- Why connection speed slows down with a VPN
- What affects the speed of your VPN connection?
- 10 Best Practices on How to Make Your VPN Speed Much Faster
- 1. Change your VPN protocol.
- 2. Restart your device, modem and/or router.
- 3. Switch to a wired connection.
- 4. Update your device software.
- 5. Connect to a server closer to your location.
- 6. Choose a server that is not overloaded.
- 7. Disable your antivirus or firewall for a moment.
- 8. Reduce the number of active apps running in the background.
- 9. Enable split tunneling.
- 10. Switch to a different VPN provider, like ExpressVPN.
If you are using a VPN service to mask your IP address, protect your identity and personal information, or protect your connection from unauthorized people and malicious hackers, you will notice that your speed becomes a little slower compared to not using VPN at all. . .
This means it will take you longer to download files, access websites, and stream videos. Continue reading as we list best practices to increase VPN speed on any device without compromising your security and identity.
Why connection speed slows down with a VPN
A VPN protects your data using encryption. This process is done to protect the data within the user and the VPN server tunnel so that no one can exploit your information, not even your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or the government.
All your Internet activities pass through an encrypted tunnel to an external server. However, these Internet packets take some time to travel from your end to the receiver each time your connection requests are encrypted before being sent to the server. Once delivered to the authorized recipient, the data is converted back to a readable format.
Many VPN service providers like ExpressVPN They have already improved their speed capabilities to solve this problem. But if you’re still experiencing slowdowns on your VPN connection, here are the steps you should take.
What affects the speed of your VPN connection?
The speed of a VPN connection has two components, namely performance or the amount of data that is transmitted in a given period, and latency, or the amount of time it takes to request and receive a response from a server.
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Therefore, performance and latency can be affected by:
- Your distance to the VPN server of your choice
- The type of VPN protocol being used
- The number of active users on a particular VPN server
- The quality of your wired and wireless connection
There are several ways to fix your slow connection speed when using a VPN.
10 Best Practices on How to Make Your VPN Speed Much Faster
These ten methods have been shown to improve your VPN speed. You may also need to perform several best practices to get the ideal speed you need.
1. Change your VPN protocol.
With a VPN protocol, the software follows a set of codes when VPN encryption converts your data to an unreadable format so that it cannot be decrypted. A VPN protocol that uses higher bit encryption is ideal for the best security; however, there will also be a trade-off in speed.
Most current VPN providers will connect users to the protocol that best fits the existing network. But if you decide to control your VPN protocol, you can configure it based on the options available from your VPN service provider.
A reliable connection is ExpressVPN‘s Lightway, which has fewer lines of codes with around only 2000 lines. It is relatively faster and consumes less power on your device. If your connection suddenly drops, it will automatically reconnect you, while other VPN protocols may take at least 15 seconds to execute the same process. Our independent tests also revealed that it is much faster than WireGuard and other protocols with a difference of around 2 Mbps for download and 3 Mbps for upload.
If you are using a mobile device and want faster charging without draining the battery, you can opt for ChaCha20 which is a much faster encryption than AES-128 GSM.
2. Restart your device, modem and/or router.
If you’ve been too busy in front of the computer, your devices may only need an occasional reboot to refresh and free up RAM. This will also fix some internal system issues that are causing your VPN connection to slow down.
Your router also needs to reboot or restart to clear its cache. This will also help your router select a less busy channel.
Finally, if your goal is to restore maximum performance to your device, you may need to reset it to its factory settings. Just keep in mind that doing so will erase everything on the system.
3. Switch to a wired connection.
Run a speed test on your wireless connection and check if it is running slow. Then, switch to a wired or Ethernet connection for dedicated bandwidth. A wired connection provides faster speeds because it is not subject to more interference and will not share wireless network bandwidth with other users, which increases traffic.
4. Update your device software.
Older software on your device needs constant updates to fix performance issues and also help fix bugs that can cause a decrease in your connection speed. This will also allow your device to have the latest security updates to fix vulnerabilities.
5. Connect to a server closer to your location.
Moving your server to a location closer to you can increase your loading speed. If your chosen VPN server is significantly far from your physical location, data packets will take longer to transmit because they have to pass through more networks. Additionally, some packets may be lost along the way and latency may be affected by bandwidth limits at foreign borders.
The only time we recommend choosing a VPN server that is far from your location is when you are geo-spoofing to access content that is not offered for streaming or downloading where you are located.
6. Choose a server that is not overloaded.
When you connect to a VPN server, you also share it with thousands of other users. Check the current server load before connecting so you can switch to another option that is less busy. If this is not possible, try connecting to different servers to test which one gives you the fastest speed.
7. Disable your antivirus or firewall for a moment.
Your antivirus software and firewall inspect and filter data packets before allowing them to pass onto your network. This process can significantly reduce data transmission and Internet speed.
If you are downloading from a trusted website, you can temporarily disable your antivirus and firewall to improve your connection speed. However, be sure to turn them back on once you’re done to prevent viruses and worms from entering your system.
8. Reduce the number of active apps running in the background.
It can be difficult to get the desired speed to meet your demands when you are running multiple applications that consume too much bandwidth.
Check for apps that can be closed to improve your connection speed, leaving only the programs you need to complete your task.
9. Enable split tunneling.
If you can’t avoid using multiple apps at the same time, check if your VPN provider offers a split tunneling feature so you can allocate a portion of your bandwidth to specific apps.
Doing so can help you choose websites that can work through the VPN tunnel and leave the rest to your regular connection.
10. Switch to a different VPN provider, like ExpressVPN.
Not all VPN service providers offer the same speed. For example, during our independent testing, we concluded that among today’s top VPNs, ExpressVPN offers some of the fastest speeds.
When we connected to their servers in the United States, there was very little loss in speed and it reached 110 Mbps compared to a non-VPN connection. Connecting to an international server like the one in Europe also produced a minimal reduction in speed.
