VPN’s can be so….sloooowwwwwww…
Internet is expensive. I don’t know about you, but I want to get every last bit of speed I can out of it.
Some people skip the extra security and flexibility that a VPN for streaming provides, just because they don’t want their Internet to be slower than it already is.
That’s a big mistake.
Here’s a simple trick that you can use in most VPN’s to easily get 10%-20% more speed from your connection. I’m going to increase my IPVanish speed in this example, but this trick will work for most VPN’s out there.
If you haven’t already read my primer on why you need a VPN for Kodi, check that out and then come back to this article.
The elephant in the room: How much speed is too much to lose?
I’ve added this section after the original article was published to answer a great question from Dave, one of my readers. He’s complaining (and rightly so) that VPN’s take a massive cut to your overall Internet speed. You can see my example below, where just using the VPN, my connection speed coming into the TV box drops from 170+ Mbps down to 26 Mbps.
Is that too big of a speed penalty?
I’m going to argue that you actually need less speed at the TV box level than you think.
Qualifier: The words “at the TV box level” are critically important in that sentence. Your overall Internet speed coming in to your house should be as fast as possible so that no one device is the bottleneck, but each individual device can only use a certain amount of bandwidth.
The math (I’ll keep it simple so stick with me)
Say you wanted to stream 4K content to your device. According to Does Streaming Use Data, That’s going to be about 7GB per hour.
- 7 GB per hour = ~120 MB per minute = 2 MB per second bandwidth
- 2MB per second = roughly 16 Mbps bandwidth (the conversion from MBps to Mbps)
That means 4K content at the device level only uses around 16 Mbps total bandwidth. Anything beyond that is just so that the device can handle background tasks without interrupting your streaming.
I’ll stress again, that this is at the device level. The other devices on your network – not connected to your VPN – will still be using their slice of your full Internet speed. A VPN only affects the devices that you’re running it on.
The one setting you need to change to increase VPN speed
If you don’t care to know the ins and outs of what we’re going to do, feel free to skip to the next section. My feelings won’t be hurt.
Still here? Good.
What we’re going to be focusing on is whether to use VPN over TCP vs UDP.
What does that mean in layman’s terms?
It has to do with how the information (called packets) is transferred from one device to another over the Internet.
TCP is slower, but it has a built-in error correction. You see, the data packets don’t always arrive in the same order that they’re sent. Think of it like travelling along a spider web. There are plenty of ways to get from Point A to Point B. Some may be quicker than others.
Data travelling on the Internet is the same concept. They may take different paths to get to your computer, and some may be quicker than others.
Data packets sent over TCP will realize that they’re out of order and self-correct. When a packet sent via TCP arrives out of order, it’s held in a queue and waits for the others before it to catch up.
UDP is faster, but has no error correction. UDP sacrifices reliability for speed. Think of it as an unscrupulous eBay seller that doesn’t care if you actually get your item. They sent it and that’s all that matters.
Any packets that arrive out of order will be discarded. This can lead to digital artifacts or corrupted data.
In a nutshell: When it works correctly, UDP is the faster way to go. But if you start seeing glitches, errors, or generally things that you can’t explain…you may want to switch back to TCP and see if that fixes the problem.
Increase IPVanish speed (or any VPN)
First of all, you need to do a little bit of testing with your own system. How you actually use your VPN makes a big difference in how much of a VPN speed increase (if any) you’ll see using this trick.
Speedtest.net is a great way to see what your Internet speed is at each device. You may have 30 Mbps coming in to your house, but by the time it gets to your streaming device, it may be a fraction of that.
I’m going to show three different Speedtest results:
- Without running a VPN
- Running VPN over TCP
- Running VPN over UDP
I’ve upgraded the Internet connection in my house, so my speeds may be faster than you’re used to seeing.
It’s not so important what the initial speed is, but it is very important what the difference in the three tests will be.
Let me explain: If my initial speed is 50 Mb/s, my TCP test is 2 Mbps and my UDP test is 25 Mb/s then that tells me two things: First, that’s one hell of a drop-off in speed for the TCP test, and I think something is wrong. Second, (and more important) the UDP test is about 12 times faster than the TCP test and about 50% as fast as not using a VPN at all. Both of those facts are important.
