Beginners guide to Deep Web or Darknet

UPDATED on 12th May 2018

The "Deep Web" or "Darknet" is a collection of un-indexed pages, meaning you can't find all of them by searching. A recent estimation concluded that there are 600 terabytes of information in the darknet.

To Learn how to access Dark Net or Deep Web on Android, please read:
How To Use Tor On Android.

Any website that ends in ".onion", are hosted as Tor hidden services – a completely anonymous way to host websites. They’re part of the deep Web – an invisible part of the Web that’s not visible to search engines and normal users. It’s full of websites for users obsessed with privacy and anonymity online.

Some of the seedy underbellies of the Web is located here, too, although many of the websites are probably scams, hoaxes, or just traps designed to catch people buying illegal services. There are good uses for .onion sites, though– for example, a political activist in a repressive country or a whistleblower could use a .onion site to upload and share sensitive data or communicate anonymously.

This page is only accessible through the TOR browser (From the Browser bundle pack). The page can take up to 10 seconds to load (Possibly more), this page, is "The Hidden Wiki" A collection of links to other un-indexed pages that make up the deep web. Now some of the stuff on the deep web can be disturbing, it's not for the soft of heart, and another note is to block your webcam with tape, it's been known that hackers can view you while you browse.

Accessing Onion Sites
Firstly, you will need a special program called "Tor" which will allow you to view these pages, Tor, according to popular belief is just an anonymizer that helps keep you hidden, in contrast, it's a helpful tool to access these hidden web pages.
You can find the Tor here.

After downloading the Tor browser bundle, run the .exe file to extract it and double-click the “Start Tor Browser.exe” file in the extracted folder.

Tor will connect and launch its included browser.

Tor doesn’t introduce you to .onion sites when you start using it – it just provides an encrypted way to access the normal Web. To get started with .onion sites, you’ll have to be aware they exist and know their locations. One easy entry point is Core.onion, located at eqt5g4fuenphqinx.onion – remember, you’ll need a Tor-enabled browser to access these links.

The Tor Directory link will take you to a directory of .onion sites, which you can browse by category or search. There’s also a link to talk.Masked, an anonymous post board for anonymous discussions.

The Hidden Wiki
The Hidden Wiki is theoretically located at this address, although it’s down at the moment. If it’s still down for you, you can access a mirror of the hidden wiki instead.

The wiki is a sorted index of active .onion sites by category, but don’t believe everything you read on it. It’s likely full of scams, hoaxes, and other fiction. That said, you could access some very disturbing imagery from here, so be careful what you click.


TOR PM/Email

There’s also a link to TorPM, a popular email-like private messaging system for Tor users.

The deep web is also a flourishing market for various illegal and legal items, but they don't use USD to pay for the items, they use an internet currency called "Bitcoins" More on that here.

Some pages of the deep web are not listed on the wiki if you go to the tor2web.org site and click on the right "Google" link they'll show a few more sites, but most of the sites are only found if someone gives you the link.

Have fun and NEVER post your personal information to Deep Web!