One of the main attractions of VPN services are the encryption capabilities and anonymity benefits. VPN services like TorGuard provide ways to bypass censorship walls, hide internet traffic from ISP’s, and even give users the ability to make their connection virtually appear in over forty countries.
Besides these basic security measures, VPNs also need good speed. While TorGuard is widely considered one of the most powerful VPN services for security, it’s also the fastest VPN available. But, don’t just take our word for it – test it yourself!
How can you find your internet speed accurately when you are using a VPN? After all, using the wrong site can give inaccurate results due to many sites not accounting for LZO compression–something built into OpenVPN protocols.
Here are some things to consider before testing out your VPN speed:
1.) Distance from the closest ISP server is running the speed test.
When testing out your VPN internet speeds, it’s important that you have a test server that is nearby your location. Speedtest.net is a popular website that has access to over 2,500 different test servers so your speed results will be highly accurate.
2.) Distance from the VPN server itself
TorGuard has over 1200 servers in different spots so users can maintain the highest possible speeds. The distance from a VPN server and your connection is influenced by how long it takes a data packet to flow from the VPN server to your connection. By picking a VPN server close by, your speed will be much more accurate.
3.) Type of VPN service being used: OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, SSTP.
Make sure you know what type of protocol you’re using since it can directly affect your tested speeds.
OpenVPN is the most secure type of connection and the most widely used form of a VPN utilized by TorGuard customers. Other protocols like PPTP and L2TP aren’t as good of choices in terms of security, however they may offer faster speeds.
While PPTP can offer higher speeds, it’s been known for years to have security loopholes. PPTP should really only be considered as secure as a proxy server with no encryption. While it might be OK for streaming Netflix, those that are privacy conscious should always choose OpenVPN.
SSTP is similar to OpenVPN in its ability to use TCP port 443 to avoid NAT firewall issues, and SSTP itself is under Microsoft’s domain. SSTP VPN can work well for bypassing strict firewall blocks if you are having trouble getting OpenVPN access.
4.) Hardware or Device using the VPN
Most computers are built to be powerful enough to use VPN encryption, but speeds can vary depending on processor power built into your devices like cellphones and tablets.
5.) If using OpenVPN, UDP, and TCP
OpenVPN can run through UDP or TCP connections. TCP is more reliable since it uses error correction to verify that a data packet has arrived before sending it back out. UDP is faster as it sends packets back and forth where they have arrived or not.
So if you’re using TCP, you can expect a slower speed when testing, and faster speed when testing through a UDP connection. If speed if what you are looking for, always choose UDP.
6.) ISP Throttling
We are hearing an increasing number or reports where ISPs shape and control your bandwidth. It sucks, and it’s hard to tell how much. Sure there are some complex tools to measure how much your ISP is affecting your speeds, whether at peak times or when your torrenting. But an easier way is to use Stealth VPN through TorGuard and compare the speeds when you aren’t using it. If your speeds at the same VPN location are much higher in Stealth than the normal VPN service, you have caught your ISP red-handed!
7.) Bandwidth Availability
If you have any resource hungry background programs running, you may find that your speeds are inaccurate on your speed test. Programs like Bittorrent, DropBox, and even Google Drive can affect your download and upload speeds. Make sure to close down all possible programs, and even consider restarting your computer to get the most accurate speed test.
Here are some speed-testing resources to use:
Speedtest.net is one of the most popular websites for quick speed test results. They have a lot of servers worldwide to provide fairly accurate readings.
You can also check with your ISP to use their provided test, although these are notoriously inaccurate for high speed users with access speeds over 50mpbs. Consider using speedtest.comcast.net for an accurate reading through Comcast and Verizon also has their service at www.verizon.com/speedtest/.
Stay away from TestMy.net and Speedof.me. These websites don’t have many testing locations so your speeds can vary since they might be far away from servers. They will also provide inaccurate results for speeds over 20mbps.
