The Dark Web

James Quillian · Post by **James Quillian** » 1 Feb 2021 9:26 am

Have any of you guys ventured onto the dark web. Some folks recently explained that it is where all the smart people go.

Larry Carlson · Post by **Larry Carlson** » 1 Feb 2021 10:59 am

Unless I am shredded of my last little bits of common sense, the dark web will have to do without me.

Tom Keller · Post by **Tom Keller** » 1 Feb 2021 3:08 pm

I would highly recommend anyone thinking of venturing on to the dark web to be sure and do their homework before they venture out. It can be fun but it also has a bit of danger for the uninformed. Sorta like a bad street in a big town.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 1 Feb 2021 3:36 pm

Anybody who is thinking about venturing onto the Dark Web (TOR), for the first time, needs to do some preparation in advance to protect their computers from fingerprinting, exploit attacks, and malicious downloads.

Once protected, you can go play in Pandora's Box if that's what turns your crank.

To view websites or other content on hidden .onion sites on your Windows computer, you need to download and install the TOR browser, which is built on Firefox. If you plan to use an iphone or other ios device, download the Onion Browser. There are versions of the TOR browser for Windows PCs, Mac OSX, Android, Linux and iPhone/i-device.

Actually, the Dark Web is no more dangerous to browse than the light web. Threats are going to either attack vulnerabilities in your browser (and plug-ins/add-ons), or try to trick you into downloading and installing a Trojan Horse.

I am not an expert in this field. I cannot advise anybody about the Dark Web at this point in time.

One thing I can tell you is that there are layers of anonymity built into TOR sites (Thus, peeling away layers of the Onion). You are able to remain anonymous if you use an up to date TOR browser. A lot of political activists use this system to get news out about terrible events in Countries where they would be persecuted, tortured, or killed for exposing these things (think about poisoned needles in umbrellas on the street as a dissident walks home after exposing corruption or genocide).

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 1 Feb 2021 3:44 pm

If thatâ€™s where the smart people go, I should probably just stay home with my fellow dummies.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 2 Feb 2021 9:21 am

I've gone ahead and installed the current Firefox Tor browser from Mozilla. I need to spend some time configuring it and exploring some .onion websites. I will report back in this thread about my findings (if there is anything worth saying).

I can tell you that the browser helps you configure the safest settings. You go through several tabs in sequence.

The main benefit of using this browser is browsing anonymity and lack of tracking. This blocking of tracking may cause some sites to not work properly for the person using such a browser. Purchases could be a problem. But, websites designed to live on Tor use a different type of payment than we are accustomed to on the open web.

James Quillian · Post by **James Quillian** » 4 Feb 2021 7:45 pm

Tom Keller wrote:I would highly recommend anyone thinking of venturing on to the dark web to be sure and do their homework before they venture out. It can be fun but it also has a bit of danger for the uninformed. Sorta like a bad street in a big town.

That solves the ridddle, I mean what you you wrote.

My friends told me the Dark Web is where all the smart folks go.

Doing homework is what smart people do.

Sadly I never did much of any homework

James Quillian · Post by **James Quillian** » 4 Feb 2021 7:51 pm

What I really want is for one of you guys to go there and report back and tell the rest of us chickens all about it,

James Quillian · Post by **James Quillian** » 6 Feb 2021 11:36 am

Wiz Feinberg wrote:Anybody who is thinking about venturing onto the Dark Web (TOR), for the first time, needs to do some preparation in advance to protect their computers from fingerprinting, exploit attacks, and malicious downloads.

Once protected, you can go play in Pandora's Box if that's what turns your crank.

To view websites or other content on hidden .onion sites on your Windows computer, you need to download and install the TOR browser, which is built on Firefox. If you plan to use an iphone or other ios device, download the Onion Browser. There are versions of the TOR browser for Windows PCs, Mac OSX, Android, Linux and iPhone/i-device.

Actually, the Dark Web is no more dangerous to browse than the light web. Threats are going to either attack vulnerabilities in your browser (and plug-ins/add-ons), or try to trick you into downloading and installing a Trojan Horse.

I am not an expert in this field. I cannot advise anybody about the Dark Web at this point in time.

One thing I can tell you is that there are layers of anonymity built into TOR sites (Thus, peeling away layers of the Onion). You are able to remain anonymous if you use an up to date TOR browser. A lot of political activists use this system to get news out about terrible events in Countries where they would be persecuted, tortured, or killed for exposing these things (think about poisoned needles in umbrellas on the street as a dissident walks home after exposing corruption or genocide).

I don't have any immediate plans of using the Dark web. However, for a number of reasons I am gathering information. There are a number of things folks may need to know.

