How To Test VPN Speed The Right Way
The best way to test VPN speeds is to use speed test tools to record your ping, download, and upload speeds with and without a VPN connection. We recommend running multiple tests since the speeds can vary both when youre using a VPN and when you arent, and checking the VPN speed with different protocols, server locations, and speed test tool servers .
Here is a list of VPN speed test websites you can use for this task:
Overall, if you see a huge drop in download speeds, you should try switching servers .
How Does A VPN Work
Typically, the majority of Internet traffic is unencrypted and relatively public. When a user establishes an Internet connection, such as by accessing the website in a browser, the customer’s device connects to their Internet Service Provider , and the ISP connects to the Internet to locate the suitable web server with which to communicate in order to retrieve the required website.
Every stage of the website request exposes information about users. The ISP and every other mediator can retain logs on the user’s surfing activities because the user’s IP address is accessible all across the process. Furthermore, the data travelling between the user’s device and the website is unencrypted, which allows hostile actors to monitor the data or conduct assaults on the user, such as an on-path assault.
A user connected to the Internet over a VPN service, on the other hand, enjoys a better level of security and privacy. The four stages involved in establishing a VPN connection are as follows:
- The VPN user establishes an encrypted connection with the ISP.
- The ISP establishes an encrypted connection between the VPN user and the VPN server.
- The VPN server decodes the information from the user’s device and then links to the Internet in an unprotected transmission to access the website.
- The VPN server establishes an encrypted connection with the user, referred to as a ‘VPN tunnel.’
% Speed Gain For VPN Connections
How much faster can a VPN connection be compared to the regular Internet connection? Surprisingly, the speed gain may be significant.
For example, for a connection to a test server located in Sydney , the regular speed was about 1Mbps without VPN and 33Mbps with a VPN. That was an extreme result, but important to show that it was possible.
On average, the VPN speed was 43.4% higher than the no VPN connection for the tests, for which it was a difference in favor of the VPN.
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Use A Wired Ethernet Connection
Wi-Fis the norm these days, but its rarely going to be as fast or stable as a dedicated Ethernet connection. Any time you go wireless, theres room for signal interference to get in the way and gunk up your connection. An Ethernet connection preserves your direct pathway to the internet.
Many newer laptops dont even come with Ethernet ports anymore, but if yours does, give it a shot. There are also plenty of adaptors on the market that will allow newer devices to accept an Ethernet cable. Try a wired connection and see if your VPN speed improves.
How Much Data Does A VPN Really Use
From a technology standpoint, there’s nothing quite like going online and knowing everything you do is protected, safe, and secure. Thats the real value of the best VPN , which creates a secure tunnel for all of your Internet activity.
For anyone who uses a VPN and trusts the connection is providing an extra layer of privacy and anonymity, there may still be a question mark lingering in the air does a VPN increase the amount of data you use?;
This is particularly important if you’re connecting on a network where your speed and access is throttled, or if you have a data plan that monitors and tracks your usage and charges you accordingly, so mobile users take note.
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A VPN doesn’t make you immune to charges from you ISP for using more than your allotted data. While the Internet Service Provider cant see what you are doing online or track your identity, they still see the bandwidth usage.
And, while you might think a VPN doesnt add much data usage beyond what youd expect, there is some overhead more than you might think if you’re downloading movies, playing games, or archiving files. It does tend to add up for every web visit, every download, and every movie you stream over a period of days, weeks, and months.
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How Does A VPN Speed Up Internet
Every internet plan on the market has a maximum speed that could be 10Mbps or 600Mbps, or anywhere in between and sometimes higher but thats not the speed youll experience all the time. Your ISP monitors its customers traffic and, if it detects certain activities, it can throttle your connection.
Throttling is the controversial practice of slowing down individual users connections to either discourage them from engaging in a certain activity or save bandwidth at peak times. Sometimes an ISP will throttle every users connection something a VPN cant avoid but for selective throttling a VPN is very useful.
Switch To A Faster VPN Provider
If your speed issues are still plaguing you after trying the above two fixes, it might be time to consider moving on. Perhaps your current VPN provider just isnt offering the fastest speed around. They might not be utilizing sufficient server load-balancing techniques, or maybe their infrastructure and network connections just arent up to par.
With so many commercial VPNs vying for your subscription fees, its truly a buyers market. Shop around and look for a VPN that meets your security, speed, and financial requirements but above all, be sure that youre choosing a trustworthy VPN provider like Avast and the Avast SecureLine VPN.
