How to Create a ".Onion" Site?

The Onion Router (Tor) is your best bet if you want to be anonymous while exploring the dark web. The Tor browser is a powerful free tool for anonymously browsing the Internet, where you can find a variety of websites that use the onion domain.

What is an Onion Domain?

An onion domain is a particular IP suffix that can only be used with the Tor anonymity browser. Because regular browsers like Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox cannot navigate the relay of proxy servers from which Tor is formed, they will be unable to visit sites using the onion domain.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) issues the common web domains that you're probably acquainted with, such as.com,.org, and.biz, among others (ICANN). Before they can utilize a domain or subdomain for their new website, users must submit proposals to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Thousands of distinct domains are available, but not everyone who wants to use them can access them. The.apple domain is an example of an environment requiring a unique request. Typically, there are charges connected with registering and maintaining your desired atmosphere. As a result, everyone interested in obtaining a particular domain will need some upfront cash after their application has been granted.

When it comes to using an onion site domain, there are both benefits and drawbacks. One of the more appealing characteristics is that it can only be accessed using the Tor browser. This can be viewed as both a benefit and a negative.

Given that Tor is not a widely used browser, a website with an onion domain is unlikely to receive much organic traffic. On the other hand, Tor provides multiple layers of anonymity that are unavailable on the more popular browsers, which security-conscious and worried persons appreciate.

Why Create an Onion Site?

Understand that the domain name can be changed, but it will come at a cost. Any vanity domains you want to make with a more identifiable word or two will be computationally expensive and time-consuming. Facebook's onion domain of choice − "facebookcorewwwi.onion" − took only eight characters to generate, but at atremendous cost to computer resources. It might take a billion years for a single computer to generate the unique 16 letters you want as a domain name by randomizing data.

Yes, these random strings can only create 16 characters. There isn't anymore, and there isn't any less. This makes it even more difficult for consumers to remember the string, making it much more difficult for them to remember your website. It may also make it easy for fraudulent users to create a domain with a similar but distinct name, confusing your potential visitors even more.

Creating Your Own Hidden .Onion Darknet Domain

Sometimes you need a website that isn't public, and just a few people have access to it. You can simply obtain a URL with the. Onion TLD at such times. When your computer serves as the server, you can be comfortable that the files you host on the site are safe on your computer and shared with the appropriate people.

Download and install the TOR (The Onion Router) browser. This is a unique browser that prioritizes the user's anonymity. All of the websites you access with it are routed through a proxy server, which hides your true identity from the site. Only the TOR browser may access websites with the. onion TLD.

It would help if you appended to the end of an. Onion URL if you want your site to be accessible via standard browsers. This isn't a good idea because there's a potential your site won't load.

Let's begin by setting up a Web Server on our machine. You can use XAMPP and other popular web server programs, but doing so exposes your actual IP address; therefore, Savant is recommended.

Setting Up the Server

When you launch Savant and select the Configuration tab, a pop-up should display. Type localhost in the Server DNS Entry option and 8080 in the Port # To Server From option. If this fails, try port 80 or any other available port on your system.

Open any browser after clicking apply and go to "localhost:port", replacing port with 8080 or whatever you choose. If the page loads, you've done everything correctly; if not, go back and double-check everything. The page that just loaded came from your own computer, specifically the "C:SavantRoot" directory. As a general rule, your default/firstloading page will be "index.html".

Obtaining Your URL

Almost everything is now complete; all we need to do now is inform TOR about our server, and it will supply us with our URL. Before we begin, make a folder on your desktop that will be used by TOR to provide you with your website's URL. If your TOR browser is open, close it and go to your TOR installation directory. Look for a folder called Data, open it, and look for a file called torrc. Open any text editing tool and type the following lines.

HiddenServiceDir C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Desktop\NAME_OF_FOLDER
HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1: YOUR_PORT 

Make sure to replace your username with your computer's username and the name of the folder with the name of the empty folder you just created on your desktop in the preceding two lines. Also, ensure that your port is replaced with the one you specified in Savant.

You must now save this file and launch the TOR browser for TOR to produce a URL and Private Key for your website. After 5-6 seconds, shut the TOR browser. Now go to the folder you established on your desktop and look for two files: Hostname and private key. You don't need to do anything with a private key; it's only there to help with identification.

With any text editor, open the file Hostname and look for your website URL with—onion as the TLD. The URL for me was utfd24oh7n43kxj2.onion, and to visit the website, you must append /index.html after. Onion, making the URL utfd24oh7n43kxj2.onion.

*http://utfd24oh7n43kxj2.onion/index.html* 

Don't get rid of the folder you made on your desktop. Running an anonymous website is complex, and if you engage in any criminal conduct, the police may pursue you.