asking for the kind that vpn hides tor and not the other way

i have a framework with whonix in qubes using tor browser (real one i think not brave) and idk if im safe.

i want to use wifi in public (food places and schools) and be hard to spy on and not have anything blocked (videos are blocked). my home network is also phoning home because my family is using a google wireless access point (cant change it they dont like having internet down for more than 5 seconds)

would vpn and tor fix this? should i pick just one? or is there a better way? (all things have to be on device since you cant change someone elses network)

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[–] 14 points 2 months ago (1 child)

You just need a vpn. Based on your other tech support threads you need the one with the fewest ways to mess up (I do too). You should try mullvad. If it turns out that you have to shuffle around different servers too often and can’t tolerate being blocked, switch to a geofencing bypass style vpn like nord or something.

Bear in mind I’m recommending mullvad because it’s really hard to use it in an unsafe way, which it unique in the vpn world. If you go with something else you’ll have to make sure you understand the choices you’re making which is often a tall order.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

    Never use tor with a VPN because it can make you easier to identify on the tor network.

    Edit: https://support.torproject.org/tor-browser/general/vpn-with-tor/

    Also, it is only fine to use a VPN with tor if you know what you are doing.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    i heard you can if you use vpn to hide tor and not tor to hide the vpn

    do you mean easier to identify by advertisers, malicious nodes, or isp/gov?

    (i dont know what im doing yet)

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Yeah, you're correct. Using Tor over (a trusted) VPN just helps with hiding the fact that you're connected to Tor from your ISP. It won't affect your privacy on the Tor network.

    I recommend using iVPN or AirVPN (though I've had slowness issues with AirVPN).

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    You should be good with just a VPN. Tor over VPN (not the other alway round!) makes sense if you want to hide your use of Tor from whoever is watching, and especially if you use Tor Browser for something you want to hide, the timing of when you open and close Tor Browser could be correlated with the thing you're doing. Overkill for just watching videos in privacy.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    Just do one

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago*

    Just VPN is sufficient and don't get fooled by a lot of VPN adverts. Almost all of the internet uses SSL so even if you directly connect to public WiFi no-one can just snoop on your passwords or anything else. The only thing they will be able to see is the website you are visiting. Same as your ISP whether it's some telco, VPN, or Google.

    I can understand you not wanting to share which website you visit to google but if you are not careful Google will find out one way or the other. Even if you use VPN or Tor

    And as already mentioned never do Tor over VPN or VPN over Tor unless you know exactly what you are doing and what are the risk associated with them.

    If you are worried about state actors with compromised rootCA and DNS then Tor can help you there but if they are using this to spy on you then just bypassing it can also put you on a list

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    No, combining them is pointless.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    Can you elaborate? A VPN would hide their IP address from the entry node which is a good thing, right?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    The point is if you want to hide the fact you use tor, while yes it will hide you from the entry node, the beauty of the tor system is it has more than one point of failure, using a VPN makes the VPN a single point of failure since knows who you are and what website you are going to. That being said, I'm to lazy to split tunnel when I feel like using Tor, my traffic doesn't really need that level of animinity anyways

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