David Schultz

Today, we are thinking more about our online safety and privacy than ever before. A growing general awareness surrounding these things has grown alongside the Internet—we’re living in a world that is increasingly reliant on data, data such as your own personal information (which is sold to the highest bidder).

With consumers more tuned into safety and privacy concerns, people are going to additional lengths in protecting themselves online and the use of VPNs such as NordVPN and TOR is growing bigger year-on-year.

You may be unfamiliar with these cybersecurity concepts and want to jump right in. We highly recommend that you read this article in full before you jump into using Onion Over VPN.

What is NordVPN in Brief

NordVPN is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service that protects your identity and traffic when using the internet. NordVPN protects you by routing your internet traffic from your computer through a secure and encrypted ‘tunnel’ to one of its servers before passing it onto its final destination.

By doing this, NordVPN hides the true source of your internet traffic—your IP address—by masking it with their own servers’ IPs instead. Additionally, any data passing through the encryption tunnel cannot be intercepted or spied on my third-parties such as government entities, hackers, or your ISP.

This eliminates problems such as monitoring, throttling, and identity theft, particularly when using insecure public networks.

Good VPN networks often have thousands of individual servers dotted around the world—NordVPN has over 5,300 spread across all continents—so users have plenty of choices when choosing where they want their traffic to look like it’s coming from.

What is The Onion Router in Brief

TOR (The Onion Router) and the Tor Browser are very similar to the regular internet and the regular browsers you use to navigate it such as Google Chrome. The primary difference is that when you use Tor Browser, your internet traffic is routed through the Tor network for encryption and anonymity.

Using Tor, you can visit regular ‘surface web’ websites as well as websites that can only be found on the ‘dark web’ at .onionURLs.

Tor protects your data, information, and traffic by routing it through several network layers (relays) rather than sending it directly to its final destination.

Why You Need to Be Using Them

To truly provide full and complete protection that cannot be compromised, we recommend using Tor alongside a VPN—NordVPN being the best option to use with Tor.

While using Tor alone does provide some anonymity and protection, when Tor data packets exit the network through the exit node, you can be compromised and traced if the exit node is being monitored.

In contrast, while a good VPN service provider will never keep any logs—NordVPN, for example, has a zero-logs policy that has been proven by an external audit by PwC—they can still see the websites that you are visiting while using the service.

If you are truly dedicated to protecting your privacy online, you should be using both a VPN and Tor. A VPN will encrypt and spoof your internet traffic while using the internet via Tor will prevent anyone, your VPN service provider included, from seeing the websites that you are visiting.

Options for Using a VPN and TOR Together

You have two great options to choose from. The two methods of using NordVPN and Tor sound similar but work differently. Let’s break it down below:

1. Onion Over VPN—Connecting to NordVPN First

Onion Over VPN is the most popular way to do it. You will connect to NordVPN first and then launch and use the Tor browser.

By doing this, you not only prevent NordVPN from seeing your browsing activity, but you also prevent your ISP (and, consequently, government or law enforcement agencies) from knowing that you are using Tor.

While using Tor is 100% legal, there are negative connotations associated with its use due to how it facilitates illegal activities. This means that if your ISP et al knows you are using Tor, you may be monitored. By connecting to a VPN before launching Tor, they have no way of finding out.

To do this, simply:

1. Launch NordVPN and connect to a server first
2. Launch Tor browser second

2. VPN Over Tor—Connecting to Tor First

This method isn’t used very much because it is tricky to set up and is not as secure as Tor over VPN. Furthermore, many VPN services don’t support it.

With VPN over Tor, your traffic first enters the Tor network and then leaves through an exit node before being passed to a VPN server.

How NordVPN and Tor Work Together

NordVPN offers what they call “Onion Over VPN” (OOVPN) servers to their customers. These OOVPN servers have been designed to create a seamless, secure, and reliable connection between a pre-select group of NordVPN servers (what you connect to) and the Tor network (where your traffic goes) to provide an additional layer of security.

By doing this, NordVPN hides your IP address from Tor’s entry node and the owner of this node will see the IP address of NordVPN’s server instead of your own. When connected, your traffic first passes from you to NordVPN to the Tor network to its destination.

