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Configuring Hidden Services for Tor

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Tor allows clients and servers to offer hidden services. That is, +you can offer a web server, SSH server, etc., without revealing your +IP to its users. In fact, because you don't need any public address, +you can run a hidden service from behind your firewall. +

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This howto describes the steps for setting up your own hidden service +website. +

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Step Zero: Get Tor and Privoxy working

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Before you start, you need to make sure 1) Tor is up and running, +2) Privoxy is up and running, 3) Privoxy is configured to point +to Tor, and 4) You actually set it up correctly.

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Windows users should follow the Windows +howto, and OS X users should follow the OS +X howto. Other users can find some hints here. +

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Once you've got Tor and Privoxy installed and configured, +you can see hidden services in action by clicking on the hidden wiki +in your browser. It will typically take 10-60 seconds to load +(or to decide that it is currently unreachable). If it fails +immediately and your browser pops up an alert saying that that +"www.6sxoyfb3h2nvok2d.onion could not be found, please check the name and +try again" then you haven't configured Tor and Privoxy correctly; see this +FAQ entry for some help. +

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Step One: Configure an example hidden service

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In this step, you're going to configure a hidden service that points +to www.google.com. This way we can make sure you've gotten this step +working before we start thinking about setting up a web server locally. +

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First, open your torrc file in your favorite text editor. (See this +FAQ entry to learn what this means.) Go to the middle section and +look for the line
+############### This section is just for location-hidden services ###
+

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+This section of the file consists of groups of lines, each representing +one hidden service. Right now they are all commented out (the lines +start with #), so now hidden services are enabled. Each group of lines +consists of one HiddenServiceDir line, and one or more HiddenServicePort +lines:

HiddenServiceDir is a directory where Tor will store information +about that hidden service. In particular, Tor will create a file here named +hostname which will tell you the onion URL. You don't need to add any +files to this directory.
HiddenServicePort lets you specify a virtual port (that is, what +port people accessing the hidden service will think they're using) and an +IP address and port for redirecting connections to this virtual port.

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In this example, we're going to set up a hidden service that points to +Google. So add the following lines to your torrc: +

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+HiddenServiceDir /home/yourname/hidserv/
+HiddenServicePort 80 www.google.com:80
+

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The above directory is for Windows people. OS X or Unix people should +use /tmp/hidserv instead. + +

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If you have suggestions for improving this document, please send them to us. Thanks!

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