so this is probably one of the more important videos throughout this course.
and it's talking about vpns and tor.
there's a lot of discussion about the benefits of using a vpn or the drawbacks, especially when using a vpn in conjunction with tor.
in previous videos, we talked about using vpns and how it's a good alternative for safer, more anonymous browsing and hiding your browsing data from your isp, but how it might not be perfect in every situation.
now this video is specifically going to be discussing using tor and a vpn together so that you might be able to hide your tor usage from an isp while also further protecting your tor browsing and creating a secure session.
earlier we talked about the process tor goes through to connect.
you connect to your internet provider, your traffic goes to the tor, tor then sends back information about the nodes.
so then it can create a circuit and then you get the circuit information and a connection is made pretty straightforward, high level overview of the tor connection process and a vpn layered on top of that.
there's a couple ways you could do a vpn, but you could essentially connect to your vpn provider 1st before you configure tor.
and in that case, you would still connect to your isp like normal.
you would then connect to the vpn and then that connection tor would happen and they would send the data through the circuit the same way and you would be connected.
on tor's website, it discusses vpns with tor.
again, there's two methods to connect to a vpn.
there's you to the proxy to tor.
that's the 1st method.
and then you to tor to anything else and vpn proxy, the end website.
it's important to read through what they say and we will read it here to talk about it.
so it says, if you connect to a vpn, the vpn machine default internet connection will be through the vpn, right?
so the tor browsing bundle or tor client will route through it.
this can be a fine idea, assuming your vpn and ssh provider network is in fact sufficiently safer than your own network.
another advantage here is that it prevents tor from seeing who you are behind the vpn.
so if somebody does manage to break tor and learn the ip address your traffic is coming from, but your vpn or ssh provider was actually following through on their promise that they don't watch you don't remember and will somehow magically make it.
so nobody else is watching easier, then you'll be better off.
you can read more about this from that link at the bottom, right?
it will also be attached to the lesson module if you want to learn more, but essentially there's a few reasons why you might use a vpn.
if you want to hide tor use from your isp, that might be a good reason.
if you want to add some additional security, which it alluded to in that previous description, talking about how well if tor breaks and your ip does leak, if you're going through a vpn, it is a bit better.
you can access sites that block tor exit nodes if you're using a vpn on the back end and you can double encrypt your traffic and add more hops, thus making your sessions generally more secure, but much slower.
keep that in mind.
it's also important to note that while they sound good, hiding from your isp isn't really what it's for.
doubly encrypting your traffic just makes things more complicated and adding more hops just makes you slower.
so not a lot of great reasons to add a vpn if those are your main selling points.
so if you have tor going to a vpn or if you have your vpn and then tor, there's a couple different considerations.
if you connect tor 1st and then connect to your vpn, some benefits is the exit node.
can't see the data you're sending, right?
because now you're encrypting it.
so on the tour network itself, that last hop to the exit node, if it happens to be unencrypted, it's not anymore.
it's now encrypted.
some drawbacks though, vpn logging and profiling exist.
vpn providers do and can log in profile doesn't mean every single one does, but do you know for sure they don't?
blocking of vpn services is a very common practice by endpoints and websites.
so you have to be considering that and bottlenecks and network speed tor is already slow and adding another layer on top of that is going to make it slower.
on the flip side though, if you connect to a vpn 1st and then tor, your isp might not see that you're using tor now, considering you're using a vpn that's encrypted and backtracking, meaning if they find your actual ip, it leads back to the vpn.
however, the drawbacks are similar here where vpn logging and profiling still exist and your isp can still fingerprint you when using the vpn and get information through the browser.
so it's important to use the tor browser here.
and generally the idea of encryption works something like this.
if you were to connect through your isp to tor, there's a session there and then through tor to a vpn and then a vpn to where you're going.
you're essentially creating what is the three hop steps?
there's just multiple in the way.
similar idea for a vpn and then tor, but notice the security there where you're now encrypting your session between you and the vpn.
and then it's encrypting between you and tor and the outside world.
so generally, if you're going to use a solution, generally, if you're going to use a solution using a vpn and then tor might be the only useful one.
and unless you know specifically why you're going to do it, if you have specific needs or reasons, i wouldn't really use a vpn with tor at all, unless you just have a vpn on most of the time.
if you are going to use a vpn, the solution number two here where you're connecting to a vpn 1st and then tor is not a bad solution.
just be aware of network speeds and be aware that you're using a good vpn.
if you go to darkwebacademy dot com vpn, you can find information about a vpn we support and a vpn that does not keep logs.
and they've proved this in federal court, which is why we like them.
but if you have any questions about this, be sure to let me know.
happy to hear discussions or disagreements.
if someone disagrees with my assessment here, we didn't dive too deep into the technical weeds about how it might work, the different encryption methods, the different ways you could use vpn or a proxy and combination using public wi- fi, then using tor and then a vpn or vice versa.
all of those are different methods to connect, but generally using tor on its own is going to be fine unless you have a specific need in mind.
so with that, we'll wrap this video up.
if you have any questions, let me know.
otherwise, i'll see you in the next one.