Everything you need to know about accessing and VPN for Dark Web

What is the basic features of VPN for Dark Web

• Completely anonymous
• Ultra Secure, Zero Logs
• It is possible to pay with bitcoins
• Compatible with TOR.

What is deep web?

Google and other search engines do what is called crawling to determine which websites should be indexed and ranked. Therefore, whatever is indexed will be discovered when you search for it. What many people may not be aware of is that there is information that is not indexed by search engines, it is on the Internet but it cannot be accessed through the general web. That is called the deep web. To put it more simply, deep web is a list of websites that don’t receive indexation from Google and other search engines. Dark web is deeper than the deep internet though. The reason is, while the deep web is accessible to all, the dark web is restricted. You access it; you will need special software known as Tor. The software will help you navigate through all the restrictions. It is estimated that the web has over 500 times more content than what you see on the results page. This put the internet into two major categories: the surface web and the deep web. There are many reasons why the information is hidden. First of all, it could be that majority of users will not need it and search engines don’t want to “waste time” crawling them. Even if they are crawled, it will take ages before they are made available to you. Or it could be that Google is barred from crawling them. A lot of the content tucked away is old and outdated. It is found unworthy to appear in the surface web. For example, content like iPhone apps, the files that are in your Dropbox account, court records, private social media files and any other related info like academic journals. The data is just there on the internet but cannot be necessarily crawled. The websites on the dark web are publicly visible. But you cannot see them because they are hidden in the IP addresses of the servers they are hosted on. This makes it almost impossible to determine who hosts them and where they are hosted from. They are built on anonymity using Tor. What Tor does is encrypting the web traffic and passes it through computers around the world that are randomly selected. Each selected computer will eliminate one layer of encryption. This is why matching the end of the traffic with where it originated from may not be possible. Tor browser is the tool you will need to access the sites.

What is Dark net?

Many people will often find themselves taking deep web for darknet which is also referred to them as dark web, black web or black net. All the information stored on the internet but not crawled or indexed by Google falls under deep web. In fact, you do not even need special tools to access this data. All you need is to know exactly where to look. You can use any of any specialized search engines or directories or wikis to access what you need. There are only a few deep web search engines left today because many have been shut down or acquired. Search engines like Alltheweb and CompletePlanet no longer exist. You can still find a few though, including DeeperWeb, The WWW Virtual Library, Surfwax, and IceRocket. The best search engines for the deep web are specialized ones. For example, a court case file can be easily found in the public records search of your country. The secret is to be as specific as possible; otherwise what you will find is the ones on the surface web. Dark net is only a tip of the iceberg in the deep web, and it is kept hidden with a purpose. Meaning, it is not about crawling or indexing; they have chosen to stay away from the public view. Also, you do not necessarily need to have a special tool to access them. The dark web is usually associated with marketplaces where shady deals take place. Illicit goods like narcotics, firearms and stolen credit cards numbers are traded here. This is just for the dark corner. There is the darkest corner where hitmen are hired. This is where you can also find human trafficking and child porn activities. A high level of anonymity characterizes the dark web. You can access a blog, a forum, a chat room, or private gaming server with complete anonymity. Nobody can tell who is who in the real world. It could even be your neighbor, but you will never tell as long as necessary precautions are taken. In most cases, journalist or whistleblowers exchange their most sensitive information using the dark web. This is because the users are safe from the spying and prying eyes of governments or any other body with prying intentions.

Is it safe to access the dark web?

The same way the surface web scattered among servers around the world, the dark web is not a single place either. In fact, the dark web is even wider because it contains more websites. Accessing the dark web can be accessed with ease using Tor. It is legal to access the dark web, but it might not be totally safe. Some users engage in illegal activities using it as seen above. As you may have realized, there is a great element of risk involved in accessing the internet generally. Tor makes your online activities impossible to trace but theoretically, you might not be totally immune. This is why the next part of this article is going to guide you through safe ways of accessing the dark web. In general, you will need a VPN for Dark Web, but that is not all there is to it. Let’s look at how to navigate the darknet safely.

Accessing the dark web safety

The normal websites we know have URLs appended with .com or .org. Accessing the dark web, however, requires that you use Tor which is short for Onion Router. The websites on this browser are appended with .onion. This means anyone who is not a Tor user cannot access them. Tor browser is one of the most anonymity based browsers in the history of the internet.  It is simply a network that allows the user’s internet connection to be routed. The encryption on the network works in such a way that the traffic is bounced through different relays across the world. This action completely hides the identity of the user making it impossible to trace them or where they are browsing from.

How to get Tor network

Tor network can be acquired with great ease. Consider the way you acquire other software, and you can use the same procedure. The simplest method is by downloading and installing it. This means you can simply search for Tor browser using your normal browser, download and install on your computer. Now just because the Tor browser may sound strange to, it does not mean that it is hard to use. You can use it in just the same way you use other browsers. Its settings are based on the Firefox browser which is common to many people. The only difference is that all your traffic will be automatically routed through Tor. The internet is full, or fakery and you can easily download things that can ruin your computer. For this reasons to not accept to download and install Tor from just anywhere you find it. Look for the official website first then continue. Otherwise, you might think you are going the right way when all you are downloading are malware, spyware and or other viruses in your device. The website is officially available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. There are also applications that use third-party mobile browsers to access Tor Network, but many experts say it is risky using this procedure. Once you have your browser safely downloaded and installed, you are ready to start browsing the dark web, and it gets easier from here. Fortunately for you, Tor is the most popular browser for the dark web. Accessing the .onion darknet websites in now in your hands but there are still a few tricks to learn.

