) had a Google Play rating of 4.395 (↓0.005) stars in November, which is lower as compared to in October.
* Tor Browser for Android (TBA) got 691 (↓49) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 66,284.
* Tor Browser for Android Alpha (TBA Alpha) app had a rating of 4.182 (↓0.01) in November which is lower as compared to in October.
* In November, Tor Browser for Android Alpha (TBA Alpha) got 29 (↑7) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 8,708.
* Tor VPN beta was installed almost 30000 times by the end of November.
The top 5 countries by the number of installations being (in descending order): United States, India, Iran, Russia and France.
* For Tor Browser, the main issues highlighted by the users in their comments and reviews were:
- internet censorship in Russia and users looking for ways to bypass it.
- Tor Browser for Android being slow to browse.
- Tor failing in the background with a "Proxy server refused connection" error while browsing.
Thanks!
-- ebanam