---
Title: Using the VPN with Tor
TocDepth: 2
---

The main use of a VPN is to provide an encrypted connection with clean, non-interfering gateways,
but it does not provide much anonymity depending on the threat.  
While we pledge not to leak or sell your data to any business or government unless required by law,
we still have to know some information for operational purposes that could be taken by force by a motivated attacker or government agency.

There are a few ways to combine our VPN with Tor for additional anonymity and privacy.  
This page will go over the methods and their uses and issues.

[TOC]


## a. Tor through the VPN

Much better for anonymity, but requires careful use of end-to-end encryption (HTTPS, SSH, ...)

#### Pros:

- it will hide your usage of the Tor network to your ISP or local network (and show a regular VPN or TLS connection instead).
- it will be as anonymous as using Tor directly.

#### Cons:

- VPN servers can get identified and blocked.
- it uses Tor exit nodes, which are not under our control and can intercept, monitor, and alter the traffic.

#### Installation:

1. Install the VPN.
2. Install tor or the Tor Browser Bundle.


## b. VPN through Tor

Harder to keep anonymous but will provide a clean and secure connection even over Tor.

#### Pros:

- it will successfully bypass most firewalls and government censorships thanks to Tor (and Tor bridges).
- your connection to the VPN is anonymized.
- you replace untrusted Tor exit nodes with our servers, likely more reliable and safer.

#### Cons:

- this anonymity is lessed depending on the payment method used for the VPN.
- the bandwidth will be limited by Tor and its network.
- VPN servers aren't as anonymous as most Tor exit nodes. please don't get us into any trouble.


#### Installation:

1. Install Tor. The exact method will be highly OS/distribution specific.

2. Set up the VPN to use Tor:  
    Edit your VPN configuration file to append the following config (or add it in the "additional config" in CCVPNGUI):
    
        socks-proxy-retry
        socks-proxy 127.0.0.1 9050

    Replace 9050 by 9150 when using the Tor Browser Bundle. 

3. (Re)connect to the VPN to start using it through Tor.  
    **Do not** use the Tor Browser Bundle or SOCKS proxy directly if you want to go through the VPN too.