A bit slow down under...

[joantherevelator 3]

G'day,

 

I'm an AirVPN user in Australia, about 9 months in. I picked AirVPN for a few reasons but mainly it came down to trust and security features.

 

Mostly I've been very happy with AirVPN - my only complaint is about speed. There are very few servers in the Southern Hemisphere. One in Singapore, another in Hong Kong. I think that's about it. I usually go through one of the Canadian servers - on the other side of the world from here. I guess that's why it's slow.

 

I'm currently telling everyone I know to sign up to a VPN (our government is about to bring in metadata retention laws for the whole population). I wish I could direct them all to AirVPN, but I'm sure there are faster VPNs around with more servers closer to home...

 

I wonder if there are any plans for more AirVPN servers down south?

 

cheers

[CultureVulture 30]

My quandary precisely. It's hard to direct people in Australia to AirVPN because of the speed issues, even though on most other fronts, Air is the way to go. I find the Hong Kong server to be the best. Perhaps also give the new Californian servers a try? I would, if I could resolve the issue of why my config generator won't work anymore. Gentle reminder, staff.;-)

[joantherevelator 3]

Ha ha, neither Singapore nor Hong Kong are in the southern hemisphere, but you know what I mean.

 

Yea the HK server can be fast, but erratically. Sometimes it barely works. For reliability's sake I usually just let the auto-connect take me to Canada, I'll give California a try.

 

thanks

[snaggle 25]

For once I'm happy to be on this side of the planet !!

The need for true privacy tools has become a worldwide issue so IMO Air servers for all regions can only be a massive plus for all involved.

On a side note it can't be nice having to connect via any server in the NSA's backyard Canada and UK included here, in fact I wouldn.t feel  comfortable. using any data center in a five eyes country.

[ctemby 3]

I'm also in Australia, and find that the Netherlands (then Germany/France/Switzerland) servers give the best overall speed, followed by most servers in the United States.  Hong Kong and Singapore are obviously closer to Australia, but are much slower.

 

@joantherevelator @ocelot  Try a few European (or possibly US) servers until you find which ones work the best for you.

 

P.S.  I have tried StrongVPN, PureVPN, HMA, and IPVanish .... but AirVPN are still the fastest for me, despite not having servers in Australia.

[CultureVulture 30]

@ctemby, thanks for sharing that. I am now on American servers, and they are pretty good. My experience with European servers is pretty erratic, but the Netherlands ones do seem to be the best. I think I may be having better luck with the Hong Kong server than you are. Good to know AirVPN speeds are so good compared to other services. I've been very happy with AirVPN.

[joantherevelator 3]

Yea, I'm on the Dutch ones now and the speed test is showing that I'm (slightly) faster than on my bare ISP, which is nice.

The Asian ones are great when they're great, but erratic as hell. Might just bar them for consistency's sake.

 

cheers

[PeppaPolzei 0]

Yea, I'm on the Dutch ones now and the speed test is showing that I'm (slightly) faster than on my bare ISP, which is nice.

 

The Asian ones are great when they're great, but erratic as hell. Might just bar them for consistency's sake.

 

cheers

If you don't mind me asking which Dutch servers have you tried and how fast is you normal connection? I am on ADSL2 and get close to 7 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up without a VPN. I have experimented with a couple of the European ones and have found them to be considerably slower than the Candian ones. I have found the same with the Asian servers to date.

[joantherevelator 3]

It's not usual for the VPN speed to beat my naked ISP speed! That's an occasional pleasant surprise. I just use whatever the best-rated server currently is for the region I'm trying.

So on speedtest.net I got these results just now:

no VPN: 12 Mpbs down, 1 up (this is better than usual, must be a good day)

Dutch (Dorsum): 9 down, 0.5 up

Canadian (Lesath): 6 down, 0.3 up

Asian (Antares): 11 down, 1 up.

 

As usual, the Asian servers are the best for me when they're performing well. But they do tend to get real slow at times if you're on it all day.

[joantherevelator 3]

Update: I've been using the Californian servers lately and they've been great. Turns out there's an undersea cable direct from Sydney to LA (check it out: http://submarinecablemap.com/#/submarine-cable/apx-east) which could explain it.

[Zaroad 26]

Could a Japanese or Taiwanese server solve it?

[hangpang 1]

The solution to this is to add more Asian servers from Singapore and Japan.

 

It would also be better to add multiple 100mb servers instead of just single 1GB servers. This way the load gets spread across multiple servers and also there is more variety in the routing from multiple servers.

 

With a single server even if it has 1GB it's still one server and can get bogged down.

[zhang888 1066]

The solution to this is to add more Asian servers from Singapore and Japan.