Want to Try Onion Over VPN?

Thanks to NordVPN’s 30-day money-back guarantee, you can try out NordVPN risk-free. This money-back guarantee applies to all plans—monthly and annual—and gives you plenty of time to try out NordVPN and decide whether it’s right for you.

If it is, great—keep your subscription! If not, just email customer support and ask for a refund to be processed.

If you want to use NordVPN and Tor, you probably care about your privacy a lot more than others. The good news is, you can also pay with crypto (BTC, ETH, XRP) for an additional layer of anonymity.

Sign Up Here

A kill switch is a must-have VPN feature that helps to protect your identity, information, and browsing activity should your connection to a VPN suddenly drop.

If a VPN does not include a kill switch as standard then you should never, ever use it.

Fortunately, NordVPN offers a kill switch across its entire range of native applications and an ‘app kill switch’ on its Windows and macOS apps. They are not automatic, though—you have to enable them yourself and this is what we are going to cover in this guide.

Make sure you keep reading because if you are using NordVPN you need to enable it manually. In some cases, the VPN is installed with the kill switch turned on by default. We do not know which versions and for which device… but we do know how to check and turn it on.

What is a Kill Switch (A Quick Explanation)

Imagine you are connected to a VPN because you are doing something sensitive that you want to protect from prying eyes and all is going well. All of a sudden, your connection to your VPN drops and you have no idea it has done this.

This is bad news for two reasons:

1. Because you are no longer protected and all your traffic, information, and IP address are out there in the open and vulnerable.
2. You will continue your activities unknowingly. For example, you carry on torrenting in blissful ignorance of the current situation. Whether it breaks the law or not, you are now at huge risk.

This is something that a kill switch could have saved you from.

A kill switch steps in when your VPN connection drops and helps to protect your data by “killing” your entire internet connection, stopping any traffic or data transfers.

NordVPN is an extremely stable and reliable VPN. That said, disconnections do happen with all services—NordVPN included. The best and only protection against this is a kill switch.

How to Enable the NordVPN Kill Switch

Using the Windows desktop application, we are going to show you how you can turn the kill switch on. Regardless of what app or device you are using, it is simply a case of flipping a switch in ‘Settings’.

1. From the main NordVPN window, click ‘Settings’ in the top-left

2. Find ‘Internet Kill Switch’ (fourth down) and switch it from ‘Off’ to ‘On’

Click ‘Yes’

Remember to read the fine print – you will lose Internet access and will need to disable the Kill Switch or re-connect in order to get your Internet access again.

What About the App Kill Switch?

You can choose to use either the Internet Kill Switch or the App Kill Switch. It just depends on your personal preference and what apps you use.

The Internet Kill Switch will ‘kill’ your entire internet connection, including your connection to any apps (e.g. Skype), so if you are using the Internet Kill Switch you don’t need to use the App Kill Switch.

If you want more granular control, however, you can enable the App Kill Switch and choose which apps it should ‘kill’ your connection to if your VPN connection drops.

You can add anything that utilizes an internet connection such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Skype, Slack, Microsoft Office, uTorrent… you get the idea!

Here’s a scenario where this would come in handy:

You’re playing a casual online game, watching Netflix on your second monitor and torrenting at the same time. You lose your connection to NordVPN and the App Kill Switch goes to work and kills the torrent client. You still retain all connectivity—you won’t lose your game progress and you’ll still be able to watch Netflix with the VPN on. Only your torrent client will stop running.

Try NordVPN Out Today

Have you been researching NordVPN and now you are ready to purchase a subscription?

Now you know NordVPN comes with all the features like a kill switch!

You can try out NordVPN risk-free for 30 days. If at any point you are dissatisfied by NordVPN, you can simply contact customer support and ask for a full refund within 30 days.

Sign Up Here

Yes, NordVPN works with Kodi and it works extremely well.

Kodi, the popular, free, and open-source media center software solution, is widely used across the world thanks to how flexible it is and how many different platforms it supports.

