Whonix: "combining Tor with a VPN can make you less anonymous!"

[fallen1111 0]

Came across this article today. I think AirVPN runs Tor nodes, right?

 

https://www.whonix.org/blog/combining-tor-vpn-proxy-can-make-less-anonymous

 

"Tor avoids using more than one relay belonging to the same operator in the circuits it is building."

 

...but Tor isn't aware that my first connection to the internet is over VPN. So if Air is my first hop, and Air is also operating an exit that I connect to; they've become the first and last hop. This could expose Air users to correlation attacks.

 

"It is possible to host Tor relays [any… bridges, entry, middle or exit] behind VPNs or tunnel-links. For example, there are VPN providers that support VPN port forwarding. This is an interesting way to contribute to Tor while not exposing oneself to too much legal risk. Therefore, there can be situations, where a VPN or other tunnel-link and a Tor relays could be hosted by the same operator, in the same network or even on the same IP."

[zhang888 1066]

Air does not operate exits you connect to. Those are completely different servers for running Tor. They are not mixed with VPN.

[fallen1111 0]

Air does not operate exits you connect to. Those are completely different servers for running Tor. They are not mixed with VPN.

If that's true, why the warning:

 

https://airvpn.org/tor/

 

"We are already funding exit and relay nodes. If people employs AirVPN servers as exit-nodes, our servers are marked as proxy and other customers will encounter ban issues. Thanks."

 

It sounds like they're saying "don't run a tor exit with the available VPN servers because we're using those IP's for tor exits already"

[zhang888 1066]

The reason is inside the quote, if you read the second part of the sentence.

"our servers are marked as proxy and other customers will encounter ban issues"

 

This sounds exactly as written. The only way to make it sound different is if you add some (wrong) assumptions.

[9RNA2 0]

The reason is inside the quote, if you read the second part of the sentence.

"our servers are marked as proxy and other customers will encounter ban issues"

 

This sounds exactly as written. The only way to make it sound different is if you add some (wrong) assumptions.

As a staff member you should be more careful about coming off as rude or dismissive. Your comments might reflect poorly on Airvpn as a whole.

[LZ1 672]

 

The reason is inside the quote, if you read the second part of the sentence.

"our servers are marked as proxy and other customers will encounter ban issues"

 

This sounds exactly as written. The only way to make it sound different is if you add some (wrong) assumptions.

As a staff member you should be more careful about coming off as rude or dismissive. Your comments might reflect poorly on Airvpn as a whole.

Hello!

Zhang isn't a Staff member, but he'll surely take it as a compliment that he could be mistaken for one . He's therefore also not employed by Air. Thus he doesn't represent Air in an official sense either and what he says likewise doesn't reflect official AirVPN policies or thoughts. Only the Staff account does. Zhang and Staff often state things very matter of factly and don't use too many smiles, yet this is just a writing style. Yet you can be sure he didn't mean what he said in a bad way. Good day.

[9RNA2 0]

 

As a staff member you should be more careful about coming off as rude or dismissive. Your comments might reflect poorly on Airvpn as a whole.

Hello!

Zhang isn't a Staff member

 

Wow, seriously? What happened to this forum? It used to be great. Someone bring Sheivoko back, please.

[LZ1 672]

Yes seriously, unless the pretty recent post from the Staff account on exactly this issue is now outdated due to some update of policy that I haven't heard about. Zhang is not an employee and only posts from the account called "Staff" can be said to be speaking on the behalf of AirVPN in an official sense. Sheivoko is still here somewhere. So I don't know why you'd insinuate the forum isn't still great, based seemingly on such a superficial parameter. I was only informing you of the situation as I know it, so that perhaps zhang or Staff didn't have to repeat it themselves. We shouldn't derail the thread.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

I too think this little banner is completely misleading. It should say something like "Volunteer Moderator".

But I also must say: zhang does not belong to the "AirVPN team" group. Look closer the next time.

[Staff 9971]

zhang888 is a moderator, so you can consider him as part of forum staff. AirVPN staff is another thing and in the forum only messages from "Staff" can be considered as coming from AirVPN staff. Back to the topic, the question was ill-posed and anyway the reply from zhang888 is precise. Locking thread to prevent further discussions on nothing.

 

EDIT: thread moved to off-topic and unlocked.

[rmartinezv 1]

So, I have a doubt and I think this is the place, not making a new post.

 

If I'm using Windows 8, and I have Whonix, how connect to the internet using TOR, if I dont want that my IPS knows that I'm using TOR so I do a AIR over TOR right?

 

If I dont trust the tor exit node I have to make a TOR over Air right?

 

And why if I use Whonix over Airvpn, some websites detects I'm on TOR? by the encrypt system?

 

What do you recommend? What's a effective way to protect privacy? Just using whonix or whonix and Air?

 

Thanks guys.

[Kepler_452b 77]

I think zhang888 makes tremendous contributions to the Air forums. And he is clearly very bright and knowledgeable. But i agree with Giganerd that the banner unintentionally makes it look like he is staff. Perhaps Air should actually hire him for the valuable contributions. But then he would have to use a writing style that is a bit more gentile.which may not suite him.