CREATE AN ANONYMOUS WEBSITE

Tor is an anonymous, secure network that allows anyone to access websites with anonymity. The hidden service website runs entirely within Tor, so no one will know who created and runs the website. Not all hidden services have to be websites. You could create SSH servers, IRC servers etc. and offers it as a service on Tor. This article will focus on setting up a hidden tor site using the SAVANT web server. STEP-1) INSTALL TOR To get started, you'll have to download and install tor on your computer. By default, Tor installs the Tor browser bundle, which includes a specifically configured Firefox browser. You'll see a green icon in your system tray when you're connected to the TOR network. Once it's installed, you can check out an example hidden service by plugging duskgytldkxiuqc6.onion into your Tor web browser's address bar. STEP-2) INSTALL & CONFIGURE A WEB BROWSER You'll need a web server to serve the hidden service site from your system. Tor's official documentation recommends against using the common Apache web server. The takeaway is that web server configuration is very important. If you're running a very sensitive hidden Tor site, you'll want to go through your web server's settings and ensure it isn't leaking any information that could be used to identify your IP address. We'll use SAVANT as an example here, but you can set the same options in other web servers. To configure SAVANT, launch its main windows and click the configuration button. From the configuration window, you'll need to set the "Server DNS Entry" box to "localhost" to bind Savant to Local host. This ensures your website is only accessible from your local computer. You'll also have to note the port number you're using, After the web server is configured, you'll want to add your content. By default, Savant uses the C:\Savant\Root\Directory (you can change this from the Pathstab). Ensure you replace the index.html file in this directory with the file you want as your homepage. You can verify it works by typing localhost into your main browser's address bar. If you set a different port instead of 80, say 100. Then type localhost:1000 instead. STEP-3) CONFIGURE THE HIDDEN SERVICE Now that Tor's installed and a web server is running, all you have to do is tell Tor about. You should be able to add this information to the torrc file through the Vidalia graphical user interface, but i experienced errors and had to do this by hand. First, shut down Tor if it's running. Next, locate your torrc file. If you installed the Tor Browser Bundle, you'll find it in the Tor Browser\Data\Tor directory. Open this file with notepad or any text editor. Add the following section to the end of the file 1) <em># Hidden Service </em> 2) <em>HiddenServiceDir C:\users\name\tor_service </em> 3) <em>HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80 </em> Replace C:\Users\Name\tor_service with the path to a directory Tor can read and write to on your system. Do not use the directory that already contains your website. This should be an empty directory. Replace the :80 with the port the web server is using on your system. For example, if the web server is running on port 5000, you'd use the line HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:5000. Save the file after editing it. You'll also have to create the directory you specified, if it doesn't already exist. Restart Tor after you do this. Once you have, You'll want to check the Message Log to see if there are any error message. If the message log is free of errors, you're good to go. Check out the hidden service directory you created. TOR will have created two files in the directory -hostname and private_key. Don't give anyone the private_key or they'll be able to impersonate your hidden service Tor site. You'll want to open hostname file in notepad or another text editor. It will tell you the address of your new hidden service Tor site. Plug this address into your Tor web browser and you'll see your website . Give the address to others so they can access your site. Remember, people must be using Tor to access your hidden service site. That's all you need to do.