How does the dark web work?

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So I understand the general idea of the much broader deep web being stuff that isn’t indexed by search engines but I have a lot of questions about how the “dark web” works:

1. Where is all the data stored? I get that companies would store their own deep web data but would people who want to create a dark web site need to have their own servers to store it?

2. How are you supposed to find things? If this is stuff you have to look for specifically what do people mean when they say “I stumbled upon this really messed up thing on the dark web” etc.

3. How does something like the tor browser allow you to access stuff that isn’t indexed, how does it find it

4. If you use a tor browser could you technically access anything not indexed? Like if you knew what to look up you could access someone’s personal account on a surface website? I feel like the answer to that is no, but if so then, why

These questions definitely make me look questionable but I promise I’m just fascinated by how the dark web can even function

In: Technology

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

On a normal website like reddit.com, a company has registered the domain name `reddit.com` with a domain registrar who represents the `.com` top-level domain. They then provide DNS information so that someone who types `reddit.com` into their browser gets an IP address that their computer can use.

With the Dark Web, they don’t have traditional Top Level Domains. They have the `.onion` domain. When someone registers a `.onion` website, they get an autogenerated random character ID that is somewhere from 16 to 56 characters long, and that is their website prefix. So you could have `abcdef1234567890.onion` as your domain name. Those TLDs are shared in a peer to peer network rather than having a central authority.

As for browsing it, there is another mesh network for the Tor browser system, wherein layers of encryption happen in multiple hops between you and the destination.

1. Now where is the data stored? Ultimately, on normal servers. Those servers just aren’t listening to normal internet traffic. Imagine like having a warehouse of stolen goods for people you trust to come and buy them — you just don’t let anyone who don’t trust in the door. That includes search engines.

2. You find these things via person to person communication in your communities. Just like you don’t google “Weed dealers near me”, you know a guy who knows a guy.

3. The tor browser is basically a browser that implements the Tor protocol. Your requests bounce through a series of Tor nodes on their way to its destination.

4. No, because there’s also an authentication layer built into Tor system. Imagine it’s like needing someone who’s already in a nightclub to tell the bouncer to let you in too.

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