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Does pointing a ".onion" url to a clearnet site benefit TOR users? (mander.xyz)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Sal@mander.xyz to c/tor@lemmy.ml

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When a website can be accessed via a clearnet and a .onion url, is there a benefit to making use of the .onion url?

Context:

I am considering pointing a ".onion" url to my instance (mander.xyz).

I did some tests with and it seems like mlmym works well with JavaScript disabled. Since JavaScript is often disabled in the tor browser, I could make the .onion url point at that front-end instead.

This would be fun to do, but I wonder if there is a practical benefit to the ".onion" url as opposed to simply accessing the clearnet url via the tor browser.

EDIT: I went ahead and created an onion URL to try out, but I would still like to know if there is an actual advantage to .onion urls:

http://mandermybrewn3sll4kptj2ubeyuiujz6felbaanzj3ympcrlykfs2id.onion/

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[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

One advantage I can think of right off hand would be domain blocks can be bypassed with an onion URL.

[–] Sal@mander.xyz 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

In the context of tor, a domain block would apply - for example - if the exit node's ISP blocks the domain. But if the local network implements domain blocks, this would not affect the tor browser - is this correct? Or is it also possible to block domains locally even for tor browser users?

[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

An onion domain does not use the clear net whatsoever. So the tor client machine contacts your machine directly (with 6 hops) from within the network and never exits out to the open internet.