Using VPN to Speedup Your Internet International Speed

[Pib]

As everyone knows, a VPN allows you to create a secure connection over the Internet, access region-restricted websites like NetFlix or foreign TV services, shield your browsing activity from prying eyes, etc. It can also improve your internet speed especially to international servers/sites....no shortage of posts on ThaiVisa where folks have complained about their slow international speed while their domestic/Thailand speed is fine.

Just for example, this morning over the last hour or so I did a variety of speed tests using Testmy.net to Singapore, Los Angeles, and London using No VPN and three different VPN protocols of PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN-UDP....and an important point for each VPN connection it was via a VPN connection to Singapore and then speed testing to the Testmy.net Singapore, LA, and London speed test servers. So, for the VPN connection the Singapore VPN server was the middle man...the server providing the VPN service to all testing locations. I use PureVPN service.

I have found just using a Singapore VPN connection gives me faster VPN speed than if say I made a VPN connection to LA, London, etc. Singapore is just closer and has plenty of bandwidth to reach out to the world. Plus a lot of content from U.S. and European website is mirrored on Singapore servers...no need to reach out to the the U.S., Europe, etc., to view/download the info. But of course if I needed to have a US IP address say to get some streaming video restricted to the U.S. I would need to use a U.S. IP connection, ditto for whatever country where I might be trying to access some certain region-restricted info.

Below are the results for Testmy.net "Manual Download Test" 25MB file size using Multithread with and without a Singapore VPN connection and testing to Singapore, LA, and London Testmy.net speed test servers.

I used Testmy.net since it's a HTML5 tester versus an OOKLA/flash based tester like Speedtest.net that can be fooled by local cache servers and sometimes give a person glorious (high) results. In addition to no VPN connection (just a regular connection) I did five tests using three different popular VPN protocols to each Testmy.net speed test server location (Singapore, LA, London), then discarded the high and low reading to each location, then averaged the remaining three speed readings. I have a True DOCSIS/cable/FCI 15Mb/1.5Mb plan here in Bangkok and since DOCSIS includes bursting capability that means for short periods it can exceed the plan's advertised download speed. But once again, a key point I want to stress is I established the VPN connection at Singapore only and then tested to Singapore, LA, and London speed test servers...the Singapore VPN server was the all important server in this testing/reaching out to the world.

No VPN Connection (i.e., regular connection)

To Singapore: 8.7Mb

To Los Angeles: 1.8Mb

To London: 1.4Mb

VPN PPTP Connection at Singapore

To Singapore: 22.6Mb

To Los Angeles: 14.4Mb

To London: 18.1Mb

VPN L2TP Connection at Singapore

To Singapore: 22.9Mb

To Los Angeles: 13.4Mb

To London: 16.7Mb

OpenVPN-UDP Connection at Singapore

To Singapore: 23.3Mb

To Los Angeles: 15.0Mb

To London: 17.7Mb

Once again just FYI...just to show how a VPN connection may be able to speed up your internet speed from Thailand to international sites....it sure speeds up my 15Mb plan. Your results may vary...take all speed testing with a big grain of salt as it can vary greatly during the day & night, between speed testers, between local internet service providers, etc.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Pib

[JetsetBkk]

Thanks, Pib.

FYI, Sourceforge now have a HTML5 speed test site: https://sourceforge.net/speedtest/

[Pib]

DSL Reports also has a good HTML5 speedtester. You can select various locations around the world to test to. Below is a test I ran at 8:40pm here in Bangkok on my True 15Mb down/1.5Mb up plan to Singapore with a Singapore VPN PPTP connection. Zipping along at over 21Mb down at prime time (i.e., most everyone home using their internet).

[luk AJ]

Did you try VPN Thailand? Fasted connection I got so far.

[Pib]

Did you try VPN Thailand? Fasted connection I got so far.

If you mean the Bangkok VPN server available with PureVPN, I did try it but it was no faster than a regular connection. Guess even PureVPN's server in Thailand gets choked by the Thailand ISPs.

But maybe you mean "VPN Thailand" as another VPN Service Provider?

[muratremix]

Did you try VPN Thailand? Fasted connection I got so far.

Link?

[firePanda]

Thanks,

Pib

I never paid attention, but I also have better speed on certain website, like youtube, vk.com or seed4.me with VPN connection.

I will just add few thins:

1. PPTP and L2TP work almost the same, but IPsec and OpenVPN are really faster.

2. I contacted my VPN provider (s4m xyz) and support guys recommended me to change my DNS (to Yandex or Google). It really helped me a lot!

