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I know that the use of two VPNs on a machine is generally not advised for multiple reasons (security, stability, etc.) as well explained here : Connect through two VPN clients

However I was wondering if the issues would still occur in case of a commercial VPN running on a router while another is running on a computer (e.g. WireGuard).

Would such configuration add any privacy/security ?

Edit :

My primary concern is that I do not trust real no-log VPNs. In the light of some comments, which of the following configurations would be better (considering two different VPN providers):

Also, which one is easier to configure to avoid potential issues ?

Thank you,

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  • What specifically is your concern about using two VPNs?
    – Clarus
    Feb 26, 2019 at 23:18
  • My concern is that I wouldn't need to fully trust a commercial VPN if I can add one such as WireGuard on my computer as an extra layer. I'd like opinion on this.
    – Jj0hnas
    Feb 26, 2019 at 23:32
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    There isn't a security reason why this wouldn't work, although it may not be providing as much benefit as you might imagine. Practically speaking, each VPN adds latency and a header (which can affect MTU), and that is the primary reason you wouldn't want to go through two VPNs.
    – Clarus
    Feb 27, 2019 at 0:10
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    It's a bigger issue if the VPNs both use TCP, since then you get TCP over TCP problems which cause reliability to go down (and overhead to go up).
    – forest
    Feb 27, 2019 at 3:19
  • Hi, thank you for the replies. I have edited the post following your comments. @forest Could you elaborate the TCP over TCP problems ?
    – Jj0hnas
    Feb 27, 2019 at 17:18

1 Answer 1

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A different VPN on different machines will tunnel correctly. It doesn't matter if the machines are host, router, or VM.

Getting it to work is easy enough, but stop and ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish. You state that you don't trust the the VPN services, so:

How are you aquiring the VPN services, are you paying for them? Follow the money. If free or paid annonymously, the first VPN ("A") has your IP. Assuming you're tunneling to a second VPN ("B"), "A" knows this. While "A" doesn't know anything else, you immediately stand out as unusual double VPN traffic.

How are you paying for "B"? Unless it's anonymous you've immediately mooted "A". "B" also sees that you are unusual double VPN traffic. "B" has the same logs you're concerned about. It may or may not be politically practical to trace back from "B" through "A", but technically it would be a piece of cake given the right resources.

By using two VPNs, you've created 2/3 of a Tor connection (the most vulnerable 2) in a network that only you or a small handful of people are using. If a single VPN does not meet your needs, give serious consideration to Tor.

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