Hi, I have been searching for answers on the internet and there were a bunch of yes and no’s. So I can’t seem to find out what the answer really is. I have a slow wifi router and the ping I usually get is 180 to 700. It’s rare that my internet ping will get to 80. Can you guys help me answer my question?
I cannot conceive of a way that this is technically even possible. Your own network infrastructure is always underlying the VPN you are using, so that bottleneck will always be there.
No, not possible. It will increase.
Ping is much related with routing. Sometimes you could have higher ping even if you have decent internet speed. In this case you can definitely reduce ping using VPN by connecting to the region same as the server located. I am telling from my experiences by playing online games like Dota 2, Valorant, etc…
It makes sense that pings will be slower while VPN on because of how VPNs work. There’s extra lag because of the added encryption security etc. Server locations matter a lot too, so if it’s possible it’s better to choose closer servers.
The only way to reduce ping times I would guess would be:
-
Get higher speed internet (fiber optic) if it’s available, if you want it and can afford it. That’ll help.
-
Use Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi if it’s possible. In my apartment I cabled Ethernet from my router to my desktop/work space and just use a switch to cable to my tv, work laptop etc. I use WiFi for my smart phone and other wireless devices obviously. That’ll help maximize your ISP given speed in general too and it’s more secure.
-
Upgrade router/(network hardware in general)and/or add Wi-Fi extenders. A high quality Wi-Fi router will help ping times.
It’ll always be slower over VPN than without a VPN though. I’d just recommend not using VPN for things like streaming and gaming (which need speed) unless you really need that security for some reason.
Use wired internet don’t rely on Wi-Fi unless it’s 5GHz and your router is in the same room. Yes vpn can alter the routing so it’s possible especially if you live in remote country compared to websites you are visiting. For example direct ping from my isp to server in another country can be 150ms but going through vpn I can decrease it to 125ms. There are countries like Netherlands which has excellent peering that may be better than your isp has.
You mean ping times are at or above normal ping times with VPN enabled?
In general (and by in general, I would say 99.99% of the time) you are correct. There could be a case where the routing from A to B is really bad, but is better from A to C and then from C to B (with C being the exit for the VPN). Highly unlikely, but possible unless your ISP has really poor peering with who you want to talk to but your VPN doesn’t.
I regret to inform you that my ping decreased by 25% in some titles using a vpn, reason that I propose is that the sever that I was connecting to is somewhere in Asia, (I’m rural Australia) and instead of connecting to the server there I utilise the one in Sydney Australia, my internet is shitty most of the time so I’m assuming that this gain only can occur on poor networks
Ping before vpn, roughly 210
Ping after ~150
Could I have a explanation for your answer?
Yes.
Edit: just read my comment again and it wasn’t very clear. My bad
did u use wifi or wired internet?
Because no matter what, your underlying ping with your ISP will remain the same, and you are adding another hop to the VPN server. Think about it logically…
Your ISP > website = xxx ping
Your ISP > VPN > website = xxx + vpn ping
Whoever downvoted me is an idiot.
No problem, it just didn’t make sense for ping times to be shorter overall when using a VPN than not using one. Defies physics and modern computer science lol.
2 years late but hear me out (thanks in advance): I am from X, if the server is located at Y and I use a vpn to “send” me there, wouldn’t It lower my ping?
It defies logic. In the end, your base ping will be at the minimum, what you normally have. Simply because you are still on the same network/ISP. But normally higher.
It may in practice lower your ping from the vpn datacenter to your final destination, but in practice although you ping may say it’s lower, you’re adding more latency because your internet has to make one more additional stop every time it sends data. So it would feel much much worse
Right … but overall say… if you ping some site out on the web. If you ping the local gateway (home router) it should be the same. If not then there’s some home network things you can do to boost speed.