The many different add-ons for Kodi really make it what it is, however, some of these add-ons are region-locked. By using a VPN on Kodi, you can unlock and install these add-ons and, with them, massively boost your Kodi experience. Not only that, but you get the added benefit of keeping your Kodi activities quiet and outside the prying eyes of your ISP, monitoring agencies, and hackers.

While we do not condone the use of NordVPN to bypass region-locks for the purpose of facilitating illegal streaming of copyrighted materials, NordVPN is great for bypassing any region locks.

Why Use a VPN With Kodi?

While Kodi will work fine without a VPN, there are three major reasons why you should be using one. In fact, we recommend using a VPN as a matter of course for all internet-based activities; we live in an uncertain world plagued by cybersecurity breaches, stolen identities, and complicated privacy matters. A VPN protects you from all this and more.

1. Bypass region-locked content—we discussed this above. The reason why people say VPNs can unlock the internet.
2. Hide your activities—when you aren’t connected to a VPN, your ISP can see exactly what you are doing. If they see you are using Kodi and it is eating up lots of bandwidth, they may throttle (slow down) your connection. When you are connected to a VPN, they cannot see what you are doing and thus you are less likely to be throttled.
3. Keep yourself safe—some Kodi add-ons use P2P networks to download files and this can expose your IP, information, and browsing data to potential hackers.

Ready to use a VPN with Kodi? Here’s how.

Kodi on Different Devices

Kodi can be used on a large number of devices and the method by which you use a VPN with Kodi depends on what device you are using Kodi on.

It’s a simple enough concept, right?

Devices with Native NordVPN Apps

If, for instance, you are using Kodi on your desktop computer, laptop, Mac, or any other device for which NordVPN has a native app that you can install, you will simply need to install it to that device and sign in with your details. There is no need to do anything with Kodi.

Let’s say you are using Kodi on your Windows laptop—simply download the Windows NordVPN app, install it, sign in, and then connect to a country where the add-on you want is not blocked. Once you have done that, you can download and install that add-on without being blocked.

Kodi Box, Fire TV Stick, Raspberry Pi, and Other Devices

You’re in luck here, too!

Most Kodi boxes use Android as an OS.

Since NordVPN has a native Android app, it’s simply a case of installing this, just like with desktop devices.

It is the same case if you are using Kodi on an Amazon Fire TV Stick, too—there is a native NordVPN app that can be downloaded from the Amazon Appstore.

Raspberry Pi users will need to download, install, and configure OpenVPN on their devices. NordVPN has a helpful guide on their website that goes over this (although as an RPi user, you probably don’t need a guide!)

For all other devices (Apple TV, Chromecast, and games consoles to name a few), you will need to install NordVPN to your router since none of these devices have a native app nor support OpenVPN or VPN connections.

Try Out NordVPN

You can try out NordVPN risk-free for 30 days thanks to their 30-day money-back guarantee. This gives you 30 whole days to try out the full NordVPN on your Kodi.

If it isn’t, simply ask for a refund—there are no strings attached.

Sign Up Here

NordVPN has the largest VPN server network in the world.

At the time of writing this article, there are 5,112 servers spread across 60 different countries with some countries offering multiple locations (e.g. the US and the UK). You simply can’t do better than this if you’re looking for a huge number of server options.

No matter where you want to connect to in the world—unless, of course, you are wanting a server on Easter Island!—NordVPN has your back.

It’s not all about quantity, though; we would rather see a VPN service offering 500 good servers than 5,000 mediocre or low-quality ones.

Still, a large number of servers is a good sign. A VPN service that can offer over 5,000 and keeps adding to this number, must be doing something right and are able to handle such an infrastructure.

What Countries Does NordVPN Cover?

Asia Pacific, 484 Servers

The Americas, 2,305 Servers

Europe, 2,537 Servers

Africa, Middle East, and India, 67 Servers

NordVPN Server Locations List by State in USA

In addition, for those who are looking for a server list breakdown, we’ve done some additional research.

The following information is up-to-date as of May 2019 (Source: NordVPN support).

