And the previous section we learned what is a VPN, its benefits, and how to connect to it before connecting
to the Tor network.
This was very easy as all we had to do is download the client that's compatible with our operating system.
Most VPN providers offer a Linux client and Thales is a Linux distro.
Unfortunately, though, normal Linux clients will not work with Thales because of the restrictions
that Thales apply on the network connections.
Therefore, connecting to a VPN from Thales can be a bit tricky.
And that's why I want to spend this lecture and the next lecture showing you how to connect to a VPN
from Thales.
Now keep in mind you don't have to use a VPN with Thales.
This is an optional step and there is a big debate whether you should use a VPN or not with Thales,
because as we know, Thales automatically forces all traffic to go through TOR.
So by default it is more anonymous and more private than normal operating systems.
So skip this lecture at the next lecture if you don't want to use a VPN and only watch it if you actually
do want to use a VPN with Thales.
Now just a quick recap as we learned before.
Usually when you access a server or anything on the Internet, you send the request directly to that
server.
When you use a VPN.
You create an encrypted tunnel to the VPN server.
So if you're trying to go to Google.com, only the VPN knows that you're going to Google.com.
The traffic between you and the VPN will be fully encrypted, so it's useless to anybody that intercepts
it.
And then once the VPN gets the request, it will forwarded to the actual server that you need to go
to, for example, google.com.
Now this doesn't have to be google.com, it can be any website or any server or on the internet, or
you can even send that request to the Tor network and access a darknet or a hidden service within the
network or go to the Internet.
After that, again, improving your privacy and anonymity.
Now, because of the way the data is sent in here in an encrypted manner, this adds an extra layer
of encryption.
Therefore, it improves your privacy and anonymity.
If your data gets intercepted by hackers or by your network admin or by your Internet service provider,
it will be gibberish.
It will be useless.
So they won't be able to stop you or prevent you from accessing websites and they won't be able to gather
information about you.
So it'll allow you to bypass censorship, protect you from hackers and so on.
Now, if you want to go over this in more details, please revise my lecture on VPN in the previous
section.
This is just a quick recap.
Like I said in that lecture, we connected to a VPN easily using a client that is made for our operating
system.
The problem that we have now is the fact that we are using Thales because most VPN providers do not
support Thales.
So going back to how Thales work as we know it forces all traffic from our computer to go through the
Tor network.
So if we have a VPN provider, even if we have a proper subscription with them and we try to connect
to them, we won't be able to connect to it because the operating system is forcing all traffic to go
through the Tor network.
Therefore, we need to first configure the firewall entails to redirect all data to the VPN provider
instead of redirecting it to the Tor network.
So we'll configure it to redirect all data through the VPN provider and then from the VPN provider,
data is going to go to the network.
It'll bounce over the three nodes and either access a hidden service within the Tor network or go to
a website on the internet.
Now, if your VPN provider has a Thales client, then you will not need to manually do this.
The client will do everything for you.
The only problem is most VPN providers do not support Thales, so you'll have to do a bit of research
to find the ones that support it.
As you may already know, we actually have our own VPN service, that is VPN, and we support Thales.
So let me show you how the client would work just as an example.
So all they have to do is literally download it from the downloads page in here.
I'll actually include a link to this in the resources in case you want to get more information.
All you will need to do is simply download the client and as you can see, I already have it downloaded
in here in my persistent downloads.
It's called Zte's VPN and I'm just going to run it like so dot forward slash followed by the file name.
It's going to ask me, what do I want to do?
I'm going to say I want to connect.
It will ask me for the username and the password.
Then it will list all the servers available to me.
So all I have to do right now is select the server that I want to connect to.
For example, let's say I wanted to connect to Mexico 189 so I'm just going to type 189 hit enter.
As you can see, it will automatically configure the VPN settings, it will automatically configure
the firewall.
So I'm just going to put my password now the system password, the root password.
And again it will automatically download open VPN if it's not downloaded and it'll connect to the server
that I selected.
So as you can see right here, it's saying that I'm connected to Mexico and that's it.
Now we're ready to go and browse the Internet to confirm this.
I'm going to go and run my Tor browser.
And I'm just going to go to check the tower project dot org.
And perfect.
As you can see, it's still enough that my browser right now is configured to use the Tor browser.
So right now what's happening is we're connecting to the VPN first and then our traffic is routed to
the Tor network.
And then, like I said, we can bounce through three nodes and then go to the internet or stay within
the Tor network and access onion hidden services.
Now going back to the client, you can put number one if you want to connect again.
Number two, to disconnect.
Three, to reset the firewall settings.
So you're directly connected to TOR and you're not using the VPN and four to simply quit the client.
So as you can see, it's very easy.
If your VPN provider supports, tells, if your VPN provider does not support Thales, then you'll have
to manually modify the firewall settings so that it allows you to connect to the VPN and manually use
the VPN settings to connect to the VPN server.
This is a little bit technical and requires a little bit of Linux knowledge, but don't worry about
it.
I will walk you through it step by step in the next lecture.