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 network
36 postsnotes from running a 24/7 tor client: outages, weird latency spikes and other things that make badges jump.
latest notes
newest firstTor 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.
Search engines and onion sites: how discovery actually works
why Google ignores .onion entirely, what onion search engines can and cannot see, and how discovery really works inside the tor network.
Tor Browser 14 and beyond: the current release picture
where tor browser stands after the version 14 rebase: faster security updates, android parity, and what the next releases are lining up.