You may have heard that there is some mysterious hidden internet
called the ‘Deep Web’ or the ‘DarkNet’ that you can’t get to from Google, and
which is hidden from most web surfers. Perhaps tales of the dark marketplaces
selling all kinds of legal and illicit goods anonymously for Bitcoin have picqued your curiosity, and you would
like to take a look around and see what they are like. Perhaps you live in a
country where social media and ordinary internet sites are censored and you
would like to visit a place where everyone is free to speak their mind freely
and without fear of repurcussion. Or perhaps you simply care about your privacy
and security online and are attracted to the idea of an internet space where
users are not constantly tracked, monitored, and analysed by manipulative
marketeers, government spies and malicious hackers. All of these are common
reasons why people become interested in visiting this hidden, anonymous internet
space – but if you are like 99% of people you probably don’t have a clue how to
access the so-called ‘darknet’ or ‘deep web’.
Many people find the idea of even trying to access and use the
deep web a little bit intimidating and scary, and if you are a complete
beginner to this kind of stuff you are probably feeling the same. You may be
concerned over what you will see, who you might meet, or what other
concequences there may be for using something so strongly linked in the popular
imagination to illicit activity. Please do not worry. You will not find
anything which you haven’t looked for, and the beauty of the darknet is that
nobody you meet will know who you are – you are just another anon – and there
is a great security in that. You will be safe and you will suffer no negative
consequences for visiting the darknet. You will also have no technical trouble
learning how to access the darknet and find your way around once you have read
this beginner’ guide which will hopefully tell you everything you need to know!
How To Access The Deep Web or DarkNet – A Beginner’s Guide
As stated above, the deep web is not a single location, but a
whole class of different locations which share one thing in common – that they
are hidden from search engines and regular internet users. Different areas of
the deep web therefore have different requirements for you to be able to access
them, and any technology which you use will only give you access to its
specific area of the hidden internet. Having said that, there is a very small
number of technologies used to create what is popularly called the ‘deep web’
or ‘darknet’, and one in particular which the vast majority of people use – TOR.
TOR
is an acronym which stands for ‘The Onion Router’. It got that name because of
the many layers you would have to peel back to find the real identity of any of
its users.
Tor is primarily a ‘privacy network’ which lets people use the
regular internet without being tracked. It does this by bouncing communications
around a lot of different computers, so rather than user A asking for a webpage
from server Z, user A asks user B to ask user C to request the webpage (of
course this is a massive simplification and is pretty inaccurate really, but it
does give you are rough idea of what is happening). This means that any third
party who is trying to spy on people will find it very difficult to tell who is
actually viewing the webpage, or sending the email, or whatever it may be.
In addition to this enhanced privacy for web browsers, TOR also
offers a way for people to host ‘hidden services’. A TOR hidden service
is a website or app of some kind whose location is hidden in exactly the
same way that the true location or identity of web browsers is hidden by TOR in
the example above. These hidden services can only be accessed by other TOR
users – not by regular search engines or regular internet users. You can
recognize them by their address – it will end in .onion and is often composed
of a seemingly random string of characters. Once you have TOR installed on your
computer you can visit these hidden services, which include the infamous dark
markets where bitcoin, drugs and hacked credit card details are ubiquitous, in
exactly the same way that you would access a regular website.
Installing TOR on your computer is incredibly simple. It is no
different from installing any other piece of software. It is also very easy to
use – when you open TOR you will see that it is just a web browser which you
use exactly the same way as you would any other web browser. In fact, it is
based on Firefox so if you have ever used that browser you will find it to be
very familiar indeed. For those in need of more rigorous privacy and security
there is also a TOR operating system called TAILS (The Amnesiac Incogneto Live
System) which you can run from a USB stick, but for most people the browser is
sufficient.
You can download
the TOR browser here.
Using a VPN with Tor
Virtual Private Networks or VPNs are another kind of privacy
software which masks your IP address (hiding who you are) but do not allow you
to access hidden deep web sites.
Some users make use of a VPN in addition to
Tor, in order to hide the fact that they are using Tor. This is not necessary,
but some people just want that extra level of privacy. I recommend IPVanish if
you’re looking for a VPN that works well with Tor and provides an excellent
service for a fair price.