City, State	Server Number
Manassas, VA	349-352, 1532-1535, 1568-1571, 1729-1732, 2022-2033, 2072-2075, 2068-2071, 2633-2640, 2730-2733, 2830-2833, 2863-2866, 2862, 2876, 2969-2973, 2981, 3125-3126, 3219-3220, 3250-3251, 3313-3314, 3383-3384, 3389-3390, 3399-3408, 3418-3419, 3510-3511
San Francisco, CA	353-356, 1766-1785, 1942-1953, 2006-2021, 2076-2123, 2180-2199, 2867-2870, 2884, 2890, 2976, 3064, 3116, 3256-3259, 3470-3471
Los Angeles, CA	817-820, 1386-1389, 1806-1817, 1862-1865, 1870-1913, 2204-2215, 2432-2451, 2509-2516, 2662-2673, 2750-2769, 2742-2749, 2844-2847, 2852, 2722-2723, 2885, 2892, 2906-2909, 2953, 2915, 2918-2919, 2955, 2922-2923, 2965-2968, 2978, 3018-3021, 3062, 3076-3080, 3106, 3119, 3131-3132, 3181-3182, 3221-3222, 3252-3253, 3272-3273, 3289-3290, 3307-3308, 3377-3378, 3472-3473, 3488-3489, 3500-3501, 3524-3525, 2931, 3570-3571, 3606-3607
Dallas, TX	381-384, 793-796, 1564-1567, 1822-1841, 1918-1937, 2853, 2880, 2895, 2900-2903, 2910-2913, 2916, 3026-3030, 3065, 3081-3085, 3111-3113, 3118, 3129-3130, 3179-3180, 3223-3224, 3227-3229, 3260-3261, 3266-3267, 3291-3292, 3315-3316, 2926-2927, 3385-3386, 3450-3451, 3460-3461, 3486-3487, 3502-3503, 3558-3559, 3562-3567
Buffalo, NY	1746-1753, 1938-1941, 2698-2709, 2904, 2920-2921, 3069-3073, 2924-2925, 3107-3110, 3230-3235, 3299-3300, 2929, 3409-3413, 3452-3453, 3532-3540, 3542-3545, 2933
New York, NY	435-438, 801-804, 1664-1671, 2308-2331, 2678-2685, 2674-2677, 2790-2805, 2738-2741, 2806-2809, 2872-2873, 2875, 2877, 2887, 2896, 2905, 2899, 2914, 2917, 2957-2961, 2982-3011, 3036-3040, 3061, 3067, 3041-3060, 3100-3102, 3120, 3124, 3191-3194, 3167-3170, 3244-3245, 3268-3269, 3173-3176, 3279-3288, 3297-3298, 3305-3306, 3311-3312, 3351-3360, 3373-3376, 3379-3382, 3391-3398, 3426-3433, 3438-3441, 3444-3445, 3454-3459, 3462-3463, 3478-3479, 3492-3493, 3512-3523, 3572-3585
Chicago, IL	502-505, 510-513, 1966-1985, 2726-2729, 2836-2839, 2874, 2881, 2893, 2897-2898, 2954, 2979, 3031-3035, 3066, 3074-3075, 3090-3092, 3114, 3185-3186, 3217-3218, 3236-3238, 3246-3247, 3262-3263, 3301-3302, 3309-3310, 3365-3372, 3414-3417, 3508-3509, 3568-3569, 2934
Seattle, WA	964-967, 1576-1579, 1850-1853, 2160-2179, 2525-2540, 2716-2717, 2714-2715, 2879, 2883, 2889, 2952, 3014-3017, 3086-3089, 3117, 3183-3184, 3254-3255, 3274-3278, 3293-3294, 3464-3465, 3484-3485, 3504-3505
Saint Louis, MO	1472-1475, 2460-2479, 1858-1861, 3135-3136, 3187-3188, 3225-3226, 3248-3249, 3270-3271, 3295-3296, 3317-3318, 3434-3435, 3446-3447
Charlotte, NC	1524-1531, 2034-2037, 2124-2159, 2561-2572, 3494-3495, 3586-3587
New Orleans, LA	1536-1539, 1846-1849, 2686-2693, 3323-3328, 3420-3425, 3482-3483, 3590-3591
Miami, FL	1700-1703, 1672-1675, 1754-1765, 1818-1821, 1786-1805, 2200-2203, 2216-2227, 2452-2459, 2553-2560, 2517-2524, 2734-2737, 2810-2829, 2840-2843, 2886, 2891, 2956, 2962-2964, 2977, 3063, 3095-3099, 3121, 3195-3216, 3157-3166, 3264-3265, 3436-3437, 3506-3507
Denver, CO	1842-1845, 2268-2307, 2332-2371, 2573-2592, 3594-3605
Salt Lake City, UT	1854-1857, 1986-2005, 3476-3477, 3496-3497, 3526-3527
Louisville, KY	1866-1869, 1914-1917, 1954-1965, 2038-2045, 2593-2632, 2894, 3448-3449, 3468-3469, 3480-3481, 3498-3499, 3528-3531, 3592-3593
Las Vegas, NV	2048-2067, 3329-3332, 3361-3364, 3387-3388
Minneapolis, MN	2228-2267
Phoenix, AZ	2481-2500, 2505-2508, 2541-2552, 2694-2697, 3022-3025, 3239-3243, 3474-3475, 3490-3491
Atlanta, GA	2770-2789, 2980, 3012-3013, 3068, 3093-3094, 3115, 3122, 3137-3156, 3548-3557
Jackson, MS	2974-2975, 3303-3304, 3319-3322, 3466-3467, 3588-3589

