Proxy, VPN, Tails, Tor? The definitive guide for you

Hello ,

So I was thinkingof a way give back to the community, and since marketing isn't my main field,
I will talk about tech, privacy, security since those are my strong suites and that's what I do as a professional career.

So I see a lot of people getting confused all over the place between the different technologies and some of them are even making critical mistakes,
In this field having "more" isn't necessarily better.

So let's get to it

TOR - Tor is very similar to any other browser, Since well, Tor uses firefox as it's wrapper.
Tor is free, and it's purpose is to help you protect your identity and location online.
Tor uses a method which is called "Onion Router" by basically creating multiple layers of encryption through a randomly directed network of servers.
Tor has it's own disadvantageous, and I recommend downloading TOR only through the official open source project.

Is TOR a VPN? No. They function on different levels, As I've explained, TOR is browser based.

VPN - VPNs in the concept of the technology if done correctly, is usually the most secure option, VPN is masking your entire network communication end-to-end through an end point at some location of your choice.
While VPN is the the most secure option usually, we have VPN companies keep user logs, tracking their data and even selling it, so be very careful about the VPN provider you choose.

PROXY - Proxy and VPN are quite similar, but again, a proxy can only handle web traffic, while a VPN is routing your entire network traffic, usually a proxy is cheaper, way cheaper and that's why people tend to use it,
The second reason is that proxies IP's are usually not "burned" as VPN's, VPN's use global data-centers so their IP address are already quite known all over, while proxies are usually some temporary endpoints.

TAILS - While it's common to think that Tails is just another service/software, it's not, tails is an entire independent Operating System, Tails is built with security and privacy as it's main theme,
Tails has many built in security features, It's built to support TOR and it makes the use of VPN redundant.
Tails is an "amnesic" Operating system, fully portable, and leaves no digital footprint on the machine.

So I know it's a bit of a brief explanation, if there would be an interest from members here, I will create very detailed in-depth tech topics about each of the technologies mentioned here.
There are also probably many questions such as, should I use TOR+VPN?
So just feel free to ask any questions you have in this topic, if they will repeat frequently I will edit the post and add a small FAQ.

Hope you all find this helpful and insightful.

venturetrade said:

Tor uses a method which is called "Onion Router" by basically creating multiple layers of encryption through a randomly directed network of servers.

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venturetrade said:

TOR is browser based.

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No! Tor is NOT a browser (or browser based). You can use it from CLI as well as from other programs. Tor project comes with FF portable to make it easy for the newbies to get started quickly. Tor is a network more than anything else.

Gogol said:

No! Tor is NOT a browser (or browser based). You can use it from CLI as well as from other programs. Tor project comes with FF portable to make it easy for the newbies to get started quickly. Tor is a network more than anything else.

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If it makes you happy I can edit it, but you are forgetting the fact that the original use case of this network is long dead, while in the past governments and agencies used the network to chat, exchange files and other things, today TOR is mostly known for it's free open source browser based project. keep that in mind please.

venturetrade said:

If it makes you happy I can edit it, but you are forgetting the fact that the original use case of this network is long dead, while in the past governments and agencies used the network to chat, exchange files and other things, today TOR is mostly known for it's free open source browser based project. keep that in mind please.

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Ever used Tor outside the browser? Did you know that you could even have a router with integrated Tor? It does not matter what the intended usage might be, but you can't call an apple; an orange.. lol.

Gogol said:

Ever used Tor outside the browser? Did you know that you could even have a router with integrated Tor? It does not matter what the intended usage might be, but you can't call an apple; an orange.. lol.

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If the end user has that much knowledge, then he doesn't need this guide to begin with right? while you are busy with your pissing contest you are missing the point entirely.
People nowadays know Tor as the the Tor open source browser project.
If you have anything contributing to add, please do, if not, please go and hack your Tor router or something, find something to do.

venturetrade said:

If the end user has that much knowledge, then he doesn't need this guide to begin with right? while you are busy with your pissing contest you are missing the point entirely.
People nowadays know Tor as the the Tor open source browser project.
If you have anything contributing to add, please do, if not, please go and hack your Tor router or something, find something to do.

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On the other hand, I think that if you are gonna be a teacher; teach properly. Don't teach them things that aren't true. Anyway, I am out of here now. Feel free to call it whatever you want. My original intention wasn't to piss you off, but to correct the facts you presented in your OP. I guess I achieved that.

TOR can be used as a proxy server. I have whole cluster of tor nodes so i can get access to shitload of proxies for scraping.

for some of them i use a tunnel ip to get proxy rotator tho.

and no,im no where near using a browser. Each node takes only 30-60ram

I like Talis, its a cool toy.
I think many people get the wrong idea with Tor and just think they are bullet proof when they are using it.

FatBee said:

TOR can be used as a proxy server. I have whole cluster of tor nodes so i can get access to shitload of proxies for scraping.

for some of them i use a tunnel ip to get proxy rotator tho.

and no,im no where near using a browser. Each node takes only 30-60ram

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It’s possible to do so, but don’t forget that you are missing the whole layer approach.
Also, pay attention to my reply to the quote below, it will explain why it’s not so great to do so.

BoBBanger5643 said:

I like Talis, its a cool toy.
I think many people get the wrong idea with Tor and just think they are bullet proof when they are using it.

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Exactly, and that’s the purpose of this post, to assist people getting things in order.
Since Tor is an open source free nodes network. It’s very easy to inject rogue nodes into the network and basically hijack/montir your activity, especially if you use the endpoint as proxy.
If you maintain the layers approach, the rogue endpoint only get some of the communication, depends on where it’s positioned in the layers.
But eventually, the government and other agencies are all over Tor.
I like to think of Tor as a medium to keep my information confidential from tech giants like Google, facebook etc, that collects user data and everything else that possible to grab.
But in no way do I consider Tor as a way to avoid big brother, it takes more then that,
For that I prefer to use tails and other better not mentioned methods.