 How to get through the navigations

Browsing the dark websites is now easy and safe for you. But don’t get comfortable if you want to do something more than that. You will have to go an extra mile and add in precautions that ensure you have been safely browsing at the time. If you are not careful enough you might find yourself in more trouble than you may have thought you have. It is going to take more than just having the browser. If for example, you are looking to by some medicines off-book, then you will have to create a fake ID. That is the best way to go about it because you don’t want anyone to know who you really are. To do this, you simply have to create an encrypted mail with anew email address. Use a pseudonym and not your real name. You also need to set up a bitcoin wallet, disable JavaScript in Tor browser. Then you can start researching vendors among many other things. Note that, it is not going to be a walk in the park finding this .onion websites. Whatever you find will be just the same things you find on Google or other search engines results page. Don’t think you can simply type in a keyword and find the dark web site. There are a few sites that index onion sites if you can identify them, you will have found a great asset. Search engines like Onion.city, Onion.to, and NotEvil are a few examples of such sites. Another very good resource in the deep web search is the Reddit. Try out a few engines that can make great assets. Using searches like /r/deep web among others will lead you more directly to those things you are looking for. The key to, and maybe most important thing to note, dark websites is security and anonymity. You can never be too careful when it comes to these two. When you are using Tor network, your ISP and any prying eyes will not be able to see your activities. However, they will know very well that your IP address is on Tor network. That can put you in trouble if you are not extra careful. Apart from this, another precaution is to double-check your .onion URLs. The URLs are created with some kind of random numbers and letters. Verifying their legitimacy could be a little of trouble for you. To be sure with the URL, it is more recommendable that you verify them from 3 different sources. It is not about being able to access the sites only but to ensure you have done enough to get yourself on the safe side. That is not the end of your security precaution. After finding out whether or not the URL is legit, you must save it. Here again, the saving must be in an encrypted note. All these are reasons you want to find something more to add an extra layer of security. At this point, therefore, you want to employ the services of VPN servers.

Using VPN over Tor

Using VPN for the dark web is the best way to ensure you are completely masked. It is the perfect way to stay off the radar from any eye that can try to spy on your data. What happens is, a VPN server allows you to encrypt all data traveling to and from your device. Your device is registered using special addresses called Internet Protocol (IP) which are unique to each device. The IP address allows you to connect to the internet and access any information. ISPs and governments can use this address to know who you are and where you are browsing from. A VPN will route your data through the location of your choosing. Using VPN with Tor browser seals your security precaution rendering you completely anonymous and immune to any external forces. Tor emphasizes anonymity while VPN is more about privacy. If you combine the two, you have something beyond the borders of security. There are several ways you can use Tor and VPN. To begin with, when you connect your VPN first before firing up Tor browser, it simply means you are using Tor over VPN. This is the most common way through which the two are used. In essence, all the traffic created by the devices you are connecting with first goes to the VPN server after which it bounces back to the Tor network. From the Tor network, it will end up finally where you want it to go. During this process, what your ISP sees is only the encrypted VPN traffic. Therefore, the ISP will not tell that you are on Tor. The secret is to find the best VPN for the dark web. This is because trust is very paramount to you. You must trust the VPN because they can see that you are on Tor and keep your Metadata logs. Even though it cannot see the exact data you are browsing, you still need to trust it fully. It can be more advantageous for you if you get log-less VPN which does not keep traffic logs or session logs. Some functionalities have built-in Tor. Such VPN servers will connect you directly to the Tor network, and you will not need to use Tor browser. One important point to note is that Tor over VPN will not protect you from malicious Tor exit nodes. Not all the volunteers that make up the Tor network play by the rules. Because the exit node decrypts your data, these volunteers may steal your information. Apart from that, the possibility of exit nodes being blocked by websites that don’t trust them is very high and there no help Tor or VPN can offer you. There is another way VPN and Tor work together called VPN over Tor. This is the opposite of the later and one which you are highly advised against. There is an advantage though; since the VPN does not see your real IP address and you are protected from bad exit points. The problem with VPN over Tor is that the ISP will know that you are using Tor. This is not a good gesture but you can use log-less VPN and if possible pay with bitcoin and you will achieve anonymity. There are some other differences between the two approaches. For Tor over VPN, you place your trust in your VPN provider and not ISP. VPN over Tor, on the other hand, requires that you place your trust in ISP and not VPN. The later is best if you want to avoid bad exit nodes.

Conclusion

Using VPN with Tor to access the dark web is a good idea. However don’t get comfortable yet as there are some things you may not like. For example, Tor alone is very slow due to all the nodes of traffic that pass through. To add a VPN to it only means an even slower connection. However, the most important thing is that you will manage to access everything securely and privately.