Should you use a vpn when going to the dark web? I’ve heard most people say yes but I’ve heard some people say no.
Hello and welcome to /r/onions! This is a pretty common question, check out this /r/Tor wiki that will answer your question.
About to use Tor. Any security tips? - Covers why much of the good-sounding advice you will find from random people on the Internet (like “run Tor in a VM” or “use Tails” or “enable bridges” or “add a VPN” or “disable JavaScript” or “never use Windows” or “use Tor on public WiFi”) should not be given without knowing the person’s adversary model, because in most cases this good-sounding advice will not apply.
VPN + Tor: Not Necessarily a Net Gain - Covers why system33- argues that adding a VPN to Tor is usually unnecessary, rarely helps, and rarely hurts.
Tor Plus VPN - The Tor Project
There are many discussions on the Tor Mailing list and spread over many forums about combining Tor with a VPN, SSH and/or a proxy in different variations. X in this article stands for, “either a VPN, SSH or proxy”. All different ways to combine Tor with X have different pros and cons.
Dump of links of why a VPN and Tor does not give you more anonymity and security, and IMO it hurts your anonymity:
https://old.reddit.com/r/tails/comments/b3dbg7/tails_is_messing_with_me/eiyrlhe/
https://old.reddit.com/r/TOR/comments/axwpi3/guard_node_selection_entrynode_fingerprint/ehxccot/
https://old.reddit.com/r/darknet/comments/axzus0/advice_request_anything_to_make_the_first/ehxwjbv/
https://old.reddit.com/r/darknet/comments/b1uh7n/best_vpn_to_use/eiojteh/
https://old.reddit.com/r/TOR/comments/ar2c9k/vpn_router/egkypul/
https://old.reddit.com/r/TOR/comments/awv4h2/the_torplusvpn_page_on_the_tor_wiki_is_mostly/
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Check out this official article.
https://gitlab.torproject.org/legacy/trac/-/wikis/doc/TorPlusVPN
It basically says that you have to know what you’re doing. If you trust your VPN provider more than your ISP, then it could help hide the fact you’re using Tor and possibly protect against IP leak in case Tor was broken.
ya just make sure ur username is ur real ip so we can still get it
A VPN protects you from your own ISP (if it is a big company, personally mine is a small local provider who won’t care too much about what the clients are doing).
It also helps you if someone is able to trace your main IP through all of the Onion routes. Just an extra layer of security.
A vpn is privacy, tor is for anonymity. If you are using a vpn make sure to connect AFTER connecting to tor. Connecting before will allow whatever company you are using to see what you are doing. Honestly it’s unnecessary and imo another potential point for data leakage.
If you are running everything through a vpn, whoever owns that vpn will see that, and if it’s connected to you it will make TOR anonymity essentially useless if someone wants to find out who you are, running a vpn will make it easier.
Yes. I am using PIA VPN whenever going to the dark web. It will help to enhance and add an extra layer of security. It is also important to protect your online data and privacy.
They only see that you’re using Tor. This post was so stupid to read you deserve some type of award.
https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/121315/vpn-tor-can-vpn-provider-see-the-data
I wrote it after being up for hours so I was a tad incoherent, but I’m not completely wrong. A vpn just moves your trust from your isp to the vpn provider. I was wrong that connecting before will allow the company to see what you are doing, I misspoke. They will however see you are using tor. Also if your vpn really wanted to they could time your packets and possibly infer your identity. Given your ISP could as well but I would trust that over say, Norton. Thank GOD we have internet unsung heros such as yourself to call others stupid for attempting to help answer a question, you probably know it all 
What exactly was so stupid?
The stupid part was you being wrong. Didn’t you just address that?
I was only partially wrong, I don’t think “it was so stupid it deserved an award” but I guess your the judge of that so…
It was an incoherent, inaccurate mess. Definitely worthy of an award.
Well like I said I had been up for a long time, I also have a learning disability that causes my writing to be a bit everywhere but thank you for the input.
Actually I did, but ok.