You may have heard stories of people complaining that VPN is slowing down their connection. Heck, you may have experienced it yourself.
A VPN routes your traffic, encrypting it and decrypting along the way, and this process could slow things down. Don’t worry though, there is a “cure” for this — if we can call it like that. Which brings us to our article du jour — we want to help you speed-up your VPN connection.
Here are a few things you could do beef-up the speed of your VPN:
1. Update everything
It doesn’t have to be that a VPN is slowing down the internet — it could be something else on your computer. We suggest you first try the following:
- Update the operating system and all the apps
- Restart your computer / other device you’re using
- Check for suspicious software running in the background using Task Manager
- Check for other software that may be downloading something (i.e. updating) in the background
- Restart your router
If these things don’t help, proceed to the next step(s).
2. Select a different VPN server
If you don’t have to connect to a particular destination, you can connect to a different server. The general rule is that the closest the server you’re connecting to is located, the faster your internet will be.
This, of course, doesn’t apply if you don’t live in the United States and want to enjoy a US-version of Netflix or Disney+. Still, you can connect to a different US-BASED server as typically there are plenty of available options.
Some VPNs will want to automatically select the best server for you; sometimes that works, and sometimes – you’ll have to manually opt for the server you think will work best.
3. Switch protocol
If the step above hasn’t solved your speed issues, try changing the VPN protocol. OpenVPN is our favorite protocol and it tends to work the best. However, there could be times when other protocols are faster. You may want to play with the protocol selection in the Settings menu and see if that helps.
We have read stories of people managing to skyrocket their VPN connection speeds by switching protocols — but again, in our own use — OpenVPN never failed us down.
Additionally, you can also tweak protocol settings where that makes sense. For instance, OpenVPN can run over TCP and UDP, the latter of which tends to be faster but unlike TCP doesn’t come with a built-in error correction feature. You may want to change that setting depending on what you want to accomplish.
4. Switch to a wired connection
If that’s possible, try connecting with the cable to your router. Yes, Wi-Fi is more comfortable, but it can also be buggy from time to time. At the very least, you can connect with the cable only to test out the connection speed — to determine whether the issue is with your wireless network or with a VPN. If the problem ends up with your Wi-Fi, well, you’ll have to find a different solution online.
5. Try split tunneling
This feature lets you better control the VPN tunnel, allowing you to access previously defined sites and services without a VPN while keeping VPN protection for the rest of the internet.
By using split tunneling, you will reduce the VPN traffic thus improve your connection speed. At the same time, sites you’re accessing without a VPN will be faster — presuming you had speed issues with them earlier.
Try a different VPN
Sometimes, there is only so much you can do to speed-up the connection speed of your VPN. If nothing works, well, you may want to try a different VPN. What you want is the one you can try for free — or which offers a money-back guarantee — and which has been field-tested to work under various circumstances.
Worry not my friend, we’ve got your back. Here are the Best of the Best VPNs that work for the vast majority of users. Try one of them and see why they topped our list. Cause we think all of them rock. And we’re confident they’ll also work for you! 😉