How does the Tor network work?

The Tor network, also known as Deep Web by some experts, is a method of accessing the internet using someone else's internet, that is, your identification, or IP address tracked by services and websites, will be another, whenever you are using the network.

At the same time that you have internet access with the benefit of not being identified, your computer also becomes part of the network and serves to connect other users, just like with P2P (peer to peer) networks.

Just as there are routers on the internet to direct certain network traffic, the Tor network also has certain "router" servers that are called relays. They are responsible for directing the data to the correct paths.

In addition, there are Hidden Services (called Hidden Services), using the extension .onion, accessible only to those within the Tor network.

Among them are search engines, hosting servers for hidden services, personal sites, torrent sites, music, confidential documents, among others.

Contrary to what is found on the internet, where a particular site needs a strict registration to have its name on the internet, in Tor this is quite different. Just create a key that can take a few hours or use a pre-created one and always use Tor with the same key to keep your name on the network.

When accessing certain hidden services, some precautions must be taken as:

- Use DNS on the proxy (some services may not open because you will not understand what txtabc.onion means).

- Disable sending URL reference.

- Disable Javascript on some sites.

Lately some hidden services are being attacked and taken while others are being tampered with javascript codes to determine the real IP address of the user using the hidden service accessed.

The Tor network can be compared with a VPN network, when accessing, you get resources and benefits from a given network as if you were inside that environment, however there is no single point for connection, as this point is decentralized.

When starting Tor, it searches the last servers that have successfully connected for the current list of available relays.

You must always have your Tor updated to access enough to have a minimum of 1 relay to be able to connect to the Tor network. If not, download the latest version that comes with an initial package with some of the network's most prevalent servers.

Establishing communication with the Tor network.

For a moment it may happen that the list of relays and hops takes a long time to load, but in general it does not take more than 15 minutes or else try to download the most updated version.

The address in the photo above 127.0.0.1:9050, becomes the Proxy Socks address that you configure in the browser as follows:

There is a simple option for use on the developer's website and already configured for use, Tor Browser.

Note: There is not only the Tor network, there are also projects that have been growing every day but without so much fanfare as for example the i2p network (https://geti2p.net/pt-br/)

See more about Tor at: http://torproject.org.