Maybe you have read my post on
. I wrote about running Tor relays and OONI surveillance scans there.https://steemit.com/internet/@timsaid/fighting-for-free-speech-on-the-internet
I can understand that for the most people it is a big step to run a Tor relay. But there is something much easier that you can do. It can be done by one mouse click really.
What is a flash proxy
Flash proxies is a new way of providing access to systems such as Tor. A flash proxy is in fact a mini proxy that runs its code in your web browser. It waits and checks for clients that need access. And if there are any then it conveys data between them and a Tor bridge or relay.
The idea of this flash proxy is to create many ephemeral bridge IP addresses. So we can outpace a censor's ability to block them. Tor has bridge relays like I wrote in my previous post. But they can be blocked rather easily. So instead of increasing the number of static ip addresses to the bridges (and this is limited anyway), we aim to make existing bridges reachable by a larger and changing pool of addresses that is in front of the bridge.
How it works
Thee extra components are involved besides the Tor client and relay a user normally would use. The Tor client contacts the facilitator to advertise that it needs a connection. Then the facilitator who is responsible for keeping track of clients and proxies will assigning one to another. The flash proxy will poll the facilitator for client registrations and begins a connection to the client when there is one. From there the client can connect to Tor. The proxy (you) works like a broker.
This picture will make it more clear.
How to help
So the name "Flash" is easily explained this way. It is "quick" and "short-lived."
It works with general web tech. Like JavaScript and WebSocket. So if your browser can run JavaScript and has support for WebSockets then you can even run a Flash proxy. This can even be done by visiting a page with the code embedded in the site.
This is the code you could embed in your site. This must be done in a iframe.
< src="//crypto.stanford.edu/flashproxy/embed.html" width="80" height="15" frameborder="0" scrolling="no">
Browser plugins
If you do not run a website or you do not want your visitors to be bothered with this. You can still run a Flash proxy yourself. There are plugins for Chrome and FireFox
For Chrome we have Cupcake
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cupcake/dajjbehmbnbppjkcnpdkaniapgdppdnc
And for FireFox we have Tor Flashproxy Badge
https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/addon/tor-flashproxy-badge/
After installing this you have a extra button in your browser. You can disable it and also see if someone is using it. It is a nice feature to see that you contribute to free speech.
For more technical information : The PDF research paper.
https://crypto.stanford.edu/flashproxy/flashproxy.pdf
EDIT: More info: https://crypto.stanford.edu/flashproxy/