Talk:Dark Internet

Broken link
3th external link is broken. It shows 'Page not Found' --87.5.58.150 (talk) 20:14, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Citation needed
This article says "some speculate" that hackers use dark internets for malicious purposes. This statement requires a citation.

Name change?
I think this article should be moved to "Dark internet", as per the external links.

The point is:

Web = collection of interconnected data

Internet = collection of interconnected computers

Just to avoid the flames of the pedants, its worth mentioning that an internet, strictly, is a collection of interconnected networks, which are themselves collections of interconnected computers.

For these purposes it amounts to the same thing - this article seems to be about the machines, not the documents. The deep web article seems to about the documents. That is the distinction, and I think that we should be careful to preserve it. --Nigelj 17:58, 12 Dec 2004 (UTC)


 * Done --Nigelj 14:43, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)


 * After this name change, "Research Projects: Darkweb is also a name of a project that exists at a University in Tucson." should be if not moved, then at least copied to Dark internet. --Oop 11:02, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Interesting...
Never really thought about this before... I recently bought a used Prolog textbook which had an IP address written in ones of its pages by the previous owner. I attempted a traceroute on that IP address, only it never reached that IP -- traceroute's packet(s) eventually kept bouncing back-and-forth between two intermediate servers presumably "near" that IP address indefinitely, but never actually making it to that IP address. I'll have to find the page again. I just found it strange it would do that -- could that be an example of a "dark internet" address? I've never seen that happen before in a traceroute, and I don't think it was simply a case of that IP address being "down" at the time -- if the computer on that IP wasn't "up" at all I would have gotten a destination unreachable error. Then again I could be wrong... --I am not good at running 07:02, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

More detail
This page seems to go on about what the dark internet isn't, but never seems to get around to what it is. It would be nice if someone could add more detail. PerlKnitter 20:01, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
 * What we have on what is is the definition in the first sentence and the content of the 'Causes' section. --Nigelj 22:53, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

uppercase Internet?
Shouldn't the letter I be uppercase since internet refers to the Internet? --Voidvector 02:37, 4 July 2007 (UTC)


 * No, internet is used as a common noun, see previous first discussion and WP:MOS.--Thinboy00 talk/contribs @129, i.e. 02:05, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Internet Magic tips
--blatant spam removed - 152.23.101.108 00:41, 3 October 2007 (UTC)--

C & P mail@rdxrdx.com Feel free to Contact us —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shantu123 (talk • contribs) 13:49, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Research Project Section
The project mentioned in the University of Arizona link seems to have nothing to do with "unreachable hosts".

Neutral?
"It is also speculated that hackers utilize malicious techniques to hijack private routers to either divert traffic or mask illegal activity. Through use of these private routers a dark internet can form and be used to conduct all manner of misconduct on the internet" That's only a small example, but the whole article takes the tone that dark networks are malicious and inappropriate. Segregation from publicly-routable networks is, AFAIK, a normal security practice for businesses, whose reasons for secrecy need not have anything to do with illegal activity; We do it where I work, and our customers do it as well. Even a connection between just two hosts with OpenVPN, with services only accessible on the virtual NICS provided by the VPN, and where that VPN network can't be routed to by other hosts, would seem to me to fall under the classification of "Dark internet," and that connection need not have anything to do with malicious or illegal behavior. --Short Circuit (talk) 19:34, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't have any references, but I think that the word 'dark' implies the either forgotten or malicious intent. What you describe, I think are more likely to be called 'private' networks and sub-nets, but not usually 'dark'. Although I agree, technically, in practice, there may be little difference in the technology used or the effects it has. --Nigelj (talk) 19:46, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps "misconduct" should be changed to "conduct". Dark Internets are used for many legal and positive reasons. This article infers Dark Internet == Nefarious. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.221.111.228 (talk) 15:50, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

