What this means is that your identity and the content of your traffic are cryptographically bifurcated - your entry node knows who you are but not what you are doing and your exit node knows what you are doing but not who you are. It is also important to note that your exit node only knows which intermediate node to send receiving data back to (this is also true for each internal to internal leg of the circuit). Your traffic becomes a small stream in the giant swath of data coming from and entering back into any given exit node. This is one of the ways that Tor helps maintain your privacy online - each exit node is aggregating traffic from many other Tor users and putting it out onto the internet all at once. Finally, your encrypted traffic is decrypted at the exit relay where it is then forwarded out onto the ‘regular’ internet. You can visualize this as layers of encryption being wrapped around your data: this is where the phrase ‘onion routing’ comes from when describing the type of network Tor establishes. Further each hop in transit between the various relays is encrypted using those relays' cryptographic keys. Later, we will see how this is fundamentally different that the way the I2P network operates.ĭuring the circuit creation process, your client exchanges cryptographic keys with the first relay it connects to and begins encrypting traffic back and forth. In short, for the life of a circuit, all of your traffic will follow the same route within the Tor network and exit at the same point. Traditional IP routers follow a best possible route on a per-packet basis, there are no ‘stateful’ circuits from an IP perspective (as a qualifier to this statement, it is necessary to grant that it is within the technical realm of possibility that every router between you and the computer you are connecting to could have single, static routes to one another, though in practice this is a near impossibility). Note that this is substantially different that the traditional IP forwarding that occurs between routers on the internet.
This circuit created consists of your computer, the relay to which you are connecting and multiple internal relays before reaching an exit node. The addresses of these servers are included with the basic configuration files shipped with the client (of course, as with any reputable privacy tool, you have the option to alter what directory servers you trust to provide you with valid relays).Īfter retrieving a list of currently operational relays from the directory servers, your client then determines the optimal route for your traffic across the Tor network and finally terminating (from the Tor network perspective) at an exit node. When you connect to Tor, the first thing your client does is acquire a current list of relays from one of the trusted directory servers. The Tor network is comprised of three different types of nodes: directory servers, exit points (also referred to as exit relays), and internal relays. We will begin by examining the underlying technology of the Tor network with an eye towards how it works to protect your anonymity online. Both will be compared and contrasted below. Two of the most popular tools for doing so on the internet are Tor and I2P. Despite this threatening image that the media and many governments would like to imprint on the public consciousness, privacy-aware individuals know that in todays world of ISP data retention being measured in petabytes and massive supercomputing resources being thrown at traffic analysis by both governments and private industry alike, individuals must take it upon themselves to ensure the freedoms that come with anonymous information access and communication.
The word in and of itself brings to mind visions of the seedy underbelly of the internet a virtual red-light district, back alley, and digital ghetto all rolled into one.
Back to Privacy Guides An Introduction to Tor vs I2Pĭarknet.
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