Talk:.onion

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[edit] Hidden services

I'm trying to understand how hidden services can actually hide the server. In order to use a hidden service, the tor path must end at the final server, right? So the machine that is building up the path / initiating the request has to be able to know who to put in the final stage, and so knows who the last router, and the host of the hidden service actually is.

Right?

Nope; the hidden service builds an anonymous circuit to each of a set of medium-lived "introduction points," and advertises these. When the client wants to start talking to the server, it builds an announymomus circuit to one of these introduction points, and negotiates a rendezvous point to which the server and the client can both connnect. At no point does the client need to learn the server's location. I've added a link to the technical spec in case people want more details on how it works. -- Victor Lighthill 16:36, 5 September 2006 (UTC)