Sorry to break it to you, but you might have been living under a shell all those years. Surprised right? So is the average person who thinks that the world wide web is just limited to what Google Search can throw at you. It is more than that – a lot more. What you think is the web is just actually 4 percent of it. The rest 96 percent is actually hidden from you and is thus called the deep web, something which everyone is talking about nowadays.
The web which you are so used to using is basically called the surface web. Although one might not even get through all of the entire surface webs in their life, there are certain things which one might be looking for which aren’t found on the surface. Therefore, one might have to resort to other ways one of which is accessing the deep web. The deep web is anything which isn’t a part of an ordinary Search Engine Results, for instance, your university library archives.
It should be noted that deep web should not be confused with the dark web which is something different, although dark web can be considered a small part of the deep web. Accessing Deep Web isn’t really hard even though it might seem to be.
Downloading the Appropriate Software (Tor Browser)
- To access the deep web search engines, more commonly known as the onion sites, you require to the Tor Browser. To do that, just head over to this link over
- The Tor Browser is available on Windows, Linux and even on Mac OS so you shouldn’t have a problem finding your relevant version. There is a version available on Android as well, in case you feel like accessing Deep Web from the comfort of your phone.
- Just double-click on the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions. There will now be a folder on your PC labeled “Tor Browser”.
- Meanwhile, for added privacy reasons, make sure that you also install a VPN Client which will provide you with even more anonymity which Tor tries to offer.
- Once done, open the folder and double-click on “Start Tor Browser”
- This will open up a Window on which you need to choose “Connect” to establish your connection to the Deep Web. After the connection is complete, the Tor Browser shall open up.
- To ensure that your connection is set up alright, you can choose Test For Network Settings
Make sure that you keep the Window minimized for privacy reasons, else you might get tracked easily if you don’t want to. Also, try covering your webcam with something since accessing the deep web might be risky.
Accessing the Deep Web
To access the deep web using Tor, you need to know some links to onion sites. If you don’t want to, then Duck Duck Go is one search engine which might present you some deep web links but it is likely that it won’t. Thus you are better off finding something on an onion site such as the Onion URL Repository which you can access by going on the following link: http://32rfckwuorlf4dlv.onion/. Other than that there are various search engines, some of which you can find on this page: https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/best-deep-web-search-engines/.
How is it different from the Dark Web?
Although Dark Web is a part of Deep Web, both have different meanings. Dark Web is notorious for storing illegal stuff, such as child pornography, hitman contacts etc. Not that Deep Web doesn’t hold stolen credit card information and things like that, but on Dark Web, you would find things which shall scar you for life.
Accessing the Dark Web is also done through the Tor Browser but is illegal to view such content in some countries, and you might end up in jail. On the other hand, you should feel free to access the deep web to find particularly useful resources such as journals, educational archives, though that again raises a copyrights issue.