What is the advantage and disadvantage of VPN over TOR

[arshad]

On Thu, 2009-12-24 at 08:26 -0500, Rashkae wrote:
> arshad wrote:
> > On Thu, 2009-12-24 at 06:52 -0500, Rashkae wrote:
> >> arshad wrote:
> >>> and how to configure a VPN in jaunty? (i don't have a VPN router, im
> >>> connecting to interent using mobilephone)
> >>> thank you very much.
> >>>
> >>>
> >> Advantage: non-whatsoever
> >>
> >> Disadvantage: You'll be routing your vpn traffic through routers
> >> controlled by other people, who include a handful of University computer
> >> science departments and even the NSA, who will all be given the first
> >> chance to sniff all your traffic for passwords and what not.
> >>
> >> It should go without saying, this is not at all what TOR is designed for.
> >>
> > 
> > so you mean,
> > TOR is better than vpn?
> 
> A vpn tries to keep the communication between two computers secure and
> private.  TOR strives prevent two computers which are communicating with
> each other from seeing each other.  Not only are they two completely
> different objectives, in several ways, they can be considered mutually
> exclusive.  (Unless you are tyring to connect to a vpn with stolen
> credentials and want to prevent the vpn  owner from tracing connection
> back to you.)
> 
> > i would like to confirm the following with TOR:
> > 
> > 1) the site i visit doenst know where i origin from
> 
> Correct
> 
> > 2) an eavesdropper cannot intercept the message
> 
> No such protection.  In fact, a security researcher recently published a
> whole whack of government officials e-mail username and password because
> he noticed several people using TOR mistakenly thinking it was a
> security tool rather than an annonimizer.  If you are sending any kind
> of username / password over TOR, you defeat the pupose entirely.
> (unless, as I said, the username/password aren't yours.)
> 
> 

> > 3) ISP doesnt know which sites visited.
> > 
> 
> Maybe, though there's nothing stopping the ISP from participating in
> TOR, and maybe end up being part of the chain that brokers the
> connection.  I don't know enough about TOR internals and encryption to
> give information on how successful this goal will be.
> 

thank you for your reply. it was informative.