Tor – The Onion Router

Does anyone here use this, or have experience with it? What are your thoughts on it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)
https://www.torproject.org/

I’ve used it quite a lot in the past. It’s pretty nice.
But the sad part is that although it’s about anonymity and security and that kind of stuff, it doesn’t really protect you very well unless you know exactly how to use it and use other things in addition to it. For example, a lot of the nodes are owned by governments.
Remember the wikileaks scandal. The way Assange got that information was by keeping an eye on a tor node. It’s not that hard to find ways to the information people try to keep secret, unless they’re reeeaaallly good at it.

Funny you should write about this, I’m just getting into exploring it.
Manimal, what precautions should one take before using it? I’m using Aurora, the Firefox browser specifically for Tor. I’ve used TorProject’s webpage for checking my anonymity and it comes back clean. And of course I have some tape over my webcam :P
I’m doing a lot of catch-up learning about encryption right now, or at least trying to… how specific should my knowledge be, what should I watch out for?

@BirdFlyingHigh That depends what you intend to use it for. And I’m not very good with this stuff myself.
What should you watch out for? Stuff that seems suspicious, things that could very well be made to lure people. But as I said, I don’t know what you intend to use it for, and if you aren’t gonna do anything illegal I doubt there’s anything to worry about.

Sometimes when you’re exploring you can find stuff that’s way more serious than you expected. I just like to make sure I have the anonymity I think I have. But you’re right, I don’t really have anything to worry about.
@Skafish or anyone else, I have a database of onion links and I’d be glad to help a HEthen out.

@BirdFlyingHigh how do you check your anonymity, and what do you mean by it coming back clean?
I’d love to check out those onion links by the way.

This has been a pretty good guide for me so far while exploring the deep web
thebotnet.com/guides-and-tutorials/49828-how-to-access-the-hidden-wiki/
That person’s post takes you through how to get on and what to expect.
You should be connected directly to the Tor Project’s tor network page when you start the Tor browser (should be called Aurora). As I recall, the “check anonymity” page is on the main website as a link.
The hidden wiki has a good database of links. But like the post says, be careful – this is the part of the internet where people who actually can hack tend to lurk around. I’ve read multiple places that it’s good to cover your webcam with tape, because it’s fairly easy to control a webcam remotely if you know how.
Oh! Also, make sure you aren’t signed in to any program that connects with Facebook or Twitter at all. Those programs continually broadcast your personally identifying information to other web programs.

@Bird That’s a great post and a great link.
Another note I’d add is that if you’re on a network you’re also at risk unless all computers in the network are encrypted and “hidden” from the net.

SWEET Oniondump commence! :D

This is really interesting, I’ve always wondered about this stuff, now I know that there’s an “internet” within the internet O_o
But I must ask, how do you “search” for something on the deep web? If it isn’t indexed by search engines, how would one go about finding things?

@Alex Eastman
The most commonly cited deep web search engine is called Torch (get it? TORch? These people love their “tor” puns).
Really, though, it seems like to get anywhere you just have to be good at lurking.
http://xmh57jrzrnw6insl.onion/ <- Torch

@ Birdflyinghigh– Damn, Torch is slow! haha.

Everything on deepweb is slow :P same thing goes for freenet

What would be the benefits compared to the ‘normal’ internet?

Exploring the deep web is like fucking a hooker. You better use protection, and don’t expect too much quality or pleasure.