VPNs conceal your online activity from all parties except one: your VPN provider. Look for a provider that wont keep logs of what youve done while connected to their servers, and conduct thorough research to see what other peoples experiences have been like. Avast is log-free and offers a wide variety of speedy servers all over the world.
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Sometimes A VPN Can Increase Your Internet Speed
To wrap it up, it turns out that a VPN can have a positive impact on your connections speed. In other words, a VPN can make your connection faster, but it wont work every time.
For instance, a VPN wont magically upgrade your connection from a 100 MBps to a whooping 1 GBps. However, it could help you circumvent any ISP restrictions or limitations such as bandwidth throttling, bad peering , or improper routing.
Internet Access Over A VPN
A VPN service provides an encrypted and secure connection between you and the VPN service provider. From there, your internet traffic reaches its destination in the same way that it would have, had it come directly from the your device.
Its a useful tool for anyone who wishes to prevent others from seeing the contents of their web traffic. Its also a favorite of those that prefer to remain anonymous online.
The nature of a VPN connection means that web traffic no longer takes the most direct path possible. It first has to flow through the servers of the VPN service provider. The encryption of the traffic and the change in the data path can sometimes speed up a slow internet connection. However, it all depends on the reasons it was slow in the first place.
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Is It Possible To Get Free Internet Through VPN
When you acquire a VPN, it guarantees to protect your anonymity online and act as a buffer to secure your sensitive data. It does this through a layered system of protection, where not one but many holes in your security are plugged to keep your safe while surfing the internet.
Firstly, your IP is protected by re-routing it through a different server in a different destination. Your IP is like your online address and if left unprotected, it can make you highly vulnerable to attacks from hackers and allow governments and copyright trolls to discern your actual location.
Secondly, your data gets encrypted and then bundled in and transported through a secure protocol. The protocol is there to ensure that no one can access your data packet. Conventionally, the top VPNs use AES 256 military grade encryption, which guarantees top safety and is virtually undecipherable.
Thirdly, the best VPNs do not keep any logs. This action is meant to protect you in case the government authorities or copyright trolls land up at the VPN providers office and demand them to hand over the location of the individual they suspect of trespassing the restrictions.
Free Internet under the cover of a VPN can now be obtained on all kinds of popular devices and OS. Most Best VPN providers now offer a legion of compatible apps to make it easier for you to download, install and run them. Here is a list of the devices and OS on which compatible apps by VPN providers are widely available:
What Does Latency Refer To
Latency refers to the amount of time that passes between a user-initiated action and the ensuing response; in other words, it is the lag that can be visible when a visitor clicks a specific link to the point when the link totally opens up.
Now that you know everything there is to know about latency, you may be asking why the issue was brought up in the first place. When using a VPN, latency increases significantly, resulting in slower internet speeds.
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How Does A VPN Solve Throttling Issues
As we have already mentioned, ISPs dont usually reduce the bandwidth of all their users completely equally. In fact, a lot of ISPs have a monetary incentive to throttle specific types of content. And that means that an ISP needs to know what content you are looking at in order to throttle it.
A VPNencrypts all the information that goes between the server and the receiver, and hides it from your ISP. An ISP cannot legally slow all your traffic to all sites, and if it doesnt know where your traffic is going, it cant slow any of it.
When using a VPN, the ISP cant distinguish between HD streaming and simple web browsing. That means you wont experience throttling, and you can enjoy good performance on any site, including BitTorrent, , Twitch and Usenet.
If you mask your online activity from your ISP, that means your ISP cannot move to throttle any of your activity. In such cases, they might even inadvertently throttle traffic to one of their fast lane customers.
What Do We Recommend
ExpressVPN stands out from the competition in terms of price, features, and value. With over 3,000 servers in nearly 100 countries, all the security features necessary, blazing connection speeds, and reliable access to multiple streaming services, ExpressVPN is an excellent choice for those after security with no compromises.
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Can A VPN Slow My Internet Connection Speed
The short answer is yes, a VPN can slow your connection speed. The slightly longer answer is that is can also speed it up. Confused? We’ll clear that right up now.
If you’re connecting to a server on the other side of the world, then the data has a lot further to travel and with bottlenecks and servers points, these can slow it down. However, you can still get all the security of a VPN by connecting to your most local server, which will keep you running fast.
In fact, some VPN providers offer smart connections where it will work out the best server based on your location to give you the fastest speeds possible.
