Many VPN related questions in /r/Tor are very repetitive, which is frustrating to regulars. We will direct all such questions to this thread instead of individual posts.
Please use the search function before asking, and read the rest of this post.
Should I use a VPN with Tor?
You might have seen conflicting advice on this, and now you just want the definitive answer. Unfortunately, there’s no simple yes/no answer.
In general, you don’t need to use a VPN with Tor. Tor is designed to provide anonymity on its own. Tor Project generally recommends against it.
A VPN probably doesn’t help nor hurt your anonymity. If you already have an always-on VPN, you can use Tor Browser without turning it off.
A VPN might conceal from your internet service provider (ISP) the fact that you’re using Tor, in exchange for giving the VPN provider this insight. None of them can see what you’re using Tor for, only that you’re using it. Keep in mind that you don’t have strong anonymity from your VPN; they can see where you connect from, and if you paid non-anonymously, they know your identity outright.
If you worry specifically about your internet provider knowing you use Tor, you should look into bridges.
If you’re in a small community where you might be the only person connecting to Tor (such as a workplace or a school), and you use Tor to talk about that community, the network administrators might be able to infer that it’s you. A VPN or a bridge protects against this.
For more on aspects of VPN with Tor, see TorPlusVPN.
Before asking about VPN, please review some of the earlier discussions:
The hate and chaos that comes with this question “do I use VPN with TOR” is something else. It is what it is I suppose.
Like it or not, I will state my opinion anyway for MY SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES:
Q. Why do I use TOR over VPN?
A. Because in MY case, some foreign VPN company is not as quick to move on a subpeaona from US law enforcement as my weak ass domestic ISP.
In fact, my ISP is practically in bed with them.
Long story short, Id rather my interesting traffic address that entry and exit nodes see be some VPN server sitting in someones living room in a country full of kids who barely speak English before I want it to be my address tied to my government ass kissing ISP.
Call me a conspiracy theorist. I find it very suspicious that VPN + TOR usage is not recommended or it is even discouraged in many posts online. For me this is a no brainer and also cannot be replaced by using an internal component of TOR such as a bridge. Because TOR itself is already a target of government agencies. The reason is governments already know the exit nodes and can profile the users based on their TOR usage for which there are already examples in the world. It is difficult to the same with bridges but still there is no guarantee that it is impossible. Overall a very small population uses TOR in any country so time-exit node correlation is easily done and users are identified and become a subject of an investigation just because of the knowledge that the user uses TOR. So using TOR itself and making your ISP know this is a direct threat for yourself in my opinion. When it comes to VPNs they are much more mainstream, a lot of people use them for business purposes, watching content from another country, at worst piracy but something more serious doesn’t come to mind, which can be the case might be with TOR. So I would assume VPN usage would draw much less attention. If you know any scenario where using TOR itself is better or using it together with VPN is worse then let me know.
So Tor can’t transfer UDP traffic, and this sounds dumb, but if you created a tor server that you could vpn to, could you use that tor IP address and use the internet connection as a normal internet connection just with the Tor IP? So server is hosted on Tor network, user vpns to the server or uses the server as an encrypted proxy then use that connection to get full internet usage?
Could someone tell me whether or not its necessary to run my orbot app in vpn mode while i use the tor browser app tbh it makes it slower than normal and if im not mistaken doesnt orbot basically do the exact same thing tor browser does on its on its redundant right? I usually only use orbot for running communication apps and social media but i had to dive into the more fuck around and find out end of the dark web the past couple days and didnt wanna risk compromising myself and phone
A quick question. I am not tech savvy, but I tried to install Tor on my AsusWRT Merlin router, and it is properly running on my router and I can also curl the internet website on my router’s terminal (I followed the instructions from ChatGPT step by step to make the installation done. and the terminal return the right answer on access of several website, i.e. check.torproject.org, ip.me, etc…) However, when I tried to configure my brower on my laptop (again, follow the instruction of ChatGPT), the connection is lost. No internet website can’t reached with the proxy on. So any of the guru here can explain the issue and make a suggestion here. Thanks!
Hello, I have an idea about combining Tor and a VPN, plus adding a virtual machine: I would run Parrot OS as the host machine, with a VPN and Anonsurf, then open Virtualbox, and do all the browing through a Linux guest virtual machine. I could add (or not add) a second VPN to the guest VM. Any thoughts on this setup? Thanks.
I want to purchase a VPN enabled router to put all my network traffic through. However, I may want to use TOR on some devices and was wondering do most of the VPN enabled routers have to ability to host more then one network one using the VPN for all traffic and the other that does not have the VPN enabled to which can use TOR? Last but not least if you had a vpn router and connected to TOR on your PC would that be an instance of Onion over VPN or the other way around?
I was wondering if it would help using VPN with Tor and the obfs4 bridge. Basically the VPN provider would still see me using Tor, but people that don’t have access to my VPN provider’s data base, would see me browsing normally bc of the obfs4 bridge right ? The other question would be, if I use a Tails Linux USB boot to surf around on Tor does using a VPN actually “unhide” my identity since the VPN account can be tracked ? I want to be somewhat 90% sure that it’s secure, private and “untraceable”. Or else I could just use brave tor tab.
If you’re someone who regularly uses a VPN for everyday clearnet activities, how are TOR bridges gonna be any better than ISP → VPN → TOR if you want to hide from your ISP the fact you’re using TOR?
Also, even though bridges’ IPs are not public they’re available for free, so my guess is there still is a way to list them, and since they are TOR bridges they are inherently related to TOR, when on the other side VPNs can be used for any kind of activity.
I used to be able to use Tor browser and my VPN as normal. I hadn’t used Tor browser for 7 or 8 months. I came back now to wanting to use Tor browser, but Tor can’t connect while VPN is enabled. No matter if i change different country servers. But everytime I disable the VPN, Tor works as normal. However I don’t have VPN protection if I use it like this. I used to be able to use both just a few months ago, but now the VPN won’t let me connect. Is there an “exceptions” list somewhere to allow Kaspersky VPN to accept the browser? If not, What VPN can I use alongside Tor browser?
I saw that Tor is good for using even after the VPN block here. (We can’t even use vpn to acess X or else were fined)
I’ve downloaded the play store version, but I’m not so sure if I’m doing it right. By using the app, I’m already on a private place? Should I get the apk ver or…?
I recently saw that MullvadVPN has released DAITA to some select servers that aims to make it much more difficult for AI algorithms to fingerprint you by injecting random noise, having constant packet sizes, and more.
I know that VPN + Tor is a highly debated topic and I expect some differences of opinion here, but to me MullvadVPN DAITA sounds like a real uplift to privacy in comparison to Tor alone by making it more difficult for ISPs to identify Tor traffic.
I’m a beginner in this space so I would like to learn and hear what your opinion on this?
Will running Tor alongside my VPN present more security risks? Or is it redundant?
So I have my Mullvad VPN running 24/7 which I paid for with crypto, will browsing through Tor will the VPN is running be detrimental to me in any way? Or does it make no difference?
Hi I have a dumb question but still, If it is even safe to use tor in VirtualBox(rather than a bootable usb), where should I run my VPN?
Should the VPN be on the main host OS (e.g., Windows) or within the VirtualBox environment running Tails?
Hi a question could I replace my vpn and use brave in tor private mode, for normal usage I never go to deep or dark web. would that be more than I need for my own privacy and security.