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janaFlag for United States of America

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Is a VM with TOR and VPN installed overkill & super slow, help

Hi Experts!


In a recent meeting we were told that the best practice to be anonymous online, that is, not have other website know location, PC info, etc., is to have your connection come from a VM, and inside the VM installed TOR and VPN.  I stepped in and mention that the setup is an overkill, with VPN would be sufficient.  But the explanation given to us made sense, so I want to share it with you guys (it was verbal so I briefed it):  "by navigating the web from within the VM, the PC info (browser, PC name, etc.) will be of the VM not the Host PC.  By installing VPN in the VM, the IP would be private.  And by installing TOR in the VM, the VM would protect the connection back to the VM, in other words untraceable." - here is my personal take: even though to my untechnical ears makes sense, isn't an overkill? Wouldn't it be a super slow connection?


Please gives your take Expert!


Thanx in advance







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David Johnson, CD
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>> Please gives your take Expert!

Agree with comment above. My take is that you cannot be 100% anonymous online, unless ...


There is always a provider that (can) log your traffic. And as you mention, adding layers will slow down traffic, tor being the layer that will slow down the most.


https://support.torproject.org/faq/staying-anonymous/

https://tails.boum.org/

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and by installing TOR in the VM, the VM would protect the connection back to the VM, in other words untraceable." - here is my personal take: even though to my untechnical ears makes sense, isn't an overkill? Wouldn't it be a super slow connection?

nothing is untraceable if you've broken the law. The Authorities have the rights to issue warrants to your ISP, to obtain your Home Address from your IP Records, and that's if they've not already red flagged you!

It's only as untraceable as the amount of money that someone wishes to spend to find you.  If you repeatedly use the same VM and browser, there's still a fingerprint of your identity that can be used to track back to you.  TOR is super slow because there's not enough relay nodes, and lots of organizations don't allow them.

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Great Great info guys!


David Johnson, CD

  • "A VM will hide the bare metal OS information but will still disclose the OS of the VM, the browser and the screen size, but still use your external IP address." - so just using VM is sufficient including modifying user-agent?


Gerwin Jansen,

  • u gave https://tails.boum.org/, I see it's some sort of OS.  In order to work, I have to use a browser for said OS, which browser can I use with Tails OS? 
  • and also, what would be the difference between my PC OS and Tails OS?  (traceability wise)


btan,

  • "using VPN while using Tor. It doesn’t have any purpose" - so TOR is not really necessary to reduce traceability along a VPN, would be ok just use VPN & VM?


Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper),

  • "nothing is untraceable" - very true, thank u; but based on the meeting I gave and your experts partners observation, what's your take, what would be the less traceable, just VPN, just VOM VM & VPN or all tree as the meeting impries of VM with TOR and VPN?


serialband,

  • "It's only as untraceable as the amount of money that someone wishes to spend to find you" - very true also, based on your experience, what would be the less traceable, just VPN, just VOM VM & VPN or all tree as the meeting impries of VM with TOR and VPN?


To all Experts,

  • In the meeting we were told that install VPN in the VM; is there any difference between installing in the host PVC of the VM PC?


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Thank u guys very much! Wow! Great info!