A report from the field, plus questions: Earlier today I was trying to use Tor from my local library's network, which uses an HTTP proxy with Websense enabled. It seems Tor is blocked by Websense with the reason: "proxy avoidance".
The blocking is done by redirecting all HTTP requests with "/tor/server/" in the path to a local "blocked by Websense" page. I've tested this by entering arbitrary URLs with "/tor/server/" in the path, like these two below, which all lead to the "blocked" page: http://www.google.com/tor/server/blahblah http://www.arbitrary.net/more-arbirary-path/tor/server/meh.txt The way Websense works, this "proxy avoidance" rule is likely to be common across all organisations that choose to turn this rule on. A couple of questions: Is there a way I can somehow supply Tor with directory information when Tor is unable to do a plaintext HTTP download (which is quite easy to block based on fixed strings in the path) when it starts up? Provided the first question is solved, once Tor has built its circuits, can it be configured to download its directory updates through the Tor circuits, so as to avoid leaving behind these telltale footprints of periodical Tor directory downloads? Thanks, John