Another impacting influence on speed is security. If you use the highest 256-AES encryption then you may find it adds a little lag. This is because of the time it takes to encrypt and decrypt all that data in all its secure complexity.;
Once again, there is a way around this. Most of the better VPN services available – including the likes of ExpressVPN, Surfshark and the well-known NordVPN – will offer multiple protocols and not all of them will necessarily use the full encryption. So if you want to go for speed over security you can opt for a lower level of encryption and get maximum connectivity.
Does Using A VPN Slow Down Internet Connection Speeds
Can you get the security of a VPN while still enjoying a high-speed internet connection?
ByLuke EdwardsLast updated 2021-04-09T16:21:51.684Z
The speed of your internet connection is probably more important to you than you realise – most of us are actually quite spoilt with just how fast it can be these days. So you may want to keep that in mind when looking through the best VPNs, as the handy bit of software can negatively affect your data speeds.
VPNs works to make you secure and anonymous online. It does this by encrypting your data and sending it through servers in different locations, thereby making you appear elsewhere. It also gives you a new IP address so your identity is hidden throughout.;
Since that means moving your data through more servers than usual, and encrypting and decrypting data, it’s logical that the process can impact your speed. But don’t worry…it can affect it in a good way.
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Do VPNs Slow Down Your Internet
To some extent, it is true that a VPN can slightly slow your internet connection VPNs add a layer of encryption that may lead to a small reduction in speed. In addition, if youre using a VPN with a limited number of servers , the servers may become overloaded. This will almost certainly lead to slower internet speeds.
If you choose to connect to a server in a country that is far away from you when using a VPN, you may also experience additional lag time when browsing the internet. This is because of the physical distance that the data packets need to travel.
Most premium VPNs are aware of these issues and take measures to reduce them, like having plenty of servers available worldwide to prevent overcrowding.
However, it is possible that using a fast VPN can actually speed up your connection, because of the practice of bandwidth throttling. Let us explain
Speedtestnet Results With Different Speedtestnet Server
IKEv2 | Montreal VPN Server | Different SpeedTest.net Server
This time, were using the same IKEv2 protocol and Montreal VPN server, but were also switching to a Montreal SpeedTest.net server. The difference is immediately obvious the ping is two times smaller than our IKEv2/Montreal VPN server/Bucharest SpeedTest.net server combination. Also, the upload speed is almost two times faster.
IKEv2 | Without a VPN | Montreal SpeedTest.net Server
We also decided to run a test with no VPN connection and a SpeedTest.net server thats far away from us. As you can see, not a lot has changed compared to the results above only the download speed took a small hit.
What does this mean? That, sometimes, your VPN speed results might only partially be affected by the VPN itself since they also depend on how far the speed test tool server is from your own location.
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Can A VPN Increase Internet Speed Sometimes Yes
One of the most common questions regarding VPN usage is: Can a VPN increase Internet speed? Yes, it can, but most of the time, it wont. I am going to explain when, why, and how it is possible.
We have performed a series of tests that show that a VPN may sometimes increase Internet speed. Lets see the results first, and then we will find an explanation.
What You’ll Learn
Choose The Right VPN Server Location
VPN connection speed can depend on the location of the server. For example, South Korea has the fastest internet speeds in the world with an average of 26.7 megabytes per second compared to the global average of just 5.5 Mbps. Other VPN servers that likely offer higher speeds include Sweden , Norway , and Japan .
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The Speeds Of Different Protonvpn Plans
ProtonVPN maintains very fast connections across our entire global VPN server network by using only high-performance VPN servers on specially selected networks. ProtonVPN is a free VPN service, but our global network is not free to operate. The operating expenses are mostly covered by paid ProtonVPN Plus users. Because of this, we provide higher levels of performance for ProtonVPN Plus and ProtonVPN Basic users.
Because ProtonVPN is a no-logs VPN service, we do not monitor or track user activity. Therefore, we have no bandwidth limits or bandwidth throttles, even for free users. However, speeds differ between Free, Basic, and Plus plans due to varying server loads. Because we offer a limited number of free servers, those servers tend to have many more users on them, which leads to lower performance.
ProtonVPN Basic users benefit from fast connections because they have access to servers that are restricted to free users and connected to higher performance networks. Finally, ProtonVPN Plus users have access to the fastest connections because Plus servers are only accessible to Plus users. Because there are fewer Plus users, and because many of the Plus servers are on 10 Gbps networks, very high performance is possible. Indeed, speeds of up to 300 Mbps are frequently reported. Your actual speeds may vary, however, depending on network conditions.