[tor-talk] Can't access Tor network: Question about Find Bridges Now

[bao song]

I am in a country where I am behind what I call the NSGFW.

Several months ago, I downloaded the TBB for Windows and found it could not establish a circuit (one must manually save all the cached data, and I had failed to do so). So I clicked Settings-->Network-->Find Bridges Now and quickly got a circuit.

More recently, I downloaded a newer TBB for Windows, again, it could not establish a circuit, so I clicked Settings-->Network-->Find Bridges Now and nothing happened.

I had to keep adding bridges manually, and at around bridge number 5, I finally got a connection. After which, I no longer needed a bridge.

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Also, several months ago, I found that, if I managed to completed a circuit to use Tor myself for NSGFW evasion and privacy, I could make my laptop a transient bridge and select 'Publish my address'.

In a few minutes, I had people from Iran and China using my bridge, which, being transient, was hard to find and block.

Every time I got a new TBB I had to set the bridge back up, and I left it off for a few months.

When I tried to start the bridge up again recently, I left my laptop on for about 36 hours, but no one found me, so I turned it off to make it quicker to shut down, since it no longer seems to be findable.

Is this related to the fact the the 'Find Bridges Now' no longer finds any bridges? Is this a new and improved feature of the Tor network, or has my NSGFW figured out how to block 'Find Bridges Now' and also how to block people behind it from becoming bridges?