Using TOR to Visit .Onion Links
If you want to access the dark web, you’ll need to use a .onion link. These links are not accessible through regular browsers – you’ll need to use a special browser like Tor.
The Tor Browser is a software package that enables anonymous communication. The name is derived from an acronym for the original software project name “The Onion Router”.
Tor directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer network consisting of more than seven thousand relays to conceal a user’s location and usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis. Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace Internet activity, including “visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages, and other communication forms”, back to the user and is intended to protect users’ personal freedom and privacy, as well as their safety.
.Onion links are how sites on the dark web communicate with each other. They’re basically like normal URLs, but they’re designed to be used with the Tor network.
When you visit a .onion site, your traffic is routed through the Tor network. This makes it very difficult for anyone to track your activity or figure out who you are.
The .onion link for a site can be found in the site’s source code. If you’re using a regular browser, you won’t be able to see the .onion link.
Tor does not prevent an online service from determining when it is being accessed through Tor. Tor protects a user’s privacy, but does not hide the fact that someone is using Tor. Some websites restrict access to users who use Tor or block requests from known Tor relays.
Tor Browser is specially designed to use the Tor network and can be downloaded for free from the official website. The browser anonymizes traffic by bouncing it through a series of servers before reaching its destination. This makes it much harder to track individual users or correlate activity back to them.
The Tor Browser is available for free from the Tor Project website. Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, you can start browsing .onion sites. Just enter the address of the site you want to visit into the browser, and you’ll be taken there automatically.
Remember, .onion sites are only accessible through the Tor network. This means that they’re not indexed by search engines like Google or Bing. You’ll need to know the address of the site you want to visit beforehand.
There are a number of reasons why you might want to use the Tor Browser. Perhaps you’re worried about online surveillance or tracking, or you want to access content that is blocked in your country. Whatever your reason, the Tor Browser can help you stay anonymous online.