# Underground/hidden internet
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 27, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853 "2012-08-27T20:19:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/1 "2012-08-27T20:19:57Z")
about a year ago I stumbled a post somewhere that talked about a hidden or underground internet. My computer crashed a while back and I lost the directions on how to get there. Can anybody help me out and tell me how I can get back there?
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### Author:  [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/2 "2012-08-27T20:21:48Z")
Well, I know but without us being able to do the secret handshake I’m afraid that I can’t tell you.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/3 "2012-08-27T20:28:44Z")
I’d like to get there too. What color tube shall I look for?
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/4 "2012-08-27T20:36:43Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> I’d like to get there too. What color tube shall I look for?
Camouflage.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/5 "2012-08-27T20:41:59Z")
Remember, when they ask you what the password is, _there is no password_.
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/6 "2012-08-27T20:44:41Z")
This \*is \*the underground Internet. The mainstream one is nothing but pictures of kittens and monster trucks.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/7 "2012-08-27T20:51:00Z")
> [@jakesteele](#):
>
> about a year ago I stumbled a post somewhere that talked about a hidden or underground internet. My computer crashed a while back and I lost the directions on how to get there. Can anybody help me out and tell me how I can get back there?
There is very little that is really “hidden” unless it is stuff behind various company firewalls that is nunya bidness.
There are places that require a few hoops to jump through to access like
> **[Silk Road (marketplace)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_(marketplace))**
>
> This is an accepted version of this page
>
>
> Silk Road was an online black market and the first modern darknet market. It was launched in 2011 by its American founder Ross Ulbricht under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts". As part of the dark web, Silk Road operated as a hidden service on the Tor network, allowing users to buy and sell products and services between each other anonymously. All transactions were conducted with bitcoin, a cryptocurrency which aided in protecting user identities. T...
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/8 "2012-08-27T21:05:20Z")
Contact DelFlorio’s Dry Cleaning(a division of the Hidalgo Trading Company) and ask to speak to a Mr. Sabastian Tombs. Just tell him that you know what the Bishop said to the Actress, and hang up without waiting for a response. You will be contacted with further instruction the following Tuesday by a courier pigeon carrying a telegraph. Feed the pigeon, tie a green string to the left leg, and let it go.
Wait by the telephone. if you don’t have a home phone, get one installed ASAP! If you answer the phone on the second ring every single time for four days, you’re in.
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### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/9 "2012-08-27T21:13:59Z")
The first rule of the Underground Internet…
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### Author:  [@MC\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_E)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/10 "2012-08-27T21:14:30Z")
Or you could look up freenet or darknet and go from there…
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/11 "2012-08-27T21:15:49Z")
Jokes aside, the OP is referring to the [Deep Web](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Web). Here are a [couple](http://thehackernews.com/2012/05/what-is-deep-web-first-trip-into-abyss.html) of [articles](http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-search-engines-explore-deep-invisible-web/) discussing search techniques. I have no knowledge of or opinon on the validity of anything in them.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/12 "2012-08-27T21:20:24Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#):
>
> Jokes aside, the OP is referring to the [Deep Web](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Web). Here are a [couple](http://thehackernews.com/2012/05/what-is-deep-web-first-trip-into-abyss.html) of [articles](http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-search-engines-explore-deep-invisible-web/) discussing search techniques. I have no knowledge of or opinon on the validity of anything in them.
“Deep web” is a term that refers to web content that is not indexable by search engines. It is neither hidden or underground.
The OP is so hopelessly vague that it is not possible to determine precisely what he is talking about. He could be talking about Freenet, Tor, AlterNIC domains, or something that isn’t actually “web” at all, like skeevy Usenet groups or that one Gopher server with the goat pr0n.
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### Author:  [@Blakeyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blakeyrat)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/13 "2012-08-27T21:32:22Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> The OP is so hopelessly vague that it is not possible to determine precisely what he is talking about. He could be talking about Freenet, Tor, AlterNIC domains, or something that isn’t actually “web” at all, like skeevy Usenet groups or that one Gopher server with the goat pr0n.
My hunch is he’s either referring to .torrent sites or said skeevy Usenet sites that offer pirate material. I could see someone configuring his computer to access those and calling it the “underground internet”.
Just a guess though.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/14 "2012-08-27T22:04:22Z")
> [@drachillix](#):
>
> There is very little that is really “hidden” unless it is stuff behind various company firewalls that is nunya bidness.
>
> There are places that require a few hoops to jump through to access like
>
> [Silk Road (marketplace) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_(marketplace))
There are other vectors for illegality, not web, but certainly internet, like irc channels that, given enough trust, allow access to ftp sites that contain all sorts of skullduggery - that was the “scene” when it came to movie and music piracy, although it has changed a lot. And then there are the various tendrils of criminal ISPs, like the diaspora of the [Russian Business Network](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Business_Network)
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### Author:  [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/15 "2012-08-27T22:14:19Z")
OP, look [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/onions).
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/16 "2012-08-27T22:27:42Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> “Deep web” is a term that refers to web content that is not indexable by search engines. It is neither hidden or underground.
Nevertheless, it is an entirely reasonable inference that this is what the OP (who has a join date of 2007, so not a stranger here) was asking about. I do not see the need for snark, or the assumption that he is trying to do something illegal or skeevy, just because he did not use exactly the same metaphor that you would.
> [@](#):
>
> **[Originally posted by Wikipedia:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Web)**
> The Deep Web (also called the Deepnet, the Invisible Web, the Undernet or the hidden Web) is World Wide Web content that is not part of the Surface Web, which is indexable by standard search engines.
It is hidden inasmuch as its content is not indexed by regular search engines such as Google or Bing. However, [this link](http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-search-engines-explore-deep-invisible-web/) (also given by **Tom Tildrum** , who was actually trying to be helpful) lists several ways that its content can be searched and accessed.
Alternatively, one could google [“hidden web search engine”](http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=hidden+web+search+engine&oq=hidden+web&gs_l=hp.1.3.0l4.0.0.1.44271.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1c.fPBV8EQwErQ&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=4d59194e7a14bae1&biw=1218&bih=889). Google knows what it means, even if you don’t.
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/17 "2012-08-27T23:32:56Z")
Just replace “www” with “mmm”.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/18 "2012-08-27T23:49:48Z")
Internet2 Network is primarily accessible through Universities and gov computers. We have a gateway up at work, but I don’t have access myself.
> **[Internet2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet2)**
>
> Internet2 is a not-for-profit United States computer networking consortium led by members from the research and education communities, industry, and government. The Internet2 consortium administrative headquarters are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices in Washington, D.C., and Emeryville, California.
> As of November 2013, Internet2 has over 500 members including 251 institutions of higher education, 9 partners and 76 members from industry, over 100 research and education networks or...
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/19 "2012-08-28T00:54:04Z")
[Freenet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet) is probably the closest publicly-accessible thing to what you’re thinking of. It rides on top of the regular Internet but it’s “hidden” in the sense that that it’s a decentralized, encrypted network. In theory, you should be able to remain anonymous to everyone on Freenet, and you can only access Freenet with special (free) software. And nobody should be able to block anything on the network, but the more popular content will be faster to retrieve because it’ll be more widely mirrored.
Freenet is used for everything from political rants to child porn.
There is also I2P, which I believe is similar but am unfamiliar with, and Tor, which tries to mask your identity to websites on the regular World Wide Web.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853/20 "2012-08-28T01:01:49Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> I’d like to get there too. What color tube shall I look for?
This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue tube - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red tube - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/underground-hidden-internet/632853.md?page=2)