A Virtual Private Network, or VPN, is a fantastic solution to unlock restricted content on the Internet, boost your security, and increase your privacy thanks to its end-to-end encryption tunnels. It lets you visit any website you want without anyone tracking your location or gaining access to your personal data. As such, it’s an essential add-on for web browsing.
But a common question regarding this type of service is, “Will a VPN slow down my Internet?” After all, a VPN is essentially an intermediary between your device and the website you are trying to access, so doesn’t that slow down the data transmission speed?
The short and simple answer to this question is this: a bad VPN will slow down your Internet speed, but a good VPN can only speed up your connection.
Before moving forward to the details of this article, you’re suggested to go through a few tips to speed up your VPN connection to fast solve your issue.
How Can a VPN Slow Down Internet Speed?
Well, a bad VPN – especially the lower-quality free ones – will employ too few servers located very far from your location, throttle your bandwidth, and use slow encryption technology. All of these factors can slow down your connection.
A good VPN, like SkyVPN, can actually speed up your Internet connection. It does this by removing throttling on your connection, providing you with more direct routing to your intended destination thanks to its thousands of high-speed servers, and deploying state-of-the-art encryption techniques.
In this article, we break down some common Internet speed issues and reveal how to choose a VPN that works to upgrade, rather than downgrade, your overall Internet experience.
Avoiding Bandwidth Throttling
One of the biggest causes of a slow Internet connection – whether or not you are using a VPN – is bandwidth throttling.
Typically, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will limit your bandwidth. No matter what their advertising claims, they have to limit users’ bandwidth because they can only have a finite amount on their network.
The very instant that you connect to the Internet, your ISP will begin monitoring how much bandwidth your device is using. It’s keeping an eye out for particularly high levels of data transmission, which will be subsequently throttled. It’s unlikely you’ll crop up on their radar if you are just watching an HD video or playing an online game, but if you start downloading multiple files, torrenting, watching movies, and playing online games all at the same time, then you’re likely to catch their eye.
When that happens, your ISP will flip on the throttle, and your download speed will slow to a trickle, your videos will switch to a lower resolution, and your games will start to lag. One of the greatest things about a VPN, however, is that its encryption service means that it is impossible for your ISP to monitor your bandwidth. Because of this, they will never throttle your internet speed.
The important thing to remember, however, is that if you choose a bad VPN service, they will have their own server limits and will frequently put a cap on the bandwidth available to each user. So, you may end up even more restricted than before. That’s why it’s essential to choose a VPN with an unlimited bandwidth that will never throttle your connection, like SkyVPN.
Faster Routing with a VPN
Routing is essentially the path that your data travels along when it connects to a website. Typically, it will be pinged all around the world before it reaches its destination, and this takes time, slowing down your connection.
Routing happens automatically, if you don’t have a VPN, your ISP will select the path of traffic that your data takes over its network or across multiple different networks. Frequently, they will simply choose whichever servers have the lowest current load, rather than thinking about which route will be quickest for a particular user.
When you connect to a VPN, your data goes through a private network, and you can choose the servers it passes through to ensure you get the quickest routing. This means that a good VPN can significantly speed up your Internet connection by creating the shortest route possible over its own private servers. Of course, if the VPN has only a few servers with limited capacity, then you can still result in your data taking a long route to its destination, and this can slow down your connection.
Other Factors Affecting Internet Speed
Your Network Speed
It doesn’t matter how fast your VPN’s network is, your connection will always be limited to the speed of the network that you use to connect to the VPN server. If you’re only paying for 20mbps from your ISP, it’s impossible to beat that speed with a VPN.
Encryption Levels
VPNs are one of the most secure ways of browsing the Internet thanks to their end-to-end encryption. But encrypting data takes time. That’s why it’s important to use a VPN service like SkyVPN, which has military-grade encryption services running at top speed.
VPN Protocol
There are two types of VPN protocols: the connection-oriented TCP, and the connection-less UDP. The first establishes a connection before sending data, the latter sends and then redirects data. What’s important to know is that TCP is much faster, which is why SkyVPN only ever uses TCP on its network.
Split Tunnelling
Most VPN apps will send data through a single encrypted tunnel. As you might guess, this can be an issue if you are using that tunnel for movies, emails, music, gaming, and downloading content. Splitting tunnels means you can separate out functions across multiple tunnels, thereby massively increasing your internet speed. The split tunnel feature is available on SkyVPN, allowing users to customize their Internet life with cybersecurity and privacy protected and local life unaffected.
Local Antivirus Software
Most antivirus software programs nowadays scan your traffic as it leaves and enters your computer. This takes time and slows your connection. Thanks to the VPN’s inbuilt encryption, you’re already protected against data breaches and identity theft, so you have the option of turning off your antivirus!
If you’re looking for a VPN that maintains the highest Internet speeds possible while still securely encrypting all of your data, then look no further than SkyVPN. Our free VPN is the only premium service that doesn’t require a monthly subscription, and it provides you with unlimited access to over 3,000 top-of-the-line servers all around the world, meaning you’ll get efficient routing with no bandwidth throttling whatsoever. We never log user data either, so there’s no risk of privacy breaches. To download, click the link here.
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