Namaste

[JetsetBkk]

DSL Reports also has a good HTML5 speedtester. You can select various locations around the world to test to. Below is a test I ran at 8:40pm here in Bangkok on my True 15Mb down/1.5Mb up plan to Singapore with a Singapore VPN PPTP connection. Zipping along at over 21Mb down at prime time (i.e., most everyone home using their internet).

Capture.JPG

There was a time when most speed tests to the US would show about 1.5 mbps download and about 0.7 mbps up (that's bits per second, not bytes) apart from Ookla tests which were always cached and fiddled.

Those slow speeds never worried me much because with torrents you use multiple links so stuff you download comes down pretty much at the max speed of your service, e.g. I usually get 2 mBps (16 mbps) when downloading via a bittorrent client. And I use Internet Download Manager for downloading non-torrent stuff and it also uses multiple links.

But now we are seeing international speeds of 10 or 20 mbps down, and I'm wondering if the speed tests are using a single link to do the testing, or are they using multiple links.

Any thoughts?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Yes, my experience is the same as Pib's posted above.

It's funny how being in Thailand ends up turning conventional wisdom upside down.. I guess a not uncommon reality here.

Conventional wisdom is, VPNs provide added security and privacy, but somewhat slow down your connection.

Reality in Thailand is, for reasons apparently related to routing and Thailand's international net connections, using a VPN here for connecting with content in the outside world tends to dramatically increase your real download speeds, even up to the order of 10 times so. Somehow, using a good VPN manages to avoid whatever roadblocks are in place on Thailand international traffic, and pretty much allow you to gain the kind of speeds called for in your ISP service plan... not the measly 2-4 Mbps international connections that Thai ISPs alone will provide.

The difference between using a VPN here and not is truly amazing in terms of its impact on available international download speeds, at least from the U.S., which is where my experience is based.

[Nomad97]

Fully concur with what has been said above. I use Golden Frog VPN who have recently established a dedicated server in Thailand. My international downloads are usually very good and often in excess of 20 MBPS. The use of the VPN is certainly a force multiplier and well worth the additional 300 baht/month.

[Becker]

A question;

I am using HMA and when I choose Singapore the it says I get a virtual USA location. What does that mean and will is slow down the connection?

[muratremix]

Fully concur with what has been said above. I use Golden Frog VPN who have recently established a dedicated server in Thailand. My international downloads are usually very good and often in excess of 20 MBPS. The use of the VPN is certainly a force multiplier and well worth the additional 300 baht/month.

Sorry but this server is not located in Thailand. It was and always in Singapore. Dedicated international bw in Thailand is very expensive in datacenters so no sound mind vpn company will invest money over this. Besides, computer crime act is too harsh in here so why they should deal with it?

th1.vpn.goldenfrog.com

[Pib]

A question;

I am using HMA and when I choose Singapore the it says I get a virtual USA location. What does that mean and will is slow down the connection?

It means the VPN connection is actually being made in Singapore, but a U.S. IP address is being issued making you look like you are in the U.S. See HideMyAss VPN's explanation below.

https://support.hidemyass.com/hc/en-us/articles/202722036-What-are-virtual-locations-and-what-do-I-need-them-for-

What are Virtual locations?

What is that and what would you need it for? How can you use them? Thats quickly explained.

When you e.g. connect to a VPN server located in the USA, you get an IP address from the USA assigned (e.g. visible on geoip.hidemyass.com) and your traffic takes the route from your place to the VPN servers location.

Should you connect from a far away location, this can affect your connection speed and latency negatively.

Now you might need to connect to a US-based VPN server to get a US IP-address, which allows you access to content that is only available for people with a US based IP; e.g. videos from streaming sites, web-radios or any other content that checks your IPs location - but of course you simultaneously want to get the best speeds and ping. Here is where virtual locations come in handy:

It means that you connect to a server that is located in one country, but gives you an IP address that is assigned to a different country.

So you can easily get a US based IP address, but keep proper speeds and latency due to the fact that your server is physically located in the UK. Your traffic takes a shorter route, providing you with a connection of better quality.

We provide virtual locations for many countries, e.g. Canada, Portugal, Indonesia, Malaysia etc.

Take a look at out VPN server location list to see what virtual location servers we currently have: http://hidemyass.com/vpn/servers/

(you can filter the list e.g. using the word "virtual")

[Kabula]

Caution using VPN...

VPN is legal in Thailand, however, if you accidentally click on a web site that has been blocked by the Thai Government; you have committed a serious crime.