1.) What kind of and how fast of and what of router is best to use.
2.) What is the best VPN service to use?

Most already know about TOR

For the internet alone, I use a Linux operating system.

So, for myself I prefer devices and services that wirk Linux.

Dan Kelly · Post by **Dan Kelly** » 6 Feb 2021 4:59 pm

It was about 5 or 6 years ago that I ventured into the Dark Web. I used a version of the Torrent Browser through a VPN in London. The details of it all are a little fuzzy. I went to the Silk Road and found just about anything you could imagine. I mean virtually, ANYTHING. Frankly, it was a little scary.

I was friends with the head of the IT department at our company. He indicated that although anonymity was supposed to be a feature of the Torrent / VPN set up, there was a a better than average chance that I would become a "person of interest." I just did not have a use for, nor any interest in, the things going on in the "Dark Web." I have never been back.

I don't know much about how it has evolved... or maybe devolved, since then.

The only thing I regret was that I did not learn more about Bitcoin at that time. I forget exactly, but it must have been below $100.00 then. It was the medium of exchange with which you could (and can) buy anything.

James Quillian · Post by **James Quillian** » 7 Feb 2021 9:43 am

I am interested in the dark web because of what I do outside of music. The nature of the internet has been and is changing. We now have for profit censorship, nothing that actually benefits the public.

My assessment as an economist and a teacher of natural law is that the Dark web will become something other than what it is now. If we think in moving rather than still pictures it is not hard to expect the the Dark web will become less corrupt as the level of corruption on the normal web becomes increasingly more corrupt.

Some folks remember the Robinhood movie with Kevin Costner. He and his band were running from something and came to a forest. His men told him the forest was haunted and full of ghosts. Robinhood replied, with something like "we either go into the forest or we become ghosts ourselves. When they got into the forest, they found no ghosts but people who were there for all sorts of reasons. The dark web already has a reputation that is about as bad as it can get. It will get better as long as the regular web continues to get worse. That is my assessment.

Dan Kelly wrote:It was about 5 or 6 years ago that I ventured into the Dark Web. I used a version of the Torrent Browser through a VPN in London. The details of it all are a little fuzzy. I went to the Silk Road and found just about anything you could imagine. I mean virtually, ANYTHING. Frankly, it was a little scary.

I was friends with the head of the IT department at our company. He indicated that although anonymity was supposed to be a feature of the Torrent / VPN set up, there was a a better than average chance that I would become a "person of interest." I just did not have a use for, nor any interest in, the things going on in the "Dark Web." I have never been back.

I don't know much about how it has evolved... or maybe devolved, since then.

The only thing I regret was that I did not learn more about Bitcoin at that time. I forget exactly, but it must have been below $100.00 then. It was the medium of exchange with which you could (and can) buy anything.

Liam Sullins · Post by **Liam Sullins** » 14 Feb 2021 9:01 am

I haven't been on the dark web yet, but I do have a teacher who had a kid in our Networking Class do it, he saw some messed up stuff. From what I heard he was scarred for life and had to go to some doctor at the school for it. It has death, drugs, and really anything in the world from what I've been told, you can buy ANYTHING on there.

Jim Cooley · Post by **Jim Cooley** » 14 Feb 2021 3:23 pm

I had friends in the IT department where I worked. Their assessment of the dark web is that you can find practically anything yuo want and everything you don't want. Maybe that will change, but according to them it's called the dark web for a reason.

An Indian boy was walking trough woods. He heard a rustling sound at his feet, looked down and saw a rattlesnake. The rattlesnake told the boy it was cold, and asked him to pick it up and put it inside his shirt so it could get warm. The boy told the snake that he was afraid to pick it up because it would strike him. The snake assured the boy it would not, so the boy leaned down and picked up the snake. As soon as the snake was the hand, it struck him. The boy exclaimed he couldn't understand why it struck him when it promised not to. The snake said, "You knew what I was when you picked me up."

Wee all have the freedom to do as our consciences dictate. YMMV

George Myers · Post by **George Myers** » 21 Feb 2021 7:03 pm

A friend once told me if you want to be safe on places or software you want to check out and don't want to end up with some virus or other destructive stuff on your pc or stuff stolen off it, you should set up a VM and use it.

Not sure of all the workings but I "think" using a vm will keep your normal install of windows safe. IE you get a virus when you are using the VM it will not effect your "normal" operating system.

I played with it for a few hours but lost interest in it after getting it running, really had no use for it.

You set up a VM on your normal windows machine and then load any other operating system in the vm window. I was running Win7 as my normal system and ran Window XP in the VM area.

In case your are interested. https://www.virtualbox.org/