I mean, get on The Onion Router and plunge into that hive of scum and villainy?
Seriously, has anyone had a bad encounter in there?
I’ve heard of it, but wouldn’t know how to begin to access it.
Nah, everything I need is on the surface web.
You mean this is not it?
Who’s asking? :mad:
Even if you knew how to get there, if it’s all so secret, how would you find anything? Is there a Deep Google?
When I first heard about Silk Road I went to take a look to see if it were real or media sensationalism. I haven’t been back.
I’ve been curious but a couple of things have stopped me:
1)I don’t know how to go about accessing it
2)I’m just computer savvy enough to know that I don’t know shit and I’m afraid I’d get the computer equivalent of syphilitic herpes if I went there. I have a respectful fear of my own stupidity.
Kind of like I’d like to make a pipe-bomb to set off in a field but I know my limitations and I’m too fond of my hands to try it.
I know there are a bunch of sketchy sites some with huge collections of bootlegged music and movies, some with kiddy porn, some with illegal weapon making instructions and some with drug sales but that’s about all I can think of. Is there more to the dark web than just these illegal sites?
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I used to go there, but it’s been several years. I stumbled across one site that purportedly (and probably did) sold fully automatic weapons. I have a feeling that they probably didn’t conduct background checks.
You have to use a special browser. Here’s more information, if you’re interested.
There are sites that are basically lists of other sites. As far as I know, that’s about as good as it gets.
In some countries, a lot of people use the dark web for anonymously saying things that they would otherwise go to jail for. Some governments are not very free-speech friendly. And some people use it just on general privacy principles.
By the way, here’s some information on terminology. What people are referring to in this thread is the dark web, not the deep web.
Wikipedia has an interesting chart about the prevalence of uses.
You’re already there.
You can’t access the Deep web or search the deep web using Google search, Bing search or Yahoo search.
You need special software on your computer to access and search the Deep web.
I’ve been there and looked around at the Silk Road, eight or so years ago. If you want more info about what’s there, there are subreddits to answer all your questions.
As Flyer’s first link makes clear, the “deep web” is simply any part of the internet that can not be accessed through yer regular search engines. That means that if you have an e-mail account, congratulations, you’re already a grizzled “deep web” veteran.
But clearly what y’all had in mind was the “dark web,” or “dark net.”
For info about its marketplaces, the subreddit you want is apparently this one - or, if you’re a total noob and want to learn how to navigate them, this one.
Tried it (onion) once just to do it. Was way, way, way too slow to be worth doing anything on. Slower than dialup.
It’s a lot easier than it used to be – just download the Tor browser. Search for the Hidden Wiki for a bunch of links to sample some of the content.
Tor is very slow and you will come across lots of dead links … some sites are not up all the time.
The anonymity provided by Tor is very valuable for some people in some parts of the world. The more people who use it, the better the cover provided to those who need it, so I occasionally use Tor just for general web browsing, just because.
I tried it once after reading a book – I think it’s called Dark Net I heard the author interviewed on NPR and it piqued my interest.
My “Oh Hells, no” moment was an ad for a stolen BMW motorcycle that included advice on how to buy a forged title and plate. As someone who believes that many drugs should be legalized, the Silk Road trade didn’t bother me much. As someone whose car has been stolen twice, the bike ad bothered me muchly.
I haven’t been back.
Found it: The Dark Net: Inside the Digital Underworld, Jamie Bartlett.
An interesting and well-written work.
My Day job is related, and I find myself occasionally using TOR as a part of that day job.
So, I’ve been there, but it’s frequently as a result of something someone else is doing to my employer. (I’m 2nd tier Security incident response, and occasionally it’ll lead to things like pastebin links that have questionable content…like hundreds of compromised accounts))
Arms deals, Drug deals? Nah, haven’t done that. But there’s plenty of other questionably ethical things I’ve run up against.
I have been there. Mostly, I heard that it was being used in the Arab spring and I thought it might be interesting to see how first hand.
Of course, finding things on onion/tor/dark web is like going back 20 years. The closest thing to a search engine are link farms like the ancient origins of Yahoo. Half the links are broken, some permanently and others only temporarily. It looks like lots of the sites hosted there are done on basement servers that are not always on.
Tor’s website spouts lots of noble-sounding BS about how good it is for freedom lovers and reporters and people who just want privacy, but mostly it looks like a hangout for criminals. It is slow, archaic and not very useful for anything else.