What is Deep Web and how is it different from Dark Web

Internet is often represented as an iceberg, and the vast majority of us move on the surface of it. Underneath everything is deep and dark, and it is normal that you do not know exactly what the layers below are: the Deep Web and the Dark Web.

Many users link these areas of the Internet with criminal activities: sale of drugs , pornography of all kinds, hiring assassins, and many more. It is true that we can run into this type of content, but there is much more. Before we must know the differences and how we can access these “hidden” zone.

What is the deep web

If you are reading this article, it means that you are exploring the surface of the Internet (Clearnet) . The pages and information you access using a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. they are always in this “visible” zone.

That means that the vast majority of users (an estimated 90%) only navigate the Clearnet . Interestingly, this Internet layer only occupies between 4 and 10% of the total network. It is time to go a little deeper to know more details.

Deep Web makes up that content that you can not easily access from search engines . It must be made clear that, although it has a reputation for doing so, it is not necessary to associate the Deep Web directly with drugs or weapons. Deep Web is not synonymous with illegal activity .

The data of the Deep Web is accessible publicly, although it will require special access to reach them. Here we can find databases of companies (hospitals, Social Security …), private forums, folders in Dropbox, Drive, etc.

Dark Web vs Deep Web

It is usual to confuse the Deep Web and Dark Web , although they are two very different layers. If the Deep Web represents 90% of the Internet, the Dark Web would occupy only 0.1% of the total, being a content that has been intentionally hidden. Own domains are used (eg .onion or .i2p) and can only be accessed through programs such as Tor .

Here the image of an Internet zone in which to find the illegal activities described above is fulfilled. Obviously, this type of content is not indexed by search engines either. As we can see, the Dark Web is part of the Deep Web , but they are two totally different things.

The Dark Web is made up of the content that we can find in different Darknets(networks to which we can only access with a specific program). TOR is the most used and known tool although, as we will see, there are other options.

Not everything is crime and drugs in the Dark Web, and there are many interesting and constructive pages in this layer of the network. If you are still interested, below we will explain how to access this hidden area of ​​the Internet.

How to access the Dark Web

The first thing we must do is go directly to the TOR website and download the version compatible with our operating system and language. One of the positive points of this browser is that you can place it directly on USB , navigating privately wherever and whenever you want.

There are other browsers to access the Darknet (Freenet, Tor, GNUnet, I2P, OneSwarm, RetroShare, etc.) but TOR is the best known option when browsing the Dark Web.

By default, when you open TOR you can directly access DuckDuckGO , a search engine where we can find .onion pages. First of all, we must access the Dark Web loaded with patience , since the pages usually load very slowly .

The Hidden Wiki can be a good starting point, with a large number of linked .onion pages and their descriptions. From here we can finish browsing in quite surprising pages, for better or for worse.

Before getting into the Dark Web, it is best to be well informed . If we do not really know what we are doing, it will be best to stay in the Internet zone we know and avoid possible scares.