Following Tor, at some point, I became interested in other anonymity networks as well. One of the first ones that I’d heard of at this time was I2P, although from a technical standpoint, it’s one of the most complex. Unlike Tor, it didn’t have its own dedicated browser, although any browser can be configured to use I2P. You can download the software at geti2p.net. At that time, I was still using Windows *shudder*, and though I2P has a Windows version, it seems like it’s oriented toward more advanced users. What I know now (and this seems awfully simple) is that you just have to adjust your pro ..read more

One of my readers was asking if I could talk more about personal experiences I’d had on the various darknets discussed here. I had done this more when I first started the blog, but shifted away from it recently. I had first heard about the “dark web” via YouTube, specifically on a video of A Serbian Film, which is considered to be a very disturbing movie in its own right. One of the comments said, “You think this is disturbing? This is nothing compared to what’s on the dark web.” Knowing nothing about the subject at the time, I googled it, and one of the articles that came up was Clearing Up C ..read more

AnoNet is yet another anonymity network that’s less well known than others like Tor. It uses the IPv4 subnet 21.0.0.0/8. Like networks such as Freenet and ZeroNet, anoNet is considered an anonymous P2P network. The network uses several different routing and VPN technologies: OpenVPN, tinc, QuickTun, Quagga, and bird. OpenVPN is used as part of some other networks, such as dn42, as is tinc. In the case of anoNet, tinc is used to quickly connect nodes in the network to one another. Quagga and bird are optional; these are only used if you want your machine to be a router (somewhat like being a To ..read more

I have an interview with the BBC this week for a documentary they’re doing on the dark web, specifically on the topic of red rooms, and have been researching in preparation for it. Having been on the “dark web” for roughly five years or so, I have a reasonably good idea of whether or not they exist – that is, going by the definition of “website where you can pay money to watch someone be tortured or killed.” Yesterday, I went onto Tor and attempted to stream some videos live on the YouTube front end Invidious (which has been mentioned in prior posts). Invidious has both clearnet and onion lin ..read more

A reader here asked if I knew anything about “holy3,” and thus I looked it up. It seems to mostly be a creepypasta or ARG, but I decided to look into it anyway. It looks as though the origin of it is a post on r/nosleep: Holy3 found me. They can find you too. The story concerns someone who visits Tor for the first time and becomes a regular user after a while, and eventually receives a mysterious message like this: m44: Do you want an elevated human experience? me: Depends, what are you selling? m44: It’s free. What followed was a string of numbers and letters which anyone could tell was a TO ..read more

Starting with Tor, anonymity networks (a.k.a. “darknets”) are obviously the most popular subject here. One of the newest ones is called Lokinet, which in many ways is similar to ZeroNet, but uses some different protocols. ZeroNet, as explained in How to Access ZeroNet from Android and Other Platforms, is an anonymous P2P network that also has the ability to use Tor. Lokinet, on the other hand, is a network that uses a LLARP (Low Latency Anonymous Routing Protocol). In their documentation, they describe this as a “…hybrid between Tor and I2P to provide additional desirable properties versus an ..read more

Most of the posts here, with regard to anonymity networks, have talked about Tor, I2P, Freenet, and/or ZeroNet. Even so, a recent commenter on the post Dos and Don’ts of the Tor Browser had said “You forgot to mention lokinet, yggdrasil, and alienet.” Therefore, it seemed appropriate to do a series on some of the less well known anonymity networks. Yggdrasil is a fully end-to-end encrypted IPv6 network which is lightweight and autonomous. Despite being an IPv6 network, it also works over IPv4 connections as well. It takes its name from the “world tree” of Norse cosmology. The idea behind the Y ..read more

One of the readers here had asked about “unblocking DuckDuckGo.” In July of 2020, DuckDuckGo was banned in India via government orders, which tends to happen in countries with governments who don’t like their citizens to have too much freedom of speech or individual liberty – but this isn’t a political blog. If you’re able to use Tor in your country, that is one way you can access DuckDuckGo or other blocked sites. Simply install the Tor Browser and either access DuckDuckGo’s clearnet site through there, or its onion link: http://3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion. If you still can’t access it, try using ..read more

I had written a post entitled “Hmm…Needs More Gore Part 3,” but deleted it for some reason. So, this will be the official “3 1/2” of that series. Part of what prompted this was the fact that one Redditor had asked, as is the custom, “What Is The Most Horrible Fucked Up Deep Web Site You Have Found?” Contrary to what most users might expect, there don’t seem to be that many sites like this on Tor, with a few exceptions. GuanXi, which the post New Tor Social Network: GuanXi talked about, does have these types of images and videos, despite the fact that the site itself looks very similar to Faceb ..read more

A friend of mine asked recently about dos and don’ts of using the Tor Browser, and there are quite a few; in fact, I may not know all of them offhand, which is why it’s good to read the official Tor Browser manual and other documentation made by the Tor Project. That being said, there are some definite things that you should and shouldn’t do with the Tor Browser: Do use the official Tor Browser from the Tor Project: The only Tor Browsers you should use are ones made by the official Tor Project, including ones for different platforms. Currently, the official ones work with Windows, OS X, Linux ..read more