{"id":37306,"date":"2020-04-09T14:26:46","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T11:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=37306"},"modified":"2025-08-29T15:09:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T12:09:50","slug":"what-is-the-darknet-what-is-tor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/what-is-the-darknet-what-is-tor\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the darknet? What is Tor?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

1<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the darknet?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Attention! The article is outdated and awaiting an update.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The darknet is a hidden network on the internet in which connections are established only between trusted peers, using non\u2011standard ports and custom data\u2011transfer protocols.<\/p>\n

The term \u201cdarknet\u201d is often used interchangeably with \u201cdark web\u201d. The dark web is the part of the World Wide Web accessible via overlay networks\u2014that is, the \u201cdarknets\u201d themselves.<\/p>\n

The darknet (dark web) is sometimes confused with the so\u2011called deep web<\/a>\u2014web pages not indexed by search engines. Unlike the darknet, accessing the deep web does not require specialised software.<\/p>\n

The opposite of the darknet is the visible or surface web\u2014the part of the internet indexed by search engines and publicly accessible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2<\/span><\/p>\n

When and how did the darknet emerge?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Originally, the term \u201cdarknet\u201d referred to computers on ARPANET, created<\/a> in 1969 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the US Department of Defense. ARPANET was a prototype of the internet. Computer networks\u2014\u201cdarknets\u201d\u2014were configured to receive messages from ARPANET, but their addresses were not listed and they did not respond to external queries, thereby remaining \u201cdark\u201d.<\/p>\n

The term gained prominence after the 2002 publication of a research paper<\/a>, \u201cThe Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution\u201d, by Microsoft employees Brian Willman, Marcus Peinado, Paul England and Peter Biddle. They argued that the presence of a darknet is the main obstacle to the development of digital\u2011rights\u2011management (DRM) technologies and will inevitably lead to copyright infringement. In the paper, the darknet was described broadly as any network requiring a specific protocol for access and existing \u201cparallel\u201d to the surface or visible web.<\/p>\n

The term spread widely via the media, which associated it with the anonymous marketplace Silk Road, active from 2011 to 2013 in the .onion zone of the Tor network.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

3<\/span><\/p>\n

How is the darknet used?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

It is used to bypass censorship, content\u2011filtering systems and surveillance. It also supports file\u2011sharing.<\/p>\n

The technology can be used by political dissidents and criminals alike.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

4<\/span><\/p>\n

Which anonymous networks does the darknet use?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The total number of anonymous darknet networks is unknown. There are small networks with only a few dozen users.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

5<\/span><\/p>\n

What is Tor?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tor (short for The Onion Router) is the best\u2011known and most popular anonymous network on the darknet. It is a system of proxy servers that supports \u201conion routing<\/a>\u201d, a technology for anonymous information exchange over a computer network. Tor enables anonymity online and protects user traffic from analysis.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

6<\/span><\/p>\n

How does Tor work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Unlike a regular browser, which sends user data straight to a server and allows third parties to determine location, the Tor Browser relays data through a chain of nodes\u2014intermediate relays scattered around the world. This model makes tracking far harder.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/p>\n

Tor architecture<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How Tor works:<\/p>\n