Troubleshooting slow speeds

We pride ourselves on offering fast, secure VPN service to all of our customers. We never throttle or rate-limit your connection. In the event, you find your VyprVPN speeds aren't what you'd expect or desire, there are several things you can try to diagnose and attempt to resolve the issue.

First, some general information to take into account regarding your VPN connection speed:

• You should expect to notice some speed loss when connecting to any VPN service, and VyprVPN is no exception. Every byte of data sent over our network requires encryption, which causes some additional loss in performance due to processing overhead.
• Generally speaking, the farther away you are from the VPN server you are connecting to, the slower the speeds you will experience. The longer the data has to travel, the higher the latency, and therefore the slower the speeds.
• VyprVPN relies on your underlying internet connection, so if you have a slow internet connection from your ISP, to begin with, you should expect to see more noticeably slower speeds when using VyprVPN.
• If your internet connection is suffering from an ISP issue like packet loss or throttling, expect degraded VPN performance or issues connecting.

What can I do to improve my speed?

Follow the steps below to attempt to solve slow speed issues:

1. Make sure the server you are connecting to doesn't have a high ping time.

All of our apps include a ping test button (gauge icon) in the server list. If you push that button, it will ping all of our servers. For optimal performance, connect to servers showing green ping times first, and yellow second. You should avoid servers with red ping times if speed is your main concern.

2. Try connecting to a closer server location.

Closer locations should have improved ping times and lower latency, so in most cases, they will perform faster than server locations that are farther away from you.

3. Refresh your local network, if you have access to the modem or router.

Refreshing your local network can clear up possible underlying issues like packet loss and is generally a good first-step troubleshooting technique. Follow the simple steps below.

1. Unplug power cables from modem and router*
2. Wait 30 seconds, plug modem in
3. Wait 30 seconds, plug router in
4. Wait 30 seconds, network is now refreshed.
*If you have a router/modem combo, just unplug that device.

4. Try a different VPN protocol.

This is easily achieved if you are using the VyprVPN desktop app on your Windows or Mac device. Depending on your account plan, you can choose between WireGuard, IKEv2, OpenVPN 256-bit, and Chameleon. More information about our offered protocols, in general, can be found here.

Generally speaking, the lower the encryption rate, the faster the speeds. This isn't true in everyone's case, as it depends on the device specs and network. However, it is helpful to try another protocol to rule out device or network issues.

Recommended protocols for higher speeds: WireGuard, IKEv2

Recommended protocols for higher security, but possible slower speeds: OpenVPN 256-bit, Chameleon.

The Android app uses OpenVPN 256-bit and Chameleon, while the iOS app uses the IKEv2, OpenVPN 256-bit, and Chameleon protocols. You can try changing protocols in the Android and iOS apps to see if WireGuard or Chameleon outperforms OpenVPN or vice-versa.

We offer different protocol setups on many different devices and operating systems in our Manual Setup Instructions page if you need or want to test a different protocol via a manual connection. For example, you would need to set up PPTP manually on an iOS device to test that protocol.