What precautions should I take on a journey to the Deep Web?

Question

I already have Firefox with Tor enabled, Javascript turned off, but that about it. Im pretty sure i need a bit more than that if I want to make it in and out without information being stolen or something else that I dont want happening. I hear I need to use proxies, about 3 or 4 of them to become completely anonymous, but I dont know how to do that. While in Tor I google free proxies and go into one, then try to use another but it wont work. Do I just try different proxies?

PS. I have Norton 360 6.0, so I have a good Antivirus,
PSS some proxies require Javascript, which i heard shouldnt be turned on while visiting the deep web

I have disabled cookies as well. Anything else I should know about internet options?

And for those of you wondering, Im not a pedophile, drug dealer, I dont need a hitman, or any of that other crap described about the deep web. I just want to look around safely, as a 17 year old kid.

IF you can persuade me NOT to go into the deep web, please try, but only if you think I dont stand a chance against hackers etc. Thats why I'm trying to take these precautions.


Oh yeah, Ive already been there. But I cant access the hidden wiki for some reason, I have the URL but it just wont load for me.

Sorry for the mess above that is my question.

Answer 1

As Dominic said "the deep web" doesn't mean much, the term covers everything that isn't indexed by normal search engines. That could be something as mundane as a members only section on a normal web forum. What you're talking about are Hidden Services, which are also "the deep web", but only very tiny part of it. Just wanted to point that out.



OK, so with that out of the way, first thing is you want to make absolutely sure not just Javascript, but also Java and every type of media plug-in like pdf and video are all turned off. If you got the Tor browser bundle, all that should be done for you. After that, it's mostly just common sense. Don't download strange exe files, don't tell people where you live, that kind of thing. By the way, Tor is already a proxy, so there's not much point in using another proxy on top of it.



As an aside, not related to safety, you might be disappointed. Hardly any Hidden Services seem to be working lately. There used to be quite a few, I'm not sure what happened.

Answer 2

The deep web isn't anything special. It's just stuff that average web crawlers miss. They'd rather search engines link to their homepages instead since trying to crawl and index that type of content because it's difficult for a simple web crawler to handle.



The deep web has nothing to do with hackers or anything of the sort. It's just content that's difficult to retrieve and index. It's not some forbidden sea of pirated content designed to stay hidden from law enforcement or anything like that.



- Dominic

Answer 3

I'd say just stick to the more well-known sites like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, etc.

As long as your pop-up blocker is on, you should be okay.

Don't download anything that seems suspicious.

Personally, I think you might be a bit paranoid about all this, though.

Answer 4

Some pretty good arguments here.