Tor and VPN are used to safeguard your privacy while online internet. TOR and VPN come with their own unique characteristics, both with their own advantages and drawbacks. The decision to choose between them will depend on the task at hand. In this article, we’ll discuss the distinctions What’s the difference between VPN and TOR, and outline the benefits and disadvantages of each with a clear description.
What is TOR
Tor The program allows people to ensure their privacy and secure while surfing the web. It is a secure and private network for its users. When you use Tor it is impossible for any server to identify your identity or what you do online. It is a multi-layered encryption. It transmits information to random nodes. Although every node is aware of the point at which the signal originates and where it’s headed but it isn’t able to visualize the entire route. This means that each node has two addresses: sources and destinations.
It’s called the definition of an onion routing.
The Working Principle:
Tor takes a attempt to test the concept of an “onion directing” strategy where the information of the client is encrypted first, then moved through the various transfer channels within the Tor network, and then re-encrypted using multiple layers of encryption, in this way, it protects identities of each user. A layer of encryption is decoded by every progressive Tor relay and the rest the data is transmitted to any relay that is not in use until it is delivered to the destination server. To reach the server of destination the most recent Tor node relay i.e. the exit relay appears as the beginning point of the information in the below diagram.
Advantage:
- The Tor is Completely anonymous.
- Tor secures you from hackers by obscuring your IP address so that hackers cannot find your IP.
- It is extremely difficult to close down a network that is publicly funded networks, which is which is why it’s spread out.
- Tor offers a private search engine that is privacy-conscious.
Disadvantage:
- Certain firewalls are unable to block requests through Tor.
- It’s extremely slow in comparison to other VPN due to the fact that it has multiple layers to safeguard your privacy.
- Tor is not compatible with all devices.
- The data isn’t encrypted. Data is sent anonymously however, the browser software is prone to weaknesses, especially when it comes to HTTP websites rather than encrypted HTTPS ones.
VPN: VPN is the abbreviation for
Virtual Private Network
It provides a secure and encrypted connection on an unsecure network. If a person connects the VPN and all of his/her information and data is transferred through the network. When connecting to an VPN the IP address is also changed to the server’s IP address.
The servers of the VPN are across the globe.
- The working principle is:
The VPN works by redirecting the internet connection to the VPN’s private server instead of to the ISP and ensuring that information from the user is transferred via the internet. It is transmitted through the VPN instead of the user’s computer. The VPN acts as an intermediary between users interact with the internet by hiding the IP address of the user as well as protecting the user’s identity of the user. A VPN creates a secure tunnel between the PC and the internet and hides vital information via encryption.
Advantage:
- Compatible with all devices.
- Absolutly completely anonymous.
- Top-of-the-line encryption protocols.
- It helps to bypass Geo-Blocks.
- This prevents bandwidth throttles.
- Bypass Firewalls.
Disadvantage:
- VPN is not secure.
- VPN isn’t completely free you will have to pay for make use of.
- Software failures cause problems.
- If you use a bad VPN could put your privacy at risk.
- VPN connection breaks some times.
- With VPN it’s difficult to determine the quality of encryption.
What’s the difference between VPN and TOR?
VPN and Tor are the two most popular software solutions for ensuring privacy online. Although they do almost the same thing, their technologies are quite different, and they both have pros and cons. I’ll try to explain them both down below:
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It’s a technology that allows you to secure your online activity (and data) with encryption. Privacy-based VPNs like ClearVPN use AES-256 encryption. When you go to the internet, VPN encrypts all your outcoming data and sends it to the VPN server where it’s decrypted and sent to its final destination. The same process is happening to the data from the website that travels back to you — it’s encrypted at the VPN server and decrypted on your device. This process is called “tunneling”. With a VPN you get solid protection from traffic leaks and data breaches. All the online data that leaves your device is protected and encrypted. Also, with a VPN you control where it enters the web — you can choose the locations of VPN servers in most VPNs.
But VPNs have downsides too. As they need to maintain fast servers across the world, quality VPN services can be pricy. So be careful with free VPNs, as they either have slow speeds or store your data and then sell it to someone else.
Tor stands for The Onion Router, and it’s an open-source project which works because of thousands of volunteers worldwide. When people speak of Tor, they usually mean the Tor Browser, the free privacy-focused browser app, developed by the Tor project. Like VPN, it also uses encryption for your web traffic. If a VPN tunnels your data through one fast VPN server, Tor sends your encrypted data around the network of many computers of Tor volunteers. The package of data travels between so many computer IPs that it’s almost impossible to find out the initial sender. When it finally leaves the Tor network, it’s only possible to find out the final computer it’s been too. This last computer is called the “exit node.” Tor is also the only way for you to access the dark web, which is impossible to do with a regular browser.
Tor network consists of computers of volunteers, which are not always the fastest ones. This and the fact that your data visits a very big number of computers, make your connection speeds slow down a lot. Another drawback is that Tor only protects the traffic from the browser. Traffic from the other apps on your computer is unprotected.
Let’s sum it up. The Tor browser is free and can be slow, while fast VPNs cost money. With Tor, only your browser’s traffic is encrypted, while most VPN apps allow you to have encryption over all your computer’s outcoming and incoming data. With just a VPN you can’t access the dark web, and Tor is the only way to do that.
Of course, this all doesn’t mean that you have to choose unambiguously between VPN and Tor. You can combine them together to secure your data with the biggest encryption possible and ensure privacy online and have access to the blocked sites.
