How to Access the Deep Web

In this article, the wikiHow will guide you through accessing deep web data – information that standard search engines like Google or Bing can’t find. In addition, this article also covers how to access the dark web, which is a difficult to access and controversial subsection of the dark web.

Table of Contents

Access the deep web

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Understand what deep web data really is. It is any online data that is not indexed by a search engine (such as Google). This means that instead of a quick Google search, you can only find this information by opening and searching its source. ^{[1] X Research Source}

Common examples of the deep web include university library archives, search results obtained in travel sites, etc.
Deep web data is often legitimate and links to objects such as reputable sources and libraries.
The dark web is completely different from the dark web: the dark web is often used to commit crimes or stay anonymous.

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Understand how search engines work. When you search for a word or phrase on a search engine like Google, the search engine “scraws” through the net to find results in the upper layer.

Because the content of the deep web is never on the surface of the internet, you won’t be able to find it using traditional search engines.

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Use Firefox. As a precaution, you should use Firefox to prevent your browser history from being tracked. Not only does preventing retroactive search from affecting access to deep web data, but unlike other browsers, Firefox also has a certain amount of privacy.

Regardless of which browser you use, your carrier can still see your browsing activity when they want to.

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Use a dedicated search engine. Many websites have built-in search engines of their own: you will have to resort to these to find results that are not listed on the floating web layer.

Facebook’s built-in search engine is one of them. You can use Facebook’s search bar to find users, pages, or other items that you can’t find with Google or similar sites.
In addition, there can be a search bar on archives or academic research websites. Often you will not be able to find these resources without the help of the respective search bars.

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Try DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo, the personal search engine that you can access at https://duckduckgo.com/ can index both floating web results and deep web content. Although this possibility is not high, but sometimes with it, you can still find some deep web results.

The main disadvantage of using DuckDuckGo is that often popular results in the floating web will be displayed instead of lesser known deep web results.
You can find sunken web results through DuckDuckGo by browsing through the bottom results pages.

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Define a dedicated database. To find a specific type of database (such as a newspaper database), you can do the following:

Go to http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html
Select the search engine group (e.g. Architecture ).
Select a subgroup if required.
Select the database from the list of results.

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Browse the deep web if you like. As mentioned, it is very difficult to get into trouble with the deep web by its very nature. As long as you follow basic internet safety rules (e.g. don’t give out personal information, don’t download untrusted files, etc.), you’ll be fine.

Access the dark web

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Know what is the dark web. The dark web is an array of deep web data that you can’t access without special links and software. Unlike most deep web data, information found on the dark web often contains broken links, inactive websites, and other useless information. ^{[2] X Research Source}

The dark web is often used to provide anonymity to journalists, political dissidents, classified sources, or the like.

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Understand risk. While the dark web is mostly harmless when you’re not actively looking for trouble, it’s true that the dark web’s functionality is often used for illegal activities. On the contrary, the legal part of it is rather tedious.

In particular, if you do not intend to visit unauthorized sites, you will find a lot of broken links and slow down normal page load times.
In the event that you are trying to access illegal content, it is more likely that you will be detected rather than actually found.
While most dark web horror stories are just horror stories, you should still avoid contacting anyone or downloading anything from the dark web.

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Avoid using Windows to access the dark web. Although more secure than previous versions, Windows 10 still contains security flaws and is extremely vulnerable to hacking or virus attacks while browsing the dark web.

For those who plan to use the dark web, Linux is the recommended operating system, with Ubuntu Linux being the popular (and free) choice.
If you’re on a Mac, you’ll probably be fine, as long as you’re using a VPN and Tor.

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Take basic protection steps before accessing the dark web. To avoid unpleasant encounters on the dark web, here are a few basic things you should do:

Cover your computer’s webcam.
Protect your internet connection with a password if you haven’t already.

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Use a VPN . Before downloading Tor (if possible) or accessing the dark web, you must install and enable a virtual private network (VPN). NordVPN and ExpressVPN are two popular choices. However, you can choose any VPN that comes equipped with the following features:

Emergency shutdown feature when VPN connection drops
Fast loading time
Protection against DNS and IP exposure
The ability to connect through another country’s server

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Make sure your VPN is on and switch to another country. This VPN will hide your IP address from anyone trying to find your location: you’ll be extra secure when an IP address that others can see links back to another country.

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Download and install Tor. You can find Tor, the browser used to access the dark web, at https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en.

You need Tor to open a website with the “.onion” extension – loads of dark web content with this extension.

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Close any open browser windows. This ensures that no public information from your previous browsing session is available when you connect to Tor.

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Connect to Tor. Once the VPN is enabled and all browser windows are closed, open Tor and press Connect . The Tor homepage will appear.

Tor advises not to expand the Tor window, because by doing so, some programs may be able to monitor your screen resolution.

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Change your Tor security settings. On the Tor homepage, click the onion icon in the upper left and then drag the slider to the top. As such, trackers and other forms of browser monitoring will not be able to load.

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Open the dark web search engine. Some popular (and relatively safe) options include: ^{[3] X Research Sources}

Torch – A commonly used dark web search engine with over a million indexed hidden pages. You can access this tool at http://xmh57jrzrnw6insl.onion%20/
DuckDuckGo – Allows you to browse both the floating web and the deep web. You can access it at https://duckduckgo.com/
notEvil – Uses the same interface as Google and blocks ads. You can access it at http://hss3uro2hsxfogfq.onion%20/
WWW Virtual Library – The oldest search engine to this day, containing historical documents and other scholarly information. Accessed at http://vlib.org/
Avoid Hidden Wiki and Onion URL Repository when browsing the dark web: both are search engines that link to illegal and suspicious information.

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Browsing the dark web. With your favorite search engine, you can browse the dark web if you want. Just don’t forget to avoid suspicious links or websites and never download or open files found on the dark web.

Advice

You can set Tor to use a certain country as an access point and/or exit.
After all, the dark web isn’t as exciting as it is painted in pop music. Still, it’s also an excellent resource for scholarly articles, research, and industry information that you might not find in regular search results.
Many parts of the dark web are used to store raw research data and other pieces of information that may be of interest to you. ^{[4] X Research Sources}
The internet can be divided into three main parts: the floating web (about 4 percent), the deep web (about 90 percent), and the dark web (about 6 percent).

Warning

Never download files or accept chat requests while on the dark web. Sharing resources on a peer-to-peer network over the dark web is a terrible idea.
Most of the dark web’s illegal content revolves around human trafficking, drugs, arms sales, and so on. Don’t find or click on links to sites that allude to or participate in those topics.

Steps

Access the deep web

Access the dark web

Advice

Warning

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