How to Test and Improve Your VPN Speed

A VPN allows you to access streaming sites, watch sports, movies, shows, or torrent content. For all of these activities, network speed and stability are crucial. With that in mind, using a VPN that significantly slows down your connection speed would be contra-productive. So, what can you do to avoid lags and connection drops caused by poor VPN internet speed? In this Zlog post, we’ll go deeper into this ever-present subject and take a look at how you can test and improve your VPN speed.

How to Test Your Connection

If you suspect that your VPN speed is not as good as it should be, there are several ways to test this. The easiest and most popular method you can go with is to use Speedtest. Their site is simple to use and the results are easy to read. The entire test on this platform lasts around a minute and you’ll know everything you need to right away. When you run your connection through Speedtest, the three most important pieces of information you should read into are:

• Ping – The ping rate is essentially your overall speed. The lower the ping rate is, the better your connection is. It means that the information travels faster between your device and the server you’re accessing.
• Upload Speed – This is the rate at which you can upload your content and information to the Internet. If you need to upload large video files or often use your Internet to conduct video calls to other devices, you can never have enough upload speed.
• Download Speed – Oppositely to upload speed, download speed represents how quickly information from the Internet is reaching your device. The higher the download speed is, the faster you’ll download content, and the better your video streams can be. For Full HD streaming in full comfort, you should have a download speed of at least 10 Mbps, and for 4K streaming, the minimum recommended speed is 25 Mbps.

We recommend that you test your regular internet speed without a VPN first, so you have results that you can directly compare your speed with and without a VPN. This is because in some cases, your regular internet is not as good as you thought it is. This may be due to the infrastructure or even because your ISP is throttling your bandwidth.

How to Improve Your VPN Speed

If you’ve found that your connection speed drops significantly when connected to a VPN server, don’t give up on it immediately and disconnect, because there are several ways how you can act on this and improve your VPN speed. Here are our top three tips on how to improve your VPN speed and connection performance:

1. Reconnect to the Same Server – Sometimes the solution is as simple as just disconnecting from a specific server and then reconnecting to the same location right away.
2. Pick a New Server Location – If the previous action hasn’t proven to be successful, you can just pick a different server in the same country, or connect to one that’s geographically closer to you. Too many users on one server, as well as server distance from your physical location, can have an impact on your experience. For this reason, at ZoogVPN, we offer you a global server network with hand-picked servers, so you can switch up quickly and easily.
3. Switch to a Different Security Protocol – This method is for more advanced VPN users who know their way around and are familiar with the characteristics of each security protocol. Some protocols favor better security, while others offer better network performance at the cost of slightly lesser security. If you’re using ZoogVPN, you’ll have the option of switching between OpenVPN UDP 1194/TCP 443, L2TP/IPsec, PPTP, and new IKEv2.
4. Download NetOptimizer – This powerful tool will allow you to get the most out of your Internet connection. It analyzes your computer, checks your network, and applies the optimal hidden Windows parameters with a single click without any additional effort from your side and technical knowledge. If you’re an advanced user, NetOptimizer offers you an easy way to adjust each setting manually.

Try ZoogVPN For Free and Test Your VPN Connection Speed

At ZoogVPN we strive to provide you with the best VPN service on the market, at the most affordable rates you can find online. That’s why our VPN pricing plans start at only a couple of bucks per month, offering you a lot of value for your money.

Learn more about our service or try it out for free, without any limitations, for as long as you wish.  This will allow you to test it for many different purposes before committing to a long-term subscription plan. Sign up with ZoogVPN today!

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  Yaroslav S.

  CEO at ZoogVPN. Yaroslav is a versatile manager with extensive customer support experience. His historical background and a deep passion for philosophy perfectly complete a real desire to create meaningful content and tech products.