As I said, I’ll be looking to increase my IPVanish speed, but this trick should work with most VPN’s. If it doesn’t work on your VPN, I’ll include a coupon code at the end of this article for a special deal on IPVanish VPN.
My initial speed: No VPN
As you can see, my Internet speed on my Android TV box is almost 170 Mbps. That’s pretty good.
VPN over TCP
The default setting in IPVanish and most other VPN’s is to use VPN over TCP. You can check which VPN protocol you’re connecting with by going to Settings -> Connection -> Protocol
As you can see, the Internet speed at the device level takes a pretty significant hit…all the way down to 17 Mbps.
It’s been well documented that using a VPN will decrease your Internet speed. After all, you’re trading performance for security. But, I think we can do better.
VPN over UDP
Head on back to the IPVanish Settings tab and select the OpenVPN (UDP) protocol.
Now, Speedtest showed a VPN speed of 26 Mbps, an increase of over 50%!
Not too bad for a couple of clicks, right?
Again, this trick should work to increase almost any VPN speed. But I always advise testing your particular VPN and your streaming habits. Depending on how you use your VPN, you may not see as big a performance increase as I have here.
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The Verdict
This simple trick is an easy way to get a 50% improvement in your IPVanish speed, and it will work with most VPN’s.
Let me know what you think. Have you found any other settings that ramp up your IPVanish speed? Let me know in the comments below!
Yes, I have noticed the same. Along with the several other features of using VPN service, it also boast up internet speed. I use Ivacy VPN and it works perfect
I have been using NordVPN for about 3 years or so. My speed reduction between my hard wired computer and my modem and router is usually about 2 or 3 Mbps when VPN is active. Yesterday I tested my speed between my streaming device [android TV box] and my wireless router and it was 89 Mbps at my android box. My ISP plan should be 100 Mbps but it is usually more like 90-95 Mbps. So my losses are very minimal and never stand in the way of my desire to stream something.
Now the question becomes WHAT should I watch? That my friend is the $64,000 question, ha ha. Have a great day.
IP Vanish must then an absolutely rubbish VPN as with the one I use, if I loose 10% of my max it’s a lot.
Which VPN do you use Reme? I’d like to try it out.
What is the effect on the security when using UDP?
Security is not my forte, but the research IO was able to find (and understand because it gets really in-depth really quickly) seems to say that, at least for streaming, UDP is a better option.
Don’t know if this will help Tim but this is a pretty good primer for UDP. The way I read it MANY providers use this protocol even though they don’t advertise it. Enjoy.
https://www.bestvpn.com/openvpn-tcp-vs-udp-difference-choose/
Hi Thomas. That was actually one of the articles that I used as research when I was writing this. It’s almost impossible to write about the difference between VPN protocols without getting overly technical. That article did a good job of keeping it high level.
Thanks for the link!
Another thing with vpn’s that can help is picking a location close to you. The closer the connection the faster the speed typically is. Also u want to see how many people are connected to that connection if there is to many its going to slow you down. With IPvanish you can call them and they will help you trouble shoot to find the best connection. I have multiple friends using their device and I get the same speeds as shown up to 185 but out of everyone I know with IPVanish they only lose 5mpbs speed which is incredible. Some of them just know how to get it like that and others will just call the service and have a tech help them find the best connection and the best choice between UDP and TCP. But everyone of them only has a loss of 5mbps with already fast internet speed. I’m going to switch back to IPVanish as they seem to be the best, I’ve tried at least 15 or 20 and none of them are anywhere close. If you want a free VPN and have a good speed like 100 or above try ghost VPN from the play store I use it to use a certain app to watch movies that you need a VPN and it works fine or Halo VPN works well to you open halo and from there you open the app pick USA if your in the USA and then the app will be running thru their VPN and the app I use would download a percentage of the movie but discard it when its done but if you do it they the VPN it takes about 5 minutes longer and then your movie plays flawlessly and it delete the movie from your system when your done (the app) then you just close out of that VPN which I only use it for that one app. Sometimes I use it if I’m going thru ace stream to watch yiffy movies which you can find in the play store but the app is made by another developer he just adds all of yiffy’s downloads all in hd or 1080. Good article as always.
Eric
It may also be advisable to check their speed for each remote port offered in both UDP and TCP, then just switching protocols alone. As an example, I found that using remote port 9201 in UDP gave me a 40% speed increase over another remote port I tested. Not too shabby. I’m not certain if the remote port numbers in IPVanish are the same as the VPN I’m using. It’s worth a shot to check by speed testing each remote port in both TCP and UDP.
