Snowflake for Firefox — A Quick Guide to Bypassing Censorship Securely

Snowflake for Firefox — How to Install and Use the Tor Pluggable Transport

What Snowflake does

Snowflake is a WebRTC-based Tor pluggable transport that helps users in censored regions connect to Tor by routing their connection through volunteer proxies (Snowflakes). The Firefox extension lets volunteers run a Snowflake proxy from their browser; Snowflake is also embedded in Tor Browser and other Tor-powered apps for blocked users to connect.

Install the Firefox extension (volunteer)

1. Open Firefox (desktop).
2. Go to the Snowflake add-on page: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/torproject-snowflake
3. Click “Add to Firefox” → confirm “Add”.
4. After installation, click the snowflake icon in the toolbar and toggle it On (give any consent prompts).
5. Leave the browser running or the extension enabled — the icon turns green when a censored user connects.

Use Snowflake inside Tor Browser (as a blocked user)

1. Install Tor Browser (desktop or Android) from https://torproject.org/download.
2. On first run choose “Configure” if Tor is censored in your country; otherwise open Settings → Tor Network Settings.
3. Select “Tor is censored in my country” → choose a built-in bridge → pick snowflake.
4. Click Connect. Wait a few minutes; verify at https://check.torproject.org that Tor is working.

Troubleshooting (quick)

• Icon stays gray: ensure WebRTC is enabled and the extension has permission; try restarting Firefox.
• No connections for blocked user: try selecting Snowflake again in Tor Browser settings, update Tor Browser to latest version, or wait—Snowflake broker availability fluctuates.
• Privacy concerns: volunteers only act as entry proxies; the user’s visible IP is the Tor exit node, not the volunteer’s.

Additional ways to run Snowflake

• Use the Snowflake widget on snowflake.torproject.org to run a proxy from a webpage.
• Run a standalone Snowflake proxy on a desktop/server using the command-line guide on snowflake.torproject.org.

Resources

• Snowflake project: https://snowflake.torproject.org/
• Firefox add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/torproject-snowflake
• Tor Browser download & docs: https://torproject.org/download

(If you want, I can provide step-by-step screenshots or a short checklist tailored to your OS.)