If you are using VPN, you would not see the blocked site.

Keep that in mind.

[ThaiWai]

Without VPN

With VPN

Mythbusters Verdict: BUSTED

Edited June 17, 2016 by ThaiWai

[Pib]

Thanks,

Pib

I never paid attention, but I also have better speed on certain website, like youtube, vk.com or seed4.me with VPN connection.

I will just add few thins:

1. PPTP and L2TP work almost the same, but IPsec and OpenVPN are really faster.

2. I contacted my VPN provider (s4m xyz) and support guys recommended me to change my DNS (to Yandex or Google). It really helped me a lot!

Namaste

I would have to disagree based on my tests that OpenVPN is "really" fast as in really faster than PPTP and L2TP/IPsec because over the last week I have done a "LOT" of speedtests (probably over a hundred) to various locations with various VPN protocols (i.e, PPTP, OpenVPN, etc). Yes, OpenVPN-UDP is fast but whether it's faster than PPTP my tests have not indicated that....but your results may vary because people use different VPN providers, are in different locations, have different connection speeds, maybe even a person's computer setup/horsepower makes a difference, etc.

I still have all the paperwork recording the speedtest results laying on my desk. For me and my tests using PureVPN the speed of PPTP, L2TP/IPsec and OpenVPN-UDP is neck and neck...within just a few percent of each other....kinda like a horse race with three horses in a photo finish.

In some of those photo-finishes, PPTP wins by a nosie with OpenVPN-UDP second and L2TP/IPec another nose back finishing third. On other days, its OpenVPN-UDP by a nose over PPTP with L2TP/IPec a nose back from PPTP. But from just scanning through all my speedtest results right now PPTP would have the most wins, OpenVPN-UDP the second most wins, and L2TP/IPsec no wins but but come durn close to winning in so many races...just a few noses back. This is why for a "speed standpoint" I feel comfortable in using either PPTP, OpenVPN-UDP, or L2TP/IPsec in my connections...but when considering encryption security PPTP comes in last with OpenVPN-UDP coming in first and maybe nosing out L2TP/IPSec based on what I've read.

But a problem with OpenVPN is it can be picky to get working on some computers, whereas PPTP and LT2P/IPSec are native to Windows, Android, etc...not picky in getting to work. I experience that very problem in using PureVPNs last app (ver 5.1)...could never get OpenVPN to work on my two Lenovo laptops using their app; but install PureVPNs older app (Ver 4.2) and OpenVPN works on both. PureVPNs says they are aware of the issue and working it. And when you read reviews on OpenVPN you often see comments about how it can be picky to get working sometimes...you may have to try a couple of OpenVPN apps to find one that agrees with your machine.

I've tried various DNSs, True's, Google, and OpenDNS and haven't found any speed difference, but that was a limited amount of tests. I do know a few years back when I ran some of those benchmark programs that just test the speed/response of your DNS, that my Internet Service Providers (which is True) won...second was Google DNS and third was OpenDNS. Now that win was based on speed alone...and in the accuracy/ability to find website they all score equally. But to repeat I have done on a few tests regarding VPN speed by using the various DNS....almost all of the test I have done to date and those posted in my OP was using Google DNS..s (IP4 and IP6).

Your results may vary.

[Pib]

Yes, my experience is the same as Pib's posted above.

It's funny how being in Thailand ends up turning conventional wisdom upside down.. I guess a not uncommon reality here.

Conventional wisdom is, VPNs provide added security and privacy, but somewhat slow down your connection.

Reality in Thailand is, for reasons apparently related to routing and Thailand's international net connections, using a VPN here for connecting with content in the outside world tends to dramatically increase your real download speeds, even up to the order of 10 times so. Somehow, using a good VPN manages to avoid whatever roadblocks are in place on Thailand international traffic, and pretty much allow you to gain the kind of speeds called for in your ISP service plan... not the measly 2-4 Mbps international connections that Thai ISPs alone will provide.

The difference between using a VPN here and not is truly amazing in terms of its impact on available international download speeds, at least from the U.S., which is where my experience is based.

Amen!!! When reading VPN service providers website about things that can impact VPN speed you probably find something saying your VPN peed will probably not be any faster than your Non-VPN connection...and I'm sure that is "generally" true primarily due to the extra VPN overhead. But in some cases it can make a big speed difference (improvement) and Thailand seems to be one of those places it does.

[trd]

Astril VPN is consistently faster to USA servers via Singapore.

