There is no denying that virtual private networks (VPNs) are an effective tool for safeguarding your identity and personal information on the web. With a VPN, you can encrypt your online activities, hide your IP address, and access geo-restricted content, which in turn protects your privacy and online autonomy.
Nevertheless, there are downsides to using VPNs. Notably, it can significantly slow down your internet connection speed when the VPN server is unable to cope with large amount of connections. The situation is quite frustating especially when you are streaming video or downloading large files. Here are 8 tips to speed up the Internet while using a VPN.
How to Increase Internet Speed While Using a VPN?
1. Switch to Another Server
To hide your online activities from government surveillance or to access geo-restricted content in another country, you can connect to a VPN that encrypts your data before sending it to an external server.
However, the farther the VPN server is from your location, the longer it’ll take to transmit data and slow down your internet speed.
It should be obvious that the more servers available from an ISP, the more choice you have and the lower the load per server. They can help you do anything you could possibly want. If you don’t know how to get unbanned from Omegle, then just enable the service in the appropriate region. Want to unblock content on Netflix? No problem. Bypass the geo-restriction of the site? It’s easy too.
2. Change VPN Protocols
When connecting to a VPN, your data is encrypted before being sent to an external server. The Protocol you choose impacts both your security and privacy, as well as the speed of your VPN.
Although the OpenVPN protocol is commonly used and provides high-level encryption for ultimate online privacy, its strength often comes at the cost of VPN speed.
Although VPN protocols such as PPTP and WireGuard prioritize fast connection speeds, WireGuard stands out due to its future-proofing approach and successful melding of both speed and security.
3. Change Provider
If you are facing slow VPN speeds despite changing servers and protocols, it might be time to consider a different service provider. We have tested several free and paid VPN services. But if you want to try out the things you can do over a VPN, this free VeePN Chrome extension is worth installing. It comes with a free trial and better than many free VPN services available out there.
4. Enable Split Tunneling
By default, most VPN services tunnel and encrypt internet traffic from all apps and software on your device. This can slow down your connection if there are multiple applications consuming a lot of bandwidth. Fortunately, most VPN providers have an in-built solution that allows you to choose which sites, apps, and networks you want to run through the VPN and which ones you want to access directly.
5. Temporarily Disable Your Device’s Antivirus Protection
Although we don’t typically suggest turning off antivirus and firewall protection, here’s a scenario where that could be appropriate: When downloading something from a trusted source and in need of a VPN connection boost. As all traffic passing through your computer is scanned by the antivirus, turning it off could temporarily speed up your connection.
Note: that permanently disabling these protections would make your system more vulnerable to online threats like viruses, worms, keyloggers, and trojans – so use this technique only when necessary.
6. Reboot Your Device
When your device is malfunctioning, restarting it is one of the go-to hacks to fix it. You probably know about the restart button on your mobile device or laptop you have used in this regard.
You could try the same trick to speed up your VPN connection too. By doing this, you can clear out any internal system errors, which may slow down your VPN connection.
It doesn’t stop there though. You might want to give your router a restart as well, in addition to your mobile device or computer, to see if that’s helpful too.
7. Close Background Apps
There are often multiple apps and programs running silently on your device at any given moment. Though not visible on the user interface, these apps still use up processing power and bandwidth.
If there are many such apps running in the background, your connection speed may slow down considerably. That’s why it’s crucial to check your background apps periodically and shut down the unnecessary ones. Repeating this process regularly should improve your VPN speed.
8. Switch to Cable Internet
WiFi is arguably the most convenient method today for connecting to the internet. Without the trouble of wires and cables, accessing the web from anywhere in your house is a breeze.
However, it is quite common knowledge that the speeds you enjoy on wireless connections can’t quite match those offered by wired connections. This is because radio signals prone to interference and disruption deliver data packets between your device and the router causing packet loss that, in turn, affects connection speeds.
Furthermore, wireless connections utilize a shared channel to transmit data to multiple devices at the same time, which only adds to slower speeds.
Conclusion
Using a VPN can slow down your internet speed, but there are many ways to boost it. By following these 8 tips, you can enjoy lightning-fast speeds while browsing the web securely and anonymously. Make sure to switch servers, change protocols, use split tunneling, temporarily disable antivirus protection, enable the cable internet connection, restart your device regularly, and close background apps. All this will allow you to save, and maybe even increase the speed of your Internet when using a VPN compared to connecting without it.
