The Secret Internet Uncovered

I think I read about this in a delightful book about San Francisco hackers when I was in middle school.
I forgot what the title was but it had something to do with Big Brother.

Updated: more links at bottom

You know what? I've decided to post some info to get you all started on exploring this a little bit. Mods, take out the link to the Hidden Wiki if you think that its against ToC... So first, a disclaimer:

BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO DO IN THE DEEPWEB!!! You are NOT completely anonymous, you CAN be traced, and due to the nature of many things in this part of the web, TPTB WILL actively look for and detain you!!

You have been warned. Have I scared you away yet? Good. This isn't a place to mess around in. I recommend you only visit clean forums in onion-land, stay away from anything shifty-looking. I am not joking.

OK! Down to business. The general info about these things are in the OP.

1) Download TOR

This package should have everything you need. I'm running Ubuntu, so I had to go through a few more steps to get this working - Consult their installation instructions to install everything. They also have a good troubleshooting FAQ, it helped me solve a couple issues in setting it up.

2) Get TorButton (Firefox users ONLY)
This installs an add-on that puts a nifty little button in Firefox that easily lets you enable/disable TOR browsing.

3) Go Here after it's all installed to check it TOR is working properly. General tip: TOR is sloooooooooooow, you're tunneling through points all over the world, so be patient. This is not recommended for "normal" browsing purposes.

4) The Hidden Wiki

This site is a somewhat up-to-date portal to .onion sites that do not want to be seen by search engines/the public - but they do want to be seen and used by Deepnet seekers. That is to say, these aren't spy agencies or organized terrorist cells (other than AnonOps - yes, their site is on there and is accessible) - although those things ARE on Deepnet, there's no way they'd ever give their links/passwords to the Hidden Wiki.

I can't stress enough: many of the things accessible through this portal are of "questionable legality" (aka, DON'T GO THERE), you can be traced, and the authorities intently watch every single one of these sites. Stick with open blogs and safe forums. The Hidden Wiki itself IS safe to look at though.

This link only works when TOR is enabled:

kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion...

Other portals:
Torgle (Tor search engine, I haven't been able to successfully search yet but it's supposedly being worked on, try your luck): oqznfi3tdo6nwg3f.onion...

TorDir (another onion list): dppmfxaacucguzpc.onion...

There are other .onion pages available if you're willing to dig, but generally they're not worth looking into. Lots of the interesting stuff (government secrets, black ops forums, etc etc) you will NEVER find.

Good luck, and stay safe. It's good to be curious, but you know what curiosity did to the cat....

Well this has set me back 10 years witch is half my age I can't beleave I never heard of this befor but I'm really interested now but from Wat it sounds like I need a degree in computer technology and networking just to cover my
A$% but I think I'm really gona do my home work befor I plug into the deep web can any one point me in the rite direction on where to start?

Ah, this brings back fond memories of watching my dad type away on his computer in the late 80's and early 90's conversing with the local computer groups. He also helped me make an online art gallery about one month after the graphical browsers came out, after he learned html scripting which he then taught me. However this seemed to be pre AOL online as far as I remember as the internet was still free at the time as long as you had a modem and knew who to dail up. However the early internet and its design principles are still stuck with me, as I still feel a web page should load fast even in todays high bandwidth culture. If it takes a page longer than 60 seconds to load on a 56k modem the design is flawed and should be reworked, as well as be backward/browser compatible(for the most accessability to all users).
I actually have huge respect for the site designers here as you can still access and browse ATS on a 10 year old computer using mozilla 1.0 or even netscape 5. Heck, you want to talk old school, I used to do digital video editing on computers with clock speeds of 350Mhz and 500mb or ram(with 1 and 2 gig zip drives)! I actually hate all the new OS's as they kill system resources and do the same work in the same amount of time(sans 3d rendering and video rendering) as a 5-6 year old computer. I can edit a 900dpi 11x17 image scan just as fast 8 years ago as today on a new intel...why, my old os used take 20 mb give or take with the rest of the 500mb-1g of ram being devoted solely to photoshop 5.5( the fastest and most stable version imho). I even used to load my apps onto a ram disk making it even faster(an ability they took away back in 2002, and are now just re adding it back?).....rant over. sorry, use net just brought back all my early computer memories. It's just sad seeing something like a computer(and the internet) get turned into a household console/media center and go to waste.
If the internet died, my computers(some 12+ years old and all working) will still be used to program microchips for personal electronics projects, scan 2d artwork to get it ready for print, and rendering small 3d movies/artwork. The internet is just an added bonus as it save gas on going to the library, and space(no huge 20-30 book piles anymore).


anyhoo, enjoy the darkweb.

Well, a few mixed responses so far. The mai topic of debate is if it is secure or not. The way I see it, by takng the prescribed steps you can access places that you would not genreally even chance upon on the general web.

Now everal people have mentioned that secret government agencies are ready to kick i nyour door and take you to guantanamo. That seems radical to me, if you were planning to search the Deep Web for such illegal activities, then yes, but if you happe to be searching and come across something questionable, then don't go into a frenzies panic.

You are not doing anything Illegal browsing the Sub-Web, no more than you are searching the surface web!

Now in terms of 99% of the deep web being used for peodophilia, that is just absurd! Look at the size of the subnet compared to the surface web, and read all the links posted. It is un-indexed pages which are mainly databases, certain file types that can't be cached. When people see the word 'hidden', their subconcious fears come flying out.

There are numerous benefits to such a system, especially at a time when Net Neutrality is in such danger.

There has also been a few sarcastic replies, typical ATS style. No, the 'Secret' internet isn't a secret (Really!?) its just a term people use to describe it, because a lot of people have never heard about it.

