Layer upon layer

Sitting atop the regular net, the Tor community consists of net-linked computers on which users have mounted the Tor software program. If a Tor consumer desires to, say, anonymously view the the front page of The new york instances, his or her computer will wrap an internet request in several layers of encryption and send it to some other Tor-enabled laptop, which is chosen at random. That pc -- known as the shield -- will peel off the primary layer of encryption and forward the request to another randomly decided on computer inside the community. That computer peels off the following layer of encryption, and so forth.

The closing laptop in the chain, referred to as the go out, peels off the final layer of encryption, exposing the request's true destination: the times. The defend knows the net deal with of the sender, and the exit is aware of the net address of the vacation spot site, however no computer within the chain is aware of each. This routing scheme, with its successive layers of encryption, is called onion routing, and it offers the network its name: "Tor" is an acronym for "the onion router."

Similarly to nameless net browsing, however, Tor additionally offers what it calls hidden services. A hidden service protects the anonymity of now not just the browser, however the vacation spot site, too. Say, as an instance, that someone in Iran needs to host a site archiving information reviews from Western media however would not need it on the general public net. the use of the Tor software, the host's computer identifies Tor routers that it will use as "creation points" for all and sundry wishing to get right of entry to its content. It publicizes the addresses of those advent points to the community, without revealing its personal location.

If every other Tor user wants to browse the hidden web page, each his or her computer and the host's laptop construct Tor-secured hyperlinks to the creation point, developing what the Tor task calls a "circuit." using the circuit, the browser and host pick out but every other router in the Tor network, known as a rendezvous point, and construct a second circuit via it. The region of the rendezvous point, unlike that of the advent factor, is saved non-public.