For the most accurate results, use a cable to connect your computer to your router. If you need to test wirelessly, position yourself as close to your router as possible. Make sure that nothing else is using your internet connection, or running on your computer, while performing the test.
Why you need a VPN speed test?
The need for speed is necessary when doing anything on the internet. Testing your VPN speed will allow you to know what tasks a VPN is suitable for and if your ISP has been throttling your speed. Testing your VPN speed will enable you to;
- Know your latency/ping, download, and upload speeds.
- Select suitable servers.
- Select suitable tasks such as gaming and streaming.
How VPN speed is measured
A VPN speed is measured by taking into consideration various variable and constant factors. These factorsaffect your VPN speed,and this is the reason why you might end up getting varying results in the VPN speed test.Here are themajor factors that determine your VPN speed during the test;
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ISP Speed
Your ISP dictates the overall internet speed allocated to you via your internet package subscription. This is a constant factor that only changes when you change your subscription. only varies if your ISPs infrastructure is facing some performance issues or some other aspects such as throttling. In this factor, the higher your internet speed is (Subscription package) the higher the VPN speed will be. Only a small drop may be detected due to the encryption overhead. The lower the ISP speed, the lower your overall VPN speed will be.
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VPN infrastructure, Servers, and location
A VPN infrastructure greatly determines the results you will get out of a VPN speed test. A VPN infrastructure is composed of many things such as servers, locations, how the VPN handles traffic, where the VPN gets traffic, how maintenanceis done, encryptions involved and everything that a VPN is madeof.
What to look at in a VPN speed test
This speed test will measure your ping, download time, and upload time.
Ping and Latency
Ping speeds are most used by online games. Ping is a network utility tool that is used to determine connectivity in a network measuring response (ping) in milliseconds (ms). The lower the better. Ping stands for Packet Internet Groper. Beside determining connectivity, ping also measures how fast the connectivity between devices is (the quality of the connection). This measurement is called Latency and measurements are usually in milliseconds(ms). The lower the latency/ping value, the faster the VPN connection is, while a higher the value indicates a slower connection. Ping and latency don’t measure speed, but the quality of a connection. Pings value is especially important for online game players who need a quick response from the server when playing, so they do not delay their action in a game. A relatively fast ping can be considered if it is less than 40 ms and very good results is everything within the range 0 to 10 ms.
Which speed is actually my download speed?
Download refers to activities such as streaming video, downloading files and browsing the web.For your purposes, this is the most important bit of data. It indicates how fast data is transferred from the VPN/server to you. It's measured in megabits per second, usually displayed as Mb or Mbps. Crudely speaking, the higher the download result, the faster your speed is for downloading files and loading websites. Try not to confuse Mb with megabytes (MB), which is a measure of size rather than bandwidth. There’s a certain amount of MB you can transfer in a certain amount of time depending on your connection speed. For example, standard ADSL 17Mb internet equates to just over 2MB per second, while entry-level fibre optic 38Mb broadband allows downloads of 4.75MB per second, and rapid 100Mb broadband speeds mean downloads of 12.5MB per second.
| Broadband Download Speed | Typical Use |
|---|---|
| 0.5 Mbps (Mega bits per second) | If speeds are consistent they should be sufficient for audio streaming, email and very basic web browsing. |
| 1 Meg (Mbps) | Basic video streaming should work and standard web pages. |
| 2 Meg (Mbps) | Standard definition (SD) video from BBC iPlayer should be possible. |
| 5 Meg (Mbps) | Should allow High Definition (HD - 1080p) video streaming to run smoothly. |
| 8 Meg (Mbps) | Should be able to support video streaming and other activities at the same time without buffering. |
| 15 Meg (Mbps) | Connection will support a few video streams and other activity at the same time. |
| 25 Meg (Mbps) | Should be able to to stream pre-recorded Ultra HD video (UHD - 4k) smoothly. |
| 40 Meg (Mbps) | Should be able to to stream live Ultra HD video (UHD - 4k) smoothly. |
Upload speed
Upload refers to activities such as sharing photos on social media and storing files on cloud storage (e.g Dropbox, Google Drive). This is the opposite of download speed. It’s the indication of how fast data is sent from your device to the server. This data comprises the request you make on the internet and other things you share such as files. Similar to download speed, it’s also measured in Kilobits per second (Kbps)or megabits per second (Mbps). The higher the value, the faster the speed.
| Broadband Upload Speed | Typical Use |
|---|---|
| 0.1 Mbps (Mega bits per second) | Enough to send simple text emails. |
| 0.4 Meg (Mbps) | Online gaming should be possible, remember gaming is very latency sensitive. |
| 0.8 Meg (Mbps) | Webcam video streams over Skype etc should be reasonable quality |
| 2 Meg (Mbps) | HD Webcam streaming may be possible. |
| 10 Meg (Mbps) | Uploading 200MB of holiday video to the cloud will take around 4 to 5 minutes |
NOTE: Any results generated are not a guarantee of your true connection speed or your ability to perform a specific online task
How to make your VPN Connection faster?
After the speed test, you may find out that the drop in your VPN speed is very significant. Since speed is not absolute due to the variable factors, you can speed up your VPN connection. This is possible by adjusting some VPN factors such as;
Server location and server load
At times, the nearer the server rule may not hold due to another factor; Server load. The load (number of connections) affects the performance of a server. The more the connections, the poor the performance and hence low speeds. When the proximity rule is in use, the nearer servers tend to be overloaded. This makes servers located far away to have a better performance index.
Thelocation of a VPN server greatly influences your VPN speeds. A general rule of thumb states that; the nearer a VPN server location is, the faster the VPN speeds. Vice versa is also true. Proximity directly affects latency. It also affects the delay in connection which in turn affects the VPN’s overall speeds.
Protocol and encryption
VPN protocols are standards that dictate how VPN encryptions and connections are carried out. Some protocols implement strong encryptions while others use lower encryptions levels. Others balance between speed performance and encryption. The stronger the encryption, the more the security and the lower the speed. Lower encryption levels compromise security but offer great speeds. You should choose a VPN protocol that balances both such as the OpenVPN protocol.
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