like does it show constant connections to Tor and therefore hide when you actually do connect
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noooooo, do not do that.
simply running tor itself will keep a few circuits always ready (unless you configure it to go to sleep), which do have some padding traffic go over them
but you should instead simply integrate Tor into your actual normal usages.
Tor bridges are supposed to be hidden - their use case is to circumvent bad actors who might blacklist Tor connections
In practice, a dedicated & advanced adversary (i.e. The People’s Republic of China) can map the IPs out. Your small-town local ISP probably can’t
There is an additional factor to consider: analysis of network traffic, not IP, to identify Tor traffic. I cannot speak very intelligently on this, perhaps others can add on
I interpreted the question like for traffic analysis. Like how Mullvad’s DAITA fills in your traffic with dummy packets.
It shows random connections to IP addresses (entry nodes) in different countries, sometimes on known ports. If those IPs are checked against known tor nodes lists in real time, then yeah, I guess, “they” can know you are connecting to Tor network.
I interpreted it like: “I only use Tor when I need to do [crimes], therefore how can I make it look like I am always connected to Tor even when I’m not using it”
Running a relay from your home network is a great way to get your IP address blocked from literally everything even if it isn’t an exit node. And it would have a different traffic pattern than using Tor as just a client, so it wouldn’t achieve the goal.
If they were asking how to hide their connections in general to Tor then yes, they need a bridge or some other entry solution.
Hmm yeah. Well I would use a trustworthy VPN to hide Tor activity from your ISP.