VPNs – are they to blame for slow internet connections?

Millions of netizens tag VPN as the ‘holy grail’ of the Internet community. It has given us, the digital consumers, the capability of being safe and secure, far from the perils of the old digital platform that is so dreadful that it can ruin and cripple our virtual life. We can tell that privacy and trust issues in the platform have long been overdue because of the Internet's complexity and negligence from authorities. It has been a way of endorsing its vulnerability rather than being a safeguard for the information we gain nowadays. With that, VPN has promised a seamless and hassle-free connection thanks to its countless features each molded and created by various VPN service providers to battle the web's fragility.

Now, there are a lot of VPN services that are there to complement your browsing experience, giving different highlights such as security, convenience, anonymity, and, most importantly, connection reach. Talking in-depth about the last mentioned, is VPN a contributor to the slowing speed of your Internet connection?

Does a VPN slow down your connection?

Let us skim the title of our article. VPN, also known as Virtual Private Network, is a communicative network that gives you a unique IP address which you can use to make your browsing information anonymous and provides you with access to different servers worldwide. Upon hearing this, I am sure you are getting the summary of this topic. VPN has only the capacity to work if it is well-coordinated with your Internet connection. The Internet connection you have has its tendency to have a copy of your information whether you have your router or you are connecting to a public and unsecured Wi-Fi. Apart from that danger, an alarming concern from digital citizens is the slow Internet connection they are having.

Though a VPN has different service feedback depending on the router used and its location, it has become a universal problem that even ISP have a hard time addressing. To clarify the question we need to answer, we should first know what the actual relationship of the VPN and our Internet connection is.

The answer would be on the neutral side, meaning it is irrelevant somehow to say and there is a good side VPN can offer. My initial point would be on its irrelevance. First and to be noted, the slow Internet connection cannot be held accountable to the VPN itself.

The connection always and will always come and depend on the Internet Service Provider or the ISP. ISP does software, email, and Internet services for companies where it transmits Internet connection. As ISP has to take charge of the blame and to let VPN out of context, we will give now the possible reason why Internet connection gets slower: bandwidth throttling.

From the word ‘throttling’ which means choking or strangling to death, bandwidth throttling is a practice commenced by Internet providers where the amount of data transmitted, called the bandwidth, is minimized for its users so it can create an effect on cutting the network users and decrease bandwidth congestion because of overuse. In actuality, this mechanism is done frequently for users to reduce their Internet hours and give way for others to use and penetrate the network.

On the second and final point, let us put VPN on the spotlight. Besides its features that get better as competition among VPN providers intensifies, this network has long introduced its unlimited bandwidth feature present in almost all VPN services and even in applications downloadable for various smartphones and other mobile devices.

What could this unlimited bandwidth feature do to counterattack slow internet connection?

For personal use, unlimited bandwidth hosting could mean an uninterrupted browsing experience as data transmission does not decrease as network connectivity swells up. When connected to a VPN, you can enjoy surfing the Internet at its highest peak. Browsing from different servers through their encrypted tunnel will no longer be a problem, adding the bonus of anonymity and access features.

For businesses and enterprises, on-the-net operations will never be the same as the transmission is unbothered by any other buffering. 

For site makers, unlimited bandwidth hosting is equal to more traffic because users will no longer have to wait for your site to load. You can now also put any content you want on that site with no concern of a slow response rate.

VPN has no direct effect on the fluctuation of the Internet connection that is mainly caused by your provider. Being a complementary agent for the best surfing experience, using VPN will only get you more benefits and save you from interruptions and hassles.