[savagerb]

Just curious guys what sort of Internet are you using? As all speeds above seem really slow? Do you use fibre, vdsl or adsl? Wired or wireless? As I'm living in New Zealand and on average my Downloads are 95mbs and 20-25 uploads?

[user82374298374]

The reason your Internet speeds are faster using a VPN in this scenario is that you're bypassing poorly-configured, overloaded cache servers operated by the your ISP, as well as any traffic shaping via middleboxes they're using for TCP traffic.

Keep in mind that TCP round-trip times (RTTs) are always going to be a limiting factor for transoceanic TCP downloads, due to the high latency involved. And ensure that you've sufficient upload speed in order to maximize your TCP ACKs, as well.

[trd]

Just curious guys what sort of Internet are you using? As all speeds above seem really slow? Do you use fibre, vdsl or adsl? Wired or wireless? As I'm living in New Zealand and on average my Downloads are 95mbs and 20-25 uploads?

Using the same Internet as you are but this is Thailand not NZ. I get 100 Mbs download from Bangkok to Phuket on my fibre optic connection but that drops to around 25 after I connect to the smaller pipe that is the international gateway.

Sent from my GT-I8200N using Tapatalk

[luk AJ]

Did you try VPN Thailand? Fasted connection I got so far.

Link?

I dont understand what you mean with "link" I use ExpressVPN and choose country Thailand. In my case this is much faster compared to Singapore or Hong Kong.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Astril VPN is consistently faster to USA servers via Singapore.

The issue with their service is:

A] whether you just want a fast internet connection, but don't care if the IP is located in Sing.

or

B] you want a fast internet connection and need the IP to be located in the U.S.

Astrill used to have a Singapore-virtual U.S. server available that was very fast and stable, and provided a U.S. IP address.

But, AFAIK, they no longer offer that server, and instead now offer a Hong Kong-virtual U.S. server, which doesn't seem to be as fast or as stable.

However, if one doesn't need or care about a U.S. IP, then yes, their direct Singapore VPN connections are good.

[savagerb]

Ok that makes sense my speeds were 100 down 25 up using Ookla but using the one that was mentioned earlier my speeds were dramatically different it was only 43mbps down and 17.3 up so obviously ookla is way off

Edited June 17, 2016 by savagerb

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I would have to disagree based on my tests that OpenVPN is "really" fast as in really faster than PPTP and L2TP/IPsec because over the last week I have done a "LOT" of speedtests (probably over a hundred) to various locations with various VPN protocols (i.e, PPTP, OpenVPN, etc). Yes, OpenVPN-UDP is fast but whether it's faster than PPTP my tests have not indicated that....but your results may vary because people use different VPN providers, are in different locations, have different connection speeds, maybe even a person's computer setup/horsepower makes a difference, etc.

I've done a lot of speedtesting on the VPN connection methods as well, and haven't come to any consistent, single answer on it. As best as I can tell, it really depends on your individual connection, how you're implementing the VPN, what VPN provider you're using, etc etc. I've had very different results with different setups and different VPN providers. There are A LOT of variables involved.

As one example, I can connect via PPTP via my home router, or via the built-in PPTP technology on my Windows PCs. Every time I test that, I get much faster speeds when I'm doing the PC PPTP connection than when I'm doing the router PPTP connection -- even when the VPN provider and specific server are the same.

I can't give a guaranteed answer as to why, but from what I've read, your typical PC has a much faster and more powerful processor than the typical router, and the extra speed and processing power on the PC supposedly allows the VPN process to go faster when done thru the PC -- all other things being equal.

[trd]

Astril VPN is consistently faster to USA servers via Singapore.

The issue with their service is:

A] whether you just want a fast internet connection, but don't care if the IP is located in Sing.

or

B] you want a fast internet connection and need the IP to be located in the U.S.

Astrill used to have a Singapore-virtual U.S. server available that was very fast and stable, and provided a U.S. IP address.

But, AFAIK, they no longer offer that server, and instead now offer a Hong Kong-virtual U.S. server, which doesn't seem to be as fast or as stable.

However, if one doesn't need or care about a U.S. IP, then yes, their direct Singapore VPN connections are good.

I use the Astrill UK server for BBC iPlayer and the Singapore server for a faster and more consistent data flow. A real life example is when I stream a HD movie from Genesis via Kodi. If there is a lot of buffering and I switch to the Singapore VPN the buffering usually goes away. A speed test can add another 10Mbs to the bandwidth, but I've also noticed the data download is very smooth compared with a very jerky download looking at the visual indicator on speed test with the Thai isp, in this case 3bb. I don't use it for torrents because the multi connections contribute to a download of up to 40Mbps. Anyhow torrents don't seem to work on Astrill. They must filter for it. It slows to a crawl.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Anyhow torrents don't seem to work on Astrill. They must filter for it. It slows to a crawl.