 

It would also be better to add multiple 100mb servers instead of just single 1GB servers. This way the load gets spread across multiple servers and also there is more variety in the routing from multiple servers.

 

With a single server even if it has 1GB it's still one server and can get bogged down.

 

Hello,

This is not quite true. In case the 100Mbit servers are from the same ISP, the routing will be exactly the same.

Besides, in 2015 it's not very price vs. performance wise to buy 100Mbit servers, unless of-course the location is exotic (Latvia, etc) and there

are no other options, or when the price is really worth it.

[hangpang 1]

 

The solution to this is to add more Asian servers from Singapore and Japan.

 

It would also be better to add multiple 100mb servers instead of just single 1GB servers. This way the load gets spread across multiple servers and also there is more variety in the routing from multiple servers.

 

With a single server even if it has 1GB it's still one server and can get bogged down.

Hello,

This is not quite true. In case the 100Mbit servers are from the same ISP, the routing will be exactly the same.

Besides, in 2015 it's not very price vs. performance wise to buy 100Mbit servers, unless of-course the location is exotic (Latvia, etc) and there

are no other options, or when the price is really worth it.

I was refering to having multiple servers in different locations such as there was previously with 5 Singapore servers so you could pick the server location with the best routing / performance in relation to where you are located.

 

The big problem is that there are now only 2 Asian servers to cover the whole region.

The original thread poster was pointing out that for Australian users Airvpn servers offer only limited service with 2 Asian servers and the performance for Austrlaian users is poor. This is a very valid statement.

 

Users who try Airvpn from Australia and find slow performace are likely to go elsewhere with another provider who offers more Asian servers or just conclude that it's not worth the hassle and not use vpn at all.

[Flic 2]

Good discussion.

I refuse to connect to any US, Canadian or UK server just because of trust issues.

More servers in Australasia region would be really nice, but where to locate them is the question  - I for one would not trust the Australian or New Zealand governments .... they are nothing but playmates for the NSA in my <uninformed and probably biased> opinion.

Japan has my vote.

 

It's not usual for the VPN speed to beat my naked ISP speed! That's an occasional pleasant surprise. I just use whatever the best-rated server currently is for the region I'm trying.

So on speedtest.net I got these results just now:

no VPN: 12 Mpbs down, 1 up (this is better than usual, must be a good day)

Dutch (Dorsum): 9 down, 0.5 up

Canadian (Lesath): 6 down, 0.3 up

Asian (Antares): 11 down, 1 up.

 

As usual, the Asian servers are the best for me when they're performing well. But they do tend to get real slow at times if you're on it all day.

 

I tend to frequent the Dutch and Singapore servers, and never have I seen such speeds as you measured here @joantherevelator ....ENVY !

(just now got 2.4 down, 1 up : Dutch (Pallas) via autoconnect (restricted to Dutch and Asian mind you...) )

[usr32 2]

+1 for Japan, because I am interested in some japanese content.

 

The solution to this is to add more Asian servers from Singapore and Japan.

 

It would also be better to add multiple 100mb servers instead of just single 1GB servers. This way the load gets spread across multiple servers and also there is more variety in the routing from multiple servers.

 

With a single server even if it has 1GB it's still one server and can get bogged down.

[joantherevelator 3]

Can anyone tell me why using AirVPN over a 4g mobile connection has such a massive impact on the connection speed? I've got a Telstra 4g dongle plugged in, and when I connect straight up (without the vpn), I'm getting 24 Mbps down and 8 Mbps up, which is huge (like, twice as fast as the broadband at home). But when I connect through AirVPN, I'm getting a tiny 1 Mbps down speed (but upload speeds are slightly faster than down), regardless of the server.

 

That's a huge difference, way bigger than the speed loss on ADSL. What's going on? Are there some settings I should change?

 

cheers

[usr32 2]

Can anyone tell me why using AirVPN over a 4g mobile connection has such a massive impact on the connection speed? I've got a Telstra 4g dongle plugged in, and when I connect straight up (without the vpn), I'm getting 24 Mbps down and 8 Mbps up, which is huge (like, twice as fast as the broadband at home). But when I connect through AirVPN, I'm getting a tiny 1 Mbps down speed (but upload speeds are slightly faster than down), regardless of the server.

 

That's a huge difference, way bigger than the speed loss on ADSL. What's going on? Are there some settings I should change?

 

cheers

 

Did you try changing port and/or protocol or using it over an SSH/SSL tunnel?

TCP and SSH/SSL would impact performance too, but maybe you will get moure then 1 Mbps.

In my country mobile carriers are known to throttle the traffic of a lot of protocols and ports.