Where are the comments?
I am a new user of IPVanish and I have to say their Tech Support and customer service is great…. but that doesn’t help my speed at all…. I have changed all my devices to UDP (PC and Android tablets) and find that with my 100+ Mb/s connection I can count on anywhere from 25 to 40 Mb/s using the VPN… .That’s it, That’s all! I am using the closest set of servers close to me, and that helped… but honestly If I were to have known it took that much of a hit I probably would not have signed up! I bought in to the 7 day trial and 50% off deal thinking what the heck., but I am far from satisfied with a 60 to 75% hit on speed… I don’t have time to spend hours searching servers every time I get on line so don’t tell me I have to keep trying different servers that isn’t going to cut it. I have a very constant 100-110 MB/s connection all the time…. My guess is that most users are seeing this type of hit… and if you want to go out of the country, forget it… you might as well have dial-up… I understand that Tech Support says if I keep searching and experimenting servers that I may be able to get a little faster but like I said, I don’t have the time…
But, wait a minute, Perhaps I should have gone back and read the article.. the author starts with a 176MB/s connection and after changing to UDP he now gets 26 MB/s
I’m just not sure if IPVanish would be willing to show the same hit one gets using their VPN or possibly others…..
Now I know why there is a 7 day trial and not 30 day trial I guess…
Hey Dave. Great comment and you’re absolutely right…to a point. 🙂
I wanted to address this for everyone, so I added another section to the article (just for you). VPN’s do take a massive hit on speed more often than not – especially the ones that are actually doing what they’re supposed to be doing. But I’ll argue that you don’t need as much speed coming in to the box as you think.
I pay for really fast Internet because I have a ton of devices connected and I want each one to connect as fast as possible. We’ve got three computers in the house and they use the lion’s share of the bandwidth. My streaming devices only use a maximum of 16 Mbps streaming 4K content (see my calculations above). Anything after that is just a bonus.
Now obviously if you’re installing IPVanish on your router, then this becomes much more important. But if you’re running it on your TV box directly, you’re in a much better place. If you can get your device speed up above 20 Mbps, to give you some cushion, then you’re better off spending your time doing other things.
Again…thanks for the great comment!
Good morning Tim… I thank you for your reply and thanks for the comment on what the TV boxes speed requirement is… I have asked several forums what the bandwidth and speed is required for the Android TV boxes and don’t get much of an answer but it seems like your actually doing some real testing and I really appreciate that. MY VPN is on the box and not the router so I can turn it on and off as needed…. I do have it also installed on my Notebook and smartphone/tablets and I choose when I need to use them. So far it seems like I have found the best server for me and I”m OK with that speed as long as it does not interfere with the streaming… I think in most cases the streaming issues come from the location of the streams …. but I”m getting over 20 Mbps pretty constantly and it seems to work.
Again, thanks for the reply and the update I am sure that others will appreciate the information!
Have tried 3 VPN programs. Did all the suggestions, close servers, different cities, UDP, TCP.No improvements of any significance. I mean 80 to 90% loss of speed from 90 to 100Mbs. i
Using Hitron 1GB modem/router both in wifi and hard wired. Paying for 75Mbs down speed but get 95 to 100Mbs constant. Using VPN”s down to 4 to 7Mbps.
What is wrong on my part.?? If anything.
I laugh at some of the post. VPN’s are like dinner….some want chicken, some prefer steak.
In the end, most offer free trial, take a look at those. I’ve tried them all but I keep coming back to IPVanish. You can pick the individual server or best available in any city.
Do I need a VPN? Heck yes. Net Neutrality was shutdown by the government, and now ISP’s have the capability to throttle your internet speeds. It’s computers, you test it, computer finds it and allows full capability for the test.
Point 2, you have to be careful. Nothing is perfect, nothing! VPN changes your IP address so no one knows what you are viewing….including you know stuff, KODI, IPTV’s, downloading movies or watching movies from an APK.
Protect yourself is very important. SetTV shut down, builders on KODI shutdown from threats from big companies. Important life lesson, it’s not right or wrong, but who has the most money to line the government’s pocket, or keep things in litigation!
Get a VPN!