Your request goes to the required website or service, which identifies the exit relay’s IP address as your IP. The exit relay sees only an IP address of the middle relay and a destination IP address.It removes the second layer of encryption and sends the message to the final exit relay. The middle relay can see the IP addresses of the previous and next relays.The guard relay removes one layer of encryption and transmits the request to the next proxy server. It gets your request and sees your IP address. The first proxy server is called guard or entry.For additional security, Tor changes relays every ten minutes.
Each layer of encryption is designed particularly for one of three relays.
Let's take a closer look and decide when Tor and VPNs are more beneficial. A VPN focuses on privacy and masking what you do online. The main point is that Tor focuses more on anonymity, on concealing your identity. You can use them both to protect yourself on the Internet and bypass censorship, geo-restrictions, and surveillance. Tor Browser and VPN are seemingly similar online security tools.