In today’s digital age, our Internet download speed has rapidly increased. Many countries benefit from connection speeds that can download megabytes per second. However, in order to have a secure connection online, having a VPN might be a good idea. The question that comes up now is how will it affect our Internet connection speed?

The relation between VPN and download speed

 As soon as you connect to a VPN, there are many factors that can affect your download speed:

• The number of people using the VPN
• The server ping or the speed of the server
• The real speed of the server connection
• The location of the server

For instance, imagine that you are connecting to a high-speed US server. However, you are situated in London. The data would have to travel a far distance before reaching you. Thus, you will definitely feel a decrease in download speed.

Even though the server location and your location have great download speeds, you always have to consider the distance between you and the server. Take for instance, South Korea and France. Both countries have high internet download speeds. If you’re in South Korea but you are seeking an IP address in France, you will still feel a decrease in download speed because of the long distance between South Korea and France. This just means that if you have to connect to a server, choose the one nearer to your current location for a better download speed.

Another factor to consider is the number of people using the VPN. Of course, if a lot of people are connected to the same server, the download speed will suffer. However, there are VPN services that limit their connected users in order to avoid this scenario. In that case, if the server is full, a user could not connect to that server. Overcrowding of servers usually happen during important events, especially sports events where people want to watch live online through video streaming. Just like Netflix, people usually watch at certain times during the day and night. What you can do is try to avoid these peak times in order to get the best download speed the server has to offer.