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I have got own VPN running on OpenVPN. I want to browse internet anonymously via this VPN.

Examples: Steganos VPN or CyberGhostVPN

These applications automatically transfers everything through VPN. What I have to install or configure to make something like that?

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  • You can not be "anonymous" if you own the VPN, the connection must exit to the internet somewhere and whoever owns the VPN will show up as the person who connected to the website.
    – Scott Chamberlain
    Dec 26, 2012 at 17:24
  • Well, that's what I want to do
    – Disa
    Dec 26, 2012 at 18:04
  • Based on this and other comments, I suspect you're trying to route all traffic through OpenVPN, not just traffic destined for other VPN clients. That's a rather different (and potentially broad) subject, but the manual provides a good starting point. If you have specific issues, please elaborate.
    – Marcks Thomas
    Dec 26, 2012 at 19:56

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Based on what you said you "want to do" you should not be using your own vpn. Doing that would keep people from intercepting your non-SSL connections from a unsafe location (like a open Wifi hotspot) but it would not make you "anonymous", you would just appear to be "you" but connecting from home instead of the wifi hotspot (basically you trade anonymity for security).

What you should use is something like tor, this will give you anonymity but you loose security. What I mean by "you loose security" is any non-SSL connection will be viewable to whoever is running the Tor Exit-Node (just like the wifi hotspot owner could), however now you have no idea of who is running the "hotspot" you are connecting from.

So to summerize:

  1. Running your own VPN using something like OpenVPN
    • Pro: Gives you as much security on the road as if you where connecting from home
    • Con: Everything looks like you are "connecting from home" so you loose any annonimity.
  2. Using a proxy like Tor
    • Pro: Gives you anonymity from anywhere, even connecting from your own home. No one will be able to tell where you are connecting from or who you are unless you tell them (log in to a website, return a old tracking cookie, ect...)
    • Con: You loose that safety of having that "trusted connection" to the internet. You need to treat your internet activity like someone is recording every byte you send out or receive (and with many tor exit-nodes they actually are!). However with basic precautions like using a SSL connection and verifying the SSL connection is a valid cert (An add-on like Certificate Patrol can help here, it lets you know if the certificate you received was not the certificate you expected) you can surf with total anonymity.

On Steganos VPN or CyberGhostVPN:

Those two are VPN Providers, you connect to them (over a secure link that your ISP can't see in to, they know you are connecting to the VPN but they don't know what you are doing with the VPN) and your traffic appears to be coming out of a IP the VPN Prover owns instead of the IP your ISP owns. Software like OpenVPN lets you do what they do, if you are outside of your house you connect to your OpenVPN server and now it appears that you are connecting from inside your house. Your ISP will be able to see what you are doing over all non SSL connections.

If you do not want your ISP seeing what you are doing you need use a VPN server that is located outside of your house. Tor offers that, so do the two paid VPN providers you listed.

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  • I want to do it for educational purposes, that's why I'd like to use my own VPN. The problem is - that I do not know how. OpenVPN isn't a anonymizer itself.
    – Disa
    Dec 26, 2012 at 18:58
  • Well you did not say that in your post you said "I want to browse internet anonymously via this VPN."
    – Scott Chamberlain
    Dec 26, 2012 at 18:59
  • At least my home IPS couldn't see my activity.
    – Disa
    Dec 26, 2012 at 19:00
  • Updated my answer with some more clarifications on what OpenVPN gives you vs the two services you linked.
    – Scott Chamberlain
    Dec 26, 2012 at 19:08
  • VPN server is located outside of my house. Could you tell me how could I set up this?
    – Disa
    Dec 26, 2012 at 19:19

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