
How Tor Works: Part One - billconan
http://jordan-wright.com/blog/2015/02/28/how-tor-works-part-one
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garrettr_
If you use Tor, or want to support those that need it to communicate safely
online, consider donating to (their first ever!) end-of-year fundraising
drive: [https://blog.torproject.org/blog/our-first-real-donations-
ca...](https://blog.torproject.org/blog/our-first-real-donations-campaign)

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griffinmb
Thanks for the link! I've finally put my money where my mouth is and donated.

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jwcrux
Oh, hi there! Author here. Glad y'all like the post! I've been on a break
recently working on other projects, but I'm finishing up a post for this
series soon, so stay tuned!

I'll be hanging around off and on, and am happy to answer any questions!

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travjones
This was a fantastic post. Granted the high-level view skirts very technical
aspects of Tor, this post is perfect for laypeople who hear about "Tor" and
ask about it.

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an0nym1ty
Not being factitious here. Do you have a better (more technical) alternative?

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arthurcolle
Design paper: [https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/design-paper/tor-
des...](https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/design-paper/tor-design.pdf)

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middleclick
(Do note that many things in the paper have changed, for example, the hidden
service design.)

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sandworm101
In part2/3 or wherever you discuss hidden services, can you please not call
them the "dark web"? That term is being thrown around so much lately that it
has lost all useful meaning.

Imho the "dark web" means those parts of the web not publicly visible, ie not
indexed by search engines and/or places not accessible to the public. Most
hidden services are indexed and are publicly accessible ... so they are not by
definition dark.

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griffinmb
I agree that terms like "dark web" and "deep web" have been used so much (and
often interchangeably), that they've mostly lost their meaning. That being
said, I've always used "dark web" in reference to things like hidden services,
i2p, etc, and I've used "deep web" to mean unindexed/inaccessible content.

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ShaneWilton
Along the same lines, there's an incredible series by Tom Ritter that
describes how mix networks work. Here's the first post:
[https://crypto.is/blog/what_is_a_remailer](https://crypto.is/blog/what_is_a_remailer)

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kevinsd
I have read all 1-3 parts that seem available at this time. My immediate
questions are:

(a) is the client supposed to get a copy of the consensus to start with? (b)
what if direct access to all DAs are blocked?

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middleclick
a). Yes, b). That is one of the ways to block access to Tor: either block
torproject.org (in which case you use the GetTor service or mirrors), or the
DAs, in which case you can't bootstrap. The way around that is to use bridges
(unpublished relays to which you connect) or pluggable transports which now
come bundled with Tor Browser. ([https://www.torproject.org/docs/pluggable-
transports.html.en](https://www.torproject.org/docs/pluggable-
transports.html.en))

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chei0aiV
There is also some work in progress to add fallback directory mirrors:

[https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-
relays/2015-Decem...](https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-
relays/2015-December/008361.html)
[https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/FallbackDi...](https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/FallbackDirectoryMirrors)

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mirimir
This is the best top-level description of Tor that I've ever read!

