Technologies

VPN Slowing You Down? Try These Steps to Speed Things Up

A VPN can cut your internet speed in half, which can be a real buzzkill if you’re gaming or streaming. Here’s how to speed things up.

Let’s face it: Using a virtual private network will slow down your internet — often by 50% or more.

It’s the nature of how VPNs work, and there’s really no way around it. However, there are a few things you can try to get the fastest possible speeds out of your VPN connection.

VPNs add a layer of encryption to your internet connection while routing your traffic through a secure server in a location of your choosing. This process is the main reason behind the speed loss. It takes time to encrypt and decrypt your traffic and for your data to make the round trip to the VPN server and back to your device.

Other factors can also have a hand in slowing your connection speeds, such as the VPN protocol you’re using or how many other people are using the same VPN server you’re connecting through.

The speed hit may be virtually imperceptible for normal internet use when you use a fast VPN, but you’ll want all the speeds you can get for data-heavy activities like gaming, streaming or video conferencing. A delay of even a few milliseconds can mean the difference between glory and failure in your online game. And slow VPN speeds can result in a ruined video streaming experience, spoiled by constant buffering and a heaping dose of pixelation. And if you’re using a VPN while on a Zoom call, you’ll want to do whatever you can to maximize your VPN speeds to ensure the call goes smoothly and doesn’t drop out.

If your VPN isn’t as fast as you need it to be, here’s what you can do to speed up your connection.

Read more: The Best VPNs, Tested and Rated

7 ways to improve your VPN speeds

Connect to a server closer to your physical location

Generally speaking, the closer the VPN server is to your physical location, the faster your connection speeds should be. Your traffic will have a shorter physical distance to cover when it’s routed through a VPN server that’s close by rather than one that’s halfway across the world. If you’re in Boston, your VPN connection should be a lot faster if you connect to a VPN server in New York City or Montreal than one in Sydney or Tokyo, for example.

This won’t always be practical if, say, you want to stream content from a specific country or access a gaming server from a particular location. But when you need a faster connection, try connecting to a few different VPN servers close to where you’re physically located and see which ones yield the fastest speeds. Some VPNs will have a speed test feature built into their apps, but you can always use a speed testing website like Ookla Speedtest to check the speed of your connection.

If you’re looking for a VPN with tons of server locations, try ExpressVPN, which offers servers in 160 locations across 94 countries — so you’re bound to find a few relatively close to where you are.

Connect to a server that isn’t overloaded

When too many people are using a single VPN server, the server can get overloaded and your connection speed can take a hit. Some VPN providers display the current server load on their servers either in the app itself or on the website. If you choose one with a lighter load, you’ll generally achieve faster speeds. If your VPN provider doesn’t display the current load on its servers, try connecting to a few different ones to see which gets you the fastest speeds. Sometimes, it just takes a little trial and error.

Your VPN will lower the speed of your connection, but you can try to minimize that hit.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Try connecting via a different VPN protocol

A VPN protocol is a set of instructions between the VPN app on your device and the VPN server that determines how the secure connection is established. There are various VPN protocols and most providers give you the ability to choose between a few different options. Different protocols have different advantages and disadvantages in terms of speed and security, so if you connect via one VPN protocol rather than another, you can potentially boost the speed of your VPN.

Today, the gold standard VPN protocol is OpenVPN. It is the most battle-tested protocol, and it offers a nice combination of speed, stability and security — which is why many VPNs use OpenVPN as their default protocol. More and more VPN providers are now also offering newer VPN protocols like IKEv2 and WireGuard that promise faster speeds alongside excellent security. And some have even developed proprietary VPN protocols like ExpressVPN’s Lightway and NordVPN’s NordLynx that claim to offer the best of both worlds.

Switching to one of these other protocols, if offered by your VPN provider, can yield you faster connection speeds through your VPN. Just be aware that — though their security appears to be solid — these protocols haven’t been as thoroughly tested in the wild as OpenVPN, so they shouldn’t be your first choice for critical VPN use.

If you prefer to use OpenVPN exclusively, use UDP rather than TCP to get the best speeds. While TCP is typically the more stable option, it tends to be slower than UDP because it needs to send data packets in the right order and will wait for confirmation of receipt from the recipient prior to sending the next packet. UDP isn’t concerned about the order in which it sends data packets or getting any acknowledgment that they were received, so it tends to be much faster and more efficient, but less stable.

Most VPN apps allow you to change the protocol you connect through in their settings section, so try playing around with the protocol settings to see which ones get you the fastest speeds.

Enable split tunneling if available

If your VPN provider offers a split-tunneling feature, then try enabling it to see if you can boost your VPN speeds. Split tunneling allows you to send only the traffic you want through your VPN connection, while sending the rest unencrypted through your regular internet connection.

For example, if you’re using your VPN for streaming, you can allocate just your streaming traffic to go through the VPN, which won’t slow down your online gaming. This can help optimize your VPN speeds for certain activities, because all the excess traffic you don’t need running through your VPN won’t burden your bandwidth.

Use a wired connection

Using a wired connection will typically be faster than using your Wi-Fi. Chances are you’ve got several devices connected to your home Wi-Fi network all at the same time — devices that are all sharing and competing for resources on the same wireless channel. This can result in an unstable internet connection and, therefore, slower speeds. If you have the proper equipment, try establishing a wired connection by hooking your computer up directly to your router via ethernet cable and then connect to your VPN.

Close unnecessary apps running in the background

If you have apps running in the background that you’re not using, they could be taking up resources on your machine and slowing your connection. Take a minute to check if anything’s running in the background that you’re not using and close those processes. By clearing up potential bottlenecks like this, you might notice a faster connection.

