[Tralen]

If this is in the wrong section please forgive me but I can't seem to find the forum dedicated to TOR as I know there at least used to be one.

I was just curious as to how .onion sites were accessed before TOR browser? From my understanding the TOR browser just runs a protocol to keep you encrypted and anonymous and that this same technique is used along with others like I2P to keep the servers for said websites anonymous. I don't know much about accessing web-pages, but from my understanding shouldn't you be able to get to any of these websites by just typing in their address?

Is it the web-browsers themselves that block these types of websites due to their encryption? Or does it go deeper than that? I know of things like Tor2Web (I'm pretty sure I'm referencing the correct thing), but was that always the go-to method and if so how does that work? I just feel through the minimal knowledge that I have that you should be able to access these websites through their address despite the web-browser.

Also, I know that by accessing this way it removes anonymity on the users part as well as makes what your doing more susceptible to tracking, hacking and so forth. My intention is not to visit these sites via a common web-browser, but rather to expand my knowledge on the subject for that is my purpose in learning all things Networking, Coding, Hacking-esque.

Thanks in advance everyone!

[Codefuser]

The sites are only accessible through the Tor network. Tor's network has it's own DNS system, and you can only resolve .onion domains through it. No onion sites existed before tor.

[y.flicka]

There used to be non .onion sites but they where hidden under ton of proxies and you had to run diffrent programs to enter and hide yourself.

[Codefuser]

There used to be non .onion sites but they where hidden under ton of proxies and you had to run diffrent programs to enter and hide yourself.

WTF did you smoke

[Nomad.Null]

WTF did you smoke

Hopefully I'm not breaking TOS by explaining this but...

He's not wrong. The Deep Web has existed as long as the internet has. The Deep Web is the un-resolved internet. IP-connected devices that aren't registered but still connected are considered a part of the deep-web. If you run a web server on your home network that has yet to be spidered by Google, technically it's deep web.

Back in the day, the way you connected to it was through very specific proxies. In order to get into the seedier parts of the deepweb, you had to conceal your connections by passing through chains of proxy servers that only accepted connections to each other. Someone essentially had to give you a roadmap in order to access that stuff. TOR just made it easier by anonymizing your traffic for you and giving domain names to the sites that were registered under it. It's the same thing, just made a lot simpler.

That's about as far as I'm willing to go to explain this since deep-web discussion is worthy of a whole-sale ban here on HF and I'd rather not have that happen.

[TimmyAk]

Deep web bad, deep web big no no

[ShadowCloudGH]

I think the explanation by True Demon is pretty much spot on, but I'd like to give you a little practical example of something that might help you understand. Back in the day businesses registered to have their numbers appear in the yellow pages. You could have a phone that people could call without being in the good book, but being in the book opened up the business to a lot of potential customers.

If on the other hand you knew which number to dial to get to a specific business, you didn't need the book.

This is pretty much what happened with DNS.

That being said there's a lot of filtering that happened and as per True Demon, no idea how much can be discussed here without invoking the ban hammer but you can think call blocking and whitelisted your number to certain numbers. I believe that should give you a rough picture without saying too much.

[THC]

Discussion of the deep web is not allowed here on HF, just sayin yall.
We recommend you take the time to read the HF Help Documents section. The answer to your questions should be contained in there.


"Deepweb Discussion
Deepweb is a phrase to describe hidden websites on the internet that are often, but not always, directly related to illegal activity such as child porn, carding, hitmen, and other very illicit material. As such we're not going to allow it here. Not even the slightest discussion of the deepweb will be allowed. "