NordVPN Offers Feature-Rich Servers

They offer a full suite of different servers that suit different types of activity and user, and all of them are lightning-fast and secure.

You may have noticed above that most of the servers have a checkmark underneath them (e.g. “P2P” or “Obfuscated”) and it is these that make NordVPN’s server offerings the best in the business.

When designing their network, they thought outside the box to appeal to the broadest possible user (and thus market) possible. We are going to go through each of these server types, look at where they’re available, and explain what they do.

1. NordVPN Dedicated IP Servers

NordVPN’s Dedicated IP is the only one of these six server-addons types that cost extra, and that’s because NordVPN assigns you your very own private, dedicated server with its very own dedicated IP that only you can connect to and use.

When you use NordVPN’s regular, public servers, most of the time your IP will change each time you connect. In addition to this, you are sharing that server’s resources with 50 to 100 or more people and while this won’t be a problem most of the time (because all NordVPN’s servers are very fast), there are certain times when having a dedicated IP will be beneficial for the end-user.

Primarily aimed towards people who want to use a VPN service but need to keep the same IP address (a ‘static’ IP address) such as: webmasters; people who need to access secure admin control panels that will only let whitelisted IPs in; and people who want to access the same SQL server without having to re-authenticate each time.

It costs $69.99 for a NordVPN dedicated IP each year and they are currently available in the US, Germany, UK, and Netherlands in a limited number of cities.

You can get a dedicated IP from the ‘My Account’ section of the NordVPN website.

2. NordVPN Double VPN Servers

Double VPN is something that not too many VPN providers offer.

The Double VPN feature allows providers to offer an additional level of protection that cannot be achieved by a regular, single connection to a VPN server. It makes it a lot more difficult for hackers and other malicious third-parties to grab hold of a VPN connection and ‘break’ it because there are two layers of encryption to fight off.

This is achieved by routing your traffic not through one VPN server, but two. So, for example, if you are connecting to a UK server from the US, your traffic might bounce through France first, or any other suitable server, before reaching its final destination.

The result is data that is already encrypted and scrambled being scrambled even further by re-encrypting it. Furthermore, in the virtually impossible occurrence of NordVPN leaking DNS or IP information, it would point back to the first VPN server, not the end user’s real location.

Double VPN servers are useful for people who need extreme security or are trying to bypass very tight censorship.

Double VPN can be accessed from the left-hand list within NordVPN. Simply click on ‘Double VPN’ and NordVPN will determine the best servers for you.

3. NordVPN Obfuscated Servers

In some countries, the internet is heavily censored and restricted. Chinese, some Middle Eastern, and North Korean citizens are prime examples of people who have their internet access heavily controlled by their authoritarian governments. In countries (e.g. China) where the authorities have gone so far as to block VPN services, it can be very difficult to download and install a VPN and then bypass censorship.