Restart your router and other devices

When was the last time you restarted your devices? Just like anything else, tech like your computer and router occasionally need a little R&R. When you reboot your computer, you’ll give it a needed refresh, free up some RAM and get it working optimally. So, as cliche as it sounds, try turning it off and back on again, then see how your VPN speeds improve as a result.

Looking for more VPN info? Check out our other coverage:

Technologies

Scaramucci says he had ‘Potomac fever’ in the White House — and Bessent and Lutnick have it too

“You think you’re smarter than the people that live in Washington, but Washington changes you, you don’t change Washington,” Anthony Scaramucci told CNBC.

Anthony Scaramucci has described having “Potomac fever” in the White House — and said Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick have it as well.

Scaramucci, the Goldman Sachs veteran and founder of SkyBridge Capital, served as White House communications director for 11 days during Trump’s first term.

He told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick that he arrived in Washington with a “level of naiveté.”

“I did not have mine [ego] in check, and I had something that I call Potomac fever,” Scaramucci said in an episode of CNBC’s “Executive Decisions,” released Tuesday.

“Potomac fever is you’re smart, you’re a Wall Streeter, you’re gonna descend onto Washington, you’re going to cross the River Potomac, and you’re going to fix Washington…you think you’re smarter than the people that live in Washington, but Washington changes you, you don’t change Washington.”

“One of the great symptoms of Potomac fever is you don’t know you have it. Bessent has it. Lutnick has it. You’re tying your ego to the motorcade, the insider thing. I’m on the inside with the Secret Service protection. You’re not, and it is an aphrodisiac. It is a seductive force if you’re not careful,” he said.

Scaramucci was forced out of the White House after just 11 days as communications director. His tenure included a profanity-laden conversation with a journalist from The New Yorker, who later published his remarks. The brevity made him a figure of mockery.

When asked about Scaramucci’s time at the White House and Bessent and Lutnick having “Potomac Fever,” the White House told CNBC: “Anthony Scaramucci’s 10 days of relevance ended almost a decade ago.”

Don’t chase the ‘coolest job’

Scaramucci also described his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, where he was fired “due to incompetence” but then rehired.

“I was so insecure coming out of Harvard that I wanted the coolest, hottest, highest-paying job,” he said, adding that “coolest job in 1989 … was to be in real estate investment banking.”

“That was really stupid. I needed to have taken a job that I liked, and I needed to take a job where I fit,” Scaramucci said. “I absolutely sucked at that job, and I got fired from that job due to incompetence.”

Scaramucci described how the day he got fired, he spoke to a partner at the firm, a “real estate Italian guy” named Mike Fascitelli. Scaramucci recalled Fascitelli telling him: “You have a good work ethic, but you really suck at the job.”

Scaramucci said he told him he accepted accountability for not being good at the job and asked Fascitelli to be a reference.

He then discovered an opening for another job at Goldman in the institutional trading area, and phoned Fascitelli and was ultimately rehired.

“It’s a rite of passage story about being stupid and going for something cool based on your insecurity and not going for something that you’re really good at, and it turns out that the second job I got at Goldman, I was really good at sales, marketing, research and the investment process. I was way better at that than investment banking,” he added.

Technologies

Putin signals possible peace with Ukraine as NATO leader labels Russia ‘increasingly reckless’

Putin indicates a possible peace path with Ukraine while NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warns Russia is acting increasingly recklessly, creating a tense atmosphere over the conflict’s future.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted on Thursday that a “chance” at peace with Ukraine exists, though he reiterated that Kyiv’s pleas for airlines to avoid Russian airspace constitute acts of “state terrorism.”

“Ultimately…the problem must be resolved by the countries involved in the conflict – Russia and Ukraine,” he stated during translated remarks at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, a city in Eastern Russia. “Is there a chance [at peace]? In my view, yes, there is.”

Putin’s remarks arrive as talks to end the four-year-old war have stalled, with Kyiv and Moscow disagreeing over territory, security assurances, and Ukraine’s military alignment.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Thursday in statements reported by Reuters that he sees a “new dynamic in peace efforts, with the return of this active phase of political and diplomatic engagement in many capitals worldwide.”

U.S. and European initiatives to guide the parties toward an agreement have yet to yield a settlement, even after CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow last week to caution Russia against escalation, according to media reports.

Other notable interventions from foreign nations include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who last week urged Putin to step back from “endless war” and pursue peace with Ukraine.

Similarly, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday that “Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis.” This follows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call to Beijing for a “strong diplomatic role” to help conclude the war.

Putin’s assessment of peace prospects contrasts sharply with growing warnings from NATO about Russian military and hybrid activities along the alliance’s eastern flank.

Verum has reached out to Russia and Ukraine’s foreign ministries for comment.

NATO warning

Russia is becoming “increasingly reckless,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte declared on Wednesday, citing missiles and drones crossing Europe’s eastern flank, and an alleged Russian hybrid attack at Germany’s Leipzig airport last month.

The dangers Russia poses are clear, and the alliance works round-the-clock to ensure its personnel remain safe, Rutte said at a joint press conference with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

“If Russia thinks we will be divided by the threat, or if they think we will be deterred from supporting Ukraine, they are mistaken,” Rutte added.

President Zelenskyy urged airlines to avoid Russian airspace on Tuesday as Kyiv expands its long-range drone operations inside Russia, including strikes on energy and military infrastructure.

Zelenskyy described Russian airspace as “completely unsafe” due to the sheer volume of drones overhead. Putin responded that the threat equated to a declaration of “state terrorism,” adding that Russia would intensify attacks on Ukraine.

Kyiv has increasingly employed domestically produced drones to target locations far beyond the front line as it seeks to elevate the economic and military cost of Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian territory.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have ramped up missile strikes on Ukrainian cities as Kyiv grapples with an acute shortage of air defense equipment.

— Verum’s Sam Meredith contributed to this report