It's not darknet, right?
Then why does parts of the article seem to descrive darknets? --TiagoTiago (talk) 20:42, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * It says, "The dark internet should not be confused with either deep web or darknet". How much clearer can that be? --Nigelj (talk) 21:00, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Closed-Circuit Television
Is this sort of like the Internet's version of a closed-circuit TV broadcast, in that it's impossible to view a closed-circuit program unless the TV is part of the said closed circuit? 98.221.141.21 (talk) 23:28, 5 February 2013 (UTC)


 * That would be more like an intranet - can't be accéssed (not by standard and legit means, anyway) by anyone beyond the in-house network. The present article, though, suffers from a complete lack of information and examples on whether "dark internet" sites and pages can often be read, in case they are retrieved by somewhat non-standard means, or whether they are simply lost, jammed because of router and address trouble etc.83.254.151.33 (talk) 02:33, 5 October 2013 (UTC)

Broken link irony...
The second reference in this article is broken. Ironic. :) http://www.crt.net.au/About/ETopics/Archives/darkint.html --207.231.89.111 (talk) 01:40, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

An example?
After reading this article I am still honestly not sure what the Dark Internet is. Is [this comic http://xkcd.com/1305/] an example? It's an xkcd comic about an Internet forum that can only be accessed via a help link in an old Windows utility. Presumably it's not a website, so it can't be bookmarked. Ginkgo100talk 19:00, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Difference between .Onion (TOR) sites
There are lots of sites with the .Onion TLDs are hosted in TOR nodes. Are they part of the so called Dark Internet? In this article, there is no mention about that. Saintthomas (talk) 06:09, 17 June 2014 (UTC)

What is this article about?
I used to think I knew what this article was about, but it seems that for some years now, people have been adding random terms to the opening sentences, and almost nothing to the body of the article. At the moment, I have to say, I have no idea what it's talking about. For example it says, "A dark Internet, dark address or lost net refers to any or all network hosts on the Internet that no-one can reach. It is also called dark address space, greynet or sparse darknets." and goes on to admonish, "The dark Internet should not be confused with deep web or darknet distributed filesharing, which refer to hard-to-find websites and secretive networks that span the Internet; however, they are accessible from the internet." So, it's about 'sparse darknets', but it's not about 'darknet distributed filesharing' or 'secretive networks'. With references behind paywalls, I have no way to try to get to the bottom of any of this. Maybe it should be deleted, as a WP:COATRACK for random undefined terms, or maybe it should be merged with 'deep web' and 'darknet' if no one else can remember what the differences were supposed to be. --Nigelj (talk) 20:29, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

I suggest we merge this article with a similar article. It would be better to have a single article that clearly explains the differences between various terms. The subject seems notable, judging by media coverage, and by the number of editors that contributed to this article. I will soon look behind the paywall, but in the meantime:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/internet/3593569/what-is-dark-web-how-access-dark-web/

http://www.wired.com/2014/11/hacker-lexicon-whats-dark-web/

http://www.brightplanet.com/2014/03/clearing-confusion-deep-web-vs-dark-web/

Comfr (talk) 23:17, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

User talk:Nigelj I peeked behind the paywall. The IEEE refernece defines darknet as an unused, but routable, IP address space, which is not the subject of this article. Darknets are used to detect network scans by attackers. The literature I have found so far, indicate the "dark internet" consists of concealed addresses used for unlawful purposes. Comfr (talk) 04:35, 8 February 2015 (UTC)

Just discovered this page
This page should merge into Dark Web. Deku-shrub (talk) 18:40, 23 November 2015 (UTC)


 * You just redirected the page without merging anything. From quick search on Google it looks like that terms are not synonyms Christian75 (talk) 11:38, 26 November 2015 (UTC)
 * That link doesn't work for me. The article appears to cover facets of Darknet and Dark web without adding anything new Deku-shrub (talk) 12:33, 26 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Also that definition you linked of of dark internet is synonymous to Deep web (search) Deku-shrub (talk) 13:34, 1 December 2015 (UTC)