This is where NordVPN Obfuscated Servers come in.

They protect users connected to them with an additional layer of security and are clever enough to thwart heavy censorship by looking for alternative ways to connect to VPN servers when the standard method fails entirely.

In NordVPN, when Obfuscated Servers are enabled in ‘Settings’, the main NordVPN servers will only show these servers in lieu of the regular ones. This enables Chinese users to bypass censorship and access websites such as Facebook, YouTube, and western news services.

Obfuscated Servers are only for the use of people who are connecting to NordVPN from countries with heavy censorship. Given that NordVPN is one of only a small number of VPN services that work in China, they are clearly doing something right with these.

Currently, Obfuscated Servers are offered in France, Japan, Netherlands, UK, US, and UAE. This means you are able to connect to these regions from anywhere in the world.

4. NordVPN Onion Over VPN Servers

Do you use TOR to access the dark web (don’t worry—we won’t ask what you’re doing there)? If so, NordVPN’s Onion Over VPN (OOVPN) Servers are ideal for you.

OOVPN Servers have been specifically designed to create a seamless and reliable connection between a pre-set group of servers—what you connect to—and the TOR Network—where your traffic goes—to provide an extra layer of security and privacy. They hide your IP address from TOR’s entry node; the owner of the entry node will see NordVPN’s server IP instead of yours.

This stops your ISP and any other third-parties from knowing that you are using the TOR network. Government and surveillance agencies are particularly interested in tracking people who use the TOR network, so using a VPN—specifically, a VPN that offers OOVPN Servers—is crucial.

What’s more, when you are using NordVPN’s OOVPN Servers you don’t need to use the TOR browser because NordVPN routes your traffic through TOR itself. Still, though, using the Tor browser is recommended as it is the most reliable one for browsing .onion sites.

At the time of writing, OOVPN Servers are available in The Netherlands and Switzerland, so you are able to connect to these two locations from anywhere in the world..

5. NordVPN P2P Servers

NordVPN is open to its users participating in torrenting and P2P activity, but only on servers that have been specifically optimized for this purpose. This is to prevent data-heavy torrenting activity being carried out on and slowing down servers that aren’t as powerful.

All NordVPN’s P2P servers are fast, secure, and have been designed with P2P activities in mind. You have two choices for P2P activity on NordVPN—

• Select your own server from the P2P Server options; or
• Carry out P2P activity on any server and be automatically re-routed to a P2P-friendly one.

You can connect to NordVPN’s P2P Servers by clicking on the three dots (. . .) in the left-hand column next to ‘P2P’. There are plenty for you to choose from; the fact that P2P is only allowed on P2P-friendly servers in no way restricts or limits your choice.

It is always recommended that you use a VPN when participating in P2P activities anyway.

This protects you from malicious peers who could harvest your information; it hides your IP address, and it prevents you from being issued with DMCA notices.

Because NordVPN has a strict zero-logs policy and is based in Panama, they do not store any information about your activities while connected to the service and even if they did have logs, their Panama location means the authorities can do nothing to force their hand.

Fastest NordVPN Server? Best NordVPN Server?

These are funny questions that people may ask but let us reply with a serious answer.

Not all servers are created equally. The best server is most likely the one nearest to you. If you’re in USE, connect to a USE server. They’re more or less all the same within the area.

The difference is if you’re living in a less populated country. Perhaps the server in your country is using some outdated hardware or is not being managed properly. If this is the case, the next fastest server would be the second nearest server to you.

Most of NordVPN’s servers are set up in a way so that the customers will get a seamless experience wherever they are in the world.

However, not all servers were created at the same time nor using the same hardware. There is a difference but you will most likely not be able to tell.

Try NordVPN Risk-Free Today

As you can see, NordVPN is a brilliant VPN service that has a whole lot to offer… even more than we have covered here! If you would like to take it for a spin yourself, you can try it out risk-free today by purchasing a subscription backed by their 30-day money-back guarantee.

This applies to all their subscriptions—from monthly to annual—and if you are not satisfied with your NordVPN purchase, you can ask for your money back by contacting customer services within 30 days of your transaction. No questions asked, no strings attached.

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