[altae 22]

Well, im not directly concerned as I live in Switzerland and there are enough good european servers available but I'd also encourage Airvpn to introduce a few more servers in Asia. And as much as the Five Eyes Alliance is concerned it is obvious that if one uses vpn to cloak identity it is very unwise to connect to any server located in one of those countries. But if one only uses vpn to access content that is otherwise blocked because it is limited to certain areas it is another story and those canadian, american and british servers could indeed be useful.

[dagnabbit 0]

I am a new airvpn user from Canada and so far performance is excellent. I tried other products and had little success with download speeds. 

[fchang 1]

Hi dagnabbit,

 

I am in Canada, what provider are you using. I am using Teksavvy. They claim not to throttle vpn or ssh traffic, but I am only getting like 5Mbps in-tunnel speed. A little higher 6.5Mbps if it is on TCP/443 instead of UDP/any-port. On both Windows Client or Router. I suspect that Bell Canada is illegally throttling vpn/ssh/ssl traffic. Anyone here with Teksavvy that get higher speeds via airVPn?

 

--

Frank

[CultureVulture 30]

@dagnabbit, glad to hear it. However, the issue here is the lack of options for people living in Australia/NZ - or actually, anyone in the southern hemisphere or Asia. Canadians, States-siders and Europeans are absolutely spoiled for choice by comparison.

[dagnabbit 0]

I am with Shaw and am on the Broadband 50 plan. I have been getting near 50 Mbps using airvpn. I tried other VPN's and was getting download speeds similar to your results. 

Hi dagnabbit,

 

I am in Canada, what provider are you using. I am using Teksavvy. They claim not to throttle vpn or ssh traffic, but I am only getting like 5Mbps in-tunnel speed. A little higher 6.5Mbps if it is on TCP/443 instead of UDP/any-port. On both Windows Client or Router. I suspect that Bell Canada is illegally throttling vpn/ssh/ssl traffic. Anyone here with Teksavvy that get higher speeds via airVPn?

 

--

Frank

[GleeBee 0]

I'm in Australia, trying to resolve the speed issues here with support and forum members. I'm not sure it's doable.

Best speed I've gotten so far is just under 2Mbps, and this is on a 35Mbps cable/fiber link. I get okay results (8-20Mbps) using another VPN provider, one based in the US, but I'd really prefer to stick with AirVPN due to it's features and community.. but yeah.. very slow so far. Working on alternative configs for Eddie, and now trying 3rd party VPN programs such as Viscosity and OpenVPN. So far though, still no luck breaking that 2Mbps barrier. Will keep trying!

[bigbrosbitch 65]

​

I'm in Australia, trying to resolve the speed issues here with support and forum members. I'm not sure it's doable.

Best speed I've gotten so far is just under 2Mbps, and this is on a 35Mbps cable/fiber link. I get okay results (8-20Mbps) using another VPN provider, one based in the US, but I'd really prefer to stick with AirVPN due to it's features and community.. but yeah.. very slow so far. Working on alternative configs for Eddie, and now trying 3rd party VPN programs such as Viscosity and OpenVPN. So far though, still no luck breaking that 2Mbps barrier. Will keep trying!

​

I'm no network expert, but the more I read, I think the poor download speeds are probably being impacted by the quality of crap Netgear and other routers shipped by ISPs down under.

 

Thus, you end up with 'high speed cable or ADSL2+', which is limited by the piece of shit router sitting near your desktop. Maybe investing in something with some on-board power may improve your speeds dramatically? Maybe something from JB Hi-Fi in the 100-150 dollar range even gets you a theoretical upper limit of around 600mbit/sec. Plus you get the later protocols (WPA2 etc), hardened firewalls and so on as additional benefits.

​

​Can other members attest to this i.e. worth forking out up to a couple of hundred bucks to get proper speed? I personally doubt the poor performance is mostly software (protocol) related.

​

​I think ADSL2+ is meant to get you up to 20mbit/sec, 30mbit/sec for cable (100mbit/sec + for some plans), wireless 12-25 mbit/sec etc. Remember, this is NOT mb (mega-byte), as there are 8 bits to 1 byte. Plus, you also have peak times to consider e.g. evenings when everyone is downloading GoT and streaming HD porn

​

​So, I think if you want 30mbit or less, the free (crap) modems that are provided with plans may work okay if configured properly and you aren't a million miles from your nearest exchange.

 

But if you want 100mbit or whatever is promised in the fine print, at 4 am in the morning, you'll probably need to upgrade your modem/router. The older wifi gear gives particularly bad speeds, and may also only provide older (and insecure) protocols etc.