Any of these really helps with security or privacy?

[Almighty_Denny]

As said on a previous post of mine, I'm still beginning in the world of networking, so I got some doubts about the highs and lows and technical features of some services that are supposed to help with privacy and/or security. To be honest I got many questions, I hope I won't be much of a hassle for this, lol

First of all, I haven't still totally understood how a Proxy and a VPN works.
If there are some references, manuals or guides about that I would be pleased to check them out.

Also, which one of those is more secure or private?
Should we casual home users give priority to not being recognized in the web, or to be secure from external attacks?
And as the title said, any of these services are actually helpful when talking about security/privacy?

On the other hand, I've been told about Tor browser and network, but again, I don't totally get how it works and what exactly is an Onion service.

Any help with any of those topics will be very much appreciated, and thanks in advance.
I really would like to know more about IT and networking.

 

[dosborne]

I haven't still totally understood how a Proxy and a VPN works.

I think Google (or your own favourite search engine) really would be the best bet for the basic information search to help you understand what the MANY terms you've heard actually stand for. Not much point in explaining how to set all these things up until you decide which one(s) you actually want to use.

Once you research what each of the various options can actually do, then you have to determine which are potentially worth the effort, cost or performance impact. Nobody can determine if the benefit is worth it other than you.

Many people have no real "need" for anything more secure than what the average ISP provides. (Although changing default passwords and a few basic settings are strongly encouraged). Having said that though, there are many simple and free options that can make your environment more secure with hardware you may already own. (listing for hardware may be another good thing to do for follow up)

On the other hand, I've been told about Tor browser and network, but again, I don't totally get how it works and what exactly is an Onion service.

Don't go looking for solutions and try and map them onto your perceived problems. The real question is what are YOUR concerns and needs? Are you afraid to access your bank online? Are you with an ISP that gets hacked a lot? Do you travel and need remote access to your home network? Do you need remote access into your work systems?

There is no upper limit to the steps and measures you can implement. Everything has a cost measured in effort and actual dollar value.

 

[RMerlin]

The real question is what are YOUR concerns and needs?

I wish more people followed that advice. Too many users jump into new technologies, and then try to figure out what they can use it for. The most common example are cloud services. People jump into the cloud without knowing what reasons is driving them, beside "it's the current trend, and it makes us cool".

 

[Almighty_Denny]

... The real question is what are YOUR concerns and needs? Are you afraid to access your bank online? Are you with an ISP that gets hacked a lot? Do you travel and need remote access to your home network? Do you need remote access into your work systems?

I'm mainly thinking about remote access into my home network (I've been even studying about how to set up a home VPN server).

Also, at my job place (related to IT), some people talk about this kind of stuff and I want to know what the fuss is about those kind of network services/features (as I previously said, I'm still learning and want to 'grow' in the IT medium)