Does a VPN make your internet slower?

Does a VPN make your internet slower?

The uptick in security breaches and use of our personal data will leave no one surprised that interest in Virtual Private Networks (VPN) has skyrocketed over the past five years.

Encrypting your data as you surf the web is an appealing prospect for anyone but rerouting an internet connection through a VPN will take its toll on connection speeds.

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Slower or faster internet with a VPN

More than just the VPN dictates the speed and, using a VPN does not guarantee noticeably worse connection speeds. Internet speeds through a VPN are affected by several factors including your internet service provider’s original speeds and bandwidth, the location of the VPN’s servers, and how busy those servers are. 

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The fact is it’s a balancing act. The more work a VPN is expected to do, the slower the connection speeds are going to be. If you are looking to encrypt their data as strongly as possible, then the process of encrypting requests, sending it to a site, that site sending a response and decrypting that response will take longer than a standard connection.

Other factors will depend on hardware. Speeds will differ between ethernet and wireless connections as well as the device that you’re using. Ethernet is superior as it is a consistent, physical connection and quick encryption can also rely on the hardware of devices. Therefore a device with less capable processing power and RAM will provide a slower connection.

Should I use a VPN?

All this doesn’t mean VPNs are not a good idea; especially if you are looking for ways to browse the web more securely. But you will need to trade some speed for that security and do some research on the type of VPN you choose – generally the more expensive options are faster.

Best VPN for Windows
Best VPN for Windows

In the main, it is important to find ways to make the VPN work less. To ensure a good connection speed, it is advised you have a high internet speed from your provider and check the location and the bandwidth of the VPN server you select, as both contribute a lot to the overall experience.

Does a VPN make your internet slower?

User comment about internet speed and if it makes it slower

One of the most commonly asked questions by Internet users is “Does a VPN make your Internet slower?”. This is an extremely important question to ask yourself as it is true that a VPN can speed up your connection significantly, but there are a few factors that you need to be aware of first.

The main reason why people ask this question is because they want to know if they are actually losing their connection or if they are only seeing a small drop in speed when they are surfing the Internet. Here are a couple of things that you should be aware of when you are asking this question.

First of all, the main reason why a VPN makes your Internet slower is because you are connecting over a public network instead of a private network.


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This means that all the connections that are made through this VPN have to go through the same firewalls and servers, which make it much slower than if you were using your personal computer.

If you are surfing the Internet on your personal computer, you will notice that there is a significant difference in how fast your connection is while you are on a public network.

Lower speed with a cheap or free VPN

However, if you are surfing the Internet with a VPN then the speed that you are going to get while you are surfing the Internet is going to be much lower.

Another factor that you need to be aware of is that the VPN will prevent your connection from being able to use the most up to date Internet protocols, which is also going to cause a drop in speed. In order for you to make your Internet faster, you need to make sure that you are using the latest versions of the Internet programs.


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By having the latest versions, your connection is going to be able to access these files from many different websites. You also need to make sure that you are using a high quality connection. Most of the time, there are several different reasons that you could be using a VPN, so you are probably going to want to consider all of them when you are thinking about what kind of Internet connection you need.

Francky

Do I use a VPN? Yes of course! I've been online for many years, and I have used multiple different VPN services over now and in the past. Be clever and use a good VPN all the time.

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