Which brings me to my last point, why do 50% if the posters here have knowledge of it, but I have never come across it on ATS or anywhere else? It seems like a prime topic for the site.

Anyways, looking to start crawling tomorrow, got some work to do first.

Originally posted by G.A.G.
Thankyou so much, I know where I'll be for awhile...this is great information to follow up on. One of the primary reasons I visit ATS, is because nice people like you, work really hard for fellow members! Star and flag for sure.

Thanks G.A.G. If you look at some of my other threads their mainly based on posting resources etc. I don't like getting into long discussion threads because peoples idealism always shines through in the end, and that dosn't make for good conversation!

My main problem here is that I always end up talking to myself......

Originally posted by devildogUSMC
Is RATS a part of that? It doesn't come up in searches.

Good question, I never even though of that. I'm not an experienced computer user, but I'm sure some type of technique such as this is used otherwise you would have to protect eery page, and with it being a discussion board that would be quite intensive, so why not store it somewhere no-one will be likely to find it?

Originally posted by DanDeath
Here's a nice, long, 52 page PDF with a lot of links, to help you understand better: Deep Web Research

Thats a great, up to date link, thnks for that. I plan on reading that before I go any futher with this. I'm one of these who reads the instruction manual for everything, even if it looks simple, its my engineering background!

by using networks like TOR your computer becomes one of the "bouncers" so if a child porn is on the reciving end of some perb who was actualy conected thru your machine it puts suspicion on YOU.

Other dangers are - sensitive information like bank logins and stuff since all your data is bouncing from machine to machine it can be intercepted - so never login to what you wana keep safe.

thats whayt i have learned over past few years

reply to post by pforkp


Thanks for this, very informative. This is the procedure I am going to follow. You seemto have some experience, if possible can you post a few examples of what kind of things you can find?

I personally would be interested in futher discussion groups, anything book related etc. Nothing illegal, just a good reosurce for information like that you find here on ATS, but maybe to the next level so to speak?

Hope you stick around the thread if a few people start to check it out.

A Link I missed off of the OP.

'TOR NETWORK'

Tor Anon Wiki

Originally sponsored by the US Naval Research Laboratory,[9] Tor was financially supported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation from 2004 to 2005.[10] Tor software is now developed by the Tor Project, which since December 2006 is a 501(c)(3) research/education non-profit organization based in the United States of America that receives a diverse base of financial support.

According to CNet, Tor's anonymity function is "endorsed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other civil liberties groups as a method for whistleblowers and human rights workers to communicate with journalists".[29] Anonymizing systems such as Tor are at times used for matters that are, or may be, illegal in some countries. These include access to censored information, but also at times circumvention of laws against the criticism of heads of state, anonymous defamation, unauthorized leaks of sensitive information, distributing copyrighted works, or illegal sexual content

Just some more info for you to digest.

The secret Intranet sounds like all the deep end stuff of the net is all bad, I'm defiantly not interested in any research in that area... no way

I've never seen super secrets out on the darknet...you need to already kind of know what you are looking for. I get thousands of electronic schematics, and help on my electronics projects at a diy group on there, as well as pdf's of books. There is really no reason to surf it for porn as the regular internet does that just fine. ATS still drums up almost every view point and all information that is out there, not much new on the dark side as compared to here(conspiracy topics).

As far talking about it? I just assumed it was common knowledge round these parts. people mention it at least once or twice a month. I'ts rare to run into a-holes or trolls there too....why advertise, that would show the dumb 10 year olds how to get in if they looked around and googled a bit. Do we need a thread on IRC too?

reply to post by pforkp


I cannot access any sites, when my TorButton is "green". why? I can't even answer here on ATS.

reply to post by LordBaskettIV


I wholeheartedly agree with you. It isn't so much that it's secret, it's that it is unspolied, as I pointed out in my post on the first page. People that can handle it can find it, and not advertising things keeps people that cannot handle it or that ruin it for others away. I guess if you can use your noggin, good on you.

Originally posted by Rohdan
reply to post by pforkp

 

I cannot access any sites, when my TorButton is "green". why? I can't even answer here on ATS.

That answer is simple my friend.

Would you like a cookie?

Chocolate chip?

I think alot of the data might be on usenet, which is like the black market of the internet. There is also no free access to usenet I am aware of. But if you pay for usenet access through places like giganews or astraweb you can max your bandwith out and connect to an assortment of alt.binaries which pretty much house any type of information or files you may be looking for. Tracker sites like newzbin.com or nzbmatrix.com use the indexing file nzb which makes sense of the mess on usenet.

reply to post by phiktion


Usenet became a garbage dump years ago, and I haven't ventured there in a long time. Not sure what transformations it has taken, if any.

But, I did find this for you!

www.chundle.com...

Chundle.com Beta Test
Completely free site access
We've created the fastest and easiest way to access Usenet. Just click the button below to generate a username and password. You'll automatically be logged into the site and be able to download and access the site as much as you want while the beta test is ongoing.

Not sure how up to date this is.

Looks like it does decode binaries, too.

The deep web is just a statement that there is information that is not connected to the major search-engines. The most common example of the "deep web" would be the posts on Facebook that only some select few can access. Nothing more scary then that. There are other search-engines that are far to complex for normal searches, or far to irrelevant. For instance a fingerprint-search would be a part of the deep web. Health-databases as well. There are things that needs to be available from Internet, but is not public knowledge. Your e-book would be downloaded from the deep web. Payment systems have parts off the deep web. Lots of information is private, corporate or government property that is not disclosed.

reply to post by carlitomoore


If people wanted to hide information they would either not connect it to the Internet or make the server password protected. You're not going to find anything truly secret in there.