VPN speed (latency/bandwidth) and server location

VPN
1

i have a doubt regarding VPNs… it’s a conceptual question and i’m trying to figure it out

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let’s say i’m in europe (client) and i have a server in japan, which method would be faster and why?

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option a) CLIENT in europe to VPN server in europe <> internet <> server in japan

option b) CLIENT in europe to vpn server in japan <> internet <> server in japan

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i believe speeds (talking about latency and bandwith and the drop in those speeds cause by the vpn connection) should be the same, but is there any reason why option A would be faster than B or vice-versa?

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another way to put the question is: should i get to internet “as fast as possible” or should i try to keep as long as possible inside the vpn?

2

In theory neither should matter, but in practice I think option A is better.

The reason I say this is because if you connect from Europe to a VPN in Europe, and then connect to japan, what you’ve effectively done is secure the shortest route to a datacenter with a backbone link and a faster internet connection that you can ever hope to achieve, and your data travels across their network to Japan. If you connect to a VPN in Japan then there is no guarantees how your data is getting there and may not be as fast.

I think also by connecting to a VPN close to you, you approximate your location which cuts down on latency if you try to connect to somewhere closer to you than Japan. For example, if you’ve connected to Japan from Europe, but then you try to access something in Europe, your data is doing a huge roundtrip there and back, which is a waste. This could happen for many reasons intentional or not. Websites for example often pull data from other servers. Not usually from as far as another continent, but it’s just an example.

From an anonymity perspective, connecting to the closest VPN gives away less data and your traffic which could potentially be snooped on bounces around fewer places vs connecting to a server in another continent. A European connecting to a VPN in Europe really tells an attacker nothing.

3

There is no way to know without trying.

Yes. But it’s not a result of one being a better practice and instead a result of the route taken and it’s relative load.

I would try the shortest distance to the VPN first unless there are important reasons to you to avoid the closest server’s location.

4

all you said makes sense. further reading, i found some additional arguments for option a (get to vpn as soon as possible):

- if connection method is TCP, then closer VPN server would be definetly faster, because the TCP handshake back and forth EMEA-Japan would take A LOT of time, so to the actual encrypted traffic that would introduce a huge delay

- if connection method is UDP, this delay won’t be there, but then one would be subject to internet (no guarantees) packet drops, jitter, delay and so on, all the way from europe to japan.

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- if you connect to a closer VPN server, you’re actually limiting how long you carry the VPN connection, thus its overhead.

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so far, it seems to me that all things equal (bandwidth, delays, etc), connecting to a closer VPN server would give the best performance. This is what everyone recommends, but i’ve never seen any actual explanations on why. if someone has a different opinion, please post, i’m curious to understand what would be the benefits of option B. same thing if you have any points that would reiforce option A.

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PS:

- About the statement below, yes, i’m assuming if you go to japan you connect to things in japan. if you go to japan to connect somewhere else then that’s a huge “tax” you’re paying :stuck_out_tongue:

For example, if you’ve connected to Japan from Europe, but then you try to access something in Europe,

- Not sure about this one. Assuming the VPN is secure and no one can break into it easily, it shouldn’t make a difference. I do understand that connecint to the farest server would provide more points where connection could be sniffed/broken but then the assumption that VPN is secure would be challenged.

From an anonymity perspective, connecting to the closest VPN gives away less data and your traffic which could potentially be snooped on bounces around fewer places vs connecting to a server in another continent.

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