"Authenticating to Tor" step takes very long when network window is open
stopping tor and restarting it usually is a very quick process, because all the relevant documents are already cached etc. When the network window is opened this step takes a very long time while the flags are fetched/updated tho, and display of Tor's activity is delayed.
To upload designs, you'll need to enable LFS and have an admin enable hashed storage. More information