How is it possible that my VPN speed is greater than my normal internet connection?

VPN
1

I just had a quick question. Why does my VPN connection report greater Mbps (100) speed, then my normal internet connection (72.2)?

I am new to VPNs, but this increase in reported speed just doesn’t seem accurate. I use comcast in the united states and from checking the “Network information and set up” on my windows, I see that my normal wireless internet is lower Mbps. Am I understanding this correctly? I would greatly appreciate any insight you all have.

Update:
So, after using Kzshantonu’s speedof.me website, it became very clear that the VPN is actually much slower at downloading the files. On my normal internet connection, it took 30 seconds to download 100MB, but on the VPN, it took about 7 minutes. I am not sure why my computer reported something different, but actual speed testing revealed a significant decrease in speed on my vpn. I’m not sure if this is common.

2

Your ISP is filtering you. They watch you when VPN is off.

3

It could be the VPN caching the file used to speed test

4

Your actually speed might be the same. I use little snitch on my MacOS Maschine and the VPN connection speed is basically exactly the doubled usual internet speed. What probably happens is that the tools (in my case Little Snitch in your case Windows) measure the speed at two points (actual network connection as well as the one of your VPN Software and therefore it’s seems like you are twice as fast as without any VPN.

5

There’s two reasons this could occur:

  1. Your VPN takes a different, less congested route to the speedtest server (or uses a different server)

  2. Your VPN is compressing traffic and therefore speedtest results will not be accurate.

I’ve had number 2 happen to me, when a speedtest reported 15mbps on our home connection that’s only 5mbps on a good day.

6

Probably you were being throttled by your ISP, I have heard comcast throttling their user, a VPN lets you bypass throttling by making your activities anonymous.

7

It could be your DNS, or it could be throttling

8

this should be top comment,
/thread

9

I will try this when I get home tonight and give you an answer.

10

So, I went on this website and found that, on my normal internet connection, it took 30 seconds to download 100MB, but on the VPN, it took about 7 minutes. I am not sure why my computer reported something different, but actual speed testing revealed a significant decrease in speed on my vpn. I’m not sure if this is common.

11

Why would they be filtering my region of the US and not the country of my VPN? I heard about throttling internet, I just don’t understand why they would do it for ISP addresses in their own country and not other countries? Is this because they don’t have the legal right to filter ISPs outside of the US? A little more explanation would be helpful if you could.

12

So your saying that the real speed is my normal internet connection and the VPN speed is showing an inaccurate value. Is there any program I can run to see if there is a change in speed on and off the VPN?

13

I will post a screenshot of when I get home. I share wireless with 3 other roommates. Is it possible that their connects are the what is causing congestion?

14

DNS has nothing to do with bandwidth.

15

Of course that is just what I experienced on my own computer…so I can’t tell you if that is actually your issue as well. Probably try some online speed testing websites. Like this one.

16

DNS has everything to do with bandwidth. For an example, when I download stuff from PSN, OpenDNS is always faster than Google‘s

17

I will do that. Thanks for the advice.

18

DNS just resolves a domain name to an IP address. There is a chance that one DNS provider could give you an IP to a server that’s better for you (as one domain can resolve to multiple servers) but DNS has nothing to do with the amount of data you can transfer from one host to another.