Yes, as I said, if you don't need a U.S. IP (such as for using Kodi), then Astrill Singapore works great.

Re torrents, AFAIK, their server list includes various servers that have a STAR symbol next to them.

The starred ones supposedly are compatible with torrents. The others are not.

Edited June 17, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Pib]

Just curious guys what sort of Internet are you using? As all speeds above seem really slow? Do you use fibre, vdsl or adsl? Wired or wireless? As I'm living in New Zealand and on average my Downloads are 95mbs and 20-25 uploads

Using the same Internet as you are but this is Thailand not NZ. I get 100 Mbs download from Bangkok to Phuket on my fibre optic connection but that drops to around 25 after I connect to the smaller pipe that is the international gateway.

Sent from my GT-I8200N using Tapatalk

For me as mentioned in my opening post, mine is a 15Mb down/1.5Mb up cable/DOCSIS plan. While fiber is becoming more common in Thialand it's still really the Land of ADSL up to about 20Mb speed. Living in places like Bangkok, Pattaga, Phuket, large cities your chances of being able to get fiber, cable, or VDSL goes up but generally out in the provinces and many portions of cities its still the Land of ADSL. For example, I live in western Bangkok...I have only two choices for ISPs...TOT ADSL up to 20Mb and True Fiber Cable Internet (i.e., primarily cable with fiber in some cases) up too 200Mb with cable and 1000Mb with fiber). But True FCI is not really cheap after the 30Mb down/3Mb up plan point. For example, a 100Mb down/10Mb up plan with the 7% VAT works out to aprox 215 NZ dollars per month....but their 15Mb plan is only 24 NZ dollars per month.

However, recently 3BB and AIS are now starting to give True some real competition by having 50-100Mb fiber plans which are much cheaper than True 50Mb and up plans...but it will take time for 3BB/AIS to really spread their fiber systems to seriously hurt True's market share since True also is the primary cable and satellite TV provider in Thailand and also has a large chunk of the ADSL market.

And like trd talked about, the "international gateways" of Thai ISPs just don't have enough bandwidth...bandwidth cost money and I guess the Thai ISPs know the great, great majority of their customers are Thai and the great majority to Thais know little to no English and probably not too interested in surfing farang English language sites so no need to buy a lot of international bandwidth...just enough to keep farangs from screaming too loud. But Thai ISP "domestic gateways" for internet bandwidth "within" Thailand is generally fine.

[Pib]

Ok that makes sense my speeds were 100 down 25 up using Ookla but using the one that was mentioned earlier my speeds were dramatically different it was only 43mbps down and 17.3 up so obviously ookla is way off

Almost always internet service providers will use an OOKLA/flashed based speedtester since they usually give glorious results, even many times when testing to the far reaches of the world/international servers. OOKLA/flash based speedtesters are the speedtesters of choice of ISPs as it makes their speeds look great....they are fine for local testing but subject to errors/high results when testing to far off servers. Sometimes with the glorious results given then a person wonders why their live video or youtube video streaming pauses so much or just stop...well, that usually because the internet speed is not what the OOKLA based tester reported and/or is not "steady flowing" data.

A HTML5 or Java based tester is much less likely to be fooled by local caching which can fool OOKLA based testers. But when you want to feel good about your internet speed just use Speedtest.net...and then when you want some results that are more real world go use some HMTL5/Java based tester like testmy.net, DSLReports, etc. And even Java based tester are being to fade in favor of HTML5...and flash-based testers like speedtest.net just need to die tomorrow but they won't as ISPs will keep them alive.

Once again, OOKLA based tester are fine for local testing, but can be error prone which causes faster than light ping times and BS high download speeds for testing to far off/international sites...a lot will depend on how your ISP has their network configured....so just beware of OOKLA based tester speed results until you confirm them by using another non-OOKLA based tester by getting fairly similar results.

Edited June 17, 2016 by Pib

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The best way to watch out for false results with Ookla servers is, AFAIK, to watch the ping result number in ms (milli-seconds).

If it's approx under 50-100 ms, the connection that's being tested is a local one, not from Europe or the U.S. -- despite whatever the website is saying. This is where the "speed of light" factor comes into play, since the U.S. is 7000-8000 miles away from here.

But if the ping time in ms in 200-300 ms, that at least is indicative of a U.S. or Europe connection -- or a very poor/broken local one.