A general discussion on Tor

[Clippy]

From wikipedia:

Tor (originally short for The Onion Router)[5] is free software for enabling online anonymity. Tor directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide volunteer network consisting of more than three thousand relays[6] to conceal a user's location or usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis. Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace Internet activity, including "visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages and other communication forms", back to the user [7] and is intended to protect users' personal privacy, freedom, and ability to conduct confidential business by keeping their internet activities from being monitored.

[cailin maith]

From wikipedia:

Ta

[IRMe]

As for 'dark web', they can be loosely described as websites you can't find on the WWW. In the case of TOR (there are others) the addresses end in .onion and are known as 'hidden services'. You have all sorts there, plenty of questionable things such as narcotics, extreme or child porn, malware for purchase, hackers and even alleged assassins for hire. However there are plenty of other sites and services reflecting the range of things you find on the ordinary WWW. There are a number of sites that are indexed and the addresses are freely shared, but I'm sure there are plenty that are only known to closed audiences.

The address of a site will actually be in the format http://idnxcnkne4qt76tg.onion the first part being generated automatically using a hash when a hidden service is started. The hashed address actually contains the routing path to the site, there is no registry such as DNS. The resulting idea being that a user can not figure out where the service is located, and the service provider has no idea who\where the user is.


From: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/hid...reedom-hosting

Hidden service addresses, aka the dot onion domain, are cryptographically and automatically generated by the tor software. They look like this http://idnxcnkne4qt76tg.onion/, which is our torproject.org website as a hidden service.
There is no central repository nor registry of addresses. The dot onion address is both the name and routing address for the services hosted at the dot onion. The Tor network uses the .onion-address to direct requests to the hidden server and route back the data from the hidden server to the anonymous user. The design of the Tor network ensures that the user can not know where the server is located and the server can not find out the IP-address of the user, except by intentional malicious means like hidden tracking code embedded in the web pages delivered by the server. Additionally, the design of the Tor network, which is run by thousands of volunteers, ensures that it is impossible to censor or block certain .onion-addresses.

[TheFaQQer]

Aye Clippy. Some was arrested for Kiddie stuff so it can't be completely anon?

As for the VPN approach, AIUI, it means that you appear to be in Sweden as far as websites you visit are concerned but that these sites are in the open and you're still getting their location via DNS etc.

My understanding of Tor is that .onion sites are hidden and just as anon as you are. i.e. both user and host are anon.

If you are using a VPN then the type of traffic that you are using becomes harder to see because the packets are encrypted.

If anyone works out what you are doing, then they need to get the VPN provider to reveal which computer was given that address at that time. Many of the Swedish VPNs now don't keep any client records, so they cannot provide any information, even if they wanted to. Swedish law only allows for the data to be revealed if you are facing a criminal trial, and imprisonment of over a certain period (I think it's 2 years), so they can't legally be forced to reveal any information to the UK, even if they had the information to be able to release.

TOR is no longer anonymous, though, if it goes through one network.

[cailin maith]

I don't like the sound of either TOR or the Dark Web.

[amcdonald]

For most people though just being able to get to all the banned torrents sites is enough, simply using a non uk proxy usually does the trick

[Pondlife]

The address of a site will actually be in the format http://idnxcnkne4qt76tg.onion the first part being generated automatically using a hash when a hidden service is started. The hashed address actually contains the routing path to the site, there is no registry such as DNS. The resulting idea being that a user can not figure out where the service is located, and the service provider has no idea who\where the user is.

I take that to mean that if you took a site down/up or restarted Tor, you would get a different address completely? Therefore no bookmarks would work and you would have to inform your userbase of the new address?

[Pondlife]

Faq, Who's your VPN provider and what sort of costs are we talking about.

PM if you'd prefer. Ta.

[TheFaQQer]

Faq, Who's your VPN provider and what sort of costs are we talking about.

PM if you'd prefer. Ta.

iPredator.se

Costs EUR6 a month, pay as you go.

[IRMe]

I take that to mean that if you took a site down/up or restarted Tor, you would get a different address completely? Therefore no bookmarks would work and you would have to inform your userbase of the new address?

Once configured the server can store the configuration offline, you basically use a normal computer with a web server running on a non web interface and port rather than external interface, then create mapping between that and the TOR software. The address is basically a public key, the server retains a private key which you would keep whether the server is on or offline. Of course if you binned the private key then you need a new address. I'm just paraphrasing the docs online and what I've read previous, no first hand knowledge of actually making it work though.

Apparently a lot of funding for TOR comes from the US DOD and probably other TLA organisations, no guessing why. It is particularly popular with dissidents, activists, journalists and any one else with an interest in dealing with them. The price paid for this service of course are the less tasteful services. The likes of Anonymous did take an interest in it the last few years, in particular cleaning up a lot of things they took objection to, which led to a bit of a mini war between them all. Not sure what the place is like now.