I dwnlded Ubuntu and Mint 16 to load on my HP Pavilion dv7. Running win 7 with i7.

However, I want to use TOR and a VPN service for security.

Is there a best Linux OS version for use with TOR and a VPN along with Mozilla products. By best I mean stable and fairly easy to set up.

BTW, been using the confusers since DOS days. Not an expert but fairly savvy for an Eng.

Just getting into security and want anonymous browsing if possible.

Using Norton for virus protection since they started up.

Nice user site here..

Rick

Hi & welcome to LQ.
I'd suggest Debian Stable (aka Jessie). You can download an iso from the Debian site (I'd suggest the Network Boot version) and burn a bootable CD or USB stick that will install it.
Have fun!
jdk

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looks like you are looking for tails.

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USE!!! the "tor-browser bundle" !!!!!!!!!

if you use your NORMAL web browser then LEO's can and will finger print your electronic signature and come for you

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Thanks for the input. So many to choose from it's quite perplexing.

Also, selecting a VPN with or w/o a vpn router is just as confusing. HA

"""..make a decision even if it's wrong HA!..""""

Thanks again.

rick

JD - I did exactly what you suggested and can now boot from thumb drive. Thanks for the good advice.

It was Mint 14.2 but now I see the current version is 17.3 Rosa. Wondering if it will be more VPN compatible?

Now trying to find a VPN to use with Mint..

Is there a version of Linux that is GUI and VPN compatible.

Or maybe set up VPN myself somehow. I rem reading it can be done.

Rick

@ Rocketrick

There is an operating system called whonix. Based on debian and uses tor in a more secure fashion. There are two components you will need to install: the whonix gateway and the whonix operating system.

https://www.whonix.org/

I don't use the above method, I just heard about it on the web.

I use sshuttle which is the simplest way of doing a VPN style connection. All that is required from the server are ssh and python. Read the article here about sshuttle

I use sshuttle. It's the simplest way of a VPN style connection for all applicatins. It's as simple as doing this from a terminal.

All that is required for this to work is the remote server must have ssh and python.

To learn more about sshuttle read these two articles
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/...afely-sshuttle
https://github.com/apenwarr/sshuttle

PS: If you don't have a VPS, you can use digital ocean and buy a basic plan for $5/month. For 5 bucks you'll get a full one terabyte monthly bandwidth for data transfers.

In summary, with sshuttle and a digital ocean VPS, you can have an affordable and simple VPN solution.

Why do we keep having to have this conversation?

Does nobody read the Tor documentation or the news?

SECURITY AND ANONYMITY ARE NOT THE SAME THING!!!!

Internet anonymity has been dead since 1991; Snowden just publicised.

Whatever it is that you think you are going to do and no one is going to see you're wrong. It *will* be recorded and stored down in Bluffdale for further analysis.

HIJACKS: Detecting and Characterizing Internet Traffic Interception based on BGP Hijacking

In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are

Spying on the Internet is Orders of Magnitude More Invasive Than Phone Metadata

All using Tor is going to do is get you tagged as a nut job and put you in the queue for extra monitioring:

How the NSA Targets Tor Users

It will also expose you to malware and exploits:

FBI Randomly Used Malware on TORMail Users While Busting Pedophiles

And a lot of the crap is cross-platform; targeting the Tor bundle, Tor services, Tor network and the browser, instead of the OS.

How the NSA Attacks Tor/Firefox Users With QUANTUM and FOXACID

If you are not DEEEEEEEEEEP in to sec, do not have your sh*t wired tight and are not trying to tell the world about an oppressive regime committing genocide against your people then please, for the love of God, stay the F out of Tor!

And trying to secure stuff from the prying eyes of nation-states is just about as bad:

How NSA successfully Broke Trillions of Encrypted Connections

Nation-states have trillions of dollars, armies of millions, practically unlimited resources and all the time in the world; the only snowball's chance in hell that we have of competing with that is at the ballot box. PERIOD! And even then our chances of ever getting our privacy back, short of *after* Armageddon, is pretty much between negative bazzilion and the thickness of a gnats ass stretched over the top of a 55 gallon drum.

Now criminals don't have unlimited resources and you still have a fighting chance against them; so far. But not for much longer; as they can now rent super computers over at Amazon.

However, there is *a lot* to doing what you can do to keep the crims out of your bank account. I have written on related subjects *many* times. The following posts make a nice, short little primer / intro to current home web / NT sec that are by no means exhaustive. But will make for a good start:

Need help encrypting an installation of Linux

Best antivirus and Security suite?

Help a friend remove a computer virus

sandboxing chromium and firefox in LUNBUNTU using FIREJAIL and others and how using a VPN while sandboxing affect security

Firewall

To that I will add that I have since tried FireJail and now use it to sandbox my browser inside of my dedicated, hardened, use specific web surfer VM.

Good luck.

That's why I don't recommend tor to anyone anymore for those reasons you listed. Another bad thing about tor is to be more anonymous, you'll have to turn off java and flash and not download anything through a tor network.

For me, sshuttle is good enough for me. It's not tor. It uses ssh and python to emulate a VPN. I also don't use sshuttle every minute of everyday. It's more suited to use where necessary like a public wifi hotspot.

Hi.

Any one off the top (of "popularity") and if you have the RAM VMs can add more layers (onion pun ...) have fun!

it comes down to
what dose one need and one want to do

if all you need is to keep the copyright TROLLS away ( x-art [Malibu media ], and prenda law and such )
then any decent vpn will do -- MOSTLY, but not always
or use i2p

if you are using the ( naughty bits- the ones that WILL land you in JAIL ) of the .onion sites and the Freenet "free-sites "

well your OP-SEC must be 100% and is not fit for this forum


if one is a whistleblower then there are tools and again your OP-SEC needs to be 100%

this includes the timing of the keystrokes as you type -- YES that is an identifiable UNIQUE fingerprint
-- there is a tool to CHANGE that ( random delay timing )

or the mouse movement ( do you use the mouse pointer to READ text - like using your finger in a book ?
if so THAT is a unique FINGERPRINT also

your use of punctuation ( or in my case LACK OF IT ) is unique

and so on ......

The wife and I like to travel on the spur of the moment. And we'll do crazy stuff sometimes; like uproot our lives and move on no notice.

We did that a few months ago. I knew we'd be in an extended stay hotel for at least a month when we hit the new town. I did not want somebody's bored kid sidejacking my session and my VPN server was packed away. I needed to be able to surf securely so I could bank, etc. I got a 3 month subscription to AirVPN to close the air gap.

That is more than most people will ever need.

Which VPN Services Take Your Anonymity Seriously? 2016 Edition

Or, if you travel constantly / are the ultra-paranoid type then just build your own VPN.

How to Set Up Your Own Home VPN Server

Of course, if you go with a service then you need to investigate its rep, the laws of the host country and its politics and relations with the US and certain other countries. As a rule of thumb staying out of Russia and China as a host country is a good idea. There are still some islands around the world who are not really beholden to anyone and make their money by being a privacy enclave. Of course, they are under heavy pressure from the NWO/UN/Globalists. But there are still some places where your biz is still *your* biz.

One thing I have done in the past is set up a VPNVM hosted on an island. You use bitcoin to pay for it. You connect to the VPN, *then* connect to Tor, if you're skipping around the edges.

But, of course, before you set up a bitcoin account you have to set up an anonymized identity with which to purchase the bitcoins; which is no where near as easy as it used to be and is getting harder by the day. But this is not the place for that tut.

Even if you do manage to set up an air-tight anonymized identity and get bitcoins w/o giving away any real info, then find or build a VPN that can actually be trusted, then connect to some service other than Tor and some how pull off *perfect* anonymity if "they" want you "they" will still find you unless you can figure out how to rewire your brain and become somebody else.

This is b/c *everything* is stored down at Bluffdale. They can take samples of anything you write that moves electronically (code, tweets, IMs, texts, e mails, *anything*) and sift it through the algos to compare to pretty much everything ever written in the world and figure out who you are that way.

So the TL;DR is:

JUST DON'T DO CRAP, UNLESS YOU WORK FOR A GOV!!!

Then you can do pretty much what ever the hell you want as long as you can convince some jackwagon bureaucrat that it's in their best interest.

You may want to read this Using Tor Might Become “Illegal.”

From the tech news podcast this will also affect VPN users as well.

This is total BS or scare tatics! Why? Because legitimate businesses and corporations will use VPN for their employees to access their corporate network over the web.

Tor allow user to browse anonymously. Tor may work even if standard VPNs, proxies, and SSH tunnels won’t. Tor beat all content filter Tools and access blocked websites. You shouldn’t use Tor to access sensitive, unencrypted data, but Tor will let you access blocked websites on any connection.

VPN: A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a technology that enables to creates an secure connection over a less secured network. Connecting a Virtual Private Network then all traffic coming from your computer will be redirected over that VPN.