Vpn Vs Tor, Advantages and Disadvantages

If you are looking for a way to surf the Web anonymously, you have a lot of options at your disposal. The most common and most reliable methods are probably the Tor (The Onion Router) network, and services, VPN (Virtual Private Network).

VPN and Tor services were often compared side by side, as VPN vs TOR, they are often confused and treated as competitors. While in reality, one of them is not necessarily better than the other. The VPN and Tor are just different. While a VPN may be more appropriate in a context, Tor can be in another. This guide will compare Tor and VPN in order to help you decide when to use each.

Both allow you to hide your IP address (and hide your location) so that no one can track your activities online. In addition, both of these services allow you to bypass Internet censorship and geo-restrictions so that give you access to any site or web service that is otherwise blocked by your provider of Internet access, or geo-restricted by the service himself.

How TOR works

Tor, which is known as "The Onion Router", is an anonymization service. Tor makes it difficult for anyone to track your activities on the Internet and is designed to protect your privacy online by routing your internet traffic through the Tor network of relay selected randomly (managed by volunteers) who are scattered everywhere in the world... The software is free to install and use.

All traffic that passes through these relays in the Tor network is encrypted and re - encrypt several times until it reaches the output node (the last computer in the path of the Tor network you used).

At the level of the output node, the last layer of encryption is decrypted and the data are sent to the destination without revealing the identity of the sender.

According to the web site of Tor, "Tor helps reduce the risk of traffic analysis by distributing your transactions between several places on the Internet in a way that no point can link you to your destination. The idea is similar to the use of a hard-to-follow route in order to get rid of someone who follows you. Instead of taking a direct route from the source to the destination, the packets on the network following a random path through several relays that cover your tracks so that no observer can tell whence or where will data ".»

Each node can see the data and the IP address of the previous node and the next node. Therefore, no one can find the full path between your computer and the site to which you are connecting.

In addition, each accomplished path is valid for 10 minutes, then new random paths are generated.

If you connect to another site in a moment later, the Tor client will select a new random path.

This prevents your ISP (Internet service provider) or anyone to know what sites you visit. and the Web sites you visit to know your IP address - it will only see the IP address of the computer to the level of the output node.

The number of volunteer relays the strength of Tor. There are many more volunteers, the more secure the entire Tor network becomes.

How does a VPN work?

A VPN service protects your privacy by hiding your IP address and by encrypting your Internet traffic. When you connect to a VPN server, the VPN server will act as a proxy for you connect your desired Web site.

When you connect through the VPN server, the web sites you visit only see the IP address of this server VPN, not yours. In addition, all your internet traffic is encrypted. Therefore, no one, including hackers and your ISP, can snoop in your Web activity or steal your private information.

All that your ISP or heckeur sees it, is that your connection is encrypted. VPNS are generally not blocked by ISPs because they are commonly used by remote workers so that they can connect to their company networks.

Advantages and disadvantages of using Tor vs VPN

As you can see, VPNs, or Tor, both can be used to circumvent the censorship of the Internet and protect your privacy. You can also use them to overcome the geo-restriction of content by connecting to a node or a server that is in a place that has unlimited access to the content of the site of your choice.

VPN or Tor, both has advantages and disadvantages...

Benefits of TOR:

• No one can link the sites you visit to your IP address.
• Since the network is distributed, it is extremely difficult for a Government or organization to shut it down or force anyone to disclose your private info.

The disadvantages of TOR:

• It is very slow - because your data are routed through a number of relay. Therefore, it is not recommended for browsing or video content geo-restricted.
• Some ISPs actively seek and block Tor relays, making it difficult for some users to connect. China in particular more Tor relay blocks.
• Anonymity not security, Tor does not communications secure. Encryption is used only to ensure anonymity between the nodes, your data is not encrypted otherwise... As traffic at the level of the output node is clear, any person (who may be the police, the Government, or a hacker) who control the exit node can see your internet traffic... it doesn't help to be anonymous if you send information that can et re used to identify. Anyone can install a Tor exit node and there of nothing to prevent the owner of spy on users, so if you send something sensitive, be sure to use secure (HTTPS) Web sites.

The benefits of VPN:

• The connection speed is much faster compared to Tor because there is only the VPN server that stands between your computer and the requested web site.
• A VPN offers better security and privacy than Tor.
• A VPN encrypts all your traffic and you protect when you use public WIFI access points.

The disadvantages of VPN:

A good VPN service it costs money, but it is not very expensive (~ $ 50-70 / year). There is also the free VPN services, but those are slow and bombard you with advertising.

Some VPN service providers keep logs of your activity, that's why you must make sure that the VPN you are using is nologs, me for example I use and I recommend Dacloud.me.

Conclusion?

If you want to just surf the Web anonymously, then Tor may be sufficient. But if you want better protection of privacy, speed and enhanced security against hackers, identity thieves and malware, a VPN service is probably a better option.