I have access to .onion sites under Air...?

[MrConducter 11]

I am confused here. I thought in order to reach .onion sites one would have to access them through TOR. I have no instances of Tor running at all, this website tells me I am connected to Air (I am connected through my router), my speeds are the same, yet I can access all .onion sites as if I were on TOR. What's going on?

 

Edit: I also want to add that the speed at which the .onion sites load is tons faster than accessing it through TOR.

[Staff 9972]

Hello!

Can you please make an example (an onion site address and an Air VPN server from which you can reach it without TOR)?

Kind regards

[MrConducter 11]

Sure. This only happens on wireless connections. I tried on another computer directly plugged into the router and it didn't work.

 

Edit: It even works on my phone.

[Baraka 32]

Damn. I'm jealous!

[Staff 9972]

Hello!

onion.to is a gateway from the WWW to onion. You don't need TOR to access it.

Kind regards

[MrConducter 11]

Oh wow okay thanks. What is the point of the TOR network if you can access it without TOR? I understand going through TOR gives you better security, but since I am through this VPN is it still safe to access these sites without it?

 

Also, I changed my connection type in my router settings to static (was set to auto before and would renew and disconnect every 12 hours). Since I did this my connection has been junk! Disconnects and hangs every few minutes and it's hard to browse anything. Speedtest.net barely even finished it was sooo slow. It would also not let me visit certain sites saying they were blocked by my DNS (openvpn which has worked fine until I changed router settings). I switched it back to Auto - DHCP and everything is fine. My actual IP never changes, so I thought I could make it static? I'm not sure.....thanks guys.

[huiliqwr 0]

hi there... if i'll use airvpn over tor, there is no way to reach .onion sites rigt??

[Staff 9972]

hi there... if i'll use airvpn over tor, there is no way to reach .onion sites rigt??

Hello!

 

That's right, because in that case all data passing through TOR nodes are still encrypted, and TOR nodes don't even know what you're requesting, they just see traffic to a single IP and a single port (our servers entry-IP addresses).

 

In order to access onion sites with connections over OpenVPN over TOR you are forced to use a www-onion gateway. Alternatively, you can connect over TOR over OpenVPN * (or over TOR alone, obviously).

 

* In this case be aware that our VPN servers will see your real IP address while you are connected to them.

 

Kind regards

[huiliqwr 0]

but to reach onion_sites is better the 1) or the 2) configurations?

 

1) Tor - vpn - onion_Site through www-onion-portal isn't useless? 'cause the data stream of Tor from exit node to onion_site is already encrypted so in that case the exit node will not see anything, only the onion site to reach, right?

 

2) vpn - tor - onion_Site through standard-onion...

 

...

and the last question:

if the vpn for any reason will be forced to log, in the second scenario (the vpn) will see only encrypted data stream from the entry node?

[huiliqwr 0]

but to reach onion_sites is better the 1) or the 2) configurations?

 

1) Tor - vpn - onion_Site through www-onion-portal isn't useless? 'cause the data stream of Tor from exit node to onion_site is already encrypted so in that case the exit node will not see anything, only the onion site to reach, right?

 

2) vpn - tor - onion_Site through standard-onion...

 

...

and the last question:

if the vpn for any reason will be forced to log, in the second scenario (the vpn) will see only encrypted data stream from the entry node?

 

 

anyone has any advice??

[mrano 5]

Oh wow okay thanks. What is the point of the TOR network if you can access it without TOR? I understand going through TOR gives you better security, but since I am through this VPN is it still safe to access these sites without it?

 

Also, I changed my connection type in my router settings to static (was set to auto before and would renew and disconnect every 12 hours). Since I did this my connection has been junk! Disconnects and hangs every few minutes and it's hard to browse anything. Speedtest.net barely even finished it was sooo slow. It would also not let me visit certain sites saying they were blocked by my DNS (openvpn which has worked fine until I changed router settings). I switched it back to Auto - DHCP and everything is fine. My actual IP never changes, so I thought I could make it static? I'm not sure.....thanks guys.

 

Yes you are right, there is no point in the Tor network if you can access it without Tor. This is how the connection would look like:

 

Your computer -> Tor -> AirVPN -> onion.to Gateway -> Tor -> .onion site

 

I don't recommend using this method because the Tor traffic is sent unencrypted between AirVPN's servers and the onion.to Gateway. If you want the extra layer of privacy that AirVPN offers, you should connect Tor over AirVPN by first connecting to AirVPN and then opening Tor so the connection goes like this:

 

Your computer -> AirVPN -> Tor -> .onion site

 

 

 

but to reach onion_sites is better the 1) or the 2) configurations?

 

1) Tor - vpn - onion_Site through www-onion-portal isn't useless? 'cause the data stream of Tor from exit node to onion_site is already encrypted so in that case the exit node will not see anything, only the onion site to reach, right?

 

2) vpn - tor - onion_Site through standard-onion...

 

...

and the last question:

if the vpn for any reason will be forced to log, in the second scenario (the vpn) will see only encrypted data stream from the entry node?

 

To understand this, remember that to visit a .onion site, you have to run a browser that's configured to Tor's SOCKS proxy, otherwise your browser won't know how to find .onion sites. The Tor Browser Bundle has pre-configured the Firefox version to do this.

 

1. First scenario: AirVPN over Tor:

• Your computer -> Tor -> AirVPN (using Tor's SOCKS proxy)
  • This scenario produces two effects:
    • When you browse using your normal browser (not the Tor Browser), your connection goes like this:
      • Your computer -> Tor -> AirVPN -> WWW website
        • The website only sees AirVPN's IP address and AirVPN only sees the Tor exit node.
        • The Tor entry node still sees your real IP address however.
        • You cannot browse .onion sites like this (without using a gateway like onion.to, see my answer to Jesus above), you have to use the Tor Browser, see the next line.
    • You can visit .onion sites using the Tor Browser and the connection goes like this:
      • Your computer -> Tor -> .onion site
        • You are connected straight to the Tor network because when you type in the .onion address in the Tor Browser, it tunnels the connection through Tor's SOCKS proxy on localhost.
        • OpenVPN doesn't tunnel connections to localhost so when you are using Tor in this configuration, the Tor entry node sees your real IP address.
        • This is the same as the 3. Third scenario below.

2. Second scenario: Tor over AirVPN:

• Your computer -> AirVPN -> Tor -> .onion site
  • In this scenario your computer is connected to AirVPN and when you run Tor the connection goes through AirVPN's tunnel. The Tor entry node only sees AirVPN's IP address.

3. Third scenario: Only Tor:

• Your computer -> Tor -> .onion site
  • This is how you would normally connect to a Tor .onion site. In this scenario, the Tor entry node sees your real IP address.

 

 

if the vpn for any reason will be forced to log, in the second scenario (the vpn) will see only encrypted data stream from the entry node?

 

Do you mean what if the VPN server is logging the connection? If you are connected as in the second scenario then yes, the VPN will only see encrypted traffic to and from the Tor entry node.