Slow internet is one of the frustrations almost everyone faces today. Unfortunately, a bad VPN can make that situation even worse.
While you may want your internet activity to be more private and secure, you probably don’t wanna see a massive drop in speed.
So what can you do? Luckily for you, there are several things you can do to make VPN faster.
While there’s a whole bunch of factors that lead to a slower VPN connection, there’s also a bunch of techniques you can use to make your VPN fast. But before we get to them, let’s cover some essential stuff you need to know.
What is latency?
Latency, in the context of the internet, refers to the delay between a user’s action and the corresponding response. For example, the time it takes for an image to appear on a browser after a user clicks on a link to view it. If it takes several seconds for the image to load after a user clicks on the link, it means that the user’s request is experiencing high latency.
The physical distance between the point of data access and delivery mainly causes latency. So, the farther apart these points are, the greater the latency a user will experience. For instance, if you request a website with a Content Delivery Network (CDN) server located nearby, the request and response will be rapid as the distance is short. However, when you request a website server located far away, the latency will be significantly higher as the distance is longer. The request and response travel through a series of routers, much like taking an international flight with multiple connections, which introduces more latency with each ‘hop’ from one router to another.
Why does VPN slow down my internet speed?
There are a couple of critical reasons you are experiencing a VPN slowdown that could also affect your internet speed.
The question of why VPN slows down at home internet is not addressed directly. But yes, there are potential variables that affect slower internet performance.
Bad server location
The first reason you are experiencing slow VPN speed is that you might have connected to a server that’s too far away. If you’re in the UK and connected to a server in New Zealand, that means your data has a much greater distance of travel. More distance equals slower speed.
Too many users or overloaded server
Another reason is that the VPN server you’re connecting to has too many users connected and hence a high server load. In short, it can’t dedicate enough resources to you to keep your speed high.
ISP data capping or wrong protocol
Your ISP being capped at speeds below the maximum a VPN can provide might be the answer to your question, “why does VPN slow down my internet speed?” Or, you might be using a protocol that slows down your internet speed.