NymVPN offers two privacy modes. Fast mode is a decentralized 2-hop WireGuard VPN built for everyday speed. Anonymous mode routes your traffic through a 5-hop mixnet with added noise for maximum privacy.
Les systèmes de protection de la confidentialité ont un inconvénient : plus la protection est renforcée, plus la latence augmente. So NymVPN is designed to give you a choice on how you want your traffic routed:
- Fast mode (default): A decentralized 2-hop network with censorship resistance
- Anonymous mode: A 5-hop route through the mixnet with added noise to fight surveillance
When to use the fast and anonymous modes
Choose your mode based on what you are doing online.
Use Fast mode for daily browsing, streaming video, downloading files, and any activity where speed matters. Fast mode gives you strong decentralized privacy without noticeable slowdown.
Use Anonymous mode for messaging, email, cryptocurrency transactions, and any situation where maximum privacy is more important than speed. Anonymous mode routes traffic through the full Nym mixnet, which adds latency but makes your activity virtually untraceable.
If you try to stream video in Anonymous mode, expect significant delays. Switch to Fast mode for that.
How NymVPN fast mode works
NymVPN Fast mode is the default. It routes your traffic through a decentralized 2-hop, tunnel-in-a-tunnel WireGuard setup using two independent Nym nodes as entry and exit gateways.
This mode is perfect for everyday privacy, quick browsing, streaming, and file sharing and comes with important privacy protections:
- Decentralized routing keeps you unlinkable to your traffic by preventing any node from connecting your IP address to that of your destination online.
- WireGuard's cryptographic optimizations allow for speeds that approximate mainstream 1-hop VPNs but with decentralized protections.
- AmneziaWG is a censorship-resistant fork of WireGuard which adds decoy packets before the handshake initiation. ce qui masque les tentatives de connexion et améliore la résistance à la censure tout en préservant la vitesse et la fiabilité de votre connexion.
Learn more about how VPNs affect internet speed and what to expect from different protocols.
How NymVPN anonymous mode works
Le mode Anonyme vous donne accès au réseau le plus sûr du monde : le Mixnet générateur de bruit de Nym. With the Anonymous mode activated, your traffic is routed through the 5-server Nym mixnet composed of:
1. An entry gateway
2. 3 mix nodes that shuffle your data packets with those of others in randomized routes
3. And an exit gateway before reaching the open internet
The mixnet provides a number of advanced privacy protections called network noise:
- Identical packet sizes to prevent traffic analysis of payloads
- Multi-layer, onion encryption so nodes are blind to your traffic's route
- Cover traffic to obscure your payload and increase the anonymity set of the whole network
- Packet mixing to obscure traffic origins and routes
- Timing delays to prevent analysis of traffic based on entry and exit from a node
These protections defend against traffic analysis, a surveillance technique that studies patterns in your internet data to identify you.
Note that this option introduces significant latency and speed reduction, and is thus best used for messaging, emailing, or processing financial transactions like crypto.
Learn more about how the Anonymous mode works, what happens with your data along the way, and why it is the most private network available.