Congestion crises: what happens to the tor network when the world tunes in at once
From the 2020 pandemic surge to election nights and wartime spikes, here is how the tor network absorbs sudden global demand - and why it sometimes slows to a crawl.
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newest firstWhen the Onion Goes Dark: A Short History of DDoS on Tor
From the 2020 marketplace wars to proof-of-work defenses, we trace how DDoS attacks on onion services shaped Tor's architecture and why they remain so hard to stop.
Arti adoption status at the end of 2024: client parity reached, relays still waiting
Arti closed 2024 with client-side parity with C Tor, growing embedded and mobile use, and relay support still on the bench. Where the Rust rewrite stands.
Tor on Android: how far the mobile anonymity push has come, and where it still falls short
Tor Browser for Android has grown from an alpha experiment into a first-class release, while Orbot keeps evolving. But gaps in fingerprinting defenses and VPN-over-Tor limits remain.
Getting Tor Bridges in Censored Regions: The Methods That Still Work
Moat, email requests, the BridgeDB site, and trusted community sharing still deliver working bridges to censored users. We explain how each channel operates and what opsec it demands.
National Blocking Patterns: How Countries Try to Filter Tor
How countries filter Tor with IP blacklists, deep packet inspection and bridge probing - and what the Russia 2021 block and Iran's recurring crackdowns reveal about what works.
The Single-Hop Onion Service Debate: Speed Versus Protection
Single-hop onion mode trades server anonymity for speed. We break down what the flag changes, why operators enable it, and what visitors quietly give up.
Exit Policy Myths: What Tor Exit Relays Actually Do (and What They Never Touch)
Onion traffic never touches an exit relay, yet exits still collect the blame for everything on the network. We untangle what exit policies do, and the myths that refuse to die.
Half the Tor Network Now Speaks IPv6: What It Changes for Users
Half of Tor's relays now run dual-stack. We look at what growing IPv6 support means for users, why IPv4 scarcity is reshaping the relay fleet, and what comes next.
Self-hosting an onion site: the torrc, the keys, and the mistakes that leak identity
A practical walkthrough of running your own onion site: the torrc directives that matter, how v3 keys work, and the operational mistakes that have unmasked operators.
Why Naive Monitors Lie: The Methodology Behind Honest Onion Uptime Badges
Onion uptime badges are easy to fake and hard to earn. We break down probe frequency, retry discipline, timeout choices, and why single-check monitors mislead.
Tor performance: what actually improved and what is still pending
congestion control, onion service latency work and the arti rewrite: a status check on the tor network's performance